In today's 'The Week That Was', we take a look at how the Chinese Olympic Diving Team trains and prepares for competition.

According to Rett Larson, Project Manager for EXOS China and Consultant to the Chinese Olympic Diving Team, the fundamental elements that he has experienced with Chinese diving are:

• Age groups train together. Which may mean gold medallists train together with 10-year-olds. Diving coaches will typically be responsible for a number of Olympic veterans and juniors, meaning the latter can learn from the champions in and out of the pool, bringing a sense of humility. Athletes become a family, calling each other big sister and brother.

• Most time is spent working on the fundamentals. In diving, the Chinese arguably have a higher training volume than the rest of the world, with more than 100 dives per day perfectly normal, many of them very basic. 

• Spectacular failures are applauded. The technical proficiency of Chinese divers is incredible because they practice longer and harder, but they have dominated competitions by performing simple dives exceptionally well. But they also know that they have to push themselves and innovate. And when they do this in training the support of the whole team is fantastic.

• Each dive, even the basic one, is given feedback. A dozen coaches give immediate feedback on every dive that their athlete performs that day, no matter what the level of the diver.

• Athletes are not allowed to specialize in one discipline. The 10m platform divers will dive on the 3m, 5m, 6m, 7m, and even the springboards depending on what their coach wants them to work on.

• The most important work is done outside the pool. Chinese divers perform dry-land training better than anyone else. Like their dives in the pool, each athlete has a laminated sheet of dry-land exercises that move them from the trampoline to the foam pit to the mats or to the runway to practice approaches. They move around the gym and are never on one piece of equipment for more than 20 minutes.

• Feedback from lots of coaches is key. As the athletes move around the dry-land training area, they move into the zones of different coaches who offer a variety of corrections based on what their “coaching eye” sees. Chinese coaches all share a basic methodology so there’s no worry of conflicting messages being sent.

• Video is used as much as possible. With closed circuit cameras that catch the dives being performed. After the athletes get out of the pool and receive feedback from the coach, they can look up on the huge monitors and see the dives for themselves.

• Team identity through sacrifice is vital. There’s no need to train at 6am instead of 9am but the team does, because it’s inconvenient, and it creates an air of “we work harder than anyone else.”

• Fun! Dry-land training is a place where there is frequent playing around and laughing. The coaches let the athletes be kids.