10 Facts About Diving
Facts
- The wheel on the side of a diving board is called the fulcrum and it is used to control the amount of bounce the diver has on the board. The numbers on the fulcrum range from 1-10. If the number is higher the board will be bouncier and if it's lower it will be stiffer.
Dive Tower
- There are two different springboard heights- 1 meter and 3 meter- and there are 5 platform diving heights- 1 meter, 3 meter, 5 meter, 7 meter, and 10 meter. In the Olympics, they only dive off of 10 meter platforms and 3 meter springboards.
- The word "rip" in diving comes from the sound the water makes when a diver enters the water without making a splash. It's pretty hard to rip your dives because you can't just stop spinning and you have to time everything perfectly.
Bubble System
- A lot of pools have bubble systems under the diving boards that cushion the impact of divers learning new skills. If a diver were to land on their back or stomach when the bubble system is on it wouldn't hurt as much as it would if it was off.
- The bubble system also shows how far away from the water you are while your flipping and spinning.
- In platform competitions, men have to do 16 dives and women have to do 12. At meets, there are certain number of dives that are required from each category but the diver gets to pick what dives they want to do. They usually put in the best and most difficult dives.
Synchronized Diving
- In synchronized diving they have to do 10 dives.
- The judges pay attention to your takeoff, bearing of the body in the air, execution of the prescribed movements, and entry into the water. In synchronized diving are judged on their synchronicity with each other as well as their individual execution of the dive. If one diver entered way before the other diver, came out of the dive before the other diver, or didn't do the right dive, they would get points taken away.
Judges
- There are at least 3 but no more than 10 judges at each competition. In high school meets there is an official judge and the rest are the coaches. Some coaches are biased (Ex. at one of my meets I did a really good dive and all of the judges gave me high scores except for my coach because she thought I could've done better. At the same meet, a girl from the other team did a bad dive and got a high score from her coach but not from the other judges,)
- The scores for each dive are totaled and multiplied by the degree of difficulty. If your degree of difficulty is higher you score more points. That's why divers are always doing crazy and super hard dives.
