Do The Opposite!

It has been my experience as a diving coach that when a diver has a continued problem with a dive, one way to solve the issue is to try and get your diver to do the OPPOSITE of the problem they are having.

EXAMPLES:

1. A diver who dives too close to the board, you try to get them to do the dive too far out from the board. (Start with jumps that are too far away from the board first)!
2. A diver who keeps diving to the right side of the board -- you try to get them to do the dive to the left side of the board.
3. A diver who is over twisting -- you try to get them to square out too early on the twist.
4. A diver who keeps going short on a dive -- you try to get them to "go over" on the dive.
5. A diver who keeps missing the end of the board on a hurdle -- you try to get the hurdle slightly past the end of the board (toes over the edge).
6. Etc. etc.

No matter what, continue to coach good form (legs straight, feet together, toes pointed) as well as vertical entries with little or no splash. REPETITION IS KEY!

Don't Let Go of the Ropes!

During the 2008 FINA Grand Prix International Diving Meet at the Hall of Fame Aquatic Center, some coaches were "testing out" of overhead spotting proficiency on both trampoline and dryboard. Our proficiency test took place under the watchful eyes of legendary spotters Dick Kimball (University of Michigan -- retired) and Julian Krug (Univ. of Pittsburgh). My group included Ted Hautau (NC State University) and Kevin Sage (Sagebrush Diving -- CO).

While I was waiting my turn to "test" my skills, I recalled what my mentor Charlie Casuto told me when he taught me how to "spot" trampoline more than 20 years ago -- these words still hold true today:

1. NEVER, EVER let go of the spotting ropes when you have an athlete in the belt -- even when you are not actively "spotting" them.
2. Make sure the athlete in the spotting belt understands what skill you want them to do.
3. Never take your eyes off the person in the spotting belt when you are actively spotting them.
4. Make sure the athlete you are spotting knows and understands that they are NOT to "go" until you are looking at them AND you have given them the "go" command.
5. Avoid anything that could distract you or cause you to lose your focus when you are actively spotting an athlete.
6. Practice, Practice, Practice!

WORD OF CAUTION: All coaches should first learn how to spot over a trampoline. After getting proficient at trampoline spotting, then you can move on to spotting dryboard and finally, you can learn "over-the-water" spotting. The reason this is important is when spotting over the water, you must "let go" of the ropes after spotting the skill so the diver can drop into the pool. Without exception, you NEVER LET GO of the ropes when spotting above a trampoline or dryboard so you must learn this VERY IMPORTANT lesson first.

Diving Coach Research Project

Springboards and More is researching and compiling a listing of all the awards and honors that have been won by diving coaches over the past 100 years. We plan to upload all of this information to a website that will be available soon. The website will be a constantly growing database as we collect more and more information.

Not only are we compiling listings of the major diving coach award winners, but we are also looking to compile NCAA Coach of the Year Winners, US Diving Coaching honors, College Conference "Coach of the Year" winners, as well as High School and Geographic area diving coach award winners.

If you would like to assist in this project, please send a note to springboardsandmore@cinci.rr.com or if you have any awards or honors you would like to see added to our compilation, please send that information as well.

We appreciate your efforts towards this project and we hope that this new website will be a source of inspiration to future diving coaches and help to keep our sport moving forward!

FUNdamentals, FUNdamentals, FUNdamentals

Now that the summer diving season is right around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to remind all coaches -- especially first-time coaches about the importance of teaching FUNDAMENTALS to your divers.

The biggest "coaching" mistake I see from young and inexperienced coaches, is trying to teach young divers "hard" dives when they cannot do the "easy" fundamentals of our sport. I am talking about "GOOD FORM" -- that is legs straight, feet together, toes pointed -- and VERTICAL entry with little or no splash. It makes no sense to teach a young diver difficult dives if they cannot keep their feet together on an easy dive. In the same way, it makes no sense to have a young diver do a front double somersault and land in the water like a bowling ball when that same diver could do a Front 1 1/2 S.S. and go straight in the water -- these are COACHING ERRORS that simply will not score well from the judges. Keep in mind that higher judges' scores almost always beats higher DD (Degree of Difficulty). It is almost always better to do an easier dive well than to do a hard dive poorly.

Make a habit of spending the first 10-15 minutes of your summer league practice (every day) teaching divers "Good Form" and teaching them how to enter the water as close to vertical as possible. Make a game or a competition out of it to keep the kids interested and to trick them into learning the "boring" stuff that will pay big dividends in the long run.

Please Stand!

