Laura Veldhof

“When I was going against Jenison in a meet, an away meet at Jenison. We were all getting ready and warming up our dives and I was super nervous for one of my dives because it’s been a little bit since I’ve done it. So I got up on the board and I was trying to do a front two and a half pike and I got up and this was the first meet competing the dive so I was nervous for that.  I got up and in the middle of the air and I got completely lost where I was. I couldn’t see anything and my mind went blank and before I knew it I hit the water on the side of my head extremely hard when there wasn’t any swimmers in the water so the water was like glass. When I got out of the water, all I could remember was me getting really dizzy, and I couldn’t really see straight or think straight. All of a sudden I kinda just blacked out. When I woke up in an ambulance stretcher in the back room of the pool, the medical assistant explained to me what happened and that I wouldn’t be competing. They gave me a concussion test and said that I had a major concussion. She said I wasn’t gonna be able to dive for at least two weeks. Then she gave me a couple tips and tricks to overcome the concussion faster. This involved sitting in a dark room and a quiet room and not thinking about much but only thinking about the things that are important about diving. That way I can still remember how to do my dives and still remember what my thought process is while diving. That was one of my biggest things that helped me to not get scared about my dives when I came back. What also helped was going to dive practice to support my teammates and also watch them do their dives so I could mentally make notes on what to do and what not to do. One of the biggest other things that helped was doing dry land, which is just doing exercises and workouts outside of the pool because I wasn’t allowed to swim or get into the pool. That involved a bunch of ab training and arm training, visual demonstrations and doing slight stretching. After a week, I felt improved but I went back to the trainer and she said I still had a minor concussion. So I still had to do the same stuff and do it more in depth and harder. That way I could overcome my concussion faster. After two weeks, I went back to the trainer and she said that I was good to head back into the pool. My first day back at practice all I did was take it slow. I didn’t do anything too crazy. I just got used to the board, where I wasn’t scared to do anything. I was terrified to do the front two and a half pike again, because it brought back the memories of me smacking my head on the water. Eventually, I got over it with encouragement from my team and from my coach. That’s how I overcame my concussion in diving,” Jr. Zachary Jongekryg said.