Do You Understand How Diving is Scored?

Realbuzz.com shares the basics of how dives are scored.  First, let's understand the basic parts of a dive:

1. Approach to the dive -  a smooth and straight approach to the end of the board is what is expected with good posture, with arms either straightforward, to the sides or over the head
2. Take-off — following the approach, the diver comes to the end of the board, taking off from one foot and landing on two feet, and then departing from the board and the take-off must clear the board by a certain safety margin
3. Execution - this is the dive, where proper technique needs to be executed and the dive's components must be performed with control and held long enough for the judges to clearly identify them.
4. Entry — the point at which the diver makes contact with the water either feet-first or head-first, with the ideal entry being with the body nearly vertically straight, feet should be together and toes pointed and the less splash created on entry the better.

How does the scoring work:

• In competitive diving, points out of 10 are awarded by each of the judges. In an Olympic competition, there are seven judges, who each score a dive based on the 4 basics outlined above.   At other competition events, it is customary to have five judges. Each dive is considered without regard to the degree of difficulty of the dive (tariff)* which is factored in later.
• The highest and lowest marks are disregarded, and the scores from the remaining judges are added together. This score is then multiplied by the degree of difficulty (or 'tariff') of the dive, which is based on the number and types of maneuvers attempted, such as somersaults, pikes, tucks and twists.

*Degree of dive difficulty (tariff)
The degree of difficulty is a numerical value given to a dive, which is multiplied by a judge's score of a dive. The degree of difficulty is based on a formula that adds together the different components of a dive. Obviously the more moves attempted in a dive, the greater the tariff and therefore the greater the potential for scoring more points, however, with this comes the potential for more going wrong.  The degree of difficulty ranges from 1.2 to 3.6.

For detailed information:  How Scoring Works in Diving

Image Credit:  Future Stars Camps