What is the purpose of the spray of water in competitive diving?

Swimmers are hitting the water at an angle, and their goal is to get through the water with as little resistance as possible.

Divers are trying to hit the water vertically and resistance isn’t as much of a problem as getting your arms, head, torso, and legs all through the same hole your hands made. The bigger the hole the better. Divers with big hands are less likely to make a splash.

How exactly do you hold your hands then? I’m not as flexible as I’d like to be, even though I am a swimmer. I can’t get my hands to face palm outwards without it hurting, and it happens way to quick to see and they don’t focus on that whenever I’ve watched.

Hold your hands out in front of your face with your palms out, fingers splayed and both thumbs pointed down. Then grab one hand with the other (some people are right hand on top, some are left). It isn’t as taxing on your flexibility if you don’t have your arms all the way extended.

Here is a diver demonstrating while standing on the end of a board.

Another related question, why do they use those teeny tiny towels?

It’s a Sammy (chamois). Gets the water off and is reusable.

They did not have any high diving competitions in the ancient Olympic Games.

And there was no absence of toilets in ancient Greece.

Excellent, Thank you. And I can actually do that.

Ah! they’re 1920s-style depth sprays.

I’m not sure how much effect that would have; some dive tank have aerators on the bottom to reduce the overall density of the water you’re going in to, but then it looks more like a giant hot-tub. A simple water jet wouldn’t get close to that.

Apparently it’s patented. My local sports centre has one in the dive tank.

That’s what we call a ‘bubbler’. It’s used in training to lessen the impact when you land on your nuts. Some places will put the system on a slow trickle of bubbles to serve the same purpose as the sprayers.

How often does THAT happen?!!? How does one end up diving nuts-first? Is there a name for that dive? How big a splash does it make?

I just gots to know…

Well, once is usually enough. :slight_smile:

When learning a new dive I would have a few days (weeks) of really bad entries. Especially on blind entries it’s somewhat easy to open up at the completely wrong time.

Maybe it’s to help the divers see the surface better.

I doubt it. Someone would have mentioned it by now.