diving - armstand

[gymgal]

I am a little late with this but something sparked my memory. Did anyone watch diving during the Olympics and notice they called handstands "armstands"? I was wondering if anyone knew why that is? I know there are a few families here with divers and I was hoping they could shed some light.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

As far as I'm aware, that's what they've always been called in diving.

 

[raenndrops]

As far as I'm aware, that's what they've always been called in diving.

That's what I was going to say.

 

[bookworm]

And the armstand dive is one of the required dives

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

And the armstand dive is one of the required dives

I didn't know that.

Are the diving rules public domain? Ie is there somewhere one can read up on competitive diving rules?

 

[bookworm]

I didn’t either until i was watching the Olympics with my former gymnast turned diver daughter and someone was doing an armstand dive and i said “I’d be subbing out that dive for something less nerve wracking “and my daughter said “well a dive with an armstand is required so that’s why they all do it “

…not sure where the regs are posted but you could probably google it but you’d have to know what kinds of dives they were to make sense of the list (i.e. inward, reverse, armstand etc)

 

[Uppity]

Are the diving rules public domain? Ie is there somewhere one can read up on competitive diving rules?

yes, in the same way gymnastics rules are- if you know where to look and what to look for

for international senior- including the olympics, armstand is required for men but not for women. I believe ncaa rules are different though as i think females do the same as males.

crash course:
There are 6 classes of dive - if the dive number starts with
1 - forward
2 - back
3 - inward
4 - reverse
5 - twist
6 - armstand

the letter indicates shape A- straight, B- pike, C tuck, D- free.
The other numbers are number of half twists and number of somersaults. I won’t go into that unless someone really wants to know

now men compete 6 dives, women compete 5.

so on platform, the armstand is required for men as they must do 6 dives, each a different group.
Women only do 5, so they can choose 5 out of the 6, so they can leave out armstand.

On springboard there is no armstand, so men do 5 dives, one from each group, and then choose one to repeat. Women to one from each.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

yes, in the same way gymnastics rules are- if you know where to look and what to look for

for international senior- including the olympics, armstand is required for men but not for women. I believe ncaa rules are different though as i think females do the same as males.

crash course:
There are 6 classes of dive - if the dive number starts with
1 - forward
2 - back
3 - inward
4 - reverse
5 - twist
6 - armstand

the letter indicates shape A- straight, B- pike, C tuck, D- free.
The other numbers are number of half twists and number of somersaults. I won’t go into that unless someone really wants to know

now men compete 6 dives, women compete 5.

so on platform, the armstand is required for men as they must do 6 dives, each a different group.
Women only do 5, so they can choose 5 out of the 6, so they can leave out armstand.

On springboard there is no armstand, so men do 5 dives, one from each group, and then choose one to repeat. Women to one from each.

Thanks for the info!

For the twist category, can that be either front or back?

 

[Uppity]

Twist can be any way- if it has a twist, it’s a 5.

so you can do forward 1.5 somersaults with 1 twist - 5132D
5-twist
1-forward take off
3- 3 half somersaults
2- 2 half twists
D- free position

or back twist, reverse twist (gainer), armstand twist etc. Inward twist is possible but never done as it’s hard to generate the power.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

That's similar to the numerical notation for Trampoline skills.

What does free position mean? Are dives for the forward/backwards/reverse/inward categories allowed to twist?

 

[Uppity]

Yes the difficulty calculations are very similar to trampoline too.

no the other categories can’t twist. If the dive twists it is automatically in the twist group (5). So you couldn’t do forward twist, back twist etc as 2 of your groups, for example.

free position means any- so it doesn’t have to be clear tuck, pike etc. It’s usually only used for twisting dives as the twist is done straight in one somersault, as it would be in gymnastics, but instead of landing feet first you need to pike in order to change your rotation to head first. So the dive is both straight and piked in that example.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Thanks for all the info!

 

[gymgal]

Uppity, Thanks so much for all that info! I loved watching diving in the Olympics but knew very little about it. This really helps makes sense of it.

Can you explain why the Chinese divers were able to achieve such minimal splashes? The commentators kept mentioning it but did really explain how this is perfected and why other countries have not figured this out. Is it body shape? flexibility of the shoulders/arms/wrists? I hadn't even noticed it until they commented on it but once I became aware of it, it was really obvious.

yes, in the same way gymnastics rules are- if you know where to look and what to look for

 

[Uppity]

*Can you explain why the Chinese divers were able to achieve such minimal splashes?*

that’s a good question. In my opinion- as far as I’m aware there have been limited studies- it's a number of factors.

first is some divers just have the ability to enter like that. Whether it’s awareness, natural core strength, body shape, some simply find it easier.

core strength is a big factor. You need to enter the water very tight, with your body locked out. You also need time after completing the dive movement to make sure you hit the water straight.

From my own observations men and prepubescent body shapes find the entries easiest. You need to be strong, small and light to be able to jump, rotate fast and hit the water locked out. So we are seeing older men compete as men are stronger for body weight, but younger women (chinese divers were minimum age, 14/15). As women grow and change shape, maintaining that strength to weight and very small body shape is hard.

issue is that training those 10m dives young = injury. But China has many top quality divers, other countries struggle for 2-3. One breaks and they have plenty more. Other countries can’t produce divers in such numbers.