“The luckiest man in the world to be doing a job I love”, is how Rocco Meiring swimming coach at Tuks describes himself.

His passion is undoubtedly beneficial to South African swimming. It could be argued that Meiring who coaches Commonwealth Games champion, Tatjana Schoenmaker, is instrumental in putting back the self-believe in South African women’s swimming.

Not that Meiring who received the award as Tuks’s best coach in individual sports will ever admit to it. He is far too modest. If pushed he will argue that he is just one of many South African coaches putting in the long hours and lots of research to get the women’s swimmers to perform to the best of their ability at an international level.

But the results speak for itself. Last year in Taipei Schoenmaker (Tuks sportswomen of the year) became the first South African female swimmer to medal at the World Student Games when she won a silver medal in the 200m-breaststroke.

After that Schoenmaker grew in confidence. Her performances during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games are proving. She won the 100m and 200m breaststroke in record times as well as setting a new Africa-record in the 50m-breaststroke.

Meiring is quick to let all the praise go to Schoenmaker. Saying his only role in her success was to ‘unlock’ her full potential.

“If I got, to be honest, I got to admit not really rating myself as a coach. My best quality as a coach is to identify young talented swimmers and get them to believe in their abilities. People don’t realise how difficult it can be to find ways to get the swimmers you coach to keep on improving. I am on a constant quest to find new information. The better Tatjana, the bigger my challenge becomes,” he said.

Former Springbok swimmer Laura Postma is one of Meiring’s big fans and she was one of the first people to congratulate him on his award.

He is also in regular contact the renowned Australian coach Scott Volkers, who has previously coached the likes of former world record holders Susie O’Neill, an eight-time Olympic medallist, and Samantha Riley, a multiple world breaststroke champion.

Rugby is Meiring’s other big passion. At school, he represented the Blue Bulls at the high school and primary school’s Craven Weeks playing hooker. He went on to coach the Tuks under-19 team to win the Lucas Strachan Shield, but that was before 1995. At the time there was no money to be made from coaching rugby, while he got the opportunity to become a full time swimming coach.

Meiring was for nine years Swim South Africa’s national coaching director and coached for two years in Canada.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:

Rekord East

Rekord North

Rekord Centurion

Rekord Moot

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.