Ilda Clippers Swim & Dive

Types of dives:

Dives are categorized by approach, meaning how the diver faces coming off the board and which direction the diver rotates. There are four possible approaches:

1. Front: diver faces the water and diver rotates clockwise (if you are looking from the left side of the board)
2. Back: diver’s back faces the water and diver rotates clockwise
3. Reverse: diver faces the water and diver rotate counterclockwise (i.e., towards the board)
4. Inward: diver’s back faces the water and diver rotates counterclockwise

There is a fifth category of dives, which are twisters. Twisters can be done from any of the four approaches.

There are also four possible dive positions:

1. Straight: diver’s body is in a straight line
2. Tuck: diver’s knees are tucked up to their shoulders
3. Pike: diver is bent at the waist but rest of body is straight
4. Free: this is for twisters

Every dive is known by a particular number, which describes the approach, the number of rotations, and the position. The “rotations” number represents a half rotation.

• Example: 103C is a front (1) one-and-a-half somersault (03) tuck (C)
• Twisters include the number 5 before the rest of the dive. Example: 5231D is a back (2) one-and-one-half somersault (3) with a half-twist (1) free (D). The final number represents the number of twists (by half-twist).

Scoring dives:

• Each dive is scored on a scale of 0 to 10 in half-point increments, with 0 being a failed dive and 10 being a perfect dive.
• Every dive has a degree of difficulty (DD), ranging from 1.0 for the most basic dive to 3.0 and up for extremely challenging dives. There is a chart in the NVSL handbook listing all the DDs.
• When a diver completes a dive, each of the five judges scores the dive from 0 to 10. Judges are generally looking at four aspects of the dive: approach, takeoff, position in the air, and entry into the water.
• The highest and lowest scores are dropped and the remaining three scores are added together.
• That total number is then multiplied by the degree of difficultly, resulting in the diver’s score for that dive.
• Example: The diver completes a 103C (forward one-and-a-half somersault tuck).
  • The DD for the dive is 1.6.
  • The diver’s five scores are 2, 3, 3, 4, 5. The lowest and highest scores get dropped, leaving 3, 3, and 4 .
  • Those three scores are added together, equaling 10.
  • The total score is then multiplied by the DD, equaling 16.
  • 16 is then the diver’s final score for that dive.
• The final scores for all the dives that the diver does at the meet are added together to determine the diver’s total meet score (so a senior diver who does six dives at a meet will typically have a higher score than a freshman diver who does only three dives at a meet).