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Springboard  diving for kids

I wanted to write something small for kids who are already participating in diving, but after I got done with the first version, I realized it's bigger than I thought. So I decided to make it useful not only for the young divers but also parents, coaches and even officials who wanted an introduction to the sport.
For parents with young kids in the sports of diving, you can help them with some parts of the book.  Especially those parts toward the end, will  apply to any young athlete. I have left out a lot of issues that are important for young athletes and their excellence in sports. For the moment, I wanted to give our young divers some tips to the thinking [sports psychology] aspect of diving. This  is an area that we need to develop in order make the sports experience of any young athlete a positive, wholesome one.
I look forward to any comments you might have on this very hasty product.

Janaka Biyanwila
May 1999

Contents
Why read this for diving?
What is  diving?
competition
Things that judges will look for in diving:
Basics of diving
TAKE-OFFS:
BODY IN FLIGHT:
ENTRIES:
Diving workouts
Some dry land exercises
Body focus for fitness
Technique :
How to get over your fear?
Relaxation - letting your mind relax
Concentration - focusing on the task at hand
Imagery - picturing the dive inside your head
How to be a good diver
Why  you should do a sport
You are a young athlete, and you have the right to
 

1. Why read this for diving?
Diving is a fun sport. It is not like cricket where you have to deal with a ball and a bat. It is also not like rugby where you have to bang your body against another. Diving is all about throwing your body off of a diving board and performing acrobatic stunts. Stuff with a lot of somersaults and twists.
The purpose of this small book is to give you [the young diver] some useful tips about how to master this sport. This is a difficult, complex sport. It is also a challenging sport. So you have to think about it. Because most of this sport is about the way you think. How to get over your fears. To build confidence in yourself. And to deal [struggle] with success and failure. It's a regular process of learning.
We still need more brave girls and boys to take part in diving. Of course, they have to be brave and strong. Besides fun, a sport is also about competition. And a good diver has to have fun even in competition. Most young divers get scared about competing with others. But, mostly it is competition with yourself. If you have practiced hard. You should be able to perform the best dives at diving meets. So you have to compete with yourself at each dive. Can I do this dive better than the last time? Eventually, it will become fun.
The main meets for divers in Sri Lanka are the Age group championships, the National Championships, and the Asia-Pacific age group meet. We can also go even to the Olympics. But, first there are few other international meets that you can also aim at. They are the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships, and other invitational meets in China and Australia. At the 1997 Olympics, there were divers from age 15 to 36, so if you are into it,  you can do this sport for a few years.
In Sri Lanka, we spend a lot of time in the pool. It is because we don't spend that much time on a sport. We have school, tuition, studies and other activities. So we have little time to spend on dry land exercises and we go right into the dives, even if our bodies are not fully in shape to do them. And that is okay. But, if you are planning on international competitions, we have to think more. It is about how to manage our time more effectively. You should enjoy being a kid, all that fun stuff of playing and spending time with your friends. Also, you should begin to develop or try to improve your mind and body. Actually, the two are connected. In order to know what your body can do, you have to think.
So this is mostly a thinking book.
Even if you do other sports, some of the things in this book might help you.

What is  diving?
Diving is about strength, flexibility, technique and grace.

m Strength - quickness, physical power, endurance
m Flexibility - agility and grace
m Techniques - mechanics and timing

Grace : body lines ; positions ; toe point ; entry

It is also about confidence and concentration.

Confidence - how much trust, or faith you have in yourself.

The 3 D's in diving : desire, determination, dedication.

You need these three if you want to be good in any sport.

How is your desire, determination, dedication to be the best in this sport ?

So ask yourself these questions.

Do you really have the desire to become a good diver? Yes, you might be scared about certain dives, but do you really want it? How bad do you want it?

Are you determined? Can you overcome all the challenges?

Are you dedicated? Can you overcome your challenges with some real hard work? Hanging in there, struggling with all the exercises and fears. Being committed to seeing it to the end, and  Not giving up half way.

