Here is the Chapel Hill Summer League meets schedule:

Thursday, JULY 3rd 5pm NOVICE / JO @ NCAC vs FARM & Raleigh

Wednesday, JULY 9th 5pm NOVICE / JO @ FARM vs NCAC (HH, CCR)

Thursday, JULY 19th 5pm NOVICE / JO @ NCAC vs Farm (HH, CCR)

Saturday, July 19th 10am NOVICE/ JO @ Heritage Hills vs FARM & NCAC (tentative

Saturday August 2nd 10am SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIP MEET @ FARM!

I hope that the Tarheel Divers will put these meets on their summer schedule as well!

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks so much.

Becky Binney
Chapel Hill Summer Dive League

Parents,

Parents,

We will have practice on Memorial Day from 10:00 to noon.  Jon will run it as I will be at the meet at Duke.  No Saturday practice this weekend - also b/c of the Duke meet.

Thanks…

Kevin

Parents,

The Region meeting on Tuesday went well.  We will have our next meeting the week of May 5th through the 9th, and assign specific duties.  Chris Hamilton has volunteered to do the goodie bags.  Also, Charlene Stocking volunteered to organize the meals for coach’s hospitality.

The main focus was sponsorship.  I am asking that all parents contact 4 vendors.  I have attached a letter to the tar heel group site.  If you do not get our emails, or cannot download the attachment, let me know and I will send it to your email address.  The letter is to be given to a vendor.  Good vendors are restaurants (Chick-Fil-A, Wendys, SubWay etc.), Grocery Stores, Local Businesses, etc.   You can ask for products that we would use for concessions or coach’s hospitality (soda, chips, bread, veggies, water), or a financial donation. 

Also, I am asking that all families chip in and purchase a case of water and a case of soda for the meet.  You don’t need to get that until the week of.  But if you see it on sale now, get it.  Just bring the soda to my office when you come to practice.

Charlene Stocking volunteered to be in charge of signing family members up for a dinner to be in charge of.  Instead of one person in charge of arranging all of the meals for the coach’s hospitality, we are asking that people who have close friends or relatives of restaurants, ask them for donations or to help out with food. 

Any money that you spend for this meet, will come out of our meets fees that we collect.  I do not expect ANYONE to pay for any part of this meet out of their pocket.

Thanks for getting the ball rolling.  Please check the THD website on a daily basis, and check your email too.  Those two mediums will be the easiest way for us to communicate.

 Kevin

To be a good diver there are many attributes that you need.  Some divers are born with more “skills” than others.  People in general are either fast twitch, slow twitch, or somewhere inbetween. 

Sprinters for example are fast twitch athletes.   They have quick twitch muscle fibers and can react and move their bodies quicker than the average person.  That is something that cannot be taught or learned.  It is just the way they are.  Divers that spin and twist fast are blessed with fast twitch fibers.  Slow twitch athletes are your distance runners, milers in swimming, and bicyclists.  They do not require quick movements.  Only steady-driven actions.  Most divers are somewhere inbetween the range of fast and slow twitch.

Can you be a slow twitch athlete, and still be a good diver?  To a degree yes.  But it’s like asking someone who is 5′11″ if they would be a good center in basketball.  One way to overcome slower movements is to lift weights and become stronger.  Being strong helps.  For example, Ryan Funderburk is medium/slow twitch. But he is powerful and strong, so that makes up for his lack of speed.  He does not somersault like a bandit, but he can jump to the moon.

The main thing that divers can do to combat this, is to increase their flexibility.  If your muscles are more limber, they will move faster.  Stretching will not make the fibers in your muscles move quicker, but you will increase the range of motion your muscles can move, and they will get to the proper position sooner. 

The two main reasons we stretch is # 1 to prevent injury, and # 2 to increase flexibility.  The more flexible you are, the better of a diver you will become.  EVERYONE watches TOO MUCH TV.  Next time you are sitting on your can, get up and stretch while you are watching.

Two weeks of intense stretching can really make a huge difference in your diving…..

Happy Reading!!!  

Parents,

Just wanted to let you know that I will be staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Huntersville for the Region 3 Championships.  Warm-ups that Friday are from noon to 7:00 p.m.  I will arrive at the pool at 4:00 p.m. that Friday for a practice that evening.

I would like to know who is planning on attending.  Please send me an email if you are planning on attending the Region 3 Championships.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  My hotel info can be found below.  Please let me know if you have any questions….

Kevin

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ex/1/en/hotel/hunex?_requestid=471542

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself….”

So cliched, but oh so true in diving. Coaching divers - especially the young ones - is mostly about fear management. A diver who is new to the sport really does not care if their toes are pointed, or legs are straight when they are doing their first back dive tuck on 1 meter. They do not want to land on their back. Plain and simple…

When does this fear go away? It’s different for everyone. There are a few of the lucky divers (or stupid ones) who have no fear, and pain is just an aberration. They can smack over and over and it’s no big deal. It’s hard to find, but those divers do exist.

Can you become a great diver if you are deathly afraid of smacking? Of course. It takes time though. Time to realize that a smack is a smack, and it is going to happen.

How to get over your fear? Here are some tips:

1. The sooner the dive is done, the sooner the anxiety is gone. The longer you wait, the worse it is. We all know that. Counting helps, but when I was afraid, a looked at a clock and told myself that in 2 minutes all of this fear will be over. The sooner you do the dive, the better.

