From the Diving Board to the Fairway: Lessons from My First Competition

This past weekend, I swapped golf shoes for uncomfortably tight swim shorts and took part in my first ever diving competition — a novice event in Birmingham organised by the GBDF.

I’ve only been diving for a year, and to say I was the least experienced competitor there wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Everyone else had been doing it longer, diving with higher difficulty, and carrying more experience into the event. It was easy to feel out of place — but that, as it turned out, was the first lesson of the day.

Building Feelings, Not Confidence

In the lead-up to the competition, I increased my training but with a very specific focus. I wasn’t diving to “feel confident.” Confidence built on hope is fragile. Instead, I was diving to build skill — to develop simple, repeatable feelings that I could take into competition.

This distinction matters enormously in golf too. Confidence that depends on external validation — a good warm-up, a few solid putts — can vanish the moment things go slightly off-script. But when confidence is stable and rooted in clear feelings, sensations, and a repeatable process, it travels with you, even when nerves arrive.

The Mind’s Need to Predict

On competition day, my nerves were loud. My brain wanted to leap ahead, to predict the future: “What if you mess up? What if you finish last? What if everyone sees you fail?”

But the truth is, the future is unknowable — especially when you’re doing something new. Recognising that those thoughts were just thoughts, not reality, was liberating. Each time they appeared, I brushed them off and brought myself back to the present.

Golfers will recognise this mental battle. Playing with new people, entering a big competition,standing over a tee shot or a tricky putt, our minds love to create stories about what might happen next. But those stories are fiction until proven otherwise. Awareness — simply noticing those thoughts without getting caught up in them — is the foundation of calm performance.

Presence, Process, and Commitment

When the competition began, I made a conscious decision: my only job was to stay present, breathe, and commit to my take-off. Once I was in the air, instinct would take over.

My first dive was a little rushed — the nerves won that round — but the next three were executed as well as I could hope for. My final dive, knowing I was in the medal hunt, might have been my best ever. I didn’t let the thought of a medal change my approach. I stayed present, committed to my take-off, and accepted whatever would happen next.

In golf, this is the same mindset we aim for before every shot. Once you’ve chosen your club, picked your target, and rehearsed your swing feel, your job is to commit.

Trying to control the result mid-swing only gets in the way. Trust the process, let your instincts take over, and accept whatever comes.

The Reward

To my surprise, I ended the day with a bronze medal — and a huge smile. But the medal wasn’t the real victory. The real win was discovering how powerful presence and process can be when nerves, comparison, and uncertainty are all around.

It was a reminder that skill grows when we focus on the right things, that nerves are normal, and that enjoyment is often found in the very moments we fear the most.

Whether it’s a dive or a drive, the principles are the same:

• Build skills, not false confidence.

• Notice your thoughts — don’t believe them.

• Stay present and commit to your intention.

• Let go of the result.

  
  

Those lessons might have come from the pool, but they belong just as much on the golf course.