In competition, each diver performs a list of required dives and a specific number of optional dives. The required dives have a limit in the degree of difficulty. The optional dives are without any limits. In meets, there are three, five or seven judges. They score each dive from a range of zero to ten. Ten is a perfect dive. This is very rare. A zero on a dive is when a diver fails to perform the dive he or she was planning on doing.
Judging in diving is very tricky. Most often divers don't agree with the points they get for their dives. But, the method of calculating the final score tries to take all this into account. So, the highest and the lowest scores are dropped and the remaining scores are averaged. This is multiplied by the degree of difficulty of the dive. From there, the total points for each dive is calculated. Final scores are the addition of total points for each dive.

List of dives

	1meter Springboard		3 meter Springboard		Platform
	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women
Group A: (ages 13& under)	3 [5.4 ] -	3 [5.4]	3 [5.4] - 3	3 [5.4] - 3	3 [5.4] - 3	3 [5.4] - 3
Group B: 14 & 15	5 [9.0] - 3	5 [9.0] - 3	5 [9.5] - 3	5 [9.5] - 3	5 [5.4] - 3	5 [5.4] - 3
Group C: 16 - 18	5 [9.5] - 6	5 [9.5] - 5	5 [9.5] - 6	5 [9.5] - 5	4 [7.6] - 6	4 [7.6] - 4
Open	5 [9.5] - 6	5 [9.5] - 5	5 [9.5] - 6	5 [9.5] - 5	4 [7.6] - 6	4 [7.6] - 4

The way to read this table. For girls who are 14 and 15 , in the 1 meter springboard competition they have to do 8 different dives; 5 dives from different dive groups, and the total degree of difficulty should not exceed 9.0; and 3 dives without limit of degree of difficulty.
The age groups are determined as of December 31^st of the year of the competition.

Some competition things
All diving competitions have to start with a warm-up time for all the divers. The diving sheets should be turned in to the Officials table. Always keep a copy of the list of dives with you. Lot of divers forgets their order of dives in the middle of the meet. Then all of a sudden you have to scramble to get ready for the unexpected dive. So take two minutes to write down your order of dives, before you turn your diving sheets in. After the diving order is selected, the actual meet will begin.
Sometimes if there are too many divers, the diving sessions will be split. In the Olympics the divers have to be at least 14 years old in order to dive.
In platform diving, the diver can use the five meter, 7.5 or 10 meter platform. Only at the Olympics and World Championships that all dives have to be done from the 10 meter. For boys and girls under 13 [group A], all platform dives will be done off the 5 meter.

Things that judges will look for in diving:

	Body-line (positions)	Power (technique) (force)
1. Take-off	upright and vertical approach; making momentum for the dive.	timing on the board; arm-swing and a forceful press.
2. Body of the dive (Flight)	tight, compact,  positions. toe point.	quickness in spinning and twisting. Ability to maintain a tight positions throughout the dive.
3. Entry	head and arm position. Toes. Angle of entry. Ability to save a dive under water.	upper body and tightness of hips.

1. Basics of diving
Diving has four basic directions off the board

• forward,
• back,
• inward,
• reverse.

In each of these directions, a diver can add twists, somersaults, or both. The more difficult the dive, the more chances of getting more points. But you have to do even the hard  dives gracefully.
In platform diving, divers are allowed to perform arm-stand dives as well.
Now each dive can be divided into three main sections.

1. take-off - a strong, solid take-off
2. body of the dive or body in flight - graceful, tight positions,
3. entry - a vertical, straight up-and-down body line, with little splash

TAKE-OFFS:
Back and Inward dives are performed standing at the end of the diving board. This is called the back take-off
Forward and Reverse dives are performed with a four step approach. This is called the hurdle.
The take-off has to be erect. That is keeping your body up-right. You also have to create enough momentum to do the dive. Momentum is the force, or the energy. For this, you have to fix your arm swing with the body position. This is also called "timing" on the board. If you are a strong diver, you can get away without having good timing on the board. But, timing is a very important part of diving.  

1. Forward Approach [the hurdle] :
These are the things in you should have in a forward approach
Four evenly placed steps and a hurdle jump to the end of the board. In the hurdle, the knee should come-up to your waist level. It should go up and down fast, keeping your toes pointed. Arms should be stretched high above your head.
feet must land at the edge of the board with a slight ( 5 inch) gap.
In the beginning of the approach eyes should be focused on the edge of the board. You can also focus on the spot where you will begin the hurdle. But, you should focus down without letting the head drop. Once you are sure about your landing on the board, focus your eyes on the water.

the hurdle jump must be forceful, high and timed with the board

 the body should be erect and  balanced.

 arms should be slightly tight and stretched with fingers together.

