belly flop

(diving) A style of diving into a body of water in which the surface impact is made mostly by one's abdomen.


manu

For those that don't know what a manu is, you've got your standard bomb, which everyone does, where you curl up and enter the water feet first. But a manu is when you are in a v-shape and essentially your tailbone or lower back enters the water first while you hold that v-shape.

2013 February 22, Elisha Rolleston, “Best water bombs: Nothin' but manus”, in Stuff:

An area of the outdoor pool at Whakatāne Aquatic Centre has been set aside for manus (bombing) after a nine-year-old boy nearly drowned last month.

2022 February 23, Diane McCarthy, “Special space allocated for manus after near drowning”, in RNZ, archived from the original on 2022-02-23:

(New Zealand, diving) A method of diving similar to a cannonball/bomb but with the lower back entering the water first, causing a large splash.


tender

From tend + -er. Compare attender (“one who attends”).

Now, with scallop populations under pressure, Mr. Sewell is one of only about 30 active scallop divers left in his state. He and his tender, Jason Simmons, have harvested scallops together each winter and early spring for the past seven years. The rest of the year he catches bluefin tuna and dives for sea urchins.

2015 August 18, Christoph Gelfand, “’Diving for Scallops’”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-25:

The first of two willful violations OSHA found were the diver and dive tender "performing dredging operations in a canal with zero-visibility, did not have the experience and training in the use of tools, equipment, systems, techniques, and emergency procedures which are required to perform these underwater tasks in a safe manner."

2022 October 19, David J. Neal, “Broward company 'ignored safety standards and a young worker has died,' OSHA says”, in Miami Herald, Miami, F.L.: McClatchy, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-22:

(diving) A member of a diving team who assists a diver during a dive but does not themselves go underwater.


cannonball

From cannon + ball from being a round ball that is fired from a cannon.

The New Yorker, 30 August 2004, p.40

The cannonball could be called the S.U.V. of the pool — oversized, brash, hormonally hardwired.

(diving) The act of jumping (typically into a swimming pool) with the legs bent and the arms wrapped around the knees to create a large splash, mimicking the flight and shape of a cannonball.

bommetje

jumping with the legs bent and the arms wrapped around the knees


tuck

From Middle English tuken, touken (“to torment, to stretch (cloth)”), from Old English tūcian (“to torment, vex”) and Middle Dutch tucken (“to tuck”), both from Proto-Germanic *teuh-, *teug- (“to draw, pull”) (compare also *tukkōną), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”). Akin to Old High German zucchen (“to snatch, tug”), zuchôn (“to jerk”), German Low German tuken (“to tug, pluck, grab and pull towards”), Old English tēon (“to draw, pull, train”). Doublet of touch.

cog

(diving) A curled position, with the shins held towards the body.


pike

From Middle English pyke, pyk, pik, pike (“pike; sharp point, iron tip of a staff or spear, pointed toe of an item of footwear; sharp tool; mountain, peak”), from Old English pīc (“pointed object, pick axe”), and Middle French pique (“long thrusting weapon”), from Old French pic (“sharp point, spike”); both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pīk, from Proto-Germanic *pīkaz, *pīkō (“sharp point, pike, peak”), related to pick with a narrower meaning.
The word is cognate with Middle Dutch pecke, peke, picke (modern Dutch piek), German Pike, Norwegian pik, Danish pig, and possibly Old Irish pīk. It is a doublet of pique.
The diving or gymnastics position is probably from tapered appearance of the body when the position is executed.
The carnivorous freshwater fish is probably derived from the “sharp point, spike” senses, due to the fish’s pointed jaws.
The verb sense “to quit or back out of a promise” may be from the sense of taking up pilgrim's staff or pike and leaving on a pilgrimage; and compare Middle English pī̆ken (“to go, remove oneself”) and Old Danish pikke af (“to go away”).

cog

She sprang into the air and jack-knifed into a clumsy pike before following her hands into the water.

