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