2. Back take-off

 the body should be erect and  balanced.

 arms should be slightly tight and stretched with fingers together.

 Half of the feet should be on the board, slightly up on the toes. Feet apart, but heels together

 During the press keep your eyes focused on the tag at the end of the board

Take-off is very important in diving. This where you finally launch your plan. Get used to taking a deep breath and relaxing before each take-off. This will help you especially with the difficult dives. While in your take-off, your mind should be very focused. Avoid distracting thoughts. You should just think about this dive not about the surrounding or the next dive you have to do.

Most of the time divers think about their next dive. Or they think about the dive they had done just before this. You have to get used to, train your mind to, think about right now. Right now what do you have to do? Thinking about the dive before this or the dive after this is not going to help you with the dive right now. Right now what do I do to make this dive?

More on this later - see the part on how to think in diving

BODY IN FLIGHT:

Each dive takes less than two seconds. Count, one thousand one, one thousand two, and the dive is over. So you have to be ready to do all the tricks during this short time. Coming off the take-off if you are getting enough height, it will help a lot. Also you have to have control over every part of your body. Neck muscles should be strong  to keep your head in place. Stomach muscles to get in  and out of positions. Arm muscles to use during the diver and the entry. And toes have to be curled and pointed.

This where gets diving is difficult. How do you figure out where your body is? Is it upside down, twisted, bent at your knees,…? For this you have to do a lot of dry land drills to feel your body. I mean really feel your body. Take few dancing lessons. This will help you. Any kind of dancing will do. Body posture is very important in diving.

 Looking in a mirror while you do your drills will be very helpful. Just go throgh the drills, take-offs, rehearsing the dive, in front of the mirror. It will help you to connect what you feel your body is doing with what is actually happening. See all the muscles in this picture.

Spotting:

This is when you look at spots. Like the board or the water while doing the dive. All good divers are excellent at spotting. They will be spinning and twisting very fast, but they know exactly where their body is at. Diver's don't see every thing during their dive. They have to pick just one or three spots to look at.

Say a girl is doing a back three and a half somersaults off the 10 meter. She will jump up looking at the board, to keep her chin in. After the first somersault she will see the board. Again after the second somersault she will see the water or the what's under the 10 meter. Then in the third somersault, she will spot the water. That's when she will get ready to kick-out. After kicking out she will start to look back at the water to get ready for the entry.

So even when you do the easy dives you should pick-out those spots. Most of the time it's water or the pool. These spots are not the same for all divers. Even when you do your dry land rehearsals, think about here your looking. Learn to look at one thing, keeping your head in place. Your eyes must be focused on one small thing right in front of you. When diving, you have to change your sports and learn which spot suits you. Your coach will help you with this.

Then you have to a lot of lead-ups. Leads-up are dives or jumps you do in order to get ready for another dive. So for a forward dive in tuck position, the lead-up can be a forward jump tuck. For a backward two and a half somersaults, the lead-ups can be back 1/12 or back 2 somersaults. Your coach will tell you better what lead-ups you should do.  

Distance from the board:

Every dive should be done from a safe distance to the board. Dives that are too closed to the board are given low scores. Sometimes the dive may look close, and you might even feel close. But the path of the dive is the key here.  A dive might look close in the take-off but the entry will end up in a good distance.

In mid air the dive should show:

• tight, compact,  positions. If it is a straight, A position, the body should be perfectly straight. If it is a tuck, C position, the body should be in a tight ball. In Twists, the body should be tight with feet together.
• quickness in spinning and twisting. The quicker and the higher you finish the dive, the more marks you will get. Turn the divers over fast, then the bottom will be easy. Don't get stuck in your dives. The judges want to see, a quick top of the dive and a straight body drop into the water, making no splash, a "rip" entry. 

ENTRIES:

The entry is the finish of the dive. It's the icing on the cake. But if the cake is not any good the icing is not going to make it taste any better. So, the take-off and the mid air part of is good, the entry will also be good. Entry is one of the first things to learn in diving after the jumps and take-offs. Entry is important because that's where your body stops. If your body is loose in entries, you will strain your muscles.