2000, J[ames] G[raham] Ballard, Super-Cannes, London: Flamingo, →ISBN; republished London: Fourth Estate, 2011, →ISBN, page 167:

Guo and Wu took a big lead after the second dive, a back dive in pike position, which the judges awarded three perfect tens for synchronization.

2008 August 10, “China Wins First Diving Medal at Beijing Olympics”, in The Sports Network, archived from the original on 2013-07-28:

(diving, gymnastics) A position with the knees straight and a tight bend at the hips with the torso folded over the legs, usually part of a jack-knife.


pike

en-verb

pike (third-person singular simple present pikes, present participle piking, simple past and past participle piked)

pikes (present singular third-person)
piking (participle present)
piked (participle past)
piked (past)

In the early stages he can do this by bending at the elbows (no more than 90) as he pikes the legs and straightens the arms in co-ordination with the upward swing of the cast, so that the whole body is extended as he reaches handstand.

1979, Peter Tatlow, editor, Gymnastics: All the Beauty and Skills of This Thrilling Sport, Auckland: McGraw-Hill, →ISBN:

At the front of her swing she pikes to wrap her legs under the low bar.

1980, Karen Folger Jacobs, The Story of a Young Gymnast: Tracee Talavera, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 98:

She stood on the block bending slowly; her hands now on the front of the blocks, she dove straight out. Piking, she came up doing the stroke she was famous for—the butterfly.

2012, Charles Fierro, “Tom”, in Dinkletown Road, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 50:

A diver jumps off the 3 m platform. She is in a stretched-out position (a layout) and barely rotating at first. Then she flexes at the hips and folds herself in half (she pikes), and her rotation speeds up as if by magic.

2013, Peter M[erton] McGinnis, Biomechanics of Sport and Exercise, 3rd edition, Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics, →ISBN, page 196:

(transitive, intransitive, diving, gymnastics) To assume a pike position.


springboard

A board consisting of a flexible, springy, cantilevered platform that propels one into the air, used for diving or gymnastics.

منطلق

figuratively: anything that launches or provides impulse


gainer

From gain + -er. Compare German Gegner (“opponent, adversary”).

I tried a full gainer with a twist, the way he did it, but succeeded only in smacking the water with my thighs.

1961, Stanisław Lem, chapter 4, in Return from the Stars:

(diving, gymnastics, slang) A diving or gymnastics maneuver, from a high diving board or platform, involving a simultaneous inversion and rotation.


synchronized diving

A sport in which divers perform synchronised dives.


backward dive

A dive in which the diver faces away from the water while taking off, and lands facing backwards.


forward dive

(diving) A dive in which the diver faces the water while taking off, and lands facing forward.


swan-dive

swan-dive (third-person singular simple present swan-dives, present participle swan-diving, simple past and past participle swan-dived)

swan-dives (present singular third-person)
swan-diving (participle present)
swan-dived (participle past)
swan-dived (past)


swan dive

(diving) A forward dive performed with an arched back, the legs together, starting with arms outstretched when jumping, bringing them over the head when landing.


diving platform

en-noun

diving platform (plural diving platforms)

structure used for competitive diving, consisting of a vertical rigid tower with one or more horizontal platforms extending out over a deep pool of water.


armstand

(diving) A dive from a platform that starts from the hands.


rip entry

(diving) A type of entry into the water when diving from a platform or springboard where no splash results after the entire body has entered the water (the splash only results from initial contact and not at the end).


backflop

A diving error that results in the diver's back making an impact on the surface of the water.


half-pike

(diving, gymnastics) A position with the knees straight and the body bent at the waist so that the torso is perpendicular to the legs.


death diving

A form of extreme freestyle high diving jumping with stretched arms and belly first, landing in either a cannonball or a pike position.


TUP

transfer under pressure
transfer under pressure#English

(diving) Abbreviation of transfer under pressure.