On the list of skills championship divers develop, time management is near the top, reporter Brianna Duncan says in a feature story about a state champion in today’s edition of The Register, the student newspaper at Fayetteville High School in Arkansas.
Senior Lindsey Rissinger has gained major success while on Fayetteville High School’s dive team, she writes. “Achieving excellence has taken a large amount of time and effort, in school and out.”
Just how much time? “It’s a large commitment of time and effort that goes into winning a state title in diving,” the student newspaper quoted Michael Kaminski, one of the FHS diving coaches, as saying. “The ‘attention to detail’ factor is huge with so many technical aspects in the dives. Maintaining focus is also essential.”
Coaches have been a powerful influence in Rissinger’s diving success, she told the paper. “I’ve had two great coaches and I wouldn’t be the diver I am today without them. My friends and family are also very supportive and have helped me through the good and bad times.”
One of her biggest role models—national diving champion Kassidy Cook—shows just what can happen for athletes who continue to put in the time and effort. Cook trains five hours a day, six days a week, according to CBS Detroit.
Maybe Rissinger doesn’t devote quite that much time to diving, but the time she does put in has proved worthwhile. She has two Arkansas state titles in the sport.
But putting in that much time can take students away from schoolwork if they’re not careful in managing their time. Rissinger says, though, that she has been able to maintain straight As and Bs during high school.
So what’s next? She says she doesn’t plan to pursue diving in college, but her dedication and focus may have given her what she’ll need to accomplish a few other things.
“One of my biggest fears,” CBS quoted Cook as saying, “was that I was never going to be as good as I was when I was a teenager. Always having that thought in the back of your mind, it was a little scary. But now I’ve surpassed that, and I think that I’m a better diver than I was.”
