Two second torpedoes
From top-board launch pad to deep impact, these high-diving soldiers become human missiles in the blink of an eye.
Imagine standing on a platform higher than a house, launching yourself into the air and performing two-and-a-half somersaults before piercing a pan-flat pool at 40mph. Such a feat requires strength, focus and guts, traits Army diver Sapper Sam Jefferys-Allen has by the spadeful.
Diving is an extremely technical sport based on combining a series of acrobatic aerial moves before entering the water with as small a splash as possible. Get it wrong and divers risk ‘wiping-out’ – losing control and smashing into the surface of the water. “I’ve had lots of bad wipe-outs,” says Sam. “I’ve hit the water horizontally, flat on my face. I can’t even begin to explain the pain!”
But there’s no time for a loss of nerve. Spr Jefferys-Allen’s status as a full-time Army sportsman means he trains from 9am to 4.30pm, six days a week. He spends three-and-a-half hours in the pool and the rest of the time ‘dry training’ – doing gymnastics and weight training.
Sounds tough? It is, but it’s this level of dedication that Sam needs to maintain for the next few years if he stands any chance of achieving his dream and competing in the Olympics in 2016.
“The Army expects soldiers to maintain the highest fitness levels so I had a good base to build on,” says Spr Jefferys-Allen. The sharp mind required to be a Royal Engineer has prepared Sam for the mental stamina divers need but psychologists have taught him visualisation tricks to help his routines become second nature. “It all happens so quickly that in midair there’s no time to think,” he says.
It takes real commitment to find yourself on the top board, ready to launch, but Sam has been helped every step of the way by the Army. “As a soldier you give up aspects of ‘normal’ life to achieve other things,” says Sam. “It’s the same for diving... but the rewards for both definitely make it worthwhile.”
This feature was taken from the latest issue of Army magazine.
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