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The World's Most Advanced Swimming Lab with Dr. Roald Van der Vliet & Sander Schreven

These are some of my favorite episodes - the one’s that focus on evidence based science and research. The last super nerdy episode we had was with Dr. Jan Olbrecht which people gobbled up. This interview is very similar so don’t miss this one - you are going to learn so much from it.

All day every day Dr. Roald Van der Vliet and Sander Schreven learn about swimming faster. They understand drag and resistance perhaps better than anyone that we’ve ever had on the podcast.

Roald and ⁠Sander are from the ⁠Inno Sport Lab⁠ in Eindhoven, where they use advanced technology, including 28 underwater cameras, 3D measurement systems, and force plates, to analyze swimming performance.

Their goal is to leverage technology and education to compete effectively on the international stage despite the Netherlands being a small country.

My Key Takeaways: 

Scientific Approach to Swimming Starts: The lab focuses on precise measurement of starts, analyzing parameters such as takeoff angle, block time, entry angle, and depth. Maintaining speed during the entry is crucial, and they havve found specific angles and techniques that optimize this for individual swimmers. They provide instant feedback, allowing swimmers to compare their starts against personal bests or world records. The approach has shown significant improvements, as demonstrated by Ranomi Kromowidjojo's success in the 2012 Olympics. If you remember, Ranomi talked all about this on the pod.

Practical Applications and Efficiency: They go deep into the importance of maintaining high stroke rates and the delicate balance between power and efficiency. Straight arm freestyle generally increases your stroke rate while lowering your efficiency.

Drag & Resistance: They discuss the importance of understanding and reducing drag. This is a Masterclass. Watch that specific part, here. They talk about the types of drag, how to manage drag, and propulsion. You’ll want to watch this more than once.

Swimming with Paddles: He never published it, but Dr. Roald did a study with 3 groups of swimmers and the one’s that improved the most used hand paddles the entire time. Very interesting study some college kid should try and recreate!

Resistance Training: These guys weren’t too keen on using power towers, parachutes, or pretty much anything resistance wise. I feel like we need to have them back on to just discuss this in greater detail. Brett was not having it.

Future of Swimming Performance: The need for specialization in training to achieve world-class performance in specific events, as opposed to general training approaches will continue.

Enjoy!

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Time Stamps:
00:00 Hello Roald Van der Vliet & Sander Schreven 03:15 Ranomi Kromowidjojo's Start 07:30 Changing the Start is Difficult 15:15 What is the most important thing to work on for your start? 20:00 Does it start with the hands or hips? 21:30 Squeeze the shoulders or put the head down? 24:00 Similarities with the best starters in the world 30:45 Why is America so far behind? 33:30 Cost of the World's Top Swim Lab 37:30 Drag & Resistance 50:30 Power Generation in the Pool 57:00 Efficiency in the Freestyle Stroke 01:01:00 Straight Arm Increases Stroke Rate 01:04:15 VO2 Max in Swimming 01:06:00 Training Slow Makes You Slow 01:08:30 Swimming Needs More Specialization 01:09:50 50 vs 100 Freestyles 01:11:30 What did the super suits really do? 01:13:00 Netherlands Swimming Headed into Paris