Diving

[lucozany]

My 2 boys are interested in diving.Both are club swimmers and they also do gymnastics at a low competitive level.They have done a basic holiday dive course which they loved.
There isn't a diving club near us but if they were really into it I could drive them to the next city.
Is there an optimal age to start? I was thinking once the swimming training becomes unsustainable ( 8 year old already has 4 sessions per week) I might gently encourage diving instead but it would be a big family commitment.I think they would be good at it as it combines 2 things they already do well but I really don't know much about the time commitment,ideal age to start etc. They like competing in anything so imagine they would want to do competitions if they took up diving.Can anyone give me any info about experiences of their children diving ?

My ds did both swimming and diving competitively. He stopped diving age 10 as swimming moved to six sessions and to be any good at diving he would have needed to increase that from once a week to two or three and doing both would have been too much. Diving was much more fun than swimming - no 5am starts, no endless length swimming! Trouble is, my ds not very good at gymnastics so he found the actual diving bit got harder and harder when mastering new dives so progressively was faltering. He did a couple of competitions and really enjoyed them. Four years later he is still swimming at very high level, but wouldn’t have been able to combine both. I would say if yours are good at gym then go with diving if possible as you will be able to retain more of a life than with competitive swimming! Good luck

Thanks Esther that is really helpful..that's exactly what I needed to know

Be aware that once they reach a certain standard they will need to add in dry land training for diving which usually also involves trampolining

Thanks tripliates. I've been in touch with the local club and that seems to be the case at a certain level ,although the land training is closer to where we live so easier to get to than the pool if it ever got to that stage.
Is there an ideal age to start in your opinion? Not sure if it is like gymnastics where I've been told by the coaches that starting much later than 6 limits your ability and potential.

I thought you were talking about SCUBA! Trying to imagine some sub Aqua gymnastics and wondering what the connection was...

We have a very good diving club that feeds to City of Leeds (inc two Olympians - we have no 10m board hence the move to Leeds for some) and most tend to start age 8 ish. My son was 8 as that meant he could dive competitively whereas he had to be 9 to swim competitively so it filled in a gap. Some in his group were 10 or 11 but were much better gymnastically so did really well. You have to be able to do certain dives in different age groups and as he got older he simply couldn’t do handstands poolside etc for the dives that needed it. Fantastic land training though - really helped his swimming. I kind of wish he had picked diving over swimming! Especially at 4.30 am and this weekend where we have two full days poolside for a competition......

Thanks again Esther.They are both really enjoying gym & swimming at present (our club lets them compete in dolphin galas from6 and ASA from 8) but I 'm pretty sure they will lack the drive to commit to morning training! Swimming is so tough now,well done to your boy for doing so well .
It sounds like diving might be a great transition later on .I'd love them to find a sport they are good at and stick with it,sounds like diving is both fun & sustainable.