Copyright 1993
The drawings below were developed to assist Diving Judges in determining a proper score for dives. The pictures stemmed from the idea that "a picture is worth a thousand words". The pictures are of various points of entry and included some criteria for scoring these dives. There seemed to be some agreement that the way a dive enters the water is a reflection of what has or has not happened earlier in the dive. Again, this is not the sole benchmark for judging. These figures only represent one part of the dive.
What I tried to do was demonstrate some of the more common ways dives enter the water and give a scoring range for each of these entries. Each figure has a brief description of what is happening. At the bottom of each page is a judging range for each of these entries. The ranges can represent two figures because many dives will fall somewhere between the drawn figures. The judge must determine where the diver is and what score will be given.
The figures can represent two groups of dives. Placing the board on either side of the drawing can demonstrate Forward or Inward somersault foot first or head first entries. The same can be done to signify Back and Reverse head first entries. Unfortunately my mouse skills deteriorated as I made the drawings but doesn't distract from the idea being presented.
Lastly,
the "how high a dive finishes" statement will depend on how difficult
a dive is. A 105 c will finish much higher off the water than a 107c. The
judges experience with seeing the harder dives will enable them to distinguish
that difference.
It is my hope that this effort is one small step in assisting coaches, officials and anyone else that finds themselves judging diving, to become a better and more consistent judge. We owe that to the divers.