A diving coach is, in reality, a teacher. The job of a teacher is to help, encourage and assist your students to learn the subject matter that you are presenting. In this case, your subject matter is the sport of diving. As a person who teaches diving, you need to find the best way possible to reach the students in your classroom (the pool).

There is, in my humble opinion, no right or wrong way to teach diving (safety excluded) -- every diving teacher is different and every diving teacher has his or her own methods to get the lesson across to the students (divers). Experience has shown me that a student is more apt to learn in an environment where the teacher is enthusiastic about the subject matter being presented and I feel strongly that a diving teacher who STANDS during practice has a much better chance of displaying that enthusiasm to his or her students (divers). A coach who stands can be more animated and can better demonstrate techniques; can walk over to the diver for some one on one discussion; can jump up and down to celebrate the learning of a new dive or to show dismay at a diver who repeats the same mistake again. In essence, a coach who stands can bring some energy to the classroom (pool) and this can really benefit the students (divers).

Think back to your school days and recall how boring it was to be in a class where the teacher just sat at their desk and read notes for you to copy in your notebook. Now recall those classes where the teacher was a bundle of energy and you could not wait to get in there and learn! NOW GET OUT OF YOUR CHAIR AND START COACHING!!

Iron Mike Memorial Fund

As most of you know, MIKE LYDEN -- one of the finest diving coaches in the United States lost his battle with cancer on Friday April 11, 2008. A memorial fund has been set up by Wildcat Aquatics, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and 100% of all donations will directly benefit Mike's wife Emily and his three children Jessica, Jack and Brittany.

We have a chance to double our donations to honor the memory of our friend and colleague. A generous donor has offered to match funds up to $10,000.00 submitted by the diving community. In order to have your donation matched, please send your check made payable to "Wildcats Aquatics - Iron Mike Memorial" and send to Springboards and More. They will coordinate the gift with the matching donor.

Make checks payable to "Wildcats Aquatics - Iron Mike Memorial"

Mail to
"Iron Mike" Foundation
c/o Springboards and More
P.O. Box 268
Milford, OH 45150
USA

Thanks, "Iron Mike"!

MIKE LYDEN, one of the finest diving coaches in America lost his battle with cancer on Friday April 11, 2008.

• Thanks "Iron Mike."


• Thanks for being such an inspiration to so many.


• Thanks for being the great coach you were.


• Thanks for being the great competitor you were.


• Thanks for being the fighter you were.


• Thanks for being the friend you were to so many.


• Thanks for being the mentor you were to so many.


• Thanks for being the great husband you were.


• Thanks for being the great father you were.


• Thanks for the passion that you brought to the sport of diving.


• Thanks for your zest for life.


• Thanks for bringing out the best in all those with whom you came in contact.

You will be sorely missed but never forgotten. Rest in Peace.

Just A Half Point More!!

Ask yourself this question after your next diving meet: “What could I have done better on each dive to get just one half point more from the judges?”

In a typical 11-dive high school dive list (5 Voluntary Dives and 6 Optional Dives that includes 105C, 203C, 303C, 403C, 5132D and 5223D) your total score would INCREASE by nearly 30 POINTS if you took every score you received from each judge and added ½ point to it before re-calculating your score.

EXERCISE: Pull out your most recent diving sheet and re-calculate your final total after increasing every judges' award by one half point. (Example: If you received scores of 5.5 , 5.5, 6.0, 6.0, 6.0 on your first dive -- change those scores to 6.0, 6.0, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5 and recalculate the point total). Repeat this for all eleven dives and then see where you would have ended up in the final rankings had this been your score!

THIRTY POINTS – that is almost one whole dive!! That is like getting to do 12 dives in an 11-dive meet – on which end do you rather be?

Watch The Bubbles!

When a divers enters the water with little or no splash, the result is usually a high score from the judges. In order to get that "RIP" sound when entering the water, the diver must have grabbed their "flathand," lined up the entry correctly and remain tight through the water -- especially their shoulders, elbows and wrists. The final piece of the "RIP" puzzle is the diver needs to split their hands as soon as they touch the water -- this in effect "RIPS" open a hole in the water through which the diver enters.

A coach can tell if the diver is splitting their hands simply by watching the bubbles where the diver entered the water. There should be THREE sets of bubbles: the middle bubble is where the diver entered the water and then the two sets of bubbles to either side of the middle bubbles that are generated by the diver splitting their hands upon entry. If a coach only sees one set of bubbles, this means the diver is not splitting their hands apart on entry. If the coach sees three sets of bubbles BUT the two sets of side bubbles take a few seconds to reach the surface, then the diver is splitting too late. Sometimes, new divers will split their hands BEFORE they hit the water and this will be very easy to see as the splash will be big and the diver will probably complain of a headache when they get out of the water!

