Fear of Inward Dive

Question
Tom - Our child is 10 yrs. old, has been diving 1.5 years and dives 4-5x per week. She has hit a major road block with the inward dive (any kind). She says she is afraid of hitting the board, stiffens up in a diagonal position and lands on her face. She has been trying for months. She can do them on a trampoline with a belt but not on a board. Otherwise, she is a solid novice diver. She has a nice outward tuck dive and flip which seem related in skill. Do you have any suggestions on how she can get conquer inward dives other than just trying the same thing repeatedly? Thank you.

Answer
Elisa -

The problem your diver is having is common for novice diving. What is uncommon is that she has been trying to do it for months. What is happening is that she is getting really good at doing it wrong. This must stop now or it will take even longer to achieve it or maybe never. The longer you do something wrong the harder it is to change to the correct method. Here is what I suggest:

While doing it on a trampoline is good,it cannot replace the feel of a diving board and the fact that a solid object is in front of you. If you can find what is called a 'dry board' with same type of rope,pulley,belt system, then she has a better chance of what it feels like to do it off a board. You need to ask around the area you live to see if some other pool has this type of board.There are also belt systems that are over a board at a pool.They are hard to find. If you want to ask a follow up question with where you live, I can find the closest dry board or "water rope" to you.

The outward dive you mention is called a front dive tuck. She needs to be able to do this dive proficiently from the board by doing it standing. This way she can replicate the action of an inward dive tuck. I would have her do it standing on the end of the board, arms over head, no armcircle, push strong, get in the tuck position, kick out and line up the entry. If she cannot do this well, an inward dive is not realistic. If she can, then doing the same action facing the other way becomes more possible. As far as being afraid of the board, I tell kids to jump away as far as the want to, just do a front dive tuck after trying on purpose to jump away. The diver has to understand that the farther away you push from the board the harder it is to do the inward group. I also remind them that while they jump away, to use their arms forcefully to create the rotation it takes to go headfirst, then get in a tight tuck, hold on until they are upside down and then kick out like a front dive tuck.

If this does not work, there is a method were the coach goes up on the board with the diver and "hand spots" them into the dive. There are several methods on how to do this and they are very difficult to explain in writing, If her coach wants to contact me, they can and I can set up a phone conversation with them.

Go to this website for educational material on how to teach dives:

www.usadiving.org. Click on 'Store' and then 'Educational Materials'. Look for these product numbers: #214, #309, #310 and #311. These products can help coaches, divers and parents understand the fundamental basics of achieving dives correctly.

Hope all this helps.