If you are serious about diving then these are the awards you need ( see samples gallery below). They have been developed in consultation with British Diving, diving clubs, diving experts and coaches. These awards cover seven levels of progressive diving skills, from complete beginner through to club level skills. Again, a child needs to have completed Stages 1-7 of the Learn to Swim Framework. If the pool a child is learning in has a diving board then theyВ can also take the Swim England Diving Awards 1-7. Find your nearest pool with PoolFinder and ask them about swimming lessons and Stages 8-10.There is alsoВ poolside work to refine the basic body positions for diving. They cover areas such as the diving hand grab, the concept of a dive,В floats, glides and movements in the water. You can also choose Synchro, Competitive Swimming, or Water Polo.Дivers build on skills learned during the Learn to Swim Framework Stages 1-7. That relieves a huge amount of pressure.These focus on Diving skills particularly. Even if IвЂ™m standing on the edge of the ten metre diving board about to do my final dive in the final at the Olympic games, itвЂ™s important to remind myself that thereвЂ™s always somebody outside walking their dog who has no idea what is going on inside that pool and doesnвЂ™t even care. Having a sense of perspective is one of the greatest lessons IвЂ™ve learned. I spend six hours a day training and when you spend six hours a day training, that kind of physique is easier to keep up. Now, when IвЂ™m standing on the end of a board about to dive, I can think: вЂњWhether I dive well or badly I can go home to my family and theyвЂ™re going to love me regardless.вЂќ

Becoming a parent helps you realise what actually matters. Even when I was 12 I was excited about being a parent. As soon as I was with him I knew right away. I had girlfriends briefly before Lance, but nothing serious. People have their opinions, but we donвЂ™t notice the age gap. ThatвЂ™s been useful since IвЂ™ve been with my husband. One thing I learned early on is not to care what other people think. My message to kids who feel different? That perspective you have will be what enables you to be a warrior in the future. Growing up being an LGBTQ+ or queer kid gives you a perspective on the world and what you feel you have to do to fit in. I didnвЂ™t know what the reaction was going to be. IвЂ™ve taken up crochet during the pandemic and like most things in my life IвЂ™ve become very committed to it.Д¬oming out on YouTube was terrifying. You never understand how proud a parent can be of a child until you have a child yourself. Now IвЂ™m a parent I understand so much more about why he used to do the things he did, why he reacted the way he did. He died from brain cancer a year before the London 2012 games. For him, itвЂ™s about enjoying spending time together. My husband Lance is competitive, too, but in a different way. Monopoly, Cluedo, competing at the Olympic GamesвЂ¦ I just want to win. Neither of my parents were particularly athletic, but IвЂ™ve always had a massively competitive spirit, but thatвЂ™s typical of any Olympian. Even today, there are times when I get scared standing on the 10m board, but you need that little bit of fear, that adrenaline rush, to make you focus, to stop you making mistakes. ItвЂ™s called Loss Move Syndrome, where you suddenly freeze mentally and physically, forget how do to things. I would stand on the end of the board and literally not be able to move my body. When I was younger and my arms and legs were growing at different rates, I used to get scared to go out there. I went through a stage of not being able to take off on the diving board. Diving gives me that mix of being in the water, but at the same time the adrenaline rush of jumping off something really high. From an early age my parents encouraged my brothers and me to swim in case we got into trouble in the water. I love rollercoasters, waterslides вЂ“ diving is an extension of that.

10 meter diving board view from top