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.
First,if you are nearly hitting the bottom,don't practice starts there.You don't want to get hurt while learning.
Optimum depth depends a bit on how you swim.If you are going to be aiming for 15M of SDK you want to be relatively deep,so that 5 feet would be deeper than most,but not unreasonable.For BR I'd aim for 3 1/2 to 4.If you are swimming sprint free and you are not much of an SDKer then as shallow as 2-3 ft would be good.I am assuming the coach who said make the underwater phase brief was talking about sprint free where that would make sense(unless your SDK is faster than your free.)
Almost all Masters Meets start in at least 7 ft of depth.
Taruky, I'm no expert but have coached a few years in my past and am back into swimming for the first time in twenty years and loving it.
Until you can capatilize on a deeper dive (which comes later in your ability level), you need to focus on diving "out" and not "down". My start is the same in 4 ft or 5 ft or 10 ft. Exactly. You are going too deep from a safety and a speed standpoint. Your goal is to get from one wall to the other as fast as possible (think straight line). If you are going down close to six feet, you got to spend time coming up six feet, That's way off the straight line. I'm not sure what your son's coach was trying to teach, but I would only tell a swimmer to keep their underwater phase brief, if they were spending too much time under...
I hope no one here flames me, I could be way wrong...
The think the olympic pools are around 7 ft, not 13 ft.
Dives are trick and take practice to get right. I am shallowest on free, a bit deeper on fly and ***. For sprint free, alot of swimmers get right up to the surface, so they dive only a few feet down. In fact, you will see alot of pikes to help keep the dive shallow.
What works for elite swimmers, may not work for masters. Phelps will go down 4-5 feet on his turns to get under the turbulence!!!
Break out the stopwatch and time your 12.5's to see what combination of depth/SDK/breakout is faster.
Yeah, good idea. Now, I just need to figure out how to dive more shallow without doing a belly flop.
Keep in mind many of us learned starts when starting blocks were typically placed at the shallow end, so we learned to start in four feet or less of water. I do agree, though, that going deeper only makes sense if you have really good underwaters. Focus on keeping your body as rigid as possible and try to enter your entire body through the same hole. This doesn't mean that you need a steep entry, though. Just enough of an angle so you aren't landing flat.
The think the olympic pools are around 7 ft, not 13 ft.
Dives are trick and take practice to get right. I am shallowest on free, a bit deeper on fly and ***. For sprint free, alot of swimmers get right up to the surface, so they dive only a few feet down. In fact, you will see alot of pikes to help keep the dive shallow.
What works for elite swimmers, may not work for masters. Phelps will go down 4-5 feet on his turns to get under the turbulence!!!
Break out the stopwatch and time your 12.5's to see what combination of depth/SDK/breakout is faster.
Us boomers all swam & did starts in 3 1/2 to 4 ft of water. Newer, "safer " pools have a much greater depth so deep in an option. try to go out & extend the hands forward & up as soon as you are in the water to bring yourself up quicker.
When I see a deep dive on the start, more than likely it is because the dominant first motion off the start is to push off with the legs rather than throw the hands straight forward. By pushing with the legs first, that tends to drive the body upward slightly lending to a elliptical path in the air, creating a steeper entry angle and a deeper path in the water.
By focusing on throwing the hands forward, that helps to flatten out the path in the air and keep the body low. It also maximizes the forward push of the legs as they straighten, gives a flatter entry angle into the water and should take you no more than 2.5-3 feet deep off the start.
From a track start you should be driving from your legs first...
Take a look at Lochte in the center of the image. The arms and legs drive back then he recovers the hands in the air.
www.gettyimages.com/.../Sports-Illustrated
Even the swimmers with the arms up are almost in complete leg extension and have the rear leg up and off the block.
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!
From a track start you should be driving from your legs first...
Take a look at Lochte in the center of the image. The arms and legs drive back then he recovers the hands in the air.
www.gettyimages.com/.../Sports-Illustrated
Even the swimmers with the arms up are almost in complete leg extension and have the rear leg up and off the block.
you're going too deep when you dive,
you need more out and less down
be shallow
it has to do with the angle you hit the water off your dive and what you do underwater
concentrate on diving shallow and surfacing with speed
you can go deeper if you have an awesome SDK like phelps
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.
