Tip of the Month - January 2022
Strategies Athletes Can Learn From Divers
I have always believed that learning from other sport coaches and athletes is very beneficial. I came across an interesting article by Swim Science specialist, Dr. John Mullen, and decided to apply the writing to athletes in general as the article drew the comparison between divers and swimmers. The article was modified for this newsletter.
The original article is by Allan Phillips, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS), ASCA Level II and USA Triathlon coach, and owner of Pike Athletics (2015). He is the co-author of Troubleshooting System and an assistant editor of Swimming Science Research Review.
The focus is on four factors athletes can learn from divers, proposing that by observing the diving culture athletes can learn to hold themselves to a higher standard with feedback and visualization to improve technical quality in their specific sports. Though energy systems may be very different, they can still learn from the very demanding and high standard of technical execution in the sport of diving. Despite being an early specialization sport, most divers have a background in gymnastics and dance before focusing on a single sport.
Throughout my coaching career, I held the position that gymnastic-type skills and exposure to dance are enormously beneficial to enhance general movement competencies as these activities develop body awareness, correct posture, body control, spatial awareness, a higher sense of balance, movement flow and rhythm thereby increasing movement quality. While the location of diving clearly requires the element of the water, ability to control the diving board, and minimal attire (swimsuit), other athletes obviously have to deal with different elements in their specific sports, their specific equipment and sport dress.
Four Strategies that can be applied to most Sports
1. Feedback
In fairness, some sports have become much more progressive in recent years with the frequency of available video feedback while technology limitations had been a hindering factor. Video feedback after a dive performance has long been a more regular part of the diving culture, largely due to more opportunities since there won’t be dozens of divers diving simultaneously. Video feedback is important and at times crucial for performance analysis and further improvement. However, I question the appropriate timing for such engagement. If the situation on hand is the training performance immediate feedback is important as the athlete/athletes obviously is/are going to repeat the skill with feedback in mind. However, if this should happen in competition or at a game then any immediate feedback may not be ideal. Here is my explanation: Let’s take ice hockey. The line comes back, takes their seat on the bench, and the tablet comes out to review the past play and is discussed among several players. According to sport performance psychologists, this puts players back into the past while they should be observing the happening on the ice and ‘live in the present.’ ‘What was or what would or will be’ is not the ideal stage for a ‘ready’ performance as attention, focus, and concentration on the specific or assigned task (like positional play or system played) is lost. Instead, the coach should point out what needs to be done before the next shift instead of having player look at the tablet and discuss what should have happened but didn’t!
2. Quality versus Quantity
Volume and intensity in most sports can be controversial topics. The point is not to suggest that every task has to be fast but that each one has to have a purpose. We don’t see divers ‘slopping through dives just to get some numbers in’ (number of dives per X-training hour) largely because the technique is the sport itself. This has been a long term issue in swimming. I call it 'Yardage – Garbage!' As a former sprinter in athletics I never trained endless meters or a marathon because my energy system had to be trained differently. Train the body in the way it has to respond in the real condition, i.e. quality versus quantity unless quantity is essential. While it would be an unrealistic standard to expect every single task/skill athletes execute has to have the precision of an elite performance, there is no doubt we can all do better as coaches and athletes. Admittedly, this is not a true evidence-based assertion, but instead, one that can be conceptually applied.
3. Visualization
While diving provides the benefit of having time between repetitions for mental practice, other sports have to carefully plan mental training into the most opportune or ‘best teaching’ moment. As such, divers learn discrete visualization skills at a younger age. This is not by accident, as literature has repeatedly shown that mental practice can improve motor learning in many different contexts. However, other sports utilize completely different energy systems, and the emphasis on mental skills versus physiological development differs. Still, there are many opportunities for visualization to become a more integral part of any sports training, related to skill acquisition, conditioning or rehabilitation technique, and/or race strategy.
I introduced mental aspects such as attention, focus, and concentration as early as possible in the training of developmental athletes. It is unreasonable, in my opinion, to wait until these athletes are in their teens to start teaching and practicing those skills. They need to be part of daily training in order to engage in a holistic approach to training and coaching. In our program, attention to tasks, memory-training, focus on skill learning, and concentration became part of skill learning and subsequent training by the age of 6-years. However, it has to be remembered that visualization only works when athletes are old enough to mentally practice images if skills are fully automated, i.e., no errors, otherwise they visualize the given skill with errors!
Kalos athletes (8-year longitudinal study to develop physical literacy) were encouraged to create so-called mental pictures (metaphors), write them down or draw pictures.
These became part of their portfolio in training when the coach communicates with the athlete and also was the ‘cue’ in competition listed on their performance goal sheet.
During my coaching years, I taught and trained many beginners to elite level athletes, which provided the opportunity to follow their progress in several sports throughout the years (gymnastics, athletics, and swimming, modern pentathlon). It was a great opportunity to develop appropriate word vocabulary to teach or train skills for every level. For example, explaining the arm action to an elite swimmer in biomechanical terms versus having a 6-year old develop personal picture or cues for the same skill.
4. Athletic Diversification and Multi-sport Involvement
Most divers have a start in gymnastics. If diving is their first sport, they almost inevitably engage in some tumbling or gymnastics program. In fact, diving is one of the few sports in which early specialization can be valuable to success. The longer a diver stays a gymnast, and is exposed to various forms of dance, the more athletic diversification is added at a younger age. Many young athletes are pushed into full-time early specialization. Although this has been studied and bemoaned by experts it is still ignored to a great extent. Researchers point out the value of giving children the opportunity to develop generalized motor skills by participation in other sports (physical literacy). This is recommended based on research but traditional training modes still exist and are still very common nowadays. There are, however, no formal studies comparing various sports, and so we are left to creative thinking and inference to find learning opportunities. Nevertheless, an examination of what happens near the diving well can help us to use the tools we already have and let athletes sample other sports in their early years.
References:
Mullen, G.J. (2019). Four strategies swimmers can learn from divers. Swimming Science. Blog. Competition. Latest&Greatest.