DIVING STYLES AND BENEFITS Diving ought properly to come swimming. Most little boys learn to dive first, and to swim afterwards; and there is no reason why everybody should not follow this order. At any rate, every swimmer must learn to dive. It is the only proper way of entering the water; not only the prettiest, but the best fun. Somehow, too, the water never seems quite so cold when taken all at once, head first. Anything, certainly, is better than the long-drawn agony of wading in.
Most useful of all dives is the " scoop " or shallow dive, which is practically the same thing as the racing start. For this, begin by forgetting all you have ever seen of statuettes and photographs of posing divers, stand with toes gripping the edge of the take-off, the body bent forward and the hands hanging loosely or extended for ward at about the level of the waist. Fall forward, with or without a swing of the arms ; bend the knees ; and as the body is just about horizontal, jump out strongly. The degree to which the body sinks on the knees, and the precise instant of the jump, will vary with the height of the take off and the depth of the dive. The main point is that the body strikes the water stretched out at full length, arms in line with the body, feet turned back in line with the legs. The jump is out, or slightly down rather than up. The hands touch the water first, and not too far from the starting-point. The body enters the water at a low angle, and the diver is saved from a fearsome " gutsy " only by the fact that his body is traveling rapidly in the direc tion of its length. This is the dive to use in shallow water, or wherever unknown dangers may be lying in wait. The body need go no more than six inches beneath the surface, while the head may be kept from going under at all.
The standing header, often confused with the shallow dive, is really decidedly different. One starts standing erect, with the hands at the sides. The topple for ward is much the same, and also the sinking of the knees. But the arms must swing back as for the standing jump, and the spring must be slightly upward rather than out or down. The feet must be flung
upward strongly, so that the body takes the water at a high angle and plunges deep into it. The hardest part is to get the feet well up.
Much of the difficulty of learning to dive comes from confusing these two methods. In each there is a toppling for ward and a strong spring : in both, the body is straight and hits the water end on. But in one form the diver shoots along the surface, in the other he springs into the air, turns over, and comes down into the water from above. The " gutsy " results from taking the header without sufficient turn.
The running header is like the stand ing, except for the run. The proper spring is not, as in the running jump, off one foot; but like the tumbler's spring, in which there is a short jump on to the take off, from which the real jump follows, off both feet. In both running and standing headers, if the take-off is too low to allow a full turn in the air, arms, trunk, and legs will have to make a small angle with one another, and the diver enter the water on a curve. In no case, however, should the knees be bent, or the legs straddled out into a V.
Another way of entering the water, which looks hard and is really easy, is the back dive. Stand with the toes on the take-off, the heels over the water. Lean forward at the waist, bend the knees, and carry the hands low at the sides. Fall backwards, and at the same time, fling the arms over the head and spring strongly. This is essentially a back flip, and the body enters the water much as in the front header, but curved, if at all, the other way. The back dive looks dangerous, but it is really one of the saf est of dives, since a mistake in the turn costs only a slap on the back from the water— a quite different matter from the same blow in front.
There are besides, various dives off the hands — hand-springs and the like.
The easiest of all is to do a hand-stand with bent arms on the edge of the take off, and to topple over toward the water, straightening the arms sharply as the body is nearly horizontal. In fact, many of the simpler tumbling feats are easily converted into dives.