Diving Psychology - improve your diving performance with Sports Psychology

Sports Psychologists have massive role to play in competitive diving.

This is not a surprise, because to stand on the edge of a platform, even when it is not during a competition with a crowd watching, takes a lot of courage.

If you have the added pressure of a crowd at a big comp, the need to nail a make-or-break dive, or a movement block to content with, then making your dive is a massively psychological event.

Having worked with many divers over the years, I have experience of helping divers like you - whether you are a relatively new club level diver or an experienced international star.

Get in touch to book your sports psychology consultation for your diving

- in London UK, by video call or telephone

Dive competitions usually have qualilifying or earlier rounds and then finals to contend with. This means that you have to manage your mind during the warm-ups, performances, debriefs, recovery, rest, eat, repeat...(unless you bomb-out at the first stage, when there are equally large psychological challenges of dealing with an early exit).

The best divers have excellent physiology, which is well trained (in the pool, the gym and land), which is combined with effective psychological skills to manage the life as an athlete, so they are able to execute their peak performance when it counts.

On this page, you will learn:

Read on, or get in touch with me to book your Sports Psychology consultation appointment - remotely by video call (Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp), telephone, or in London UK

Ten ways Sports Psychology can help your diving performance

Manage pre-competition tension and worry so you arrive at your event fresh, ready and keen to perform
Address movement blocks, so you are able to face your dives, get off the board/platform, and dive freely once again
Develop routines for before your dives, between dives and your down time, so you gain more control and consistency over your performances, using your mental energy wisely
Better manage your emotions (stress, frustration, anger...) associated with your performances
Develop robust confidence in your ability, performance and bounce-back-ability following any setbacks
Set effective goals for the year, month and next training session to shape your behaviour and focus, leading to faster improvement
Become clearer about why you compete, what motivates you, setting-up training and events to foster maximum motivation
Develop effective images and visualise your dive performances, to increase confidence
Cope with, manage and process injuries so they do not hold you back any longer than absolutely necessary
Manage periods of poor form so you return to your best

There are many other ways that sports psychology can help your diving performances. I list these 10 ways to give you some ideas. Maybe within this list you are seeing some ways that I as a sports psychologist can help you. Get in touch, to find out how I can help.

10 ways sports psychology can help divers diving psychologist

diving nerves stress anxiety management for divers psychologist

Manage your dive competition nerves and stress

Here's a little more detail on managing competition nerves, which are so common and limiting.

Usually, pre-race tension builds in the hours and days before an important (to you) event. (This can also include important training sessions, if you haven't been doing so well recently, have a movement block, or are anxious because selection will be based on your upcoming training session...)

Your mind, diet and sleep all become affected by your rising stress.

Your frame of mind has a large bearing on how you perform and the outcome of your competition (your position and your enjoyment, or misery).

Your performance can be affected to a large extent by how stressed you are during the event. By stressed, I mean:

How much tension you hold in your muscles. Tension will impair your movements and biomechanics – causing you move less efficiently and have an altered sense of timing - not a nice experience for a diver.
How much adrenaline is coursing through your veins: some is good, too much and this can put you out of your comfort zone, distracting you from your performance, as you wonder what on earth is going on with your body.
How positive you are: are you expecting things to go badly, to fluff your first dive, hurt yourself, to go behind, let yourself or others down, make a fool of yourself…? Lining yourself up for a self-fulfilling prophecy!

If you wait for competition day to start managing your stress, you will almost certainly be too late to do anything productive about it - particularly if you have not developed robust stress management strategies to draw on.

I have developed a Sport Stress Management Program it is available to download straight-away, to tackle your stress, anxiety, panic, tension…. The program is available to download straight-away. It addresses each of the three important areas:

Physical tension (with not just one, but three proven physical relaxation techniques)
Stress-related thinking
Unhelpful stress-related behaviour (what you do or don’t do)

This program is based on the stress management courses that I researched, developed and taught within the NHS. It is based on what works. You can get this all for less than £20. It comes with a no quibble, 100% money-back guarantee. That is because I am confident that it will help you. Go ahead and order your stress solution today.

Alternatively, if you want more tailored help for any of these areas, in London, or wherever you are by a remote consultation, then get in touch. It would be great to hear from you.