diving - fear

Question
My 17 year old daughter has been diving for about 1 year, 8 months with a club. She's working on her J.O. list and has developed an incapacitating fear of doing some of her 3m dives, in particular, her back 1 1/2. She did the dive and then on her 2nd attempt smacked absolutely flat. Now she's saying that she's unable to even climb the ladder to the 3m board. The coach is frustrated, feels like she's not trying or that she's just a spoiled kid who wants to decide what dives she'll do instead of listening to him and he kicks her out of practice. It's gotten to the point that she wants to quit a sport that once gave her a lot of joy. What do we do ???

Answer
Hi -

The problem your daughter is going through can be quite common in diving. Nobody likes to experience a smack off 3 meter. It is hard to get back up there to do it again but the sooner you do it the sooner you will figure out the dive. Not doing it again for a long time or even not wanting to do anything off the 3 meter will make the whole event difficult to master.

She needs to decide if she can handle being in a sport that is full of adversity. The best divers in the world land flat on their face. The difference is that they (as well as lower level divers)know how to process the pain physically and mentally not let the problem control their mind into not doing the dive again. In diving, you need to learn to 'take a hit' (and I do not mean hitting the board) and carry on through the practice or especially a meet.

I hope she is willing to go through re-learning the dive. This can be done by going back to the low board to do the dive there or the lead-ups that will help her do it again on the 3 meter. Using dry land equipment like a trampoline or dry board with an overhead spotting rig will also help her gain back confidence.

I also tell divers with fear problems to turn the fear into excitement. She has to visualize doing the dive correctly and think on the positive side of things. There is a little voice inside her head that is telling her not to do the dive again. She has to learn to turn this negative voice off and focus on the positive.Picture success and follow through with the vision.

Finally, if her coach can find a pool with a bubbler maybe that would help give her the confidence to do the dive again. You live in a state where there are several pools with this system and hopefully you can find one to use. Good luck and I hope she stays with the sport.