Dive Work with World Record Holder Roland Schoeman

SwimSwam’s FINA World Cup Series Coverage is presented by Arena USA.

Roland Schoeman’s dive is recognized world wide as one of the fastest starts in swimming. I’ve interviewed multiple sprinters, including Anthony Ervin and Tom Shields, reference Schoeman’s start. Luckily for me, and luckily for you, I coach at Phoenix Swim Club where Roland is based. So I decided to do a little start work with Roland to figure out how he sets up his dive.

Roland is a 4-time Olympian for South Africa. He won three medals in 2004, one of each color. He is currently the world record holder in the short course meter 50 freestyle (20.30). You can follow him on twitter @Rolandschoeman.

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Mike
11 years ago

Great video. Thanks for posting Garrett…and Roland. My daughter is working on her dives and this is exactly what we were looking for!!

Nadador
11 years ago

Thanks!!!

11 years ago

Great stuff. any ideas on where my team could find Similar Videos that break down relay step start?

@JakeShell
Reply to  Pat mead
11 years ago

Check out this video of Auburn men from 2007. In my humble opinion the best 200 free relay ever. Not the fastest, but considering the time of 1:14.71 and the textile suits I consider it the best. The relay starts here were amazing to watch – incredible speed off the start and near perfect entries. If you can get this video on slow motion it would be a great breakdown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pFZJ1wHP6Y

MarkB
11 years ago

The guy next to Roland at about the 5:00 mark needs to work with Roland a little!

Kirk Nelson
Reply to  MarkB
11 years ago

Oh yes, the popular “lawn chair” dive!

Donfred
11 years ago

Way to throw Eamon Sullivan under the bus. That seemed like it really taught me a lot about my dive…

some guy
11 years ago

thanks alot for this vid. great to hear tips and ideologies from guys like schoeman. this is the type of start i teach and do myself.

12 years ago

Awesome guys. thanks!

European
12 years ago

Last 3 video’s i’ve seen in past days are blocking all the time.Is it because of my computer or something with video?

Admin
Reply to  European
12 years ago

European – best guess would be your computer as we haven’t heard any other reports, but we’ll keep an eye out for anyone else having problems. Thanks for the report!

anotherswimfan
Reply to  Braden Keith
12 years ago

I’ve been having the same problems with vimeo vids on this website aswell for a while now (stalls for a moment like every 3 seconds or so). Although when i follow the link of the video to the vimeo site it works just fine. So maybe you should try that out.

Awesome video by the way. Very insightful :).

European
Reply to  anotherswimfan
11 years ago

Ok 🙂

About Garrett McCaffrey

No one lives the sport of swimming like Garrett McCaffrey. A Division I swimmer who spent 4 years covering the sport as a journalist, now coaches club swimming and competes as a masters swimmer, Garrett truly lives the sport of swimming. After graduating from University of Missouri’s award winning journalism program …

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