My son currently cant dive is there any point in competitive swimming club?

[Bunnybigears]

My son is 8 he swam for his school in a local gala. He came home with a letter from a local competitive swimming club inviting him along. He did a little trial where he was timed doing 50m each stroke and they said he could join. He is currently doing a few free sessions to see if he enjoys it etc and is very keen but he jjst cant dive off the blocks. He was full of confidence the first time which ended in an awful belly flop which must have hurt now everytime since even though they were doing an easier version of the dive he refuses to do it. He has pretended he fell off rather than dived in when I know he actually just jumped. Then just made sure he always let others in front of him so je didnt have to have another go. Will competitive swim coaches teach him to dive or just expect him to already be capable or at least confident enough to try? Im worried if he joins and cant do some of the things he needs to do it will dent his very fragile self confidence.

They should teach him.

They should teach him

At that age I took my non gifted swimmers for a diving course in the summer (an hour a day, for 5 days), they started with diving off the side, then off blocks, then of low board, then jumping and diving off the high board.

So worth the money/effort

So maybe see if you can do a separate diving course

Absolutely they will teach him. Usually starting with proper diving from the side before going off blocks, and then there are lots of practice drills to help him improve to the point where blocks are no problem.
I'm sitting waiting for the afternoon session of our gala and I am still mildly worried about having another two block starts to do - and I'm 43!

Thanks its just so worrying when they start doing stuff you cant even do yourself and have no knowledge of! And he looks so little down there from my seat in the stands! Goldrill good luck in your races.

Dd is in a club and couldn’t dive when she joined. They teach them :)

Yes, ours run additional sessions for diving, they have to pass an assessment before being allowed to dive in galas.

I taught dd (and myself as I hadn’t dived for about 15 years!) how to dive in about an hour last summer.

Start with sitting. Arms over head. In you go.
Then from crouching.
Then bent legged.
Then standing.

I was surprised how quickly she got it.

Once he has dived lots and lots of times from standing then diving from blocks will be less of a big deal.

They definitely will teach him. I spent weeks sitting on the edge a pool tipping myself in before I got the nerve to do a standing dive. My coaches were patient because they could see my potential. They can clearly see it in your DS too so they will do what they can to get him where he needs to be if he decides to continue down this path.

I would also imagine they will teach him but to reassure yourself what about a chat with the coaches after the session?