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Frederick Area Divers was founded by Coach John Smith in 1988 as a way to share his enthusiasm for diving and increase participation in this sport in our area. Frederick County's high schools have offered diving as part of their Winter Sports/Swimming program for years.
Frederick Area Divers is the only local organization to provide opportunities for younger divers to learn the basics and experience being part of a team and for our older high school athletes to continue their dive training in the summer months.
If measured by the beaming expressions on children's faces or by the families who return to the team year after year or by the number of our "alumni" who have gone on to dive at the collegiate level, Frederick Area Divers has been quite a success! Thanks to John and the many, many dedicated coaches and parent volunteers who followed in his footsteps, diving continues to be a fun, unique and very valuable part of the Frederick community!
Dive Basics
Since "beauty and grace must be added to feats of strength and agility while the body is moving through the air," diving is considered an art as well as a sport. Its participants work hard to continually improve their body control and kinesthetic awareness. Just as novices may try for weeks to perfect jumping off the end of the board, holding their body straight and entering the water feet first, more experienced divers may take many practices to learn to stop a forward rotation at precisely the right instant to execute a beautiful one and half front somersault pike. Like most things worth learning, diving takes determination and patience. Fortunately, the learning process is a lot of fun!
While taught in easy-to-master progressive units, in total, a dive can be a complicated maneuver! Generally, there are four main parts to a dive: the approach, the take-off, the technique and grace during flight, and the entry into the water. All phases of a dive's execution are considered when judging its success.
Although diving also includes three-meter springboard and five, seven and half, and ten meter platform events, Frederick Area Divers and the Central Maryland Dive League train for one-meter springboard events only. There are five groups of one-meter dives, four body positions, and two types of entries.
Dive Groups Forward forward take-off (facing the water) with forward rotation Backward backward take-off (back to the water) with backward rotation Reverse forward take-off with backward rotation Inward backward take-off with forward rotation Twist any of the above groups with 1/2 to 4 twists added
Body Positions Straight body not bent Pike body bent at the hips only Tuck body bent at hips and knees Free combination of the above positions (used for twist dives)
Entries Head First body is vertical, or nearly so, with arms stretched beyond the head in line with the body, hands close together Feet First body is vertical, or nearly so, with arms tightly at the sides of the body
Competition
Though teaching, team camaraderie and individual progress are our primary emphasis; Frederick Area Divers is a member of the Central Maryland Dive League (CMDL) and competes in 6 meets against other teams within our division. Divers who wish to compete are grouped according to age and gender.
The groupings are: 6 and under boys, 6 and under girls 8 and under girls, 8 and under boys 9-10 boys, 9-10 girls 11-12 boys, 11-12 girls 13-14 boys, 13-14 girls 15-18 boys and 15-18 girls
Age of competition is the diver's age on May 31st of the current year
Individuals may choose to move up one age group if they would like the experience of competing a greater number of dives, but once they move up they must remain in that age group for the rest of the season.
Place ribbons are awarded to the top six finishers in each group. All remaining competitors receive achievement ribbons.
Points earned by the 1st (5 pt.), 2nd (3 pts.), and 3rd place (1 pt.) finishers in each group (except 6 and under) are added together to determine the team that wins the meet.
To compete, each team member must be able to perform certain required dives. The required numbers and types of dives are designed to be appropriate for each age group and, therefore, within the reach of most divers, novice or veteran. However, if divers have not yet mastered the mandatory dives, they may still dive in a meet in an exhibition status, which mean that they cannot earn points for the team.
CMDL dive meets are conducted by a certified official who also acts as a judge, a panel of 4 additional volunteer judges, an announcer, and score tabulators (table workers) -- the latter positions are almost always filled by parents. The official manages the event and ensures all regulations are observed. After each dive, the judges, without communication with any colleagues, immediately flash their awards. Points are awarded from zero to ten, according to the opinion of the judge based on the criteria and the performance.
The judges' scores are written in order on each diver's sheet. The highest and lowest scores are eliminated and the remaining scores are added. This score is then multiplied by each dive's unique degree of difficulty (D.D.) to produce the final score for the dive. The scores for each dive are added together to give the total score for the event. The boy and girl diver with the highest cumulative score in their age group at the end of the competition is the first place winner.
Click on the link below to view the FINA Degree of Difficulty chart:
http://www.usadiving.org/05redesign/resources/Appendix%20D.htm
Qualifying for the CMDL Championship Meet: Each season, the CMDL sets qualifying scores for each age group (except 6 and under) that a diver must meet or surpass in two meets in order to move on to the final league-wide championship meet at the end of the season.
In the end, we view winning as our divers making progress towards their own goals and individual potential
Some information from http://www.usadiver.com/diving_articles/unused/about_diving.htm
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