high school diving meets work like this

How Do High School Diving Meets Work?

Diving is an event inside the swim meet, so it is treated as another event in a dual meet. Invitational and championship meets are different, but we will get to that later.

Your placement in the diving event gets you points that go into the swim team's score, you travel with the swimmers, and in most programs you share the same head coach, but (hopefully) have a diving coach as well!

For competitions, it's always 1 meter springboard only. Very few high schools even have a 3 meter board, and I've never seen one that has a platform.

The format

Two common formats, and the specifics vary by state:

Dual meets typically use a shorter list, often six dives.

Championship meets, meaning sectionals, districts, and state, typically use a longer list, often eleven dives, sometimes cut into rounds where divers are eliminated between them.

The first round is 5 dives, then 3 more dives for the semifinals, followed by the final 3 dives in the final.

Both formats require a mix of voluntaries and optionals and coverage across the dive groups, so you can't build a list out of only the dives you like.

Rules vary by state. Most follow the national federation framework, but individual state associations set their own specifics on dive counts, difficulty limits, and qualifying. Check yours rather than trusting me here.

The rules

Typically for a 6 dive meet there will be a required category that cannot have a DD higher than 1.8. From there you have to include at least 4 other categories in your list.

11 dive lists have some extra rules that need to be followed.

  1. Divers must compete 2 dives from every category and an additional dive from 1 category.
  2. There must be 2 voluntaries in the first 5 dives.
  3. There must be 2 voluntaries in the next 3 dives (dives 6 to 8).
  4. There must be 1 voluntary in the last 3 dives (dives 9 to 11).
  5. All voluntary DDs must add up to 9.0 or less.
  6. You must have all 5 categories in the first 8 rounds.
  7. All dives must be unique. A position change is not sufficient to change the dive.

What makes high school diving different

A few things that surprise divers coming from club.

The pool is often not a diving pool. High school meets happen wherever the swim meet happens, and that can mean unfamiliar boards, different fulcrum feel, low ceilings, and lighting you're not used to. Adapting quickly is part of the skill.

The crowd is right there. A packed dual meet in a small pool is loud in a way a club meet usually isn't.

Judging is different. Championship meets generally have better and more experienced judges. But when it comes to high school judging, don't expect the rigor that exists in USA Diving events. The level is lower, and the judges do not have the same understanding of the sport that a coach does. So accept it and have fun with it.

Can you do high school and club at the same time?

Most serious divers do, though the details vary by state and by club.

Some state associations restrict outside competition during the high school season. Some clubs pause or reduce training while their divers are with school teams. It's worth sorting out the calendar before the season rather than during it.

The general shape is that club diving is where technique gets built, and high school is where you compete more often in front of more people. They serve different purposes and most divers benefit from both.

If you're only diving in high school

Plenty of people find the sport at 14 or 15 through their school team, without any club background, and that's a fun, low-commitment way to do it.

If that's you, have fun and enjoy it! You will be happy you were a part of it when you're older!

Some useful links for you

- DG

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