2. Realize that it’s part of the sport and accept it. EVERYONE smacks. It’s like getting kicked in the shin in soccer. It’s going to happen. When you smack, even if tears well-up in your eyes, the other divers have been down your road, and they understand. And even if I am laughing at you when you smack, it’s because you probably looked funny. Go watch it on TiVO a couple of times and you will laugh too. Besides, everyone’s going to beat you to the TiVO to watch you eat it in slow motion. It’s sort of has become a rite of passage.

3. Realize that your mind will make the dive worse than what it is. It’s only a dive. Go with the numbers. If you do 30 dives a practice, and smack once every 2 weeks, that’s 1 smack in 180 tries. That’s pretty good odds if you ask me.

4. Life is good. You have a roof on your house, food to eat, get to dive, make friends, and are a part of a team. Most people do not have it that good in the United States, more or less this world to say the least. Be thankful for what you have, and if a smack is all your complaining about; then life is pretty good. Please don’t complain. I don’t want to hear it.

Happy Smacking!!!! x x x (those are smacks!)

Parents,

I am sure that a lot of you are wondering if your child should or should not go to the Regions Championships held in Charlotte next month. Here are the exact details if you are planning on going.

For the beginners or younger JO divers, since this meet is close, I say yes. Give it a shot. It will be fun to be part of a team and any opportunity to compete is a good one. I will be leaving on Friday the 4th, so we can get in a practice for those that are planning on going. The competition takes place on the 5th and 6th (Saturday and Sunday). If you are not sure whether or not your child should go, or has the proper dives, see me. The dive requirements can also be found here:

9 & Under Boys and Girls (five dives). The contest shall consist of three voluntary dives from different groups with a total degree of difficulty not more than 5.0 on1-meter and not more than 5.4 on 3-meter followed by two optional dives from different groups.

11 & Under Boys and Girls (six dives). For 1-meter and 3-meter springboard, divers will perform three voluntaries from different groups with a total degree of difficulty not more than 5.0 on one meter and not more than 5.4 on three meter, followed by three optional dives from different groups.

12/13 (FINA Group C) or 13 & Under Boys and Girls (seven dives). For 1-meter and 3-meter springboard, divers will perform four voluntaries from different groups with a total degree of difficulty not more than 7.2 on one meter and not more than 7.6 on three meter, followed by three optional dives from different groups.

14/15 (FINA Group B) Boys (nine dives). For 1-meter and 3-meter springboard, divers shall perform five voluntary dives, one from each group, with a total degree of difficulty not to exceed 9.0 for 1-meter and 9.5 for 3-meter, and four optional dives, from different groups.(e)

14/15 (FINA Group B) Girls (eight dives). For 1-meter and 3-meter springboard, divers shall perform five voluntary dives, one from each group, with a total degree of difficulty not to exceed 9.0 for 1-meter and 9.5 for 3-meter, and three optional dives, from different groups.

16-18 (FINA Group A) Girls (nine dives). For 1- and 3-meter springboard, divers shall perform five voluntary dives, one from each group, with a total degree of difficulty not to exceed 9.0 for 1-meter and 9.5 for 3-meter, and four optional dives from four groups without limit.

16-18 (FINA Group A) Boys (10 dives). For 1-meter and 3-meter springboard, divers shall perform five voluntary dives, one from each group, with a total degree of difficulty not to exceed 9.0 for 1-meter and 9.5 for 3-meter, and five optional dives from five groups without limit.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Best…

Kevin

 COACHES CORNER # 1 

Today I will start my first entry on THD.  This is the coaches corner.  Ideas, thoughts, news and just jotted down bits of information for fans of the site.  I will try (notice and emphasize the word “try”) to do this weekly.  BTW - my spellin, and grammer ain’t the best,  just so you no.

“Why does my diver do 20,000 jumps a practice?  It can’t be that hard, right?  I mean they are just jumps?  Boring, boring, boring.  Why am I paying for my child to do jumps?”

I am sure these questions have entered every parents head at one time or another.  The physical/scientific answer?  Children take longer to develop their motor skills.  Coordination comes in time and repition is the best way to install certian movements.  That’s true but to dumb it down a bit for fit my level.  Here it is:

Learn a basic skill correctly, then we will move on.  As boring as it is up there to watch it, quite frankly, saying the same thing over for 6 months really does not do much for me either.  Watching paint dry?  It’s about the same.  Lol.  

Actually I don’t mind teaching basics.  It keeps me grounded as a coach.  But, if a diver cannot master a back jump, they are not going to be able to learn a good take off for when they NEED to know how to do a back dive tuck.  If these skills are not taught properly now, it can become an almost impossible task t0 fix it later.  Short of a nightmare for a coach.  Anytime I have a college diver who cannot do something correctly, or have bad habits, it can take YEARS to fix it.  Jon Fox can attest to that.

Why do some divers progress quicker?  Simple.  They may be stronger, more flexible, have better lines, can jump higher, less afraid, eat better, can listen better, more coordinated, have a good support group of parents and friends, more athletic, smarter.   I guess it’s not so simple.

 That’s why your child will do 10,000 jumps today, and probably 9,999 tomorrow…..

 See you at the pool….

Welcome to our website. Tar Heel Diving is delighted to be hosting the USA Diving Summer Regionals in 2008. We’ve got a load of useful information here to make your visit to Chapel Hill a pleasurable and successful experience.

Just click here or on the link in the menu on the right.

thanks
Kevin Lawrence
Head Coach, Tar Heel Diving.