Comp Dives vs Training Achievements

[samdive]

One of the interesting things about judging in Nice was seeing how different people approached choosing the depth of their competition dive. Some inscribed a depth that was considerably less than their Personal Best, some put something fairly equal to their PB, others relied on the motivation of the comp environment to spur them on to something, in some cases, much greater.

What is your approach? and in your opinion, what is the best approach?

Personally, I get nervous so would always like to put something I know I can do fairly comfortably - then again the one time I did put down something a little deeper (only 1m deeper than a PB!) - I DID it easily and that made for a hell of a party....

wondering what the rest of the world thinks....

S

 

[fpernett]

I prefer to do something I have reached in training, I also got a little nervous. But some friends always announce 3 meters more than they (and always succeed). I think the approach depends on your feelings about competitions

 

[samdive]

I wanted to add another Poll option

Whatever my coach says!

but I can't see how to do it - Sara????

 

[AltSaint]

I think this is why training dives shortly before competitions are a useful gauge. If you are in a similar physical condition, similar environment and similar equipment, then you know how you feel on a dive to x meters. With experience, you should then be able to tell if an extra metre or two on competition day is feasible, or that you would be wise to pull back. Normally I do the latter just for a safety margin, but recently added on the extra because the last training dive was a PB and I knew there was extra apnea / compensation capability. Horses for courses.

 

[Adrian]

I wanted to add another Poll option

Whatever my coach says!

but I can't see how to do it - Sara????

There you go Sam.

Adrian

 

[SanSan]

I don't think u can compare pool and disciplines and depth disciplines here. In the pool U can swimm more than U announced...

I think people will rather announce a bit less in the pool than in the sea.

I mostly go with announcements pretty much close to my PB's.

 

[jome]

I think there are athletes that are constant underachievers in training.

For example one unnamed finnish diver simply does not have access to the kind of depths he has potential to dive to. So he uses his last competition dive as a guide, as well as the few days of training before a competition, and increases the depth slightly.

For those who have the resources and access to train to their limit every day, it's propably safer to go with something a little less than you LMC limit.

Then there are the Kamikaze-divers, who are a totally different breed which I have little respect for...Fortunately I haven't met too many severe cases.

I'd say it's pretty safe to set your (moderate) pb's in competition, as long as you know from previous dives (training or competition) that you still have some left. If however you have proved to your self time and again that "x is my limit", then I would consider it wreckless and dangerous to try to beat that in competition...

 

[Michael]

As far as I'm concerned, it has to do with whether my PB dive was limited by breath hold, legs, or equalization. My diving lately has been limited by equalization, and my PB dives are easy in terms of breath hold and leg strength. So, in principle, I think it would be safe to announce deeper than my PB in competition. However, for the sake of a good night's sleep before the competition, I don't like to break any new ground on competition day. What's the point? If I could dive deeper, I would have already done so in training. I don't see any reason to risk having to turn early for the sake of adding a few more meters to my competition dive.

 

[ADR]

This year was my first comp (Kona) and I announced 10% less than I'd done a few days earlier in training. For a first comp I think it's a good idea as it allows you to deal with the nerves of something new without stressing the depth. I wanted one "in the bag" so to speak and wanted to walk away from that 1st comp with a win. Next time I imagine I'll post much closer to my PB.