Newcomer's Guide to Diving

The complexity of the dive is taken care of by its rating or difficulty, ranging from 1.2 for the easiest dive to 3.8 or more.

Flawless execution will include a strong initiation into the dive and vertical entry into the water without splash. Divers call this a “rip” entry. Between these parts of the dive, the body will be carried in what are known as “positions”. These are the straight position (no bending at the hips or the knees). piked position (bending at the hips but not at the knees) or tucked position (body bunched up tightly, with the hands on the lower legs).

Feet must always be together and toes pointed. Sometimes the announcer speaks of the “free position” which implies some twisting combined with one or more, usually at least one or more, of the other positions.

The judge may award 1 to 10 points in half stage points. A table of the scores and how they should be awarded is as follows:

Very good	8.5-10
Good	6.5-8
Satisfactory	5-6
Deficient	2.5-4.5
Unsatisfactory	0.5-2
Completely failed	0

The highest and lowest marks are discarded and the sum of the reminding scores, multiplied by the degree of difficulty, which gives the total amount of points scored. For example, if a dive with a difficulty rating of 2.0 is awarded 4,5,5,5,6, then the 4 and 6 are discarded and the sum is the scores left is multiplied by 2.0 to give a total of 30 points.

Competition dives are performed from springboards set at 1 metre or 3 metres above the water, or from the 5 metre, 7.5 metre or 10 metre platforms. The number of dives varies from one competition to another.

Click here for more information on the background of diving.