Coaching High School Diving: Dryland Drills, Skills & Techniques

Jason Baumann, diving coach at Edina High School and owner of North Star Diving Club, presents a comprehensive look into the dryland training that will help your divers become stronger, more flexible and technically proficient. The dryland drills you'll see in this video have helped Coach Baumann develop conference finalists and All-Americans at the collegiate level.

Stretching and Conditioning

The end goal for all of Coach Baumann's dryland exercises is to maximize effort and time to help divers get into the correct body position to do skills - and then apply those skills on the board and into the water. He begins by walking through a stretching routine designed to ready the parts of the body that undergo physical stress during various types of dives. Muscles from the neck to the legs are warmed up for practice or competition.

Once athletes are stretched out, Coach Baumann progresses to basic and advanced conditioning routines. The basic exercises include moves that divers of any level can execute to strengthen their core, including tucks, planks, supermans and burpees. Moves like headstands and aqua-mans are reserved for the advanced workout and should only be used by experienced divers. Exercises in both routines will help your athletes improve their form and ability to change positions quickly in the air.

Work Outs and Modeling

Coach Baumann includes a work out that will train sport specific skills for diving while simultaneously conditioning divers. Many of the positions in the workout begin from the hollow position, then progress out to diving positions such as the tuck to pike, seated pike, tuck to pike out and bullet jumps.

Before divers get onto the board, the use of "modeling drills" can help them gain the feel they need to execute certain dives. This is especially true for high school age athletes and younger, as twisting dives often difficult for youth divers. You'll see modeling drills for front jumps, somersaults, back dives and reverse dives. These drills are designed with all coaches and teams in mind, and are especially valuable to those with limited practice space.

Whether you're coaching beginning or advanced divers, Coach Baumann's dryland drills will teach you and your athletes the body positions and techniques necessary to achieve higher scores during competition.

48 minutes. 2016.