All entries finish under water in line with the board. That is you cannot twist and turn underwater to end up way off the line of the board. Get used to coming out of the water from the point in water where you went in. Look at the board from there. This way you will begin to connect the distances of your dives with what you felt in the take-off. A goo diver will know exactly where she will end up right from the feel of her take-off .

Body-line - The body line should be stretched and tight in every entry. Lot of young divers arch their bodies in the entry because their stomach muscles can't hold the body line. This is the control part in diving. Can you stop all the movements and hold your body tight and straight in the entry?

Your shoulders and elbows stretched and locked. Because the body will absorb the force of falling. Pretend like you are an arrow, just piercing into the water.

hand grip and palming - By garbing your hands tight and turning the palms out, divers will be able to go for that low splash entry. Finish the top of your dive fast and grab your hands quickly with your palms turned out. Get your shoulder over your ears. When your body is all the way under water let go off your hands pushing the water up. If you do this last move properly you will get two bubbles on the sides of the entry.

Forward entries :

 Piking under - that is bend your chin in and roll under water in a pike. Like an underwater somersault.

Back entries :

 Swimming out - that is arching your back slightly and having your chin turned up. You could do this sam move on a forward entry. That's called a scooping. But, you will hurt your lower back if you are not strong enough.

Line-ups : All the good divers spend a lot of time on their entries. These are called line-up. They are done back wards and forwards. Line-ups are good to warm-up before a work-out or at the end of the work-out. You should always let your body warm down, with some easy drills after every workout. Line-ups are also done if you don't feel well enough to do a hard diving work-out.

So that's about all for the basics of diving.

Diving workouts

The Chinese are the best divers in the world. They have been the best for about 10 years now. The are good because they practice very hard. Sometimes almost 8 hours a day. This is not all diving. May be 2 hours of fitness exercises, 2 hours of trampoline, and 4 hours of actual diving. All this is divided between morning and evening. They spend a lot of time working on their technique. This is all the dry land work they do, to make their bodies flexible and strong. Most of the time it is a lot of boring exercises. But they also mix it up with different games. So it is not just hard work. It is also systematic. They plan very carefully.

pool training time:

• come to practices on time - if the coach wants you to come early to warm up do that. By making it a habit to be on time you will begin also to train your mind to be more focused
• warm-up - this is very important. This makes your muscles ready for all the activity they have to do. If your muscles are not warmed up they will not perform the way you want to. You might want to do a strong jump, but your body will not respond. At times, because you didn't properly warm-up, you will have painful and soar muscles. Then you have to rest, which means missing out on the next workout. You will have to feel a bit of pain in your muscles, because you are working them
• dive fast - don't give yourself too much time to wait on the board to do a dive. When you are up there, just go. You have to do all the real thinking before you get up on the board. On the board it's just getting your confidence and taking-off. Don't let other's slow you down. This way your muscles will stay warmed up. If there is a too much of a break between dives, the muscles will become lazy.
• do lead-ups - instead of waiting on a long line, or thinking too much, you could do lots of lead ups. It's a good way to overcome your fears and make your techniques strong.
• rehearse - instead of waiting on a long line, or thinking too much, you could rehearse the dive.
• warm-down - stretch-out or do some mild drills to bring your muscles back to normal. Not doing this properly will make your muscles stiff the next day. Lot of divers, do their warm down by doing some line-up and then stretches in the shower after a workout.

Some dry land exercises

These are things you should do for a warm-up or on those days you are not having work-outs at the pool. Also on the days when you not feeling well enough to get into water, like when you have a cold or some muscle ache.

dry land exercises will improve :

take-offs -

• positions -
• body-lines -
• physical fitness -

A few mattresses might be useful to help you do your forward and backward rolls, hand stands like things.

A horizontal bar for exercises and just to hang on. This is a good way to start feeling your body in a straight line

Drawing the outline diving boards on ground will be useful to practice your take-offs.

