Eleven year old Edinburgh diver, Grace Reid, has made the perfect start to the season by winning three gold medals from February’s Armada Cup in Plymouth.

In what her coach describes as “a competition against the top age group divers in Britain”, Grace was dominant on the three heights of board – at one, three and five metres – and produced some of her best scores on ‘inward’ and ‘reverse’. Both are manoeuvres she is required to master by British Diving’s development programme. 

Although Grace’s grandfather dived in exhibitions as a schoolboy, neither of her parents were divers and they never steered her towards the sport.  Yet, in choosing her name, (the dictionary definition for Grace is ‘smoothness and elegance of movement’) they couldn’t have conjured a more apt description for her ability to handle the complexities and pressures of her twisty-turny routines.

“When I was four and a half I was swimming with my Mum and I saw Monique McCarrol [British Diving platform specialist] diving,” said Grace. “I decided then I wanted to give it a try and I kept going from there. I just loved learning new things and enjoyed it so much I didn’t want to stop.”

Wester Hailes was Grace’s first club. Her first competition in Tynemouth came just six months later. Progressing to her current club, Edinburgh Diving at the Commonwealth Pool, she was until recently coached by the Club’s head coach, Jenny Leeming. Jenny has just moved to a new job in Leeds, handing over responsibility of Grace’s Scottish-based training to Mary Sless.

“Grace is immensely talented for an 11 year old,” says Jenny. “She has athletic ability and she’s brave and very mentally tough.

“She knows what she has to do to get where she wants to, which makes her very easy to work with. If she’s working on a new dive and it’s not going right, she’ll voice her opinion and say “I’m not ready for it today” but you know she will go away, think it through, and come back mentally prepared to do it the next time.

“She seems to be much older than her years. When I speak to her sometimes I feel like I’m talking to my grandmother!”

Although 200 miles now separate Grace from Jenny, the link is anything but broken. This month the Reid family will start a weekly trip to Leeds for Saturday and Sunday training. It’s a daunting addition to an already packed training schedule of 16 hours a week. A less determined character (and a less supportive family) might have opted out at this stage.  Fortunately, Grace seems to have worked out a great deal of the psychology necessary to being successful.  

Grace’s move up into the 12-13 age-group coincides with the sport’s official acceptance by the Scottish Area Institute of Sport network.

Scotland’s Area Institute of Sport network helps Scottish governing body-identified athletes by providing high performance expertise.  Its expert teams work together to deliver essential support services locally in sports medicine, sports science, strength and conditioning, and give career and lifestyle guidance.

The East of Scotland Institute of Sport, supporting Grace since November, is keen to ensure that both the programmes north and south of the border complement one another. They are planning to supply GB Diving with regular video footage of Grace, and are seeking both a trampolining coach and facilities to help with dry land training. 

In the past few weeks Grace has started a Strength & Conditioning programme with the East Institute’s Neil Crosbie and, in an effort to maintain peak energy over a three day event, she is taking nutritional advice from Ruth McKean. Both areas are new to Grace who has embraced them with equal commitment.

“I’ve never done weight training before and it’s all very different to me,” she says. “I’m doing it two times a week at the moment with Neil Crosbie and there’s been a massive improvement already.

“A three day competition is quite tough and I would often not have enough energy on the third day. I’ve learnt what to eat as well as what to take with me to make sure I have more stamina.  In Plymouth I took all the foods I was recommended and they made the world of difference.”

Eleven might seem young for an athlete to spend so much time training but as Jenny points out, her schedule is exactly what is needed for an athlete with ambitions of competing in a major Games. Grace makes an important, and surprisingly adult, point that many young athletes seem to miss.

“I spend 16 hours a week training. It’s a lot but if you love something that much then it’s not as hard,” she said.

“In diving there are moments when you get really scared but you have to think of what lies ahead, the great opportunities after. 

“To get to the Olympics is a really big goal but I’m quite determined to keep progressing, learning new dives and trying to perfect new things.”

Grace will next be in action at the G Star Diving Championships in Leeds this April before switching her attention to her main event of the year, the British Elite Junior Championships, at Leeds in May.

RE-J
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