Taking flight

Taking a look into what it takes to be a diver

Alex Duer duerale000@hsestudents.org

Diving takes the aspects of strength, exibility and coordination and combines them all in midair, leading to an agile display of human movement. As the Diving Coach, Jeremy Russ points out that there are a few aspects that he likes to see be developed.

“Flexibility [is one] for sure,” Russ said. “[You] de nitely want to be strong in your legs, pretty lines [and] you like to see divers with big hands and pointed toes, along with clean and strong entries.”

In terms of practice strategy, the diving team balances their training both in and out of the water.

“We have practice every day a er school from three to ve,” senior diver Gretchen Osmun said. “We start with conditioning and dry land practice. We use the trampolines, we use mats, we stretch and warm up a little bit and then we usually get in the water and start running our list.”

From there, practice is then put into performance. At diving only meets, each diver performs 11 dives. At the combined swimming and diving meets, divers perform six dives, di erentiated into types based on their characteristics.

“During the six dive meets, your rst dive is your voluntary, which is the easy dive, and then you cover ve more dives a er that,” Russ said. “ ey can be optional dives which are your tougher dives. You start with Fronts, Inwards, Backs, Reverses, and Twisters, and you get to choose one from each of those.”

In terms of competition, every diver competes by themselves, with their placement being the factor determining points scored in total. As for scoring, each judge rates the dive from zero to ten, that total from the judges then being multiplied by the degree of di culty. A dive's di culty is determined by its category, contents, and landing position.

“I prefer to go for tougher dives because they can score me more points,” junior Jack Roby said. “[It] also gives me more of a challenge.”

For those interested in learning how to dive, Coach Russ is also the coach of the Fishers Diving Club, which o ers lessons for beginners all the way up to the competitive level. e sport also shares many characteristics with both dancing and gymnastics.

“I was a gymnast for about 11 years, and I quit, and I was trying to nd something else to do,” Osmun said. “It was that or pole-vaulting, and I heard diving was an easy transition, so I tried it and I loved it."