Penalizing Clerical Errors!
It is very disheartening to see athletes penalized by the rules for clerical errors. It was for this reason that I developed a diving sheet in 1976 that is still in use today. I did not receive or expect to receive anything in return when the sheets were requested in 1979 by people all over the country. They were given freely in an effort to reduce the penalties for mistakes made on other forms. It was a very simple idea and did reduce the potential for error.
Picture of the original sheet sent in a 1979 NISCA mailing.
Advantages for using this sheet were:
The idea was to eliminate clerical errors made by both divers and coaches when transferring dive numbers and dd's. In order to accomplish that goal all of the information had to be kept on the same side of one sheet of paper. All I did was Xerox the Diving Table as seen in the rulebook. It was a cut and paste process that needed lines drawn in front of each dive on the table. The diver could then place a number on that line in the order which he/she would perform the dives (1st, 2nd and 3rd etc), circle the dd and sign the sheet. Divers/coaches didn't have to rewrite dive descriptions, which was a good thing because sometimes penmanship was illegible or abbreviations used didn't match those used in the rulebook. Every year I Xeroxed the new table and placed it in the same format. That seemed simple enough and it worked well so well that I made one for 11 dive meets and another for 3-meter competition. The only criticism of the sheet was that the space for the diver to number their dives was small. At first there was no way to enlarge those spaces. Today we have added more dives to this table that even the computer can not enlarge it enough to keep all of the information on the same side of one page.
An area had to be created for the diving table to record the judges' scores and do the math. This box appeared on the right side of the page. Once the announcer announced the dive, the person calculating the score would insert the dd in the appropriate box. Eventually as a convenience I had the divers do that too. Also as a convenience to the announcer I have my divers underline their dives all the way over to the dd. As a person ages it become more difficult to keep the eyes focused on one horizontal line amidst many others.
Since the rulebook had all the dives set in groups it seemed easier for anyone to look down the sheet and see that 4 of the 5 groups were represented for dual meets. Many officials in that era were accustomed to checking the sheets by the dive numbers and asked for another column to include them. Fred Pigott was the individual who presented the suggestion for the officials. To accommodate their wish the dive number column was added. This new column was most beneficial for the officials when checking an 11-dive sheet for specific requirements. For over 20 years these sheets worked well because it was understood that the left side of the sheet was the official written description. It was almost impossible for a clerical error to occur… until now.
Emphasis seems to have shifted from the left to the right side of that sheet. Remember the right side was created to have a place on the sheet to do the math. Some interpretations disqualify or cause a dive to be failed for clerical errors when transferring information from the left to right side of the sheet. Recently I asked the coach who first computerized this sheet, Jeff Theiman of Rolling Meadows, to delete any columns on the 6-dive sheet that contained dive numbers and positions in an effort to get back to the original intent for developing the sheet.
It is interesting to see how advanced this form is because it can comply with almost any rules change. Circling the dive number and dd for voluntaries is one instance. The dd for a dive is already circled so the only additional circle is the dive number, which is already in front of the written description. In a 6-dive contest it makes no sense to circle the voluntary dive because it must be done first or else it's a failed dive. Circling the voluntaries for an 11-dive contest only makes the official's job of checking the sheets easier.
If the left side of the sheet contains exactly what's in the rulebook diving table, why are some officials enforcing penalties for mistakes on the portion of the page set aside for calculations? Divers do not have to write out a description for any dive on this sheet, just numerically order what's already on the page. Duplication of the same information is unnecessary and the cause of clerical errors. Other forms require that the diver do all of this writing because they are blank forms. These two forms (blank and the one pictured above) are very different and should not be treated the same. Interpretations should clarify and not complicate matters.
Another Idea To Make Things Less Complicated!
Another idea I tried at an invitational meet around this same time (1978) with the same sheet. Divers only filled out their name and school. When the announcer called the diver's name, the diver informed the announcer by stating the dive number, position and dd. The announcer then re-announced the dive for everyone to hear and marked the appropriate information on the sheet as discussed above. The diver then performed the dive after which the table did its usual calculations. Once the contest was over the diver signed the sheet just as golfers do and then the officials checked everything to make sure that all the requirements were met, the math was correct and eventually signed the sheet as being the official results. The divers, officials and coaches liked this format because it was similar to the other events. The competitor competes and either finishes or is disqualified because of the performance in the competition and not clerical errors made on sheets turned in an hour before a contest. A format such as described allowed the diver an opportunity to use strategy by changing the dive order to match the way the competition is going on a given day.
I am sure that same format would work well with the technology of the day. If this can be done properly, meets would not be delayed because a diver changes the dive position forcing the computer person to reflect the change before the judges' scores are given. It would also eliminate potential entry mistakes and the extra time it takes for a person to enter this data since a diver may make any changes up to an hour before the contest begins.