FINAL NOTE: The three sets of bubbles should be nearly in a straight line or the two "outside" sets of bubbles should be slightly in front of the middle set of bubbles. If a coach notices one or both "outside" sets of bubbles breaking the surface BEHIND the middle set of bubbles -- WARNING -- this could lead to shoulder injuries -- especially for tower divers! If you see this situation, it MUST be corrected right away!!

A Good "Hobie-ism"

Legendary Diving Coach HOBIE BILLINGSLEY was often heard to tell a diver "Don't let the water dictate your direction upon entry." In a nutshell, this means that a diver should maintain a tight straight-line body position throughout the completion of the entry. The dive is NOT over until your toenails disappear underneath the water.

If a diver does not maintain a tight body when they enter the water, the water might force them to move in a certain direction that makes the dive appear to go short, over or maybe look twisted in the eyes of the judges -- all things that reduce the scores given to the diver.

Divers must learn this most important of skills from the very beginning of their diving careers. A good drill is to have them lie on their back with legs straight, feet together, toes pointed and a "flathand" grabbed and then on your command "STRETCH" -- they try to make their body 10 feet long and hold this tight stretched position for 10 seconds. Relax and then repeat 10 times. In addition, every practice should include time spent on learning to enter the water straight (read: VERTICAL) with this tight body position and good form (Legs Straight, Feet Together, Toes Pointed).

Administrating Your Diving Team

Most diving coaches that I know love to coach but do not like the administrative duties that are required to run a successful diving team. Running a diving team is much like running a business -- it is very important to keep up on the day-to-day administrative tasks. Examples are returning e-mails and phone calls, recruiting and registering new divers, billing and bill paying, collecting past due fees, lesson plans, continuing education, etc.

My solution is to schedule a block of time -- the same time every day -- to do these things. I like mornings because my mind is fresh and there are few distractions. I go to the office and try to answer all e-mails, return phone calls and perform all of the routine tasks that I need to do in order to keep my diving program (read: business) running smoothly. Often, these daily administrative duties can be accomplished in a fairly short time as long as you keep up on them.

WOW! Did you know that if you wake-up 30 minutes earlier than you normally do each day that you will add about 7 1/2 DAYS to your year? (30 minutes x 365 days = 10,950 minutes which equals 182.5 hours which equals 7.6 days). Think about how much more you could accomplish with an extra 7 1/2 days!!

USA Diving Registration and Safety Certification

Coaches beware - make sure you have your USA Diving registration and safety certification. USA Diving will be checking your registration at all the regional, zone and national level meets.

They have also partnered with the American Red Cross, and you can get your first aid requirements online. For more information CLICK HERE. Don't procrastinate, get certified!

PANZANO, LAAK NAMED NCAA DIVING COACHES OF THE YEAR

VINCE PANZANO (Ohio State University) and DAN LAAK (University of Georgia) were named NCAA Diving Coaches of the Year for 2008. Panzano was named Women's Diving Coach of the Year and Laak was named Men's Diving Coach of the Year.

Panzano had a spectacular Women's Championships that was highlighted by a 1-2 finish in the 3-meter contest. Laak was honored for the accomplishments of his diver Chris Colwill who finished 1st, 2nd and 2nd in the three diving events contested.

The award is determined by a vote of all diving coaches at the NCAA Championships.

TOP DIVING COACHES IN NCAA!

Congratulations to the following COACHES for their success at the Men's NCAA Division I Diving Championships. Randy ABLEMAN – Miami (Reuben Ross – 6th 1-meter, 1st 3-meter, 4th Platform, JJ Kinzbach - 8th Platform); Mark BRADSHAW - Arizona State (Mickey Benedetti – 7th 1-meter); Mike BROWN – Hawaii (Magnus Frick - 2nd 1-meter, 6th 3-meter); Pat GREENWELL - Alabama (Aaron Fleshner - 3rd 3-meter); Jeff HUBER – Indiana (Landon Marzullo – 4th 1-meter; Taylor Roberts - 4th 3-meter); Patrick JEFFREY - Florida State (Terry Horner – 3rd 1-meter); Julian KRUG – Pittsburgh (Alex Volovetski – 8th 1-meter); Dan LAAK – Georgia (Chris Colwill - 1st 1-meter, 2nd 3-meter, 2nd Platform); Mike LYDEN – Kentucky (Stephen Andrews – 5th 1-meter); Vince PANZANO - Ohio State (Sean Moore - 1st Platform, Weston Wieser - 7th Platform); Matt SCOGGIN - Texas (Jonathan Wilcox - 7th 3-meter, Matthew Cooper - 6th Platform); Jeff SHAFFER - Auburn (Kelly Marx -5th 3-meter, Daniel Mazzafero - 8th 3-meter, 5th Platform); Adam SOLDATI - Purdue (David Colturi - 3rd Platform). The top eight finishers at the NCAA Championships earn All-American honors.

