IHSA Sectional Meet

Diving Referee’s Guide

Presented by:

Illinois Swimming Official’s Association

On-Line Meeting

2015-16 Girl’s and Boy’s Sectional Meets

Introduction

This manual is designed for all officials assigned as a Diving Referee at a championship, or State Series meet. It is not designed to be an additional rule book, but rather, should help you understand your role in administering the competition.

Successfully-conducting championship diving competition is as much administrative-based as it is performance-based. Being organized and prepared is 80% of the job. You will be successful if you’re organized and prepared.

General Details (When you arrive on Saturday)

  • Confirm the five (5) individuals who will comprise the judging panel. This will have been determined at the seeding meeting Wednesday evening. You must have three (3) coaches and two (2) officials.
  • Confirm that the host school has enough workers for the traditional “dual table” scoring table (more on this later.)
  • Confirm who the announcer is.
  • Confirm who the scoreboard (if used) operator is.
  • Ask for a meet heat sheet, which will have the names and order of the divers.
  • Confirm the duties of the other officials on your team. You are the Referee, and two of your other three officials will judge. The fourth official should supervise the scoring table during competition.
  • The timeline is below:

7:30 Warm-up may begin. Begin accepting entry sheets if divers have them. Entries must be on the IHSA sheet (triplicate sheets.)

8:00Deadline to accept diving sheets. Divers/coaches may not make any changes to sheets after this time, but may correct errors that you discover during your review of the sheets.

8:45Diving boards close.

8:50Speak with divers.

8:55Speak with judges.

9:00Competition begins.

Competition Basics

  • Preliminary round:

Five (5) dives – two (2) voluntary and three (3) optional

  • BREAK – Should be long enough to allow divers at least three dives. There is no prescribed time, but divers should be efficient and moving along without undue delay. Field will be cut to the top 16 divers. If there are less than 16, everyone will advance to the semi-final round.
  • Semi-Final round:

Three (3) dives – two (2) voluntary and one (1) optional

  • BREAK – Same guidelines as above, except field is cut to the top 12 divers. If there are less than 12, everyone will advance to the final round.
  • Final round:

Three (3) dives – one (1) voluntary and two (2) optional

Review Sequence and Guidelines

  1. Check for diver’s and coach’s signatures. Sheets without both signatures shall not be accepted.
  2. Voluntary dive numbers and DD should be circled.
  3. All divers have 11 dives listed.
  4. The five (5) voluntary dives shall include one from each group (forward, back, inward, reverse and twisting) and their DD’s shall total 9.0 or less.
  5. The six (6)optional dives shall include one from each group.
  6. No more than one optional dive from the same group may be performed through the semi-finals.
  7. All 5 groups must be represented through the semi-finals.

** As a reminder, the diving referee and other designated officials provide the diving entry sheet review as a courtesy to the diver and his/her coach. The ultimate responsibility for the accuracy of the entry sheet lies with the diver and the coach. If errors exist but are not caught by the officials, divers may still be penalized appropriately.

Suggested topics for Diver’s Instructions

  1. Congratulate all divers on advancing to this important meet.
  2. Review the diving order.
  3. Review warm-up procedures before, during and after competition.
  4. The importance of listening to the dive as announced.
  5. Quieting the crowd.
  6. Procedure for requesting that a dive be announced again.
  7. Procedure for requesting that a dive be performed again.
  8. Wiping water from the diving board.
  9. Changing positions of a dive during competition.
  10. Any unique situations which apply to this competition.

Suggested topics for Judge’s Instructions

  1. Review how you will make calls (unsatisfactory dive, failed dive, balk, etc.)
  2. Judges should NOT talk with each other during competition.
  3. Procedure for requesting that a dive be announced again.
  4. Judges may score from 10 – 0 on any dive.
  5. Judges should NOT make deductions for a balk unless instructed.
  6. Thank them for participating.

Suggested topics for Announcer’s Instructions

  1. Be familiar with dive sheets, pronunciation of names, successive order of same names, etc.
  2. Advise spectators to remain quiet, no flash photography, etc.
  3. Announce the diving order.
  4. Announce each dive in the following manner:
  5. Name of diver
  6. Dive number
  7. Dive description
  8. Position
  9. Degree of difficulty
  10. Ask for judge’s awards after the dive has been performed.
  11. Announce the judge’s awards in the same order each time.
  12. Announce places after each round of competition once scores have been verified by the Diving Referee.

Review Topics

Rule 9-7-2: Point awards

Rule 9-7-3: Deficient dive criteria (may review this with your judges, time permitting)

Rule 9-7-4: Unsatisfactory dives

Rule 9-7-5: Failed dives

Rule 9-8-1: Balks and forward approach violations

Rule 9-8-3: Diver disqualification (Involve Meet Referee)

Attachments to this guide

  • Dual table scoring arrangements
  • Sample entry sheet

NOTICE FROM THE IHSA – November 4, 2014:

The NFHS Rule 9-2-2 now allows for diving competition to be re-seeded after the semi-finals and before the finals by the meet manager. The IHSA interpretation of this rule is to continue to determine the diving order by lot in all state series events (sectionals and state finals). There will be no seeding or re-seeding of divers at any point in the competition in either the sectional or state final meets. All divers will maintain their same relative position throughout the competition as originally determined by lot.