Performance in the flight phase of springboard diving is limited by the amounts of linear
and angular momentum generated during the takeoff phase. A planar 8-segment torquedriven simulation model combined with a springboard model was used to investigate
optimum takeoff technique for maximising rotation in forward dives from the one metre
springboard. Optimisations were run by varying the torque activation parameters to
maximise forward rotation potential (angular momentum x flight time) while allowing for
movement constraints, anatomical constraints, and execution variability. With a constraint
to ensure realistic board clearance and anatomical constraints to prevent joint
hyperextension, the optimised simulation produced 24% more rotation potential than a
simulation matching a 2½ somersault piked dive. When 2 ms perturbations to the torque
onset timings were included for the ankle, knee and hip torques within the optimisation
process, the model was only able to produce 87% of the rotation potential achieved in the
matching simulation. This implies that a pre-planned technique cannot produce a
sufficiently good takeoff and that adjustments must be made during takeoff. When the
initial onset timings of the torque generators were unperturbed and 10 ms perturbations
were introduced into the torque onset timings in the board recoil phase, the optimisation
produced 8% more rotation potential than the matching simulation. The optimised
simulation had more hip flexion and less shoulder extension at takeoff than the matching
simulation. This study illustrates the difficulty of including movement variability within
performance optimisation when the movement duration is sufficiently long to allow
feedback corrections