Dan LAAK of Georgia was named the 2008 NCAA Men's Diving Coach of the Year, and his diver Chris Colwill was named 2008 NCAA Men's Diver of the Year.

Springboards and More congratulates the DIVING COACHES for all their hard work, dedication and long hours at the pool that went into these performances.

Colwill Wins One-meter!

Congratulations to Chris Colwill of Georgia and coach Dan Laak for his victory on one-meter at the NCAA championships in Seattle. Colwill needed a strong final dive to hold off Magnus Frick of Hawaii. He received 8's on a reverse 2 1/2 pike (that's right, a 305b on one-meter), scored 76.80 points and won the contest by 7.55 points. Three-meter prelims begin today at 2:00 p.m. PST. You can watch the contest via the internet at NCAA.com.

• Full Results
• Watch the Action Live!

Top NCAA Diving Coaches

Congratulations to the following COACHES for the performance of their diver(s) in the Finals at the Women's NCAA Division I Diving Championships taking place at The Ohio State University:

Women's Platform Diving -- Saturday March 22, 2008

1. RANDY ABLEMAN (University of Miami, FL) -- Coach of the Winner Brittany Viola
2. RICK SCHAVONE (Stanford University) -- Coach of 2nd place finisher Margaret Hostage
3. ADAM SOLDATI (Purdue University) -- Coach of 3rd place finisher Kara Cook
4. VINCE PANZANO (Ohio State University) -- Coach of 4th place finisher Kristen Asman
5. RICK SCHAVONE (Stanford University) -- Coach of 5th place finisher Shana Karp
6. JANE FIGUREIDO (University of Houston) -- Coach of 6th place finisher Lacey Truelove
7. JIM STILLSON (Southern Methodist University -- Coach of 7th place finisher Audra Egenolf
8. DONNIE CRAINE (University of Florida) -- Coach of 8th place finisher Monica Dodson

Women's 3-Meter Diving -- Friday March 21, 2008

1. VINCE PANZANO (Ohio State University) -- Coach of the Winner Chelsea Davis
2. VINCE PANZANO (Ohio State University) -- Coach of 2nd place finisher Bianca Alvarez
3. MATT SCOGGIN (University of Texas) -- Coach of 3rd place finisher Kathryn Kelly
4. DAN LAAK (University of Georgia) -- Coach of 4th place finisher Hannah Moore
5. JEFF HUBER (Indiana University) -- Coach of 5th place finisher Brittany Feldman
6. MIKE BROWN (University of Hawaii) -- Coach of 6th place finisher Emma Friesen
7. JOHN AMES (Georgia Tech) -- Coach of 7th place finisher Hannah Krimm
8. TODD SHERRITT (University of South Carolina) -- Coach of 8th place finisher Taryn Zack

Women's 1-Meter Diving--Thursday March 20, 2008

1. MIKE BROWN (University of Hawaii) -- Coach of the Winner Emma Friesen
2. MATT SCOGGIN (University of Texas) -- Coach of 2nd place finisher Mary Yarrison
3. JEFF HUBER (Indiana University) -- Coach of 3rd place finisher Brittany Feldman
4. MATT SCOGGIN (University of Texas) -- Coach of 4th place finisher Kathryn Kelly
5. VINCE PANZANO (Ohio State University) -- Coach of 5th place finisher Bianca Alverez
6. MIKE LYDEN (University of Kentucky) -- Coach of 6th place finisher Kari Retrum
7. RANDY ABLEMAN (Miami University) -- Coach of 7th place finisher Brittany Viola
8. VINCE PANZANO (Ohio State University) -- Coach of 8th place finisher Chelsea Davis

The Top EIGHT finishers at the NCAA Championships earn First Team All-American Honors.

Springboards and More congratulates the DIVING COACHES for all their hard work, dedication and long hours at the pool that went into these performances.