It is now going on two years since I started writing letters to US Diving officials. I don't feel that they have moved very far forward since that time. At least they have recognized the fact that there is a neglected grass roots program under their umbrella but they still haven't been able to define it. I do not wish to dwell on points that are already contained on this web site.

As the reader should know, I have a difference of opinion regarding the certifications that US Diving wants all of its members to have. I said at that time, if the statistics warranted it, certifications were fine. But the statistics do not warrant what I consider over-kill on the Safety issues. Everyone is interested in the safety of its participants but there is a point where that focus goes too far. I believe that US Diving has gone over the edge in this regard. Comments I have heard range from Why do I have to know Infant CPR? to Why do I have to know what to do when someone craps in the pool? I have asked Why for over 2 years now. Maybe USD has an infant level plannned and that's why coaches need to know how to handle crap.

During the last year, I decided to look into the Safety of the Sport from the Recreational side because USD had its own competitive statistics. I wanted to find the reason why diving boards were disappearing. (That study is contained on this web site.) Diving boards are still disappearing from many pools where the grass roots part of US Diving holds practices. Certainly I would agree if a pool were too shallow to support diving from boards, that the boards should be removed. As explained in the study, how deep is deep enough? All pool costs are directly related to depth and volume of water it will hold. If pools keep getting deeper, who will be able to afford to build them? If this continues, there will be fewer pools for diving and thus fewer diving programs.

As I went looking for information, I soon discovered there wasn't a lot out there. I went through a lot of different web sites and found nothing. I wrote to various bodies that usually keep records of this stuff and again found nothing. I found no statistical reason for recreational pools to get rid of diving boards. I did find that the activity, recreational or competitive, in municipal pools were statistically very safe and could find no reliable statistical data to refute this. Residential pools (back yard pools)were casting a giant shadow over the sport and that's been happening for years. The Safety committee did not catch that the first time through this issue in the mid 1980's. Statistics and the written word do not always hold the truth. More recently NSPI has been trying to place the liability of diving boards onto the manufacturer. NSPI wants only to build pools and make the manufacturers responsible for the type of diving board that can be used in their pools.

During this process, I did find that more and more pool owners want to draw in more patrons by turning swimming pools into water parks. To do this, they weren't interested in having diving boards. If they take away diving boards and deep water, they figure they would have enough money to make the waterpark idea work. By doing this competitive swimming, diving and other aquatic sports will have to adapt to this change. The pool operators do not want to close down a pool for a competitive meet or practices. They want to produce more income by keeping it opened. They would rather not have a highly competitive programs for that reason. They seem to think that the water park idea will bring in that increase in revenue.

In the place I run a program, they added slides to get this increase. While two drop slides were being used, half of the diving well was closed as well as the 7-meter tower. 3 lanes of the swimming pool were closed because a lengthy slide emptied into the shallow water at the pool end. This cut down the number of lanes for swim team practices. When I came in for an evening workout, I watched one person using 2-drop slides. I observed this for 15 minutes and saw this one patron go off once. I approached the manager and asked if that infrequency of use continued to happen, could the drop slides be turned off and closed so the entire well could be used for diving? The manager agreed and soon the boards and the tower had large lines behind them. One of the guards told me that patrons wanted to use the 7-meter platform but couldn't because the drop slides were in use. My request at that time appeared to fulfill a need from both the divers and the pool patrons. My divers have to share the facility at that time because the pool doesn't close down during the dinner hour anymore. From what I understand, there was no increase in daily attendance at this facility from the previous year.

I happen to live in an area where there are a few waterparks that are easy to get to. When other pool owners saw that these places were making money, they wanted to join in, figuring they would bring in more income too. What they failed to see was that the market, at least in this area, has enough of them. Some residents told me that if they wanted to go to a waterpark they could do so very easily but also stated that they didn't want one in their own community. It wasn't the kind of place that they wanted to go to on a daily basis. It was good for what they called "a change of pace".

In any case this investigation found that there was an uninformed/misinformed concern about the Safety of Diving from diving boards at all levels (Insurance, risk management, pool operators and even US Diving). The question I ask myself is "Why did I have to do this research?" Why didn't US Diving do it? They have a bigger stake in this than I do. Maybe this dis-information is what prompted them to require the certifications in the first place. Could this have been intentional dis-information by the Safety Committee? USD did ask if they could use the information I gathered and I said, "Yes, if it's only used for the protection of the sport." Other questions I ask are can US Diving help me get pool time? Can they help me get equipment installed that I might need? Why do we need all of the certifications if the sport is as safe as it really is?

I generally don't like to call attention to other sports but I feel that it is necessary to get a point across. In football a number of athletes die each year with a higher number who are paralized as a result of the violent nature of the sport. Even Baseball (The National Past-time) has been on the rise with the number of serious injuries and even death. How many divers have died in the U.S.? How many have been paralized? The answer is not one! That is since the sport was introduced over 90 years ago now. I fail to understand how we are expected to jump through more hoops than coaches of sports with higher actual incident statistics than our mythical potential for injury. When I first went through the statistics back in the late seventies and early eighties, serious injuries and their rates were higher for people sitting on bleachers than people who were diving from diving boards. The only activities that appear to be safer than diving are checkers and chess.

What I did discover was that the US Diving hierarchy is not up on current trends in the swimming pool arena and that is hard for me to understand. Many trends in this area have not experienced at the college or high school levels. They are happening at the basic recreational levels and may soon be moving toward the college campuses next.

US Diving can not help me get more pool time. That must be solved at the local level between the pool I run my program at and me. A couple of coaches wanted spotting rigs put over their diving boards but the local pool people didn't want it. US Diving was asked for help. All the help that came was a letter to the pool owner/operator. Needless to say the equipment was never put in. The new certifications were found to be re-addressed at some lesser-known meeting. The conclusion was that the intent of the USOC mandate was for coaches who aspired to coach at the International level, ie: World Games, Pan Am and Olympic Games. If that is the case, why is everyone still required to fulfill the new certification requirements, especially those of us who have to have a lifeguard on duty at practices?

During my arguments concerning certifications, the term unanamous vote always popped up. People in USD kept referring to it. The convention in 1998 was in October. I wrote a letter to Janet Gabriel in July of that same year protesting the additional certifications. If all of this was in place prior to the convention, then why was there even a vote? Regarding the voting, I can't see how less than 10% of the people vote on an issue that affects over 90% of the membership. For two years I have not found one coach who agrees with these requirements. When people write me they say that my words speak for a lot of coaches. At this time, I would like to invite those other coaches to start speaking up. If they don't, all they are going to get is more of the same.

I have asked myself a number of times "What can US Diving do for me and my program?" They didn't like the answer the first time I wrote it and here it is again two years later, "Nothing!" I have to do everything myself and pay them for the opportunity to do it. How smart does that make me look? They can't get me more pool time just as they can't help me get equipment installed that I may need. All they can do is what they have been doing for years. Over-charge my divers and me for memberships plus require me to take the certifications to be a member coach. I am not even given the right to voice my opinion by being allowed to vote. Then I ask myself, "Why should I join?" I still can't find a suitable answer for that. Last year I ran a program without any US Diving affiliation. Did I suffer? No, I didn't but I sure had more time for my family because I didn't have to travel to meets and such. I also didn't have to put money out for the US Diving fees. That alone made my overhead costs lower. Then why do I continue writing US Diving? The answer is that I must not be very smart because I would like to believe that they might change their collective mind. These issues would be an obvious case for an over sight committee to review, if they had one. But of course US Diving doesn't make mistakes.

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