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The FINA World Diving contests have been occurring around the world in 2009. China, Mexico, England and in the USA. Fortunately, my cable system has added a channel, Universal Sports, that shows great sporting events that usually aren’t covered like basketball, football, hockey, and baseball. Bicycling, table tennis, diving, horse jumping – those type of sports. SWEET!

I’m in heaven watching the 3 meter springboard contests, except for the scoring. Many of these judges are giving scores based on only the entry. Boo.

The Entry is NOT the Dive

Judging based on the entry alone is like judging a meal on the dessert only. Boo.

Board Work

This phase sets up everything to follow. Bad board work leads to a poor dive.

Approach

Walk calmly, not too fast, and be smooth. Don’t stub a toe.

Hurdle

The hurdle is where the board starts moving and working for the diver. There are single and double hurdle styles. The double style really gets the board moving which is turned into more power, a higher dive and faster spins. If performed properly. The single hurdle usually provides less power and helps inexperienced divers learn to ride the board.

Jump Up, Not Out

There’s no need to jump away from the board. Jump straight up. This will make the dive higher and it will be easier to convert kinetic energy into rotational energy. Jumping out cuts height from a dive, which is bad for obvious reasons.

End of the Board

The last jump off the board needs to occur from the end, with both feet about an inch from the end. This is the sweet spot for power on the spring board, like a baseball bat has a sweet spot.

Ride The Board

If the diver is riding the board, they will be thrown the proper distance away, and significantly higher than jumping alone. The sound of the board is distinctive too. When the diver rides the board it is relatively quiet. When they don’t, it is EXTREMELY noisy for all to hear, almost painful. Poor board timing makes everything else harder. Everything. The diver will be lower, spin slower, and almost certainly struggle to complete the dive.

Each diver sets the board fulcrum to their preferred setting for each dive. There is only 1 manufacturer of boards approved for international contests. Over the years, there have only been a few significant changes to the boards to make them easier to ride and provide more power transfer. The double hurdle takes advantage of these board changes.

Back and Inward Starts

The rules of diving say that the diver’s feet cannot leave the board as they try to build power. This rule is almost always ignored by the judges AND the divers. The rules say it is a balk and 2 points are to be removed from each of the judges scores. There’s a belief that if the feet leave slightly then the judges can’t see it. If they can’t see it, then they can’t take off for doing it. Obviously, the greater the bounce, the more power can be gained from the board, so divers have a real interest in pushing this rule to the limit. This rule exists for diver safety. It is very easy for feet to slip when they aren’t already on the board, especially when performing inward direction dives.

In the Air

Not Too Far Out, nor Too Close

Distance from the board is critical. Using the board properly to convert power into height and spin is the game. Any extra distance away means the diver didn’t go as high as possible. It is a waste.

Being close is also bad for obvious reasons. If the judges are afraid of a hit, they’re likely to miss important aspects to the dive.

Spin Fast

Spinning slowly makes a dive look difficult. The goal here is to make it look easy. Spinning fast lets the diver finish early and setup for the following phases.

Point the Toes

Point the toes, always. There’s no other way to say this. If the toes aren’t pointed, it is a 9.0 dive if everything else is absolutely perfect. Flat feet in the middle of a dive are a major flaw. At the beginning of some dives, when the feet are in danger of hitting the board, it is ok to not point the feet until passed the danger time, then the feet must be pointed. This covers twisting dives too. Point and curl the toes.

In the Correct Position – Pike, Tuck, Laid Out

Tuck – knees to the chest, feet pointed. Head location isn’t important.

Pike – Chin to knees, feet pointed. If spinning forward, nose or forehead to knees is fine too. Legs should be straight, not bent at the knees at all.Some divers hide their bent knees in the pike with their arms.

Twisting Position

Arms are used to cause the twist to occur. The arm position is close to the body until is it time to stop the twist.

Legs shouldn’t be twisted. They should be together, held tightly, no crossing.

Feet should be pointed with the big toes together, but not overlapping. This is extremely difficult to accomplish. Crossed feet are bad.

Toes should be pointed and curled under.

Kick Out Strong

To stop the rotation and/or spin of a dive, kick out strong and stretch. Kicking out weakly or timidly doesn’t stop the dive enough. In my book, a strong kick adds point back to a dive that may have been flawed in other ways. There is no 10.0 dive without a strong kick out.

Finish Early, with Some Drop Time Left

Most dives should finish just under the 3M board and allow time to extend and drop into the pool vertically. Finishing a dive lower means they will still be rotating as they go into the water. Boo.

Vertical, Not Short, Nor Over

Going in vertical means just that. The body should be fully extended and straight as it drops into the pool. Coming out of a 107b (fwd 3.5 pike) dive and having a slight pike as the diver enters the water is flawed. If everything else was perfect, this is a 9.0 dive when the pike isn’t ended and the diver rotates into the pool.

Entry

On the Head

Divers go into the water on their heads, not on their feet. Sorry cliff divers.

No Twist

As the diver stretches his arms above the head it is common to cause a slight twist by pulling one arm harder than the other. This is unfortunate. Usually it can’t be noticed until the calves or feet go into the water and the front or back of them is seen.

Rip It

Ripping a dive causes the splash to be minimized. It is a critical part of the dive and worth 30-40% of the total score. Big splash means points off. We just want bubbles. The sad truth is that smaller divers produce smaller splash. The 9 year old Chinese women prove that. Divers that are thick have a tougher time ripping an entry. Physics doesn’t care about your feelings, but it does care about big shoulders and big butts.

Shoulder Splash

For some dives, usually the blind entry dives, back and reverse, being short on the dive will cause tell-tale shoulder splash. If you see shoulder splash it means

• the dive is short
• the entry isn’t vertical
• the dive wasn’t finished high
• the dive probably wasn’t stopped (from rotating)

Point the Toes

One last time, point the feet, toes and curl the toes. It should be the last thing the judges see.

Sound Matters

The sound of the board, the sound of the entry – both matter. A quiet board means a higher and faster dive. The rip entry sound is exciting for the diver, the crowd and the judges.

Platform Judging

Almost everything said for spring board diving above applies to platform dives too. Jump up and jump strong. Point the toes. Spin fast. Go in vertical and rip the entry.

On platform, going in vertical isn’t just for high scores, it is a safety issue. If your arms aren’t together, stretched, tight and vertical as they hit the water, the impact will cause them to be pulled in front or behind the diver. In front and the head takes a direct hit. Behind and the shoulder muscles could become ripped. Talk about repetitive stress injury. Ouch.

Conclusion

Judging a dive isn’t something that a non-expert can do consistently. Basically, every dive starts with 10.0 points and deductions are applied as the dive progresses. Even the best judges miss parts of a dive and make mistakes. That is why there are 7 judges with the high and low scores thrown out.

For more information, a well know coach wrote this article.

Diving is also subjective. An attractive person will tend to score better than someone less attractive.
Tattoos, blue hair, uneven skin coloring, poor swimsuit selection and bad fit each matter. A slight tan is often the easiest fix to make someone slightly more attractive, but don’t get sun burnt. Also, don’t overdue it. Later in life, that tan will matter.

Who am I to write this?

• A diving fan
• A former high school diver, but not particularly good
• Wrote a computer program to score diving meets
• Dove in a Regional Olympic Trial – finishing last, failing multiple dives on 3M
• Coached 7-16 year old divers 1 summer
• Engineer / Former Space Shuttle Rocket Scientist