Two diving videos from tonight's training session

Since I talk quite a lot about my diving, I thought I'd show you two diving videos taken from tonight's training session. And I know the stupid fuckers from the forums will say, "donno whether it is really him or not, what if he upload someone else's video that he downloaded from the internet..." Firstly, the dives in these videos were rather poorly executed, I under-rotated both dives. I managed to almost get one in and I actually slapped my thighs quite hard on the water on the other as it was so poorly under rotated. Secondly, the diver in the photo is a rather out of shape balding 37 year old man who is rather unattractive = that ugly fucker is me lah. If I wanted to use someone else's video, I would pick someone who is younger, fitter, has a full head of hair and can actually dive a lot better than me.

It is a shame that the person taking the video chose to point the camera at the end of the diving board rather than at the top of the diving board where I was fidgeting nervously just before the dive - so that is why the video is about 15 seconds long - the dive takes about 2 seconds or so but I stand up there for at least 10 seconds trying very hard to calm myself down before I actually take the dive. I clear my mind, think about what I have to do and try my best to focus on the most important aspects of the dive. Like I said in my previous post - diving is a form of meditation for me where I learn to confront my fears and remain zen-like in the face of pressure.

The poor quality of the dives hardly constitute as 'showing off' - no, if I wanted to do that, I'd upload my gymnastics videos instead. I am far more at home on solid ground than having to dive into water. There is so little margin for error when diving - you have to enter the water just right otherwise it could so easily turn into a painful back or belly flop. By that token, it is an unforgiving sport for learners who are prone to errors. You never get the dive right on the first attempt, there is a lot of painful mistakes to be made along the way before you finally get in just right. Compare this to gymnastics, where we fall a lot too - but always onto a soft mat to prevent injuries and those gymnastics falls are not painful compared to diving splats. Gosh, the amount of over-rotated back splats I've had whilst learning my inward dives. My back would be positively red when I got out of the pool and I could still feel the sting 24 hours later. That is why divers can get scared when learning new dives because it can be frightfully painful when you get it wrong.

But I am taking the negative aspects of the diving: the fear and the pain, and turning it into something positive. It is something for me to meditate over and conquer. It is a challenge for my mind - whether I stay focus and deliver the dive I want to do, or I give in to fear and confusion. It is a great work out not just for the body, but for the mind in that aspect. In showing you two less than perfect dives, I want to show you a little bit about this part of my life. I am not that fussed if the dives are perfect to be honest. I don't even care if I mess up real bad, as long as I go for it rather than chicken out and abort the dive at the last minute. As long as I've attempted the dive, I have triumphed over my fear. Now here's a video to show you how pros do it and how brilliant it can look.