How To Do An Inward 1½ Pike (403B): Balance, Arm Timing, and the Path to Harder Inwards

3 Key Fixes for Your Inward 1½ Pike

1. Arm Circle and Squat at the Same Time 

The timing mistake on inwards shows up at almost every beginner and intermediate level: the arms get to 6 o'clock before the knees even start to bend. When the arms are way ahead of the squat, the timing of the throw gets thrown off and the whole takeoff loses alignment.

The goal is to start the squat and the arm circle together. At the higher levels, the arms actually lag slightly behind the legs on the squat, but getting them synchronized is the right starting point.

From there, get into as deep a squat as your balance allows and push the board down, not yourself up. The more you drive the board toward the water, the more it gives back on the way up.

The other piece is the throw itself. Arms need to be fully straightened before the throw begins. If the elbows are still bent when the hands start moving down, you're throwing with short levers and losing a significant amount of flip speed.

At the advanced level, the arms may still be slightly bent at 12 o'clock but they extend fully before the elbow starts to drop. That extension is where the power comes from.

Diver Guy's Tip: Don't think about jumping. Think about pushing the board down as hard as possible. On inward lead-ups especially, you have nothing to lose. Drive down as hard as you can and let the board do the work of sending you up. 

2. Balance First 

Balance is the hardest thing to get right on inwards. It feels scary to stay over the board when you're flipping toward it, and that fear is what causes most people to push their hips back and away. But staying on top of the board is not optional. it's the entire foundation of the dive, and it's what separates someone doing inward 1½ from someone who can do inward 2½ and 3½.

One specific thing to watch: as you stand up from the squat, the hips need to slide in and come into line with the ankles and shoulders. The ankles, hips, and shoulders need to be in one line with a hollow hip position. A lot of divers let the hips come partway in and then push right back out on the standup. 

Head position is the other key. Keeping the eyes looking out toward the end of the board allows the back to stay flat. When the head drops and the back rounds on the takeoff, the board can't transfer force all the way through the body. A flat back with eyes out = the board pushes you. A overly rounded back with head down = the board pushes the bottom half of you.

Diver Guy's Tip: Don't go deeper in the squat until your balance is solid. A deeper squat with bad balance will just push your hips further back. Get the balance right first, then gradually go deeper. The squat depth adds power, but only if the balance is there to take it.

3. Let the Board Push the Whole Body

One of the most common things I see at intermediate levels is leaving the board with bent legs. The moment the legs bend before you've fully left the board, the force from the board gets absorbed by the body instead of transferred into the flip. You need to extend all the way through the knees and ankles as the throw happens so the board can push your entire body, not just the bottom half.

Think about it in sequence: drive down into the squat, stand up with hips coming forward into line, extend all the way through the legs, throw with straight arms while looking out. Everything happens together and in full extension.

The divers who jump highest on inwards aren't necessarily the strongest, they're the ones staying on the board the longest and letting it do its job.

Watch the Full Breakdown

In this video I go through five divers from beginner to expert, including an underwater breakdown of what a proper rip entry looks like and how the swim angle determines how much splash you get. At the end I show an inward 3½ pike takeoff so you can see how the same mechanics scale all the way up.

Things to watch closely:

• Compare the head position and back angle across every level
• The underwater comparison of two divers swimming at different widths shows exactly why arm extension on the swim changes the splash
• The inward 3½ takeoff at the end: notice how far over the board he still is at the point of leaving it

 

Learn how to pregress this dive with these other how to articles

Learn how to rip your entries and make less splash on all of your fronts or inwards!

Learn about inward 2.5 and understand how to get your inward takeoffs good enough to do much harder inwards in the future!

 

Got questions? Drop them in the comments or DM me — I answer every one.

Good luck and I'll see you on the next dive! - DG