Springboard and Platform Diving Rules and Requirements

The NFHS made several rules changes for high school diving that will be effective for the 2011-2012 season. A hop hurlde is officially legal!

Should spending too much time on the board before a dive in a meet be a penalty or not?

In age group diving, each age group is denoted by a letter or range of ages depending on whether you are competing in the U.S. or internationally.

A whistle is used in diving contests to alert the diver that it is time to execute their next dive.

With the new FINA Degree of Difficulty Table, having a diving list include optional dives with a D.D. of 3.0 or above may become common place.

Dives in springboard and platform diving are ranked according to the degree of difficulty of each dive and this difficulty is used in the calculation of diving scores. The degree of difficulty is determined using a formula based on elements in each dive.

A crow hop is a movement in diving that is illegal in some organizations and many times overlooked in others.

Judges need to the be aware of the rules and penalties that occur when a diver hits the board, especially the difference between FINA and High School!

What constitutes a fail dive when a diver under-, or over twists on a dive.

Divers are allowed to compete forward dives from a standing start in USA Diving, AAU, and NCAA competitions, but not in high school. What is the reason behind starting from a standing position?

The rules for scoring synchronized diving can be bit confusing. Use this guideline to better understand the process.

Dives used in competition are described using two methods: a written description, or numerical identification known as a dive number.

In all high school, and junior and senior level diving meets, divers are required to perform a specified number of dives from which a winner is determined. These requirements are made up of two types of dives – voluntary dives and optional dives. The combination of these dives make up what is known as a diver's list.

Voluntary or compulsory dives are the easier dives performed in diving contest and are used to show that a diver has mastered many of the techniques needed to perform the harder or optional dives.

Optional dives in competitive diving are the harder and more impressive dives performed in a divers list of dives.

The official rules and code of USA Diving, the national governing body for the sport of diving in the United States.

The official degree of difficulty table used in all USA Diving, Amateur Athletic Union, and FINA diving competitions.

Federation Internationale de Natation, commonly known as FINA, is the international governing body for aquatic sports. In addition to diving, FINA also governs swimming, water polo, synchronized swimming and masters aquatics.