Diving in England

Question
I am from South Africa and would like to further my diving overseas. Which are the best universities or colleges or clubs for this in England, America or Australia. What path should I take? I am turning 17 soon.

Answer
Hayley -

The answers to your questions are quite extensive so I am going to tell you what I know and have you continue the research.

As far as colleges go, the USA is really the only country with an extensive collegiate athletic system. To my knowledge, there is no real college diving in England and Australia. Their best young divers from these countries seem to go to the US to dive in college or they stay home, go to school and dive for their club. For more info on diving in England go to: www.britishswimming.org and click on "Disciplines" and then click on "Diving". Since I am from the US I am not that familiar with British diving. For Australia go to: www.diving.asn.au. For general info on international diving go to: www.fina.org. Maybe there you can find out more about diving in your own country.

For US colleges and universities go to: www.ncaa.org or www.ncaa.com.
College diving is divided into 3 levels Division I, II & III. Division I is the hardest and III the easiest. While at these websites, look up the following conferences for more info on the schools who belong to them. These are the best conferences in the US for diving:

Pac 10, Big West, Mountain West, Big 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big East, Conference USA and the Ivy League.

If you want to dive in college in the US, you need to contact schools that have what you want academically and then contact the diving coach and tell him or her about your diving history and ask that they send info about their school. If they think that you could dive at their level, they may bring you out to visit their school and diving team on a free recruiting trip.

You need to make up an athletic biography of your self both written and also a video tape or DVD or yourself diving in a competition. All college coaches will want to know your competitive record as well as being able to view your dives on tape/dvd.

A diver from your country, Jenna Dreyer, who is diving in Olympics, goes to the University of Miami in Florida USA. If you can find a way to contact her, I am sure she could tell you more about collegiate diving. I do not have her contact info but if you try hard enough, you might be able to find her e-mail address.

I hope this has helped. Good luck with your diving.

Tom Trapp