WHAT IS "SAFE AND PROPER DISTANCE"?

by

Wayne Oras

A few years ago I submitted this idea to U.S.Diving and was told that it was an interesting idea. Furthermore, it was sent to a committee and disappeared. I would like to present it here again because I believe we (those that actually coach) are the ones who set the standard for our governing bodies to follow rather than the other way around.

For years I have wondered why the rulebooks didn't spell out a distance in feet and inches where any dive should land. They just say that a diver must be a Safe and Proper distance from the board. The word, "SAFE", leaves a lot of room for a variety of individual interpretation. What I consider safe may be interpreted as too far away for someone else. The only thing that everyone agrees with is that hitting the board is "too close and not safe"! The word, "PROPER", implies that there is a magical foot and inch number. Over the years I have asked many coaches to describe the safe and proper rule. The answers ranged from, "Gee, I don't know" to "no closer than an arms length from the board." The latter description assumes that the dive is vertical or nearly so as the diver passes board level.

Around the time we were going through the liability issues in the mid 1980's, I saw figures, stated by coaches, ranging from 3 to 8 feet from the end of the board depending on the dive that was being performed. With this development I have concluded that 6, 7 and 8 feet was definitely too far away from the board for a well executed dive. After playing around with different ideas, I discovered that a safe distance from the board can be determined by the diver's size (total length of the body) and the type of dives being performed. This would seem to explain why it could not be stated as a hard and fast rule. Since then, I have come to another conclusion. Smaller divers can be safely closer to the board than taller divers. As I thought more about this concept, it seemed to make sense that as a diver matures (grows up) coaches should actually be asking them to do their divers further away from the board. What will be described here is what I like to call, a "SAFE AND REASONABLE" distance from the end of the board.

When I did the original safety research for Diving, I kept reading studies describing the "WORST CASE" diver. He was about 6-ft. tall and about 160 to 180 lbs. That got me to thinking. For this idea to be effective, we don't need to consider body weight which makes it a little easier to find the appropriate distance. What is the worst case scenario in diving? Hitting the diving board was the first thing that came to mind. In my experience, passing board level fully extended, with the arms reaching beyond the head (A back flop or belly flop) could potentially be the worst case scenario. After watching the Olympics in Atlanta, this idea could also apply to reverse 2 1/2 pike, reverse 3 1/2 tuck and inward 2 1/2 pike from the 3-meter springboard. Because these dives seem to pass board level with some part of the body nearly horizontal, it would seem wise and prudent to set some standard for distance that would apply to these dives in particular. This is where we must focus on the axis of rotation and know the length of the radius of this rotation.

Using a standard tape measure, I decided to measure my full body length. I then transferred all of this information to a piece of clear plastic which made it look like a measuring device that was nine feet in length. First, I measured from the top of my head to my fingertips and that came to 20-1/4 inches. Then I added my 5 ft. 9 in height and added 6 inches because of pointed toes. All of this totaled up to measure 95-1/4 inches. If my fully extended body has some rotation, its center of rotation would be half way between both ends. This would be 47- 5/8 inches. If my center of rotation were that far from the end of the board, my fingertips and/or toes would still brush the end of the board. In order for me not to touch at all the center of rotation would have to be a little further away. This distance would be four feet from the end of the board in my worst case scenario. And remember, by doing that I will only be clearing the end of the board by 3/8 of an inch in that scenario. This also works for any of the other groups of dives. I like to use the reverse series as the example because many divers are concerned about the board when they first learn them.

If we want to be as safe as possible, then we should have an exact calculation. Many coaches have their own feelings for what this distance should be and that's fine, but it can not be exactly the same for every diver. I have used this information with both new and older divers and the response was incredible. What it seemed to do is let them know that if they land a specific distance from the end of the board, they couldn't touch it even if they wanted to. Fear of hitting the board is usually a perceptual factor that is hard to deal with and change. Divers perform within their perception of what they think they can or can not do. The idea presented here is a step that helps in making this perceptual change. For the advanced diver, it means doing timers/lead ups with the proper techniques not only to establish rotation but to insure that they are that reasonable distance or out of harms way, even if they fall into the worst case scenario. All of this instills a sense of self-assurance they will need when trying more difficult dives. I like to tell them that this distance is your margin of error.

I tried to refine this distance by measuring my body as if it were in the tuck and pike positions. I thought that I could make some inferences with these positions. The axis of rotation for these positions are smaller than the full body extension mentioned above. My thought was that maybe the change in positions could lead to a distance that would be closer than the one described above. However, there is a kickout sequence that still leaves the diver with the potential of passing the end of the diving board in the "worst case" scenario described above. My thought is that this idea is much more important to apply to the Junior and Grass Root sections of diving. They would be the group of divers making the most errors in judgement because of their level of experience.

When I started this project, I wanted to be the one to come up with a definite measurement that would get in the rulebooks. As I worked more on it I found out that it was not possible because of the different sizes and shapes of our divers. As I continued, I thought that we would look better to the Insurance Industry and the organizations we run our programs for, if we had a way to calculate where safety lies for each diver.

If anyone can guarantee that a diver will always pass board level vertically or nearly so, then I will abandon this idea forever. Even our National Level Coaches can not make such a guarantee. Greg Louganis was proof of this.

The above information was not developed as a judging point but rather a coaching point to insure a diver's SAFETY!