Body focus for fitness :
Flexibility : first you should begin with stretching exercises to wake-up all the muscles from your neck to your toes.  Pike and straddle stretches for your spine and legs. And other exercises for hips and shoulders, knees and ankles, etc.
Strength :  This is to build the power of your muscles, so you can doo all the diving tricks with force.
arms - dips, pull-ups, etc,.
legs - squats, jumps, etc,.
stomach [abdominal] - crunches, pike-ups, tuck-ups, etc,.
Speed : This is to improve your quickness, so you can do all the diving tricks fast.
jumps (tuck and pike, and twists), jump rope - skipping,
- short sprints (incline sprints or stairs)
Endurance : This will make you dive longer without feeling tired. If you become tired too qucik then the time spent on practicing hard will be very short. If you don't have enough energy towards the end of the workout you will start doing bad dives and start to get frustrated.
- long distance running or swimming
Mechanics:
Rehearse the take-offs and dives focusing on arm swing and the bending of your knees. Yours arm swing should match the leg press. This is for your timing on the board. Do these exercises fast and in slow motion.
Try:
~ Forward and back take-offs. (30 repeat 10 times, doing 3 sets. 10 x 3 = 30)
~ each jump should be powerful, high and about two feet away from the board.
~ Mix with tuck, pike and straight jumps. These have to be quick and strong.
~ twisting jumps - learn to twist both ways. Think about your body line and the balance
If you can do good forward and back roles, then you can practice forward and back somersaults on a safe mattress. Have your coach by your side when you do these.

Also work on tight, stretched hand-stands. You can do this even against a wall. Hang from a horizontal bar, toes pointed, stomach and buttocks muscles tightened. This will give you the feel for a perfect straight line.

Spotting: While you rehearse the dives dry land, also think about what you should be spotting on the board.

come-outs: This is for when you have to get ready for the entry in dives. This is very useful for coming-out of somersaults. when spinning in a tuck position somersault, kicking out tight, and spreading your arms will get you ready for the entry. If you practice this well on land, when you are on the board it will happen very easily, helping with your dive.

Techniques (mechanics)
In diving proper mechanics is very important. Mechanics is about moving your body with little effort. Say if you want to do a somersault. You have to figure out  what makes you turn. If you don't pop your hips up while chasing your legs into a tight ball, the somersault will not happen. You also have to make sure your arms are working in the right direction.

Just try throwing a ball as far as you can. Notice how your body seem to automatically lean back before you throw. Also your arm will bend at your elbow. These are only two things, but there are many things are happening here. But, just like these automatic moves in throwing a ball, a dive has some automatic moves. But, you have to learn these moves, by thinking properly. Your coach will help you with the rest of the stuff.

In all dives think about the way

• your arms work,
• your hips and
• your head position

How to get over your fear?
Diving is a sport with a lot of fear involved. So divers have to be a brave lot. Three things you can do to be brave and overcome your fears.

Relaxation - letting your mind relax

• Concentration - focusing on the task at hand
• Imagery - picturing the dive inside your head

Relaxation - Take a deep breath and as you exhale, let out all the things you were just thinking about. Now begin to think again. Relaxation is about getting back your control.

Relaxation - will reduce the workload your heart is doing, and slow down the work load on you muscles. This means that your

• reaction time will become faster - if you are in the middle of some hard dive, your muscles will work exactly when you want them to work
• increase useful thinking processes - you won't have any distracting thoughts
• improve motor performance - your body will do the things you want it to do
• better interaction with the environment - if you slightly miss something in your dive, you will be able to make the correction without panic

Concentration - focusing on the task at hand

There are few different ways of concentration, it depends on each person. Some can think about a lot of different things at the same time and some cant. Some have to think out loud, or take notes, and others can keep it all in their mind. So you have to try which way suits you the best.

In diving there are a lot of things happening at the same time. Two things that happen when you first learn a dive:
1. Explore and adjust  - This is when you try different things and get a feel for what is needed in the dive. This can be called the trial and error period. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. It's only through your mistakes that you learn.
2. Fix it -  once you get the basic idea, then you start to better it each time to get it fixed in your head. Especially if you are doing a dive well, get it fixed in your head. If it is bad, each time, leave it alone and go on to something else. You want to get it fixed, drill it into your head especially when you are doing the dive well.
To think about the dive use this method - Whole - Part - Whole

Whole : think of the whole [complete] dive first, from the very beginning of the take-off to going under water.
Part : now break it down to little pieces [parts] like the take-off, the flight and the entry, you can even break each of these parts down to smaller peices.
Whole : now return to the whole dive again putting all the pieces together in sequence.

