<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I have a gymnast D going to high school. Not sure if we want to continue gymnastics. If we switch to diving, in three years, what is the likelihood to be recruited by Ivies, assume she has average or above average talent:</p>
<li>Highly unlikely (too short time)</li>
<li>50/50 </li>
<li>Quite hopeful (since she will be tight, good at turns, twists, flips etc.)</li>
</ol>
<p>I have no knowledge about diving at all. Any input will be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Not a good reason to change to diving. If she wants to dive, dive. I notice the use of the word “we.” What does she want to do?</p>
<p>very unlikely</p>
<p>Get her in the pool - now. It’s not impossible but not every gymnast can pick up diving to compete at the collegiate level. While she can flip/twist, it’s a little different landing headfirst in the water rather than feet first on the mat, so make sure she wants to do it and is able to do it.</p>
<p>I have had two friends take up diving in HS and earn scholarships in college for diving at D3 schools. PM me for more info.</p>
<p>Are D3 schools allowed to give athletic scholarships?</p>
<p>D3 can give only merit aid or financial aid, not athletic scholarships. It can be a hook at a D3, but there are no diving athletic scholarships at D3 schools.</p>
<p>Ooops - dumb me. Just checked on Wikipedia and the schools in question are actually D1.</p>
<p>swimming and diving at the ivy’s they’re looking for state championship
calibre athletes</p>
<p>I do know her gymnast friends who become best drivers in high school diving teams. But being the best diver in a high school team could still be thousands miles away from being recruitable.</p>
<p>We are exploring all options now.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the replies!</p>
<p>I have a diver who has been training in elite level club diving since age 9. Prior to a frustrating back injury, she was at a National competitive level as a platform diver. Even as she has been working through and around her injury during high school years, she was able to dive high school and participate at the State High School championships. High school competition only involves the 1-meter springboard. Colleges also compete on 3-meter springboard and, at some meets, the 10-meter platform.</p>
<p>We have known gymnasts who switched to diving ‘late’, say in high school years. Depending on their dedication and skill levels, they often do quite well in transitioning to diving. Several have gone on to dive in college. However, I can’t think of a single one who did so via a high school diving program only. Each of the ones I can think of worked very hard with excellent club diving coaches on a year-round basis. </p>
<p>Quite honestly, high school championships are not the best indicators of highly skilled divers. The high school season is not set up to really teach and train diving. More often than not, a high school program is little more than a ‘learn to dive’ program. It takes about four years of repetitive training to really create a truly competitive diver. </p>
<p>It is the National Junior Olympic, Senior Nationals, and National Championship meets where the real competitive divers are found. That is level of competition where the primary recruiting of college divers takes place. (At least that has been my understanding and observations through the years. But I could be missing something)</p>
<p>Diving is not as easy as the good divers make it look. There is a lot of specific conditioning, strength-training, and co-ordination of specific movement patterns involved. Although gymnastics has the skills most related to those needed in diving, there are very specific placement and take-off issues that will need to be re-trained.</p>
<p>It is not really possible to predict whether your gymnast can make the changes sufficiently to become a top recruited diver just from the information provided. The Ivy League schools are not diving powerhouses, but they still look for more than merely competent divers. They are Division I and, thus, no athletic scholarships are available.</p>
<p>At our state university, girls have walked on to the diving team without any prior experience. I don’t think diving at the Ivies is even as competitve as our state U. What level gymnast is she? I think most decent L10’s could easily switch to diving at an Ivy.</p>
<p>OP - if she is just entering high school and she is a good gymnast, she has enough time to become competent and compete at an ivy league level (they don’t give scholarships anyway). As far as whether she can be “recruited” meaning it will help her get into a school where she might be borderline, that depends on so many factors.</p>
<p>Find her a good coach immediately. Not the high school swim coach! If you have colleges nearby, many college coaches offer club or high school training outside of their college duties, and many colleges have summer camps run by the diving coach which I highly recommend (especially for a college she might be interested in). Research through the college athletic website.</p>
<p>Make sure she wants to do this, though! I was a diver at an ivy league and a coach during and after college, and although it was many moons ago, I think the advice still holds. Coaching, coaching, coaching.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice!</p>
<p>I’m not a diver, but I have heard that it’s hard to be a recruited diver unless you are competing nationally because they only recruit about one diver per school, per year.</p>
I am a parent of a former level 8 gymnast who switched to diving in Jan. of 8th grade. She has been diving one year now.
Her diving scores are now at a state championship level, although in Nov. at State she placed 6th overall in HS as a freshman. Her coach says about half of the higher level competitive gymnasts make a fairly easy transition to diving, and half take longer to adjust. If I was you, I would ask your daughter to try the diving to see if she likes it or not. . That is what we did and my daughter loves diving now. It helps if she knows some former gymnasts who may be on the club dive team.We are looking at nationals this summer, which means she has come a long way in just over a year.