Diving Competition for Beginners

A diving competition is called a meet.  There are several kinds, the most common of which is an Invitational.  There are dual meets, league meets, and championship meets as well.

All meets send out Meet Information and Entry Forms that specify competition requirements, who is eligible to compete, fees, schedules of practice time and events, awards, and the like.  Usually these are sent to a team designee, who is responsible for disseminating it to the team members.

Sometimes, you are asked to fill out diving sheets before the meet.  Typically, your coach will go through this procedure with you.  It involves writing information about yourself, your team, the date, the name of the meet, and the dives you will do.  The coach then submits all the diving sheets.  Other times, you will be responsible to submit your sheets yourself, either prior to going to the meet, or when you arrive.

When attending a diving meet, the first thing you do is go to the Registration Desk and check in.  The Registration Secretary/ies will make sure you have paid your fees, that you have turned in your diving sheets, and will inform you if there are any errors with your paperwork.

The next thing you do is find your coach and get direction on what to do next.  Often, the coach will give you a time frame in which to show up at a competition.  If it is a large championship meet, you may have the opportunity to leave the site and come back, but mostly it will be a once-you-are-there-you-stay-there deal.

Typically at a meet, the coach will lead the divers in a some Dryland Warmup, or physical  activity prior to divers getting in the water.  Warm-up activities include cardiovascular exercises, stretching, form work, and possibly some calisthenics. 

Once the dryland warmup is finished, there will be a Practice Period during which divers can perform skills and dives into the water in order to get ready to compete.  In large competitions, there are often practice Flights, which are groups, limited in number, and for which you must sign up.  Once the flight times are drawn, you must attend that flight, regardless of the timing of the flight (i.e., 6 AM).

Common etiquette in a diving practice at a meet is similar to regular practice and includes: 

1.  Bouncing the board a few times ONLY upon initial entry into the water.   Thereafter you take only your approach and dive. 

2.  If you balk, or start and stop, you jump off the board and go to the end of the line (this is not universally adhered to, but it IS universally a TLDT policy!).  Time is limited, and everyone has the right to get in as many dives as possible!

3.  Never stand on the board when someone else is going.  If someone is going backward, ensure that everyone in the line gets out of the line of sight yet maintains line order.

4.  Swim IMMEDIATELY to the side of the pool to talk to your coach.  Do NOT hang out in the middle of the pool!

5.  Talk to your coach about your next dive immediately after getting your correction from the dive you just did.  That way, you can think about what you need to do while waiting in line, and your coach already knows what you are doing the next time you get on the board.  This helps make things faster for everyone in the practice period.

6.  As you set your fulcrum (not all other divers will use the board back at “9” as we teach, so you may have to adjust your board each time), get your coach’s attention.  Confirm the coach is paying attention before you go.

a.  Examples: (“Jeff!”  “Gotcha, Justine.”  Or “Jeff, Back Dive Tuck” “OK, Jace, stand tall and             kick strong!”

b.  If your coach is clearly otherwise occupied, allow the next person in line to go, and explain why to those in line.  Thereafter, maintain your new place in line.

            1.  A coach who is partially occupied may still make eye contact and nod at you to go.  In                 such a case, do not insist upon verbal contact unless you feel it’s absolutely necessary.

7.  If you need to leave the line for any reason, inform the person ahead of you, and behind you in line, and ask that they hold your place.  Telling them the reason for your leaving is usually helpful!

8.  The only time to allow someone to “cut” in line is when they are in the next event and need  to do a set-up (i.e., you are practicing 1M, and the 3M event is next, someone from the 3M comes in and asks if they can cut in to do a prep for one of their 3M dives).  Anyone who is not in such a situation can wait in line!

a.  Ideally speaking, if you are in such a situation, you ask someone to hold your place in the 3M            line, and also someone to hold your place in the 1M line  so can do your prep and get back on your board with plenty of time to for your dive.  Again, explain the situation to everyone!

           1.  More ideally, try to get your preps done at an earlier practice so that you don’t feel the                 need to prep during someone else’s warmup period.

Common protocol/etiquette in a diving meet includes: 

1.  Boards will be closed for practice and the diving order announced or posted. Make sure to get a sense of where you are in the line up.  Know the person going    directly before you, and  also a person 5-10 divers before you as “markers” for  when you should get ready and be on the board.

2.  During the first round, the announcer will announce “on deck” alerting you to   the fact you will be next up.

 3.  At least 5 divers before your turn, go to your coach and get a correction.

4.   Model your dive three times on the deck before doing the dive in the meet (actually, something we should institute in practice as well).

5.  When the diver before you hits the water and the scores are being announced, get up on the board and immediately adjust the fulcrum and get yourself ready.