Ways you can learn diving without being so scared?
1. How much do you practice? - there are days when you will learn more and days when you learn nothing. You have to practice a lot, but those practices have to be useful too. So 'practice makes it perfect', but those practices have to be useful, and effective.
2. How frequently do you practice - The more you practice, the more chances of getting it right.
3. Are your practices close together? - If there are big gaps between practices, you will learn the skill more slowly. What takes a day might take you a month, because you have to start from the beginning each time. practice close to competition to get `the feel'
4. Do you give yourself positive messages? - When you do some thing right, give yourself a reward. Just telling yourself, "that was excellent" or "I am good" will make you strive for those same feelings in the dive. If you have a good practice, give yourself a pat-on-the-back.

Imagery - picturing the dive inside your head. First, you need have the right conditions to do this.

Conditions for a relaxation session
1. Quiet environment - pick a quiet spot, where you will not be disturbed. Or tell your parents not to disturb you for about 30 minutes. If you want you can have some soft music. Even light a stick of incense.
2. Comfortable position - laying on your back with your arms stretched out, and completely relaxed body is a good position. But you can even sit in a comfortable chair, but make sure you will not have to move too often during this session.
3. Focus on a object - You can either close your eyes or pick something to focus your eyes. You can focus on a pencil or toy. You can even think or say a short prayer or a mantra, something you can repeat. You can think about your breath. Inhaling and exhaling. Or you can even think about a muscle.  It's just a stable background you are try to set-up to go ahead with your imagery.
4. Passive determination - Go through the dive you are trying to imagine, let it just flow. Lot's of times you will imagine wrong things or mess-ups. Don't think too much about it. Just move on. Imagine the dive until you feel comfortable with it, then move on.
5. Breathing pushing your stomach in and out. Don't move your chest up and down.
6. Relax all your muscles - they might start feeling tense while you begin to imagine, just let them relax.

Different ways for Imagery
Picture in your mind - there are two ways to do it. One is to picture yourself as would on the board. [a sort of video camera on your head]. Second, is to see yourself, as if you would watch a video of yourself [someone else had video filmed you dive].

Feeling the dive - This is when you have to think about what you hear while on the take-off, middle of the dive and entering the water. Almost smell the chlorine in the air, and begin to feel your body just "flow" through the dive.

Picturing [imagining] the dive will help you

n - take the dive into the next stage
n - get the feeling of a "flow experience'. This is feeling the dive from the beginning to the end without any breaks
n - increase this feeling of low experience
n - control your emotions - if you are extremely sad [angry, frustrated] or happy [confident, aggressive] it will not help your diving. You have to think and be confident about the dive. If you get too emotional, you might forget to think about some parts of the dive.
n be consistent - you should be able to do dives that are good or close to it in a row. If you are doing an extremely bad dive with every three dives you do well. Then you are not consistent. You should try to make them all close to good.
n - reduce pre-meet nervousness - to avoid getting the last minute jitters before you do a dive for a meet. Just relaxing and imaging the dive will help you.

How to be a good diver
* maintain realistic confidence in your ability - most young divers can do all the things the coach is asking them to do, but they hold back because they think that they not able to do them. They have a very low confidence about their skills. So, help yourself by being confident.
* establish meaningful goals and commit ourselves to them - you have to think about the upcoming meets and how you have to get ready for them. You should write these down in a diving log book. So you can track down your practices and make the future ones more effective.
* look forward to bigger challenges - diving is about changeling yourself at each workout, you can find out more about your ability if you are pushing yourself.
* maintain positive attitude toward ourselves and sports - you should feel good about yourself taking part in diving. You are doing some things that most kids will not even think about trying.
* motivation from within - motivate yourself by positive thoughts within. Don't expect chocolates, certificates, medals and other gifts as the main way to motivate yourself.
* develop the ability to maintain competitive intensity throughout the contest - even in practice, just because you had a bad dive you can't let the rest of the dives flop too. You have to pick yourself-up, put behind what has happened. Think about it after the practice or the competition. In the meantime, focus on what's ahead of you.
* learn to control and direct thoughts and emotions (arousal level) - Even if you are angry, sad or happy, you should use these thoughts to help with your diving. Don't let these get in the way of you doing your best dives.
* learn to focus attention - recognize distracting personal problems, and learn how to manage them. If you are having problems at home or school, leave those outside the pool when you are there to do your workout. Same thing with meets. What happened on the bus, in the changing room, etc will not help when you are trying to think about some hard dive. You have to figure the situation when you focus and concentrate the best.

