Always practice grabbing your hands before stretching for the water every time you do a dive or practice a fundamental. Why do this? Because it needs to be second nature if you plan having good entries!!!!
Ripping Can Be Learned
Every so often, you will find a diver who will rip no matter what the circumstances. Even if they land flat and with their legs apart, they still seem to have this unique ability. It can be a bit annoying for mere mortals, especially if you are like me and the only time a rip occurred was when there was a lunar eclipse of the sun.
So if you are a part of the majority of divers who, when trying to make a splash, accomplish that goal, and are working toward cleaning up the entries on your dives, you need to look for every advantage possible and that includes gabbing a flat hand on every head first entry.
Grabbing Should Be Second Nature
The motion of a gabbing a flat hand to be as involuntary as breathing, so you need to practice this important technique every chance you get - every jump, every line up, every voluntary, even every dive off the side of the pool. You can even practice it at home!
Now back to my original point. When you practice a line up or a dive in tuck or pike, the first motion after kicking or touching your toes should be to grab your hands. Don’t look for the water or stretch first, watch your hands grab. If you practice this motion repeatedly, then slowly but surely you will begin to grab without thinking about it during all your dives.
Don’t wait until the last second before you are about to hit the water either, grab immediately after your hands leave your legs or toes. The path of you hands may change depending on the dive and the come out – mid-line or lateral. But it still should be your first motion.
Why So Soon?
Again the question, why so soon? Because you need to develop that habit so that when you have little time to spare, such as when the dive is spinning fast or low to the water, your first reaction is to grab.
By making a grab your first movement, and by making it second nature, you are more likely to enter the water with a flat hand rip at the end of the dive that really counts.