Junior Monika Biczek flies through the air, spinning and twisting before slicing through the water with the smallest of splashes. She’s finally perfected the dive after many failed attempts in practice. Whether it’s getting lost in the air, messing up entry timing or rotating one too many times, there are many things that could go wrong in diving, and divers have to constantly practice and push through unsuccessful dives.
Biczek is in her second year on the diving team and struggled the most while learning her reverse dive.
“I couldn’t get it, and it took me a decent amount of time, maybe a week. I got it, and then right before a meet I couldn’t get it again during warmup, so that was really stressful, but I ended up getting it and now I love that dive. Now my biggest challenge is probably my back one-and-a-half because I keep smacking on it so I need to learn to listen and time it better,” Biczek said.
Smacking on dives is a common occurrence for the divers. They might spend days working on a new dive, hitting the water and hurting themselves with each attempt. Sophomore Elle Enriquez had trouble learning a few dives as well.
“When I was learning my back one-and-a-half, I smacked a lot. I got it in a couple of days but I just kept smacking and couldn’t get my timing down. Also, for front doubles that happened to me too: I would either go way over or way under and I hated those,” Enriquez said.
On top of smacking and over-rotating are injuries. Biczek has been injured twice since freshman year and spoke on how she has since overcome them.
“I’ve tried to do exercises that help me best and take it easy, and when I do notice returning pain, I tell my parents or my coach so I don’t re-injure myself or gain another injury,” Biczek said.
Overall, though, Biczek and Enriquez love the diving environment and are always working towards new goals. Enriquez explains how she’s improved since her freshman year.
“I’m just way better this year. I’ve improved so much and also I went to a camp over the summer which set me up for the season. It was in Indiana, called RipFest, and it was week-long and we dove every day and did dryland as well,” Enriquez said.
Enriquez and Biczek will compete next along with the swim team against Proviso West on Sept. 21 at 5 p.m.