Last blog.

Well here's my last blog, hope you've enjoyed reading about diving because I've enjoyed writing about a subject that I hold close to my heart. Hopefully you all have a chance to try some of the dives that I explained how to do because they're really fun to do. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and hope you try things out.
...Nicole.

Making Mistakes, its alright.

It's easy to make mistakes but here's some that are caught on tape, mistakes can happened any time during competition or practice, but it's really funny when someone messes up really badly but when they could get hurt it's so funny anymore here's a little part of the clip, some you may notice that one kid isn't using a diving board, that's because they're practicing doing it on the ground instead of off the water, which I think is a really bad idea for one reason and one reason only, because the stupid kid or better yet the stupid teacher or coach told him to do a flip, most likely the first time on the floor, hitting your neck on the ground isn't a good idea, I personally think that hitting yourself off water is was less painful and a little more forgiving.

Here's the video of people messing up on their dives,

Synchro diving

Synchro diving is when two divers dive at the same time. They are either doing the same dive or doing the same type of dive but not in the same direction.
This video is a pair of divers doing a back double or triple somersault, it's hard to tell because they're going so fast, but whether it's two or three it still is a synchronized dive.

Synchronized diving is a great way to perfect dives because you learn how to do a dive the same way every single time, because you have to do the same as your partner is doing. It also pushes you to improve because your doing your dives individually but your also a team and you wouldn't want to let your teammate down because you didn't pull your weight.
When the judges are judging synchro dives the usually give points for level of difficulty, entry (the way they go into the water) and if they go in at the same time. Also the biggest point is that if they actually do the dive at the same time and synchronized

Reverse dives./ Don't stop trying.

Reverse dives are fun to do, hard and confusing at times but fun.
A reverse dives is when you start like your doing a regular dive but instead of turning forward towards the water you turn backward towards the water.
It's a very simple concept. Last summer I wanted to be able to do this but there were so many other people in my class and they were just beginners and I'm more experienced than most of them he didn't really have time to really completely teach me how to do it, so it was kind of disappointing but the class was still fun.
Here's a video of two kids doing a reverse dive tuck synchronized, enjoy:

Speaking of classes, if your a beginner, the class may seem boring at first I know to me it did, but you have o keep going because once you get it, it'll be fun because than you can try more complicated dives and you'll make friends who shares the same interests as you.
Also , synchro is when two divers do the same dive at the same time, but they don't always do the same dive something they do a back dive with a standing front dive, but they all involve the same things and the end at the same time.

Levels

There are 4 main levels to diving.
Level one is your basics, learning how to do the positions, I talked about in one of my other blogs, you also learn how to do the hurdles, one step and 3 step.
Level two, you throw in more flips and you start the backwards stuff, such as backwards tuck jump, where you start backwards and do either a layout or tuck or pike and you can even learn a back dive.
Level three, you start to do more than one flip at a time, with half twist thrown in there.
Level four, you do reverse dives, when you start forwards and end backwards(it's complicated I'll explain more in another blog).
There's also another un-official level, it's more like if your good, and you can do everything else your coach will throw dives at you and you keep learning the ones he/she tells you to do.
Most of the time you can tell your coach what you would like to learn, and if they feel you can succede at a dive they can help you do it.

How to do: 3 steps hurdle front one and a half

In one of my earlier blogs I explained how to do a hurdle, http://livetodive.blogspot.com/2010/03/hurdles.html and you use that technique for the beginning of this dive. This dive is some what easy but can be difficult at times, like for me it was easy at first but then it got harder for some reason I don't know why.
After you do your hurdle, and after you reach the highest point of your jump you go into a ball and spin (throw yourself forward and that will cause you to turn or spin) then you keep going. This next part might sound stupid and it might hurt but the first time you do it spin and land in the water still in your ball, that way you know how long it takes you to get to the water so you know when to open up to finish your dive. After you do that you can go back on the board and actually do your dive because now you know when to open up. This may take a few tries to get right because it's hard to actually know when your at the right point and/or when your done doing one and a half spins. After you do all that put it together and perfect by doing it in a pike or layout (for a layout you need lots more air, for more time to spin, because the tighter you are the faster you spin and when your in the layout position your completely straight and it will be hard to get enough power to spin all the way around but not impossible. Have fun trying it out.

