Diving

Diving is a water sport in which you project your body from a springboard or a diving platform into the water. It involves gracefully controlled aerial manoeuvres. In fancy diving, you must have perfect timing coordination and form. The simple sawn dive, for example, imitates the downward flight of a bird. Diving is actually an acrobatic sport in which the water absorbs the shock of landing.

You can perform a dive from either a standing or running position. There are five basic types of dives in springboard competitions:

In the forward dive, the you face forward and dives into the water from this position
In the backward dive, you stand with your back to the water and enter it from a backward position.
In a reverse dive, you face the water and turn in midair so that you enter the water in a forward position.
In the inward dive, you stand with your back to the water, and you spring up and away from the board, diving in a forward position.
In a twist dive, you twist your body in the air before you reach the water.

There is a sixth dive added in platform competition, which is called the armstand dive. In this dive, you must stand on your arms before diving into the water.

In diving competitions, you can pass through the air in a layout position. In this position you stand with your body straight and with arms extended at shoulder height. Another position is to bring your knees to a knee chest position as you would do if you were doing a somersault. This position is called the tuck. You can also use the pile position by bending your body straight from your hips while keeping your legs straight and your toes pointed. Some twist dives use a combination of these three positions, in what is called the free position.