How Fast Do Divers Hit The Water?

How Fast Do Divers Hit The Water?

Short Answer

Off the 10 meter platform, around 30 to 35 miles per hour.

Off the 3 meter springboard, closer to 20.

Off 1 meter, somewhere in the mid teens.

Those are rough numbers, because a diver isn't just falling. They're jumping upward first, which adds height and therefore adds speed by the time they get to the water but let's dive into this a little deeper ;)

Why the platform number is so much bigger

Let's go back to physics class quick because falling speed doesn't increase evenly with height. Each extra meter adds more than the one before it.

From 10 meters you're in the air for about a second and a half with very little or no jump.

What that actually feels like

It is true that at slower speeds, it is easier for you to slip through the water but as your speed increases, the strength required to withstand the impact and use proper form as you go under water gets harder and harder.

A clean entry from 10 meters can still hurt your hands, wrists shoulders, and even other random parts of your body.

I remember first learning platform and having the impact of the water colapse my arms making me hit my forehead with my own hands because i wasn't strong enough to keep my elbows locked out.

Now, if a good entry from that high can still hurt, imagine what smacking must feel like!

This is why the entry is so important

Everything divers do at the end of a dive exists because they have to overcome the water's strength and make it do what the diver wants it to do.

  • Locked elbows. If you don't have double jointed elbows, this takes a lot of tricep strength.
  • Flat stacked hands. They break the surface first and open the hole for everything behind them.
  • Airtight around the head. No gap between the arms and the ears.
  • A tight core. A loose body flexes on impact and the line breaks.

It also explains why you see so much tape on divers. Doing that thirty - fifty times a practice for years adds up in the shoulders, wrists and whole body!

Other things you're probably wondering

- DG

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