Why  you should do a sport or a physical activity [things that make your muscles exercise]:
physical fitness, health and well being - your body will become stronger and you will not fall sick as often. No more awful tasting medicine or staying in bed bored to death.

• feeling of enjoyment, excitement and personal challenge  - it's like a party where you have to do some brave things
• opportunities to practice dealing with success and failure - it will teach you how to deal with good and bad situations you will have to face. Not all of your brave moves will be success, but that doesn't mean you should give up.
• learning to respect rules and operate in team situations - you will learn to deal with rules and other people like you, to help others and letting others help you.
• social skills gained through interaction and cooperation - you will learn different ways to deal with other people
• the opportunity to develop leadership skills - you will learn that there are a lot of things that you have to do for yourself
• the promotion of group and community identities - you will bring a lot of other people together, because of you taking part in sports
• the enhancement of self-esteem - you will feel good about yourself

You are a young athlete, and you have some rights, but that also means you have some responsibilities……….you have the right to
1. participate in sports
2. participate at a level that fits your maturity [the way you understand things] and ability [how you can do various things]
3. have qualified, caring adults to give you advice and help
4. play as a kid and not as a grown-up
5. share in deciding your sport participation
6. participate in safe and healthy surroundings
7. prepare properly for participation in sports
8. an equal opportunity to strive for success, it doesn't matter if you are short or tall, beautiful or ugly, fat or thin, black or white, boy or girl
9. to be treated with dignity [ to make you feel like you are somebody]
10. have fun - having fun becoming the best that you can be

A final note being successful in sports
No matter how much you want, deeply desire, to be a champion in sports there are certain things you should have in order to excel in sports

Commitment
-to train and practice; achieving as much as possible: you shouldn't wait for your parents or friends to ask you to practice. You should do it even if you have bad days, because you have set yourself some goals.

Pride
-in performance at all times; always doing one's best: you should be proud that you are a diver, a sports person, who is dedicated to trying and being your best.

Self-orientation
-to practice train and compete; being self-motivated. If you don't have a way to get to practice, you should make arrangements to be there. Don't wait for anyone else to look after your diving needs. If you are supposed to do exercises at home. Do them. Don't wait for anyone else to ask you to.

Control
-over self; assuming responsibility for what happens: if you miss a dive it's because you didn't think right or haven't done the needed exercises. Don't blame it on your parents, school, or the weather. If you are to be at practices early to do your exercises. Get there early.

Mastery-Orientation
-in tasks: looking forward to challenges and overcoming them: the challenges in sports are never ending. You should be prepared to accept and struggle with hard spots. There will be no feelings of achievement without feeling that you challenged yourself.

Confidence
-in oneself; feeling self-assured and capable to do what has to be done: This is a very important one. You have to have faith in yourself  and your abilities. A good coach will never ask you to try things that yo are not capable of. You are always good enough to try new things.

Goal-direction
-in performance; continuously setting specific, high, but attainable goals: Keep a diving log book. If you don't have some plan then practices will not be as useful.

Positive Attitude
-toward experience; being constructive: You will have some hard times in trying to be the best in any sport. You should always, turn these bad experiences, into a learning experience to e tough in the future.

Coping Ability
-in stressful situations; managing general and sports-related problems: The hard times can be both in mind and body. There will be days you are slightly injured and you still have to endure the pain and dive. Then there are times when you are extremely frustrated with something, and you don't feel like diving. These are times when you become poised to get through with the task in hand.

 Harmony
-of mind and body; mobilizing energy and flowing in movement, as if effortlessly: If you are training hard, and your body is using a lot of energy you have to treat yourself to proper food and rest. If you have a nutritious diet and your mind and body are properly rested, you will perform well.

So think of these things and when you have to try that hard dive for the first time - Just do it!!!