FORM IMPORTANT FOR CHAMPION DIVER

Southland Times, Issue 23646, 22 October 1938, Page 15

FORM IMPORTANT FOR CHAMPION DIVER

You should not plan on becoming a good diver unless you can withstand the pangs of hunger. This is the expert advice of Nells Thorpe, University of Minnesota swimming coach, and judge of diving m several recent American national collegiate championship meets. • Divers, to be in their best form, should enter competitive meets with an empty stomach and with a hungry feeling, according to Thorpe. The result is a better performance on the springboard, he maintains, because the diver is lighter and has his nerves under better control. Form is one of the most important requisites of a good diver, Thorpe points out. “When a man gets out there on the end of a board, he’s got to be poised, and he’s got to be light on his feet. He can’t do that if he has eaten a meal in the last three or four hours. A deep breath is necessary, before a diver goes under, and no one can expand his diaphragm when his stomach is full of food. Although menus and the time of meals are a matter of individual discretion among the divers of the University of Minnesota varsity, the Gopher springboard artists usually eat only a light breakfast on the day of the meet, and then an apple or an orange three or four hours before the meet is scheduled. Diving, according to Coach Thorpe, is the most unpredictable of all athletic events, since a man may dive like a champion on one. dive and flop the next, according to the circuxnstances and the diver’s state of mind. In fact, Thorpe is a firm believer in the contention that all divers are a little eccentric —the more eccentric the better the diver. Strangely enough, Minnesota divers are of the same opinion as Thorpe in regard to diving on an empty stomach. They are William Ferris, junior letterman; Robert Smith, and Walter Robb. All are from Minneapolis. Swimmers who engage in competition should also eat sparingly on the day of a meet, Thorpe believes, with the meal coming at least three or four hours before the swimmers take to the water. The Minnesota coach is also a strong advocate of plenty of rest or a nap after meals.