Diving

Diving Terms

Diving is filled with many vocabulary words that are unique to the event. Check out this Diving Glossary to learn more about "approaches", "fulcrum", or "positions".

Diving Rules

Diving is a very technical event and is filled with many rules. While there are too many to list on this page, below are some of the basic rules that are more common to occur in a meet.

Diving is event 5 and counts as one of athlete's entries for a competition.
If a diver fails two dives, they are disqualified.
If a diver hits the board, the dive is scored as unsatisfactory.
2 points will be deducted from each judge's award if the diver balks.
Divers must submit their signed dive sheet/list for review prior to competition starting.
Divers cannot repeat any dive in the same competition.

Judging Diving

Diving is a subjective sport. A score for a dive is based on a lot of variables carefully scrutinized by a judge panel and referee. Judge panels generally consist of three or five judges. For championship meets, a judge panel will consist of five, seven, or nine judges. In addition to the judge panel, a diving referee will be present. A diving referee does not score dives, but instead watches for rule infractions and oversees the judge panel and flow of competition. Points given for a dive range from 0 to 10. The total score for a dive is given by cancelling the highest and lowest scores, adding the 3 remaining middle scores, and then taking that sum multiplied by the degree of difficulty for that dive. Below is a guide to awarded points:

10: Excellent; No visible flaws - Approach, hurdle, height, distance, execution, and entry are all exceptional.
8.5 to 9.5 Very Good; Approach, hurdle, height, and distance slightly affected. Execution well defined.
7 to 8 Good; Approach and hurdle unaffected. Height and distance acceptable. Execution defined, entry controlled, but slightly affected.
5 to 6.5 Satisfactory; Approach and hurdle acceptable. Height and distance adequate. Execution complete and entry slightly over and under.
2.5 to 4.5 Deficient; Approach and hurdle affected. Height and distance inadequate. Execution affected and entry over or under.
0.5 to 2 Unsatisfactory; Approach and hurdle affected. Height and distance inadequate. Execution not complete or broken position. Entry significantly affected.
0 Failed.

Reading a dive

There are many dives an athlete can pick from when building their list. A full list can be found here. Hearing an announcer read off a dive can sound like a foreign language while sitting in the stands, but here is a guide to crack the code. Let's break it down into 3 parts.

Dive number. This tells you what type of dive is going to be performed. The categories or groups are forward (100s), back (200s), inward (300s), reverse (400s), and twist (5000s). For the forwards, backs, inwards, and reverses, the last number will tell you how many summersaults will be done for the dive in half increments. For example, a 402 would be a reverse, one somersault dive; whereas, a 303 would be an inward, one and one half somersault dive. The twist dives are indicated by the 5 in front of the dive number. When a twist dive is read, the number of summersaults will move to the tens place and the ones place will indicated how many twists will be performed in the dive in one half increments. So, for example, a 5122 means a forward twisting dive with one somersault and one full twist.
Position. There are four position types a diver may hold while performing the dive. The position is indicated by a letter after the dive number. The four positions are: A, Straight; B, Pike; C, Tuck; and D, Free. See the glossary for detailed definitions and see the pictures on the left for examples.
Degree of Difficulty. This is the last number the announcer reads. This is the multiplier used on the sum of the judges scores. In general, the more flips and twists the dive contains, the higher the degree of difficulty will be for a given dive.

When everything is all together, it will sound like this from the announcer: Athlete name, 5321D, Reverse one somersault, half twist, free, 1.8.

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