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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1979)
Diver’s intensity makes routines easier i By KATHLEEN MONJE Of the Emerald At a big swim meet, talk, laugh ter and cheers bounce off the wat er. But when University team diver Sam Nixon starts practicing his diving approaches before his turn comes to climb on the board, he blocks out the uproar around him. “At all my best meets, when I get psyched up and score high, I start doing my approaches on the deck about four or five divers be BADMINTON BUFFS: Recreation and Intramural Sports is sponsor ing a badminton tournament on Sat Feb. 24th. Men's and women's singles and doubles and mixed doubles will be played with double elimination brackets or IKght play depending on the number at participants. For entry forms and additional information oome to Gerlinger 103.___ 3-meter board no trick at all for Nixon fore my turn,' Nixon says. In spite of the noise, he says, “When I start practicing, it’s real quiet. ’ In his pocket of concentra tion, he thinks about exactly what it feels like to make a good entry in to the water. He goes through the motions of what his movements through the air will be, and picks out the landmarks that will help him “spot” his mid-air position changes. “Then I stop practicing, one or two divers before I’m supposed to be up there.” When he does get on the diving board, he tells him self — out loud — what his move ments will be. His coach, John Lloyd, has wondered who he’s talking to, Nixon says, but this warm-up pattern usually produces his best dives. The crowd itself is important to his meet performance. “When there are a lot of people around, the adrenalin really gets flowing,” he says. “I feel like I'm putting on a performance, especially when people are cheering, and I don t want to let them down." Competition against other di vers, including the five members of Oregon’s diving team, helps improve Nixon’s diving too, he says. Freshman Jeff Smith, who made All-American last year and has been diving several years T77ATT7ATTTAT7W longer than Nixon has, provides' tough competition. “He's got an advantage in ex perience. “I started diving from the low board in high school, but he started when he was about eight or nine years old.” Nixon hasn’t yet reached his own goals for diving. Right now, he has two large swim meets, the Northern Pacific and the Pac-10, where he can accumulate the points he needs to qualify for the collegiate national meet this spring. Like all college divers, he works on the one meter and three-meter boards, doing 11 different dives at each meet. Five of the dives are l i >A\//Av IMa | A.C.E.S 9-Volt REVOLUTION - W/j^r/AvVJ^Vj^r/^r/sxy/^r/j r^j Du raced 9-Volt Eveready 9-Volt Each... reg. s1.89 *1.51 UO BOOKSTORE now 13th & Kincaid 686-4331 Open: Mon-Fri 8:15-5:30 Sat 10:00-2:00 s_»» your * Advanced Campus Electronics Center #32 Sam Nixon compulsory and the other six are chosen by the diver and his coach. Nixon prefers the diving style call ed the lay-out, where the diver enters the water with a straight body. Because dives are scored by judges according to difficulty, he’s trying to add at least one more complicated dive to his repertoire. “I’m having some trouble making progress right now, because I seem to have reached a plateau in my diving. But while he may be dissatisfied with his improvement, Nixon is content with working from the one-and three-meter spring boards. He says he has no desire to try for the annual height record for diving, or to compete off the cliffs near Acapulco, Mexico. His team has gone to Portland to dive from a 10-meter (about 39 feet) board there, and Nixon says he didn’t like it. “The impact of hit ting the water from that high hurts your arms and shoulders.’’ When he was making the Lo-meter dives, he says, "I was so scared I went in the water abso lutely straight. The coach said I didn’t make any splash at all.” In addition to diving with the University team, Nixon spends several hours a week coaching the Thurston High School divers. He is working on a degree in phys ical education, including pool ad ministration, and would like to teach and coach when he graduates. He has worked as a teaching assistant with University diving classes. Winter Weekend Rent-a-Car Special 1st 100 Miles Free) Take your choice of a Fiesta, Pinto or Pinto Wagon. Pick up your car on Friday afternoon and return it on Monday morn ing. Special packages avail able on larger cars too! You must be 21 and have a .valid driver's license. Valley River, Eugene 342-2151 Weekdays 8-8 Saturdays 9-12
