Personal Narrative: My Diving Failure

I have had my fair share of failures in life, but one failure that sticks out to me is one of my dive meets my sophomore year of high school. This competition was early in the season, but I was fairly prepared to compete in this invitational meet and to finally prove to my team that I could be a major contender for the state competition. But one thing kept nagging me in the back of my mind: You’d better not fail that front two-and-a-half pike. Even though I felt more than adequately trained for this competition, I was nervous because I had added a rather challenging dive to my list. During the warmup session, I could not stop focusing on that dive, and I could see in the faces of my teammates that they were worried for me too.This then forced me to ignore the basic details of the dives that I was known to perform extremely well, such as

I was performing my dives with great ease and precision, earning high scores in the process. And when the time came for my new dive, I froze. You’re going to mess this up somehow, I said to myself. I shakily climbed up the steps to the diving board, listening to the announcer proclaim for all to hear my name and dive. The natatorium fell silent, and I felt all eyes on me as a began to move the fulcrum on the board and take my starting stance. I began my approach towards the end of the board, feeling the course material under my bare feet, as I coached myself through my dive. Okay, push with the leg, STAY BALANCED, knee up, patient with the arms, swing, jump, and throw! As the board tossed me up into the air, I threw as hard as I could and grabbed the back of my legs. Wow, that was a pretty good takeoff, I thought. As I flipped, I realized that I had plenty of time to make this dive, and I began to smile as a spliced through the water. I was able to execute it for the first time with adequate scores accompanied by thunderous