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DIVING
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Diving injuries are rare, but when they do
occur, the results can be catastrophic. Improper diving into a
swimming pool or other body of water may lead to serious neck and
spinal injuries which include paralysis. A number of these
occur yearly, with the majority happening in shallow water.
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Three out of four diving accidents occur
in natural bodies of water.
Diving Safety Tips
You
can avoid injuries by learning the basic rules for safe diving.
The number one rule for diving is FEET FIRST THE FIRST TIME. An
initial entry into the water should never be from a dive. Always
enter the water feet first and then make a decision as to whether diving
may be performed safely.
I
usually try to phrase all my advice into positive actions, but in diving
there seems to be a lot of don'ts.
Do
not allow diving in backyard pools of any kind or in hotel pools.
The minimum safe depth for diving from the side is nine feet and from
the 1-meter board is twelve feet. Diving should be performed only
in commercial pools designed for diving board use.
Never put diving equipment into a pool that wasn't designed for diving.
At
commercial pools designed for diving:
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Follow the posted rules for diving.
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Do not dive off the side of a diving board
- dive straight ahead.
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Don't dive from the edge across the narrow
part of the pool without having at least 25 feet of clear dive path
in front of you.
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Don't dive at or through objects such as
inner tubes.
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Don't run and dive.
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Don't dive from ladders, slides, or other
pool equipment.
Open Water Considerations
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Three out of four diving accidents happen
in natural bodies of water.
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Never dive into water when you cannot see
the bottom.
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Don't dive from rooftops, balconies,
ledges, fences, or trees.
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Don't drink and dive.
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Don't dive (or swim) alone.
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Do not run from the beach and dive into
the surf or dive from a pier, jetty, or boat. (In all of these
instances, the water often appears deeper than it really is.)
Some Important Diving Do's
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Do know the water depth and shape of the
bottom before you dive or slide headfirst.
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Do be sure there are no submerged
obstacles or surface objects.
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Do test the diving board for its spring
before using.
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Do dive with your arms extended over your
head and steer up with your hands. Your extended arms and
hands not only help you to steer up to the surface, they can also
protect your head. If a diver's head hits bottom, major injury
to neck and spine can result. Hands up!
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Carefully rehearse the proper diving
techniques before you dive.
Competitive Swimming Concerns
Perhaps one of the biggest issues in competition aquatic facilities
stems from the movement to remove starting blocks from the shallow ends
of pools. Several national organizations and many high-school
interscholastic associations at the state level have greatly increased
the minimum depth for starts from diving blocks. Recently, USA
Swimming changed their depth requirement for "teaching" starts to 5
feet. These decisions first came about when the sport of swimming
starts changed from a flat dive to more of a deeper piking dive.
Competitive swimming experts now recommend that diving not be allowed in
water with less than a nine-foot depth. Other organizations have
developed a five-foot standard. At a depth of nine feet, spinal
injuries are nearly impossible.
However, some coaches still support shallow-water, shallow-dive
standards and expressed concern that the new standards will decrease
swimmer's diving ability. It is true that injuries at five feet
are unlikely, but you have to look at how catastrophic those injuries
are when they do occur. You're not talking about someone breaking
their leg, you're talking about quadriplegia.
At
B-T, we moved our starting blocks to the deep end.
Questions?
Click to ask Coach Neal.
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