PHOENIX INVITATIONAL 2019

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11 April, 2019

3 new divers and parents attend their very first diving competition in Kitchener Waterloo.

This post is dedicated to all of the athletes and parents who are brand new to a competitive sport. For all those that have been involved in the sport of diving for a long time can you remember the first competition? What you were feeling? What you were thinking? Probably something along the lines of crazy nervous and really excited. You have no idea what to expect or how you would place. You cant sleep and all you want to do is be at the pool to get a few more practices in to make sure you are super ready.

Parents how about you? Can you remember your diver’s first competition? You can’t sleep, you are crazy nervous for them, have a million questions and probably wondering how in the world you ended up half way across the province for the sport of diving.

Sounds very similar doesn’t it?

Well I will tell you one thing. In my 9 years of coaching I can say this, the first competition solidifies the diver’s confidence in themselves and the parents truly realize why their child love this sport. When you finally get to watch your kid compete for their first time, I’m sure you were doing the dives with them from the stands. Probably pacing back and forth and have your eyes glued to that score board to see where they are ranked after every dive. You become so involved that you too, want to do everything you can to make sure the divers and their club have everything they need to succeed!


1st Naya, 4th Olivia, 5th Dominque, 6th Emma

 

This past weekend we had 3 new divers and parents attend their very first diving competition in Kitchener Waterloo. I’m sure I have described you well in the paragraphs above and I want to take the time to highlight these kids and what a fantastic job they did for their first dive meet.

First we have Dominique, Dom for short! Working alongside coach Gracie she had her first taste of a diving competition. She worked her butt off to get all her dives ready on the 1m board.

She showed excellent technique that she has been working very hard for and was rewarded with a podium finish in 5th place. At the end of the competition coach Kathleen asked her

“how did you do?” And she answered “I think I dove well but I think I could have done better on some of my dives.” This is the answer we love to see.

Very pleased with their performance but can figure out after only one competition that their is room for improvement! Congratulations on your first competition Dom! We look forward to having you at many others!

 

 

Next we have Emma. She too has was worked coach Gracie and Mary since the beginning of the season. We took Emma from our Bob Mac learn to dive and she is one athlete that works very hard and just wants to get better every single practice. So for her to finally get a chance at valuable competition experience this is only going to fuel her fire to get back in the pool to work even harder. Her dedication earned her a 6th place finish on the 1m board just behind her teammate Dom. Congratulations Emma on a great first competition!

Finally we have Naya. Now Naya was very close to having her first competition back in February in London Ontario. Coach Mary felt she wasn’t quite ready and Naya had felt a little bit discouraged that the other divers got to go and she didn’t. Coach Mary took the time to speak to Naya and her parents that the first competition is so important to our goal is to ensure that her performance becomes an amazing memory and fuels her to work even harder. And I am 100% sure that after this weekend she is ready for more. Naya was nothing short of a rockstar! Having the opportunity to compete on the 1m, 3m and platform events. She is coming home with 3 GOLD MEDALS! We couldn’t have asked for a better start to a diving career! Sometimes having patience and trust in your coach’s plan pays off ten-fold. Congratulations Naya on your fantastic weekend!

 

 

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post when we highlight out remaining 6 divers results from the weekend! You don’t want to miss these!