Wednesday, July 1, 2009

DIVING "INSURANCE"

When the words "diving" and "insurance" are used in the same sentence, people think "uh oh -- big expense; hard to get; difficult to afford; etc.) But, I am not talking about this type of insurance -- rather I am talking about having "Dive Insurance."

"Dive Insurance" is making sure that you have a back-up dive or dives that you can substitute into your list at the last minute should one of your regular dives (for whatever reason) not be usable. Divers of course should practice their "list" of dives -- but they should also practice their "insurance dives". This is applicable to all levels of diving. Here are a few examples:

SUMMER LEAGUE DIVING:

Little Johnny learns an inward dive (401C) and it is really good. You are going to replace his 5111A (front dive with 1/2 twist) because he sometimes does not complete the twist all the way or his form is not good when he does the dive. However, during warm-ups for the meet, little Johnny starts getting too close to the board on his inward and gets scared. Johnny, (his mom) and you do not want to use that dive today. The insurance dive is his "questionable" 5111A -- might not be pretty, but at least it is safe.

HIGH SCHOOL DIVING:

Your diver learns a 105C (front 2 1/2 somersaults in tuck position) but goes to a meet at another high school where the diving board is not as good as the board on which your diver trains and they are having difficulty making the 105C on the "bad board." In this instance -- your insurance dive would be a 104C (front double somersault in tuck position) or 103B (front 1 1/2 somersaults in pike position).

COLLEGE DIVING:

Your diver learns a 5235D on 3M (Back 1 1/2 with 2 1/2 twists) and this will replace their 5134D (front 1 1/2 somersaults with 2 twists). During warm-ups the day before the meet, your diver starts "getting lost" on his 5235D. If you had your diver continue to practice the 5134D even after they learned the 5235D -- you could simply substitute the 5134D back into the list and not miss a beat.

As with any insurance -- you hope you never need it, but you gotta have it!

2 comments:

EricT said...

Excellent post, I know exactly what you mean! Unfortunately, whenever I lost my 305B on 3m I didn't have a backup and I ended up doing 301A in a couple meets...

will said...

While on the subject of back up dives, what should I do if I lost a dive because I learned a harder one? I’m in high school and over the summer I did a lot of 3m and learned back and gainer 1 and a ½’s. But the problem is that now I have extreme trouble getting back into back and gainer dive. It is almost impossible for me to do it, but when the time comes and I do the 1 and a ½’s I can rip both. I don’t understand, my coach says its mental and all that but I just cant do them even when I spend like an hour on them. Any help or tips on how to get back into the dives would be much appreciated.