Hand position

Question
QUESTION: My son and daughter dive for their high school here in Florida. They were taught, by me, to use "flat hands" for their head first entries. Recently at a meet, a judge told them that they needed to have their hands pointed for entry. This judge is a high school dive coach here in Florida. Rather than take this one persons advice, I wanted to ask for a second opinion. Is the hand position different for high school diving in Florida? What is your expert opinion on this?

ANSWER: Jim-

You are wise to teach your kids the flat hand grab/entry. There is no set way to put your hands together in any state that I know of and you cannot find a description in the high school rule book to my knowledge. It is up to the diver as to what they do with their hands for a head first entry. The best ones will use the flat hand method to get a cleaner entry. The high school coach who said they needed to have their hands pointed for entry is about 30 years behind the times! That is a totally old school method that is only taught by people who learned that way themselves back in 1960's/70's.

You should go to this website and print out the following articles to show to this coach/judge next time you see him or her:

www.diving.about.com
Scroll down to the bottom of the homepage and look for "By Category".
Click on "Diving Instruction" and scroll down to "Grabbing A Flat Hand".
Print out this article and also click on "Flat Hand" and another article will come up to help prove your point.

I hope that this judge is not making a deduction for using this hand grab method. If so, they should not be judging any high level meets, that's for sure.

Other diving websites to check out:

www.usadiving.org - Click on Store and then Educational Materials.

www.aaudiving.org

www.usadiver.com

www.flipnrip.com

www.youtube.com - Lots of videos showing hand grab methods.

www.divemeets.com

Hope all this helps.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks. That helps a lot. One more quick question, what about foot position on a feet first entry? Should they be pointed?

Answer
Jim -

What I have told my divers about their feet on any dive regardless of head first or feet first, is that the only time their feet should be flat is when they are standing on the board. If their feet are not on the board, they should go into an immediate toe point. That way they do not have to think about - I want it to be an automatic response. If they go from a toe point their dive to a flat foot for a feet first entry,I think it takes away from the aesthetics of the dives performance.

The only instance I know of where divers are taught to flatten their feet for a feet first entry, are when you are a pro high diver going from a great height (like 85 feet) and you need to go in flat footed for safety reasons.

Want to see some amazing video footage of pro high divers who recently competed in Europe? Go to
www.redbullcliffdiving.com. Some fantastic dives I am sure you have never seen. They have to go in flat footed to help stop their speed and create a bigger hole for their body to go through.
There are some dives on video at this site where you will see some "foot rips" that are really cool. I am sure you and your kids will enjoy watching them.