I tried to find this topic unsuccessfully, forgive me if it has already been discussed. I recently finally started working on my dive starts, literally from a standpoint of never having done them before. I learned a lot watching my kids' coaches and videos, though. I have been diving into about 6 feet of water and find myself ending up about 5 inches from the bottom before dolphin kicking my way forward and up. When I watch videos of starts in the olympics, etc. these guys are diving into 13 feet of water or more, and seem to dive at least 5 feet (see this link of Phelps, around 45 second mark: YouTube - Michael Phelps freestyle multi angle camera ).
In summer league, though, I see the older kids are diving into 5 feet with no problems. Do you guys start different ways depending on the water depth? Are your Masters meets in deep water usually? Am I going too deep when I dive, not so much from a safety standpoint but from a speed aspect? Last question, I remember my son's coach once telling the team to make the under water phase of their relay dives very brief. I couldn't tell if he was making a general statement on starts, or was that specific to relays. Any comments greatly appreciated.
Parents
Former Member
Us boomers all swam & did starts in 3 1/2 to 4 ft of water.
yep - even 25-30 years ago when I was learning to dive we used to start off blocks into 3 ft of water! It certainly teaches you to think "shallow". For breaststroke we'd be 1/2 in off the bottom of the pool to get enough depth for a good pull out.
I did (and still do) a grab start, and would look out at the other end of the pool rather than down as I started so I travelled out rather than down. Then drop my head between my arms in mid-air to avoid the belly-flop.
In fact a bit like my daughter in the avatar there - just drop your head, and keep the hips up!
Us boomers all swam & did starts in 3 1/2 to 4 ft of water.
yep - even 25-30 years ago when I was learning to dive we used to start off blocks into 3 ft of water! It certainly teaches you to think "shallow". For breaststroke we'd be 1/2 in off the bottom of the pool to get enough depth for a good pull out.
I did (and still do) a grab start, and would look out at the other end of the pool rather than down as I started so I travelled out rather than down. Then drop my head between my arms in mid-air to avoid the belly-flop.
In fact a bit like my daughter in the avatar there - just drop your head, and keep the hips up!