Water tempatures

When I first found out that the water temperature could have effects on a divers body, I seriously laughed in the other person, that told me, face. After I was done laughing, then they explained that the different temperature, changes the way that your body would react to the water when you jump in. The hot water is nice and relaxing and it loosens your muscles after you do physical activities but while your diving and swimming, like doing physical activity (not like at your pool at home, like actually diving, especially in swimming, like laps, and doing it very seriously) it may seem nice at first but your body will react to the water in very negative way. Cold water, to me and I think it's okay to speak for others as well, is horried at first but your muscles and your body will get used to it and you'll be able to do more in the water. I'm not saying dive or swim in freezing cold water, but in a water temperature that's a little higher than room temperature, so that it doesn't have negative effects on your body.

Hard Work

If you think diving is a sport where you can flip and turn and do all the tricks with ease, you better stop thinking that now. Diving is a really tough sport, it's mostly repetitive stuff, dive after dive after dive, practicing until you get it perfect. When I have my competitions every summer, I practice my dives almost every single day and it really pays off. Especially when you a competition soon, it pays to put a little extra time in the water,like I did with the competition I won, I went to the pool the day before the competition and practiced my dive a little more. Even doing it on the ground and going through the movements, to get your mind ready for what lies ahead of you. Also, most people arn't like this but for me it helps so much to have someone that is at the same level as me so that it pushes us to be better than the other, that's how i succeeded in doing my one and half flip, there was another girl that was trying to do it the same time as me and we both did it at the same time. Its all work, but you can absolutely have fun with it.

A member of United States National team and what it takes

The guy I'm going to talk about is on the National team but has never been to any Olympic games. Sean Moore, he is very good, and is always found in the middle of the pack, but has come in 1st, 2nd and 3rd a few time in his career as an international diver. He competes in platform and springboard, synchro and individually. It takes a lot of practice and consistency to get to a level like he has, it really isn't easy, it has always been a small dream of mine to be an international competitive diver, but when I look at them fly thru the air I say to myself, that I need to work a lot harder try new things to be open to trying new dives and not chicken out. Also, I think of the next time I would be steeping of the diving board and already thinking of a game plan, a plan to get my goal, and maybe my goal would be just to be able to do one dive that I already just better, or fixing one little thing of my dive to make it perfect. Sean Moore does exactly that he practices to get better at what he does.
http://www.usadiving.org/05redesign/media/profiles/Moore_Sean.pdf

Popularity and two members from National Senior team Canada.

Diving isn't a very popular sport where I'm from, because in the city there isn't a lot of diving boards, only in outdoor pools, but they're only open during the summer, but during the summer there is a little bit of interest. On the contrary in some areas, especially the areas where summer Olympics took place(because they have the right facilities for the job) and anywhere there's the appropriate facilities, these are the places where diving is a lot more popular. Just because a city or a town doesn't have the right equipment or they do have the right equipment just not a lot of it, doesn't mean that you cant be great at diving. Alexandre Despatie, isn't like that at all he's had a lot of training with the help of a lot of great coaches. He has placed in the top five at every summer Olympics since 2000, and many other wins in his career as a competitive diver. Including some in synchro diving(two divers do a dive at the same time). But he has placed low in some competitions. More details on his achievements visit this web site:http://www.diving.ca/english/html/bios/despatie.htm. Like any other diver he had to deal with injuries, he almost didn't compete in the 2008 summer Olympics because of an injury, but he ended up competing and placed high.
Emilie Heymans, she's just like Alexandre, they're both really good at what they do. She's also familiar with being at the top, just like Alexandre, she's also placed low, which is understandable, because you can't be perfect. We should be proud of what she's brought to the table in all of the other things she's done. More details: http://www.diving.ca/english/html/bios/heymans.htm

How to: inward

I've been talking about inwards a lot lately and I thought it would be nice to tell you how to do one. Well an inward is any maneuver that you start facing the board and your back to the water, and when you jump off you turn your body towards the board, like this:

Here's some tips:
1.To do an inward you need a lot of spin to get all the way around especially when your doing an inward flip.
2.Your need to make sure that when you jump off you get far enough away from the board, so you don't hit your head. (The girl in the video, she is really far away and could probably go a little bit closer). Another thing to note, your probably going to feel that your closer than you actually are, if you feel that way get your coach or someone to tell you how far you actually are and it should help you get closer our reassure you that you wont hit your head.

Here's how to actually do it:
1.Like the girl in the video, she gets a little bounce before she leaps off.
2.She swings her arms so she can get all the way around.
...and that's it an inward is kind of easy to do but it still has it's challenges.

