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About Tom Trapp
Expertise
I can answer any questions pertaining to all levels of springboard and platform diving including : beginner lessons, intermediate, advanced, high school, Junior Olympic, AAU, Masters (Adult), Collegiate and Senior diving. Questions about training, technique, competitions, dryland training including trampoline and dry board.I can also answer questions about how to judge/referee diving events. I cannot answer questions about swimming (how to dive off a starting block) or SCUBA diving.
Experience
3 time U.S. Diving National Team Coach. Coached World, International and National Junior Olympic individual and team champions. Collegiate level experience (Junior College and Division I).Chairman, U. S. Diving Region 10 and Northern California Diving Associations. Professional diving referee, judge and meet director including U.S. Diving Junior and Senior Nationals, National Qualifying events and Division I collegiate events. Head Referee for the Big 12 and ACC Conference Diving Championships.Competition Director for past NCAA Men's Division I Nationals and numerous Pac 10 Conference Championships.
Organizations
U.S. Diving. AAU Diving. Professional Diving Coaches Association.
Education/Credentials
B.S. in Recreation and California Teaching Credential in Physical Education/Aquatics. U.S. Diving Safety Certified Coach.
Awards and Honors
U.S. Diving National Award of Excellence.
Northern California Diving Association Coach of the Year.
U.S. Diving Region 10 Coach of the Year
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You are here: Experts > Recreation/Outdoors > Swimming > Springboard and Platform Diving > springboard diving
Expert: Tom Trapp - 10/27/2009
Question
Hi! I am 16 years old. I have been on a competition dance team for 8 years and had gymnastics training for 5 years. I recently joined the dive team in my county. I have had 3 private lessons. My coach has been very impressed with my diving, saying I have "good lines" and that I am a good flipper on the trampoline/harness. I just learned my front tuck dive. When I was practicing today, I saw a boy just a year older than I and he was amazing and I was a little discouraged. I was wondering how long you think it would take me to get to a high level of diving (flips, twists) I would like to join my high school team for my senior year. Do you think I would be able to make the Davidson College dive team the year after? Thank you!!
Karen
Answer
Karen-
The first thing I would advise you on is not to compare your ability to that of a boy. It is not because boys are better at diving than girls (I think it is the opposite)but because you will never dive against a boy so it does not matter how well they are doing compared to yourself. I advise all my divers not to concern themselves with how someone else is doing because there is nothing you can do about it. Only concentrate on things you can control like your own list of dives and how well you can do them.
As far as how long it will take you to get to a high level of diving, it is hard to say because I only have limited information about you. I do not know what kind of team you are on (is it a USA Diving or AAU club team?), the experience level of your coach or the type of equipment you use (are the boards good and do you have access to all height levels of competition which are 1 meter, 3 meter and then the 3 different platform heights) I also do not know how often you train and for how long.
If you can join your high school diving team this season I would do it so you have some experience for your senior year. I do not know when you high school diving season is so if it is in the winter or spring I would go out for sure.
The best way to find out how to make the diving team at Davidson College is to contact the coach, Aaron Hintz. Go to their website www.davidsonwildcats.com and click on women's swimming and diving. Look up info on their team. Send Aaron an e-mail and ask what it would take to make his team: aahintz@davidson.edu.
Also go to this website and find out about club meets: www.divemeets.com. Click on Past Meet Results. Scroll down the page until you find meets held in the Davidson College area. They have meets at a great pool in Huntersville. Look up results in the following meets:
2009 JO Zone 'B' Meet held last July 9-12. Click on the results of girls 16-18 1 meter. Click on any any total score a girl scored. Then at the bottom, click on Printable Dive Sheet. There you can see the kind of dives girls your age are doing and what they are scoring. Also try the meet in Huntersville called AAU Invite and look up results there. College coaches use this website to find varsity divers for their team.
Other diving websites to look up are:
www.usadiving.org
www.aaudiving.org
www.diving.about.com - Lots of good articles here about high school diving.
www.usadiver.com
www.flipnrip.com
Hope all this helps. Good luck.
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