Risk reduction in diving spinal cord injury: Teaching safe diving skills

Competitive Swim Start Safety

“…The 34 students who participated in the diving skills training program described above were invited to participate in a follow-up study eight months later and 22 of them agreed to take part in the study. The participants simply reported to the pool and executed the same dives that they performed in the previous study by Blitvich et al (2000b). The authors reported maximum head depth was significantly shallower eight months after the training program (0.55 m) than it was before the training program (0.73 m).…”

“…At the end of the training sessions, the participants were asked to execute another block dive and, as was done before the participants performed their first block dive, the researchers instructed the students to "perform a shallow dive and swim to the other end of the pool." After the training program, the students executed significantly shallower starts (0.52 m) than before the sessions (0.76 m; Blitvich et al, 2000b). Thus, it seemed the diving skills intervention program helped the lower-skilled study participants to perform shallower dives.…”

“…Broad conclusions drawn from the cited swim start safety studies include: (1) the entry type used during the competitive swim start affects the maximum head depth reached (Welch & Owens, 1986;Counsilman et al, 1988;Gehlsen & Wingfield, 1998); (2) both starting block height (Welch & Owens, 1986;Gehlsen & Wingfield, 1998) and water depth (Blitvich et al, 2000a) impact maximum head depth when executing racing starts, (3) the horizontal distance the swimmer is away from the wall at maximum head depth is the strongest predictor of maximum head depth (Blitvich et al, 1999); and finally, (4) intervention programs can help swimmers develop skills necessary to decrease their maximum head depth during racing starts (Blitvich et al, 2000b). The authors of these studies seemed to agree with Counsilman et al (1988) that there is "potential hazard" when swimmers start in water 1.22 m deep and with Blanksby et al (1996) that the "regulation of 1.2 m minimum water depth under starting blocks requires further scrutiny.…”

“…Blitvich et al (2000b) demonstrated that intervention programs aimed at improving diving skills can help swimmers learn to perform shallower starts. Although their intervention program was effective, it was unclear what skills professional swim coaches regard as important and actually teach to swimmers learning to execute competitive swim starts.…”

Minimum Water Depth Rules for Competitive Swim Starts

“…The first part of the rules above, the minimum water depth, has been the subject of reasonably extensive debate within the swimming and scientific communities (Welch & Owens, 1986;Counsilman, Nomura, Endo, & Counsilman, 1988;Blanksby, Wearne, & Elliott, 1996;Gehlsen & Wingfield, 1998;Blitvich, McElroy, Blanksby, & Douglas, 1999;Blitvich, McElroy, Blanksby, Clothier, & Pearson, 2000a;and Blitvich, McElroy, & Blanksby, 2000b;Cornett, White, Wright, Willmott, & Stager, 2010, 2011a, 2011b, 2011c, 2011d, 2012aCornett, White, Wright, & Stager, 2012b, 2014Cornett, Naganobori, & Stager, 2012c;White, Cornett, Wright, Willmott, & Stager, 2011;Stager, Cornett, & Naganobori, 2013). The second aspect of the rules, the distance from the wall for which the minimum water depth must be maintained, has not received much discussion.…”