Off Topic Diving for gymnasts?

[GymOwl]

Hi all! Has anyone who is, or previously was a gymnast, participate in diving? What is it like? How different is it from gymnastics? Any pros and cons?

I've been wanting to try out diving for awhile now, and would love some info/advice for a fellow "newbie" like myself before a take the full jump into it.

 

[JBS]

We have many gymnasts that have moved into diving. We are a very trampoline heavy club… so the conversion isn’t too hard typically. Diving is very different from gymnastics.

We struggle to find diving programs that have any sort of a “dryland” component. Many times “dryland” training can convert a gymnast to a diver much quicker that the 100 “smack” method used by many diving coaches.

 

[JessSyd]

From my daughter’s gym, many of the gymnasts retire (by which I mean are actively recruited) into diving and do very well. The diving program they switch to has a big dryland component, so maybe that is key. Also a lot of girls do both gym and diving for a few years before choosing one or the other.

Gym seems to set girls up for the sport in terms of air awareness, conditioning, and a certain mindset. But it is not everything. Not all the best divers were gymnasts, not all the best gymnasts are great divers. But it does seem to let them skip more quickly through the beginner stages of the sport.

 

[Aussie_coach]

We see a similar trend to JessSyd. There are not many recreational diving programs, if you go into diving it is usually selective and quite serious, they are generally only interested in recruiting high level gymnasts or trampolinists.

If someone enquires to do diving, they are usually told, go and do gymnastics until you are x level and then come back.

They do a lot of dryland work as well as pool work.

Generally they are not supposed to recruit gymnasts until they have officially retired from gymnastics, or they approach clubs and clubs can refer gymnasts who have expressed that they intend to retire at the end of a season.

On occasion they will hold Talent ID clinics and recruit active gymnasts (no appreciated by most clubs).

 

[GymOwl]

If someone enquires to do diving, they are usually told, go and do gymnastics until you are x level and then come back.

I actually was wondering about that. The person teaching the diving, who also teaches gymnastics asked what level I am (level 7) and metioned I have the twisting and air awareness aspect down and would therefore make a great diver.

I actually go for a trail class Wednesday and are very excited (and very nervous)

 

[Invisible Duck]

We see a similar trend to JessSyd. There are not many recreational diving programs, if you go into diving it is usually selective and quite serious, they are generally only interested in recruiting high level gymnasts or trampolinists.

If someone enquires to do diving, they are usually told, go and do gymnastics until you are x level and then come back.

They do a lot of dryland work as well as pool work.

Generally they are not supposed to recruit gymnasts until they have officially retired from gymnastics, or they approach clubs and clubs can refer gymnasts who have expressed that they intend to retire at the end of a season.

On occasion they will hold Talent ID clinics and recruit active gymnasts (no appreciated by most clubs).

We have a lot of recreational and lower level competitive diving down here where I live. I find it odd that it would be so different up there.
I did diving both with my school (very rec) and also with a club outside of school which had absolute beginners up to very competent divers who competed.
obviously the state diving association or larger diving clubs would have the very top divers of course but mostly they all train alongside one another to an extent so there would be crossover and movement between clubs I’m sure.

 

[B&M's mom]

Both of my daughters moved from gymnastics to diving. The youngest went from L7 to diving in high school. She has done well but is now done with diving. While she really liked diving, it was a "recreational" sport. She has no interest in diving in college. My oldest was in the elite program at her gym, was a multi year L10 but had some significant injuries. She gave up gymnastics her junior year in high school and decided to try diving. After two years of diving at the high school level and a year of training with a club team, she was accepted onto a D1 dive team for college. She is a junior now and loves diving. She finds it easier in some ways than gymnastics but not all her gymnastics skills translated to diving. Hurdles and twisting especially. But their gymnastics skills definitely helped them pick up dives quickly.

Hope you have as much fun with the sport as my kids do.

 

[JessSyd]

We have a lot of recreational and lower level competitive diving down here where I live. I find it odd that it would be so different up there.

I think down here, the diving clubs at private schools fuel a critical mass of rec/beginner diving. Between them and the external clubs, there are enough around for competition to exist even at the beginner levels. They all use the same few diving pools though!

The school clubs exist for the interschool competitions, but they take outsiders, and they sometimes have access to school gyms for dryland training. It also facilitates the cross-pollination between gymnastics and diving as they sort of share ‘headquarters’ and staff members can act as talent spotters.

 

[JBS]

This first drill is very important as it is not at all the way that we teach spotting in gymnastics...

 

[Invisible Duck]

I think down here, the diving clubs at private schools fuel a critical mass of rec/beginner diving. Between them and the external clubs, there are enough around for competition to exist even at the beginner levels. They all use the same few diving pools though!

The school clubs exist for the interschool competitions, but they take outsiders, and they sometimes have access to school gyms for dryland training. It also facilitates the cross-pollination between gymnastics and diving as they sort of share ‘headquarters’ and staff members can act as talent spotters.

Yes that’s a good point. The club I was with was attached to a private school that used both their school pool and the big public pool where all the other clubs trained.

 

[Podlet]

My kid went from gymnastics to HS diving. She likes diving but it's purely a recreational pursuit for her. HS diving in our neck of the woods is very inclusive and chill. There are girls that are quite serious, but the focus is on improving individual scores. There is never any announcements of placements or anything like that at her meets. It keeps her active and she likes it well enough. Her body awareness and form were helpful, but there are plenty of specific new skills and techniques to learn.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I've had several of my T&T kids switch to diving, and do quite well!

 

[beckfree1]

how many high schools have diving equipment? I can not think of any in north east ohio!?

 

[novagymmom]

Most of the HS's in our area do NOT have their own pools. The swimming & diving teams practice at local community pools.