Tips to Improve Your Breakout

By Todd Proa

1. Workout your coreThe breakout requires a great deal of power and strength, much of which you derive from your core. If you work on strengthening your core you will definitely notice the difference in speed as you breakout during your next race.

2. Improve your thoracic mobility

The area between your neck and pelvis must have a high range of motion during the first two strokes of a breakout to propel your acceleration into the swim. The mobility is also important during the underwater segment because dolphin kicking uses a rolling potion in the abdomen to propel the body in a forward motion.

3. Focus on timingIf you do not have proper timing as you breakout of your turns then your speed and power are not going to be useful. It takes continuous practice to find the sweet spot in the turn between getting stuck too deep under water and breakout out too late while you already on the surface. Make sure that you practice at race speed so you are getting an accurate sense of what you want to do come race day. It may be helpful to begin practicing the breakout technique at a slower speed and slowly increasing each time to get a better sense of what you want to do.