One of Britain’s brightest diving medal hopes for London 2012, Tom Daley recently told The Independent he spends 60% of his training time out of the pool doing trampolining, gymnastics and speed and power work that athletes do to get quicker reactions.
The teenager from Plymouth has a number of accolades already, most recently taking out the BBC Young Sports Personality of The Year award. This year he also became the youngest senior national champion on the 10m board. He has also been national champion in 1m, 3m and platform since 2004 in his age groups and is the British highboard and springboard under-18 champion.
Advantages of dry land training with a trampoline or dry-land diving board:
- Diving can tear down the body: Diving is an impact sport and the constant pounding of the body on the water can begin to tear down a diver’s body. Dry-land training can help to reduce the stress on the body, aid in injury recovery and allow the diver to continue to train at a high level. Dry-land training has a lighter impact on the body and allows the diver to perfect their technique.
- Lack of available pool time: Many teams are faced with inadequate facilities or the inability to consistently rent aquatic facilities and swimming pools in order to practise. Dry-land training can help divers to practise their dives without actually having to practise them in the pool or aquatic facility.
- Isolating specific skills: Dry-land training can be used to practise specific training methods and skills needed to successfully complete dives. By practising these skills such as kicking out of dives or learning to initiate a somersault, then putting them together in a particular dive, a diver can find success.
- Practising dives without the fear of smacking: One constant fear for every diver is “smacking” the water. In a smack, a diver will hit the water at less than or more than a 90° angle to the water. A smack can cause welts, bruising, or in a worse case scenario a dislocation, concussion, or ruptured ear drum. Needless to say a smack can create a lack of confidence in a diver’s ability and the fear of a particular dive. By training on a dry-land diving board or trampoline and a spotting apparatus, the diver can perform dives without the fear of smacking.
