teaching son to dive

Question
My 11 yr. old son is struggling to learn to dive for his Boy Scout swimming merit badge.  He can do a kneeling dive, and a squatting dive, but when he tries to do a "long shallow dive" from a standing position, he doesn't push off hard enough or unfold his legs or something -- he hits the water generally head first, but in an inverted "V" so his feet are hitting at almost the same time as his head.  Not good enough for the merit badge. He is working so hard but I'm at a loss for how to help him learn this last step.  He is not very coordinated and is all arms and legs, so that doesn't help.  Any tips would be much appreciated.

Answer
Sondra,
Don't worry.  This is a very common problem with children learning to dive properly.  This is more of a fear issue than a coordination issue.  The idea of pushing yourself out off of a ledge is inherently scary.  It's easy to overcome though.

The easiest way to get your son to push off the side of the pool is to use a broom handle or something similar.  The idea is that you need to get him to dive OVER something.  I have used the foam "noodle" toys, brooms, baseball bats, and pool cleaning handles.

Basically you just want to start out with your stick right at his feet.  Tell him to dive over the stick without touching it.  The key is to have his hands enter the water first and his feet last.  Tell him to pick a point in the water and aim for it.  He should try and visualize just going into a hole.

He may be apprehensive at first.  You need to assure him that you won't hurt him.  If he hits the stick it will not hurt!  Once he learns to just get over the stick with it close to his feet, you need to move it out above the water a bit.  Again, the idea is to have him dive over it.  Everytime he hits the stick, he isn't doing it right.  When he finally gets over the stick without touching it, he will be diving!

This is a common way to teach diving.  However, I don't know if I did job of explaining it well.  You will get the idea of where to place the stick.  I personally like brooms.  The wooden handle is small and doesn't hurt when you hit it.  Only his feet should be grazing it anyway.

Please let me know if this helps out or if you need more clarification.  The entire idea is to teach him that he needs to get over something.  If you keep telling him to push off harder, he won't understand because he doesn't have a reference.  Sometimes children need a separate motivation.  By giving him a point of reference to dive over, he will instinctively know how much force he needs to push off the wall with.  He may needs many times practicing, but I am sure he will eventually get it down.

Best of luck.
Eric