body type qualities in a good diver?

Question
Hi Tom,
My 7 year old daughter has been diving for 6 months now in a well respected program in Southern California. She loves it but I wonder if she will be able to be successful long-term due to her body type. She is going to be a tall girl, projected to be between 5'9" - 5'11". She's not particularly athletic (her double jointed physique makes it hard for her) but loves the water. We originally put her in diving lessons because it seemed excessive to me to put her on the swim team (the next step in swimming lessons for her) and have to practice 3x/week for 2 hours. I was afraid she'd burn out quickly on swimming. But now she adores diving and wants to make that "her sport". However I look at the competition team kids and they are all on the smaller, compact side. Are taller girls able to be good divers?
Thank you for your time!

Answer
Charla -

The short answer to your question is that yes, taller divers are able to be good divers. They just have to work at it more precisely that divers who are shorter. The reason is that the taller you are, the more mechanically exact you have to be. Divers who are of the height you predict your daughter will be need to have very good fundamental skills while they are young so that when they go through growth spurts they can adapt to the genes they were born with.

The advantage taller girls have is that when they do the more difficult dives correctly, they are more appealing to a judges eyes than girls that are very short. As a national level judge, I will score a taller girl with long beautiful lines more than a girl who is on the short side that may have good mechanics but just does not have the beauty. You have to judge what you see and if two girls do the exact same dive the same way, the girl with the more aesthetic long lines will outscore the shorter girl who just does not have the god given great appearance as the taller more lithe athlete.

Next week, make sure you tune in to the Olympic Trials where I will be serving as a member of the officials staff. Look for a girl named Victoria Lamp from the University of Tennessee. She will be diving in the Women's 10 meter event. She is one of the best collegiate divers in the US. She is tall with a long beautiful line. When she does a hard dive well, she could get scores of 8 and above (maybe even a 10!). I hope they show her on TV so you can get a feel for how well taller girls can do in this sport.

Good luck to your daughter and be prepared for her growth spurts where she will feel awkward but can still do well in the long run if she works hard at fundamental skills.