Another good yet bad time

This experience again has to do with me not being able to do a dive, but this it's not because of an injury, I couldn't do it because of an accident i had earlier, but that's not the reason why it was a bad moment. This was a bad moment because it was right before a competition and in the division i was in and inward was a mandatory dive, and couldn't do it but my stupid coach put me in the division anyways, even though i told him a million times that i couldn't do it and i wanted to be in the lower level. Anyways....the night before the competition i was determined to do it, I didn't end up being able to but it's the effort that counts, right? So, during the practice rounds I tried to do it but nothing, the competition started and i went up to my inward, and i tried but nothing again, the judges told me i could try again, but i didn't want to, all i was thinking was "oh ,great!"(sarcastically). Guess what? The same thing happened. After the competition they announced the winners, I wasn't expecting to get a ribbon (they gave ribbons from 10th to 1st), because everyone else was able to do all their dives. Anyways, they announced 10th, and then 9th they said my name, I was so confused, and happy that I beat people without doing one of my dives. Just imagine it my dives must have been really good if I beat people who did all 5 of their dives.

A good yet bad time

Okay so, this experience was amazing. Me and this other girl, we both learned how to do front one and a half 's at the same time, it was great to be able to learn it with some else and it really helped me because I'm really competitive and I wanted to be the first to be able to do it, which I wasn't because we both did it at the same time. We were finally able to do it, my coach said she never saw anyone learn how to do this dive that fast. It was going really smoothly, but for I don't know what reason I wasn't doing it as well as I was before, and I was getting frustrated with myself. I think that's why I got hurt,(that's the time I hit the side of my head against the water) I wasn't focused enough. this experience was good because I learned how to do a really cool dive and it was a bad experience because I got hurt and I was never able to do it again.
Here's a video of a front one and a half dive, enjoy:

The times I got hurt

There's been a few times I've gotten hurt. All between smacking my body against the water and hitting my head against the side of the pool(like I said in one my earlier blogs). One of the ones I remember the most is one that happens a lot, and it's not because of diving, it's because of the water, but I'm telling you this because it did happened one time because of a dive. This happened like a year ago, I was at a practice and I was finally able to do a front one and a half, and I was doing them fine but one of the time i opened up(from my tuck) too soon and I freaked out and landed on my ear(like the side of my face). The bad thing about that is I couldn't do my front one and a half anymore and I had to wear these stupid ear plug things for a while(but that wasn't the worst part). Another time, this was after the ear incident, I was trying to re-due my flip (because I couldn't even do that anymore) and I freaked out again and landed on my side and my whole leg and some of my face was all red. I know I've gotten hurt more times than that but these are the two that I remember very well, and the other time I got hurt from my "bad experience­­" blog.

Personal experiences; good one!

Like I said it's the good moment that make the bad ones seem okay, an example of that is after the inward incident happened a year later I went back to the pool and even though I said I would never try an inward ever again I did anyways, but never got close. I tried my hardest all summer. That same summer I entered in the competition that I always enter and the competition was progressing normally, the team went to practice and I was executing my dive perfectly. All the teams practice together but only the people who are in the next event. I'll never forget this one girl, she was complaining about everything, and how she wasn't doing her dives right, meanwhile mine were almost flawless. All I remember thinking was her doing her dives crappy meant that it would be easier for the rest of us to beat her, which five of us did. Later, the competition started and I was doing my dives really good, but according to my coach(who was one of the judges) I did them way better in the practice rounds. After my competition was over we had to wait for the group older than me to go. After that everything got set to announce the winners in each category. They finally got to mine they announced 10th, 9th, 8th, and my name wasn't called I wasn't really surprised because I know I did better than most of the others. They went on to 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and still nothing at this point I was scared! I was so nervous because I thought I did worse than everyone else! That wasn't the case, I kicked their butts to the moon, my score was 120.?? and the person is second place their score was 94.??. I beat them by 20 points. I couldn't believe it out of 20 divers I was the best. Also a little, bonus the city was on strike the next summer so to this day I'm still reigning champion! Hopefully, I'll win 2 years in a row, that would be super awesome!

Personal experiences; bad one!

