A Pro Tip for More Explosive Freestyle Breakouts

Breakouts are one of the important aspects of a fast swim on race day. After all, when diving into the water, or pushing off the wall, you are moving faster than at any point during the race.

Those first few stroke cycles are also the fastest clean swimming you’ll do all lap long—provided you don’t pump the brakes with a poorly timed breakout.

And that premium speed deserves a premium breakout.

Why Freestyle Breakouts are Uniquely Challenging

For freestylers, the breakout is tricky because it requires a clean transition from dolphin kicking to freestyle kicking. And when bungled, that not-so-slick transition can quietly cost speed.

There are two reasons for this:

Freestyle kicking is slower than dolphin kicking

When Yamakawa et al. (2025) compared underwater dolphin kicking to freestyle kicking with a group of eight elite swimmers, dolphin kicking was much faster:

• Dolphin kick: 1.41m/s
• Freestyle kick: 1.21m/s

In practice, swimmers often dolphin kick fast underwater, then switch to freestyle kick to “flutter” their way to the surface, slowing down through the breakout. (Not ideal.)

The switch disrupts movement continuity

Beyond raw velocity, the coordination change itself matters.

Dolphin kick is an in-phase movement. Both legs work together in a wave-like pattern. Freestyle kick, on the other hand, is anti-phase, with the legs alternating up and down.

Switching from dolphin to freestyle kick creates a sudden coordination change that can interrupt momentum.

Freestyle vs Butterfly Breakouts

Butterflyers tend to be faster in that important first stroke, and they transition into it more cleanly.

A study by Gonjo et al. (2025) looked at velocity patterns in a group of ~350 swimmers during their underwaters, breakout, and mid-pool swimming.

One of the clearest findings was that a substantial number of freestylers failed to maintain underwater speed into their first surface stroke. About 40% of freestyle swimmers slowed down during