6.  Listen carefully to the announcer.  Your dive might be announced dive number only, or dive number and description, or description only (i.e., “105B,” or “105B, forward 2 ½ ss pike,” or “forward 2 1/2 ss pike”).  Good idea to know your number system!!

a.  If something is unclear (didn’t understand announcer, thought you heard the wrong dive                   announced), ask for clarification.  “Could you please repeat the dive?”  Your coach will likely             perk up and get involved at this point if necessary.

b.  After clarification has been made, and any adjustments made, wait for announcer to announce the dive again, then perform your dive.

7.  If you balk, you will get a second chance to do your dive, but with a stiff penalty – 2 points deducted from each judge’s score.  If you balk twice, you fail the dive.

a.  If you balk, take some time, let the balk “go” get focused again, and do your dive.

b.  Sample penalty:  If you are doing a 104C, Degree of Difficulty 2.2, and you balk then get          judges’ scores of 5, 5, 5.5, 4.5, 5, they become 3, 3, 3.5, 2.5, 3.  after the high and low are thrown out, the middle three scores are multiplied by the difficulty, you end up losing 13.2 points from your total. YIKES!

7.  Immediately after your dive, go to your coach for debriefing.

  a.  In the event that something distracted you in the middle of your dive and negatively affected your performance, immediately inform the referee and ask that you be allowed to perform the dive again.

     1.  Your request may or may not be granted.  If it is, take some time to shake off the previous dive         and focus on your corrections for the second attempt.

8.  During a competition, remain quiet and motionless when someone is diving, then feel free to move and make noise once the dive has been completed.

 a.  An exception – do not make noise near the scoring table, where people are trying to calculate the scores of the divers!

9.  At the end of the competition, compliment your fellow competitors and thank the volunteers and officials who made the competition possible.

Some tips on competing

1.  Presentation carries a lot of weight!  Divers who are well-groomed, take care of their health and nutrition, do their dryland exercises, choose suits that flatter their bodies, stand with confidence but not cockiness, are outgoing and friendly to other diving community members, will all gain the goodwill of the judges.

 a.  Divers who are sloppy, out of shape, with ratty old suits, who stand like they think it is not too important to be at this meet, are grouchy or surly, or snotty, who have temper tantrums when they miss a dive, will probably not enjoy such goodwill J

2.  Be prepared!  Come into a meet feeling comfortable with the dives you are competing, or recognizing that this is a “learning” situation when you are throwing a new dive and don’t have inappropriate expectations.  Be rested, be well-nourished, go to the bathroom before the event begins if you need to.  Have sunscreen on, water nearby.  Basically, think ahead and plan!

3.  Each dive is its own discrete unit.  Once it’s over, it’s over.  Do not allow yourself to become overly excited because you nailed a dive, or overly upset because you missed a dive.  No dive is worth crying over!  Life goes on and you will still be loved even if you crimped on your 103B!

 4.  All divers develop their own “rituals” before they dive.  Some rituals are conscious, some unconscious.  Try to create ones that make you feel comfortable and ready to do your best!  A good coach knows that everyone is trying to do their best in a meet, even when they are not performing well.  The long-term goal is to find your personal competition style and utlize it to best effect.

a.  Examples:  some divers like to be social between dives, others like to be alone, with their iPods.  Some divers like to watch the competition (or the scoreboard), while others prefer to remain oblivious to the numbers game.  Some divers like to talk to their coach between dives, others don’t (at beginning levels, however, you should always follow the above routine until you decide if it’s helpful or not!).  Some divers jump in the pool about  4 divers before their turn so they feel wet and “like it’s practice.”

Scoring at a Diving Meet

1.  Judges score a dive from 0-10 in half point increments.  A failed dive gets a 0, an unsatisfactory dive with lots of mechanical problems gets a ½ to 4 ½, a satisfactory dive gets a score of 5-6, a good dive 6 ½ to 8, and a very good dive an 8 ½ to 10.

a.  Typically 5, sometimes only 2 or 3, often 7 judges score a dive at  important championships

b.  9 judges in synchronized events, but we are not going into that in this information sheet! 

c.  The goal is to have three judges count and to eliminate outlier scoring.

     1.  If there are 5 judges, the high and low scores are thrown out.

     2.  If there are 7 judges, the two high and two low are thrown out.

d.  The three scores that “count” are totaled, then multiplied by the degree of difficulty of a dive.

     1.  Example:              Dive 101A, 3M, DD 1.6 

                                      Scores: 7.5, 8, 8, 7.5, 8

                                      Judges’ Total = 23.5

                                      Total Award for the Dive = 23.5 x 1.6 or 37.60

     2.  A referee is appointed to oversee the rules and enforce certain penalties.

     3.  Obviously, divers vary in terms of experience, so scores can range quite a bit.  However, a             realistic expectation for most beginning competitive divers is to score 4s and  above.