I thought I'd take a break from all the details and just talk about my personal experiences with the sport. The sport and I have went threw a lot of good and bad times, but it's the good times that make the bad ones not seem as bad. Here's one bad time that I'll never forget, one day during practice I tried doing and inward(is when you start with your back to he water and you spin towards the diving board) but I couldn't do it to save my life. There was this more experienced girl and she decided to help me by us going to the edge of the pool and her grabbing my legs and just dropping me in head first facing the side of the pool. Well the suction of the water pulled me towards the edge of the pool, the only thing that stopped me was hitting my head off the side. I was almost fine, I just had a bruise on my forehead, but this is one of the reasons why i won't do an inward, even off the diving board. Also, I DO NOT SUGGEST THAT YOU DO ONE OFF THE EDGE OF THE POOL, ALWAYS AND ONLY OFF THE BOARD!
Here's just an example of an inward, so you guys have a visual:

How to: dive positions

Like I said in one of my other blogs there are four main types of positions, layout, pike , tuck and free. All four are used for every dive, and they're kind of really important especially in competitions.
How to do each one:
Layout position is basically just a pencil jump, but more complex, you must keep your whole body straight not letting any part of your body fly, and NOT forgetting to point your toes.
Pike position is you folding your body in half and keeping it tight, and NOT forgetting to point your toes.
Tuck is you folding yourself again, but this time in a really really tight ball. The tighter you put yourself into a ball, the better. Also NOT forgetting to point your toes
Finally free, or straight, is just twisting in the air, this is when a diver can move more freely and not get penalized. Also NOT forgetting to point your toes.

All of these position can be really use full if done properly and if used appropriately.

Here's a picture that shows all four types,

the picture on the left is also a layout, but it's also part of the free.

Different diving positions.

There are four main types of diving positions. Layout, pike, tuck and free. Layout, pike and tuck are more controlled or should be more controlled when your in the air. All three of these positions are used in every dive, in various ways and combinations. Free position is when a diver turn on an angle in the air. So, basically "twisty" dives.
All of these positions have different difficulty levels. In competitions having the higher level positions in your dive is a really good thing, it can take a simple back dive, to a back dive with a half twist (twist are the highest). Yes, even just twisting half way can bring the difficulty way way up.
From highest to lowest difficulty, free position is the hardest to do, that's why it has the highest rated difficulty. Pike would be the second. Tuck would be the third. Layout, is the easiest and it's the first thing you really learn. You probably won't need to learn it because it just a pencil jump.
If your confused about how to do any of these positions, don't worry my next blog will be on how to do them . :)

How to do: 3 step hurdle, front dive pike.

This dive is my favourite dive to do, because I'm really good at it and because it's the easiest dive you'll ever have to learn. Also it's the easiest dive to learn. This dive combines your hurdle, your pike (which I will explain in one of my next blogs) and your dive. It seems hard to put all of these things together, but it really isn't.
There's a few steps to follow to be able to do this dive but they're not complicated:
1. In one of my earlier blogs I explained hurdles, if you didn't read that one you should go read it because it explains how to do them. The blog is called ­­­­­­"Hurdles".
2.The next step for doing a 3 step hurdle pike dive is, when your up in the air you want to bend your body in half. At your waist.
3. Next, after you bend your body, you don't unbend your upper body to go in feet first, you would unbend your body so that your feet are in the air.
4. After that part it becomes really simple, you would just need to make sure you whole body is straight and your hands are in one another to create kind of like a vacuum so that the splash is smaller(I'll write about that some other time).
5. Last but certainly not the least, you have to point your toes, I honestly can't stress that enough. It doesn't seem like it but if you point your toes your legs will automatically stay straight when you hit the water.
Here's an example of a 3 step hurdle front dive pike:

How to take care of your bathing suit.

If you have a bathing that may be a expensive, it's a good idea to take care of it. After your done swimming, diving(this goes for all water sports). You should rinse out the chlorine and/or salt in cold water mixed with baking soda. After rinsing it with cold water and baking soda, you hang it to dry. Depending on what pool you go to and and what they use to disinfect their pool, there could be either of the two in there and even maybe another different chemical. If you don't rinse out the chlorine and/or salt your bathing suit will start to disintegrate and it won't last as long. This has happened to me once and it was very unfortunate. My bathing suit was all stretched out and the colors faded, it was never the same. To protect the color, you can take some vinegar and soak your bathing suit in it for twenty four hours and then just let it dry. After that the colors in your bathing suit should last as long as the suit does.

This is a website where I found 2 examples of ways to protect your bathing suit, click on the link to find out more:
*I know the link says how to protect your bikinis, but all bathing suits still are made from the same fabric, you can still protect them the same ways.*
http://ezinearticles.com/?Womens-Swimwear---Five-Ways-to-Protect-Your-Bikinis-From-the-Effects-of-Chlorine-and-Chemicals&id=1865481

Bathing suits.

What bathing suit is the best to wear while diving? Certainly not a bikini. Any one piece bathing suit is perfect for diving. I honestly can't tell you what kind of one piece you should wear because it's all personal preference, but my favourite type is ones with thick straps and there's a circle in the back, it's a Speedo bathing suit. There's a lot of different brand names such as Speedo is the most popular and Jantzen is an older brand and Tyr swimwear is the most recent brand, and all of those are perfect, because they'll last a long time. For me, a bathing suit only lasts about 3 months because the pool i go to has a really high concentration of chlorine and because I'm in the pool 5 times a week.
Honestly, these brand name bathing suits can be a little pricey, but its all worth it. The two Speedo bathing i just got were really high priced and they've lasted that longest. It really depends if your into the sport, or just trying it out, because if your just trying it out it doesn't really make sense to buy a fifty dollar bathing suit and not have you use it again. That would be a waste of money. Like I said it's all personal preference, and it may take a few bathing suits before you find one that works for you.

Hurdles

*The hurdle is the maneuver the girl in the video does while she's on the board.

Hurdles are mainly used to get the height you need to execute your dive successfully. There are two types of hurdles: one step hurdle and a three step hurdle. The three step hurdle is the one in the video. Here's some step by step instructions on how to do a 3 step hurdle.

All of these steps should be done in one fluid motion.

1. The girl in the video doesn't do this but you're supposed to measure your three steps by going to the edge of the board and taking three steps and a half step. The half is for the little jump you do after your steps.

2. Next, you face the water and take your first step with your right leg (if your right handed that is, if you're left handed, replace right with left and left with right).

3.After, you did those three steps, lift your left leg about half way.

4.When you're on your way down you lift your right leg and bring them both together in the air.

5.While you're doing your three steps and your little jump, your arms should be swinging, and they should make a full circle, in the backwards direction.

6.Finally, after you complete all of theses steps, in one fluid motion, you leave the diving board in a completely straight position.

The hurdle is not a hard to learn, to make it perfect you just need to practice. Also, it's a tool that is used for almost every forward dive.

Types of diving boards

There's two main types of diving boards springboard and platform. The springboard has two different heights 1 meter and 3 meters. The platform can go a little bit higher than a springboard, it's 3 meters, 5 meters, 7.5 meters and 10 meters.

I think that the springboards are way better than the platforms because you can get more height off of the 3 meter springboard than the 3 metter platform. You have more time to execute the dive properly if your higher up.

Divers who only use the platform should have a lot more leg muscle than the divers who use the springboards, because when your on the platform, all the force you put into your dive comes from your legs and your arms. When you use the springboard less force comes from your legs and your arms, you don't need as much force because as you land on the diving it comesback up and pushes you the rest of the way.

One of the main differences between the springboard and the platform is the way you do the dives. You'll be able to do the same dives just not the first part of the dive, the fist part of the dive is a hurdle(which i will explain in another blog). To get a lot of height off the springboard you do a hurdle and it will get you up really high, the more force you put in your hurdle the higher you'll go, but on a platform usually you do just a standing dive, you just start your dive standing up and swing your arms and bend your legs to have enough force to complete your dive.

Intro, :)

Hello, my name is Nicole Lanteigne. During the next few months, I will be writing blogs about diving.In the blogs that I write I will talk about the equipment, the best swim suits and also many fun and interesting facts about diving. In some of my blogs I'll put a video up of a dive and I'll explain how to do it, so you can try it at home.
I've been diving since i was 10 years old, I'm completely capable of giving advice and insight about the sport.
Also, I've participated in many competition within the city I live in. In those competitions I didn't do too badly. I came in 6th the first year I competed and 9th the second. The third year, i came in 5th and the fourth year I competed I came in 10th, because I went into a higher division and also my coach put me in that division against my will, and the one dive that was mandatory, is the only one i couldn't do. The year after that I went back into the division I was in a few years before, and I won, out of 16 other divers.
Diving is best described as a way to get out, to feel the air threw your hair as your falling from great heights.
Hopefully everyone who reads my blog can benefit of it, and enjoy it.