How to Get a Better Diving Entry (The Complete Guide)

The entry is the last thing the judges see — and it might be the most important part of the dive. I hate to admit that because so much work goes into everything before you hit the water, but the toe point and splash is what people remember. So let's get it right.

In this video I want to do something a little different. Instead of starting with beginners and working up, we're starting at the top. I want you to see what a perfect entry looks like first, so you know exactly what you're building toward. Then we'll get into the common mistakes and how to fix them.

Watch the Full Breakdown

What You'll Learn

• Fix #1: Punch for the water — lock those elbows and get airtight around your head before you hit
• Fix #2: Start swimming the instant you hit — elbows locked out and arms going lateral
• Fix #3: POESTSOL — the acronym your coach might not have taught you that fixes most bad pike saves

Fix #1: Punch for the Water

Before you even hit the water, you need to be doing two things simultaneously: shrugging up your shoulders as much as possible and punching up with your triceps to get airtight around your head.

Punching means forcefully extending your elbows right before entry. You grab your hands, you squeeze, and you actively push up — like you're trying to lock your elbows in place before impact.

If you have naturally double-jointed elbows, you're lucky because they'll hold on their own. If you don't, you have to earn it through tricep strength and active engagement. Either way, the goal is the same: elbows straight and locked at the moment of entry.

At the same time, you need to be airtight around your head. What that means: shrug your upper arms in tight around your ears. You should not be able to see any daylight between the arms and the head. That tightness is what controls how much air you bring in with you, and air is the enemy of a clean splash.

Also don't skip the core — you need to be tight through your whole body going in, not just your arms. If you're loose through the midsection, you're going to pay for it in both your entry and eventually your body.

The Two-Liter Bottle Analogy

When you're thinking about your initial entry for front, inward, and twisting dives, picture a two-liter bottle of soda. At the top of the bottle there's a small opening — the cap. Once you get through that opening, the bottle opens up wider.

That's how you want to enter the water. You need to be as long, tight, and compact as possible to fit through that small opening at the surface.

Everything about your body should be streamlined for that first moment of entry. Then, once you're through the opening and inside the "bottle" — once your hands are underwater — you open up and swim.

Fix #2: The Swim — Timing, Direction, Elbows

The swim is what separates an okay entry from a rip, and most people do it wrong in one of three ways: they start too late, they swim in front of their body instead of laterally, or their elbows bend.

Timing: The cue to break your hands apart and start swimming is the moment your hands hit the water. Not a split second later. If you watch elite divers underwater, their hands are already apart in the very first frame they're underwater. That's how fast it needs to happen.

Direction: You want to swim laterally — arms going out to the side, not in front of your body. If your arms are swimming in front of you, you're going to roll through the pike save and open up a bigger hole at the surface. Keep the arms going out to a T position, hands as far from your body as possible.

Elbows locked: Just like above the water, you need your elbows to stay extended through the swim. Bent elbows mean the air doesn't spread under the surface and the splash gets bigger.

Here's why all of this matters: when you enter the water you're displacing it — pushing the water apart to make room for your body. That water wants to crash back together. The faster your whole body gets underwater, the less violently the water crashes back in. If you're still partially above the surface when the water closes in, it bounces off you and creates turbulence and splash.

The swim also spreads out the air bubbles you're bringing down. All that air would normally stay in one central column, and the surrounding water would cave in on it fast, creating a bigger splash. By swimming your arms out wide, you push those bubbles out to the sides. Now the water has no concentrated pocket of air to collapse on — it closes in much more smoothly.

Fix #3: POESTEL

One of my coaches taught me this acronym and I've used it ever since: POESTEL. It stands for:

Point Of Entry Swim This Side Of Line.

Here's what it means. When your hands enter the water, they create a line — the point of entry. Nothing should cross to the outside of that line. Specifically, your feet and hips should not go past where your hands went in.

When your feet roll past that line, two things go wrong: you open up a bigger hole at the surface, and your pike save becomes passive instead of active. That bigger hole gives the water more room to crash in on itself, which creates more splash. And a passive pike save — one where you're just letting your legs follow instead of actively folding them in — means you're not creating that tight bottle neck entry we were talking about.

The fix: as soon as your hands enter, actively pull your hips down. Don't wait for your body to fold passively. Drive the hips toward the water so your feet follow in the same narrow channel your hands created. Keep everything on this side of the line.

A Few Final Details

Point your toes — that one's obvious but worth saying. Whether you do a straddle pike save or a closed pike save doesn't matter much, as long as you're not straddling before your feet get underwater. Once you're under, do whatever works for you.

The best thing you can do to improve your entries faster is get underwater footage. Use an underwater camera, an iPhone in a waterproof case, or schedule an underwater practice day. You can't feel what your entry looks like from the inside — you need to see it from underneath. Once you do, the feedback is immediate and you'll understand exactly what needs to change.

Work on the big three: tight around the head, swim immediately and laterally with locked elbows, and keep everything POESTSOL. Get those right and you're going to start hearing some rips.