Issn Print: 0195-9131
Publication Date: 2001/05/01
ANALYSIS OF ANTICIPATED VS. ACTUAL DEPTH OF SHALLOW DIVES
Excerpt
Each year a significant number of swimmers suffer severe injuries as a result of unsuccessfully performing shallow dives. This study was conducted to determine how successful experienced swimmers were at performing a series of shallow dives of varying depths. Four collegiate swimmers volunteered to participate in this study. All trials were video taped above and below water at 60hz. Dives were performed from a 0.3m high pool deck into 2.2m deep water. Each swimmer performed two dives at each of five randomly assigned depths. Participants were asked to approach but not exceed the requested dive depth (RDD). All participants were familiar with the pool area and performed 3 shallow dives of self-selected depth prior to data collection. A researcher provided a visual demonstration of the RDD prior to each dive. Maximum submerged depth of the top of the head was measured for each dive via video analysis. A successful dive (SU) was considered as a trial that was less than but within 0.15m of the RDD. An unsuccessful deep dive (UDD) resulted from passing below the RDD value and an unsuccessful shallow dive (USD) occurred when the dive was less than the RDD by more than 0.15m. Calculation of a correlation coefficient of recorded vs. RDD values proved to be non-significant (r = 0.04). 12.5% of all dives were scored SU, 27.5% were UDD and 60% were USD. 62.5% of the 0.91m dives and 37.5% of the 1.07m dives were scored as UDD. Our results indicate that even experienced swimmers are not very successful at accurately performing shallow dives to prescribed depths. Regardless of the RDD, the swimmers repeatedly dove to a depth of approximately one meter. Therefore, diving into shallow water (< 1m) should be considered a potentially dangerous activity that should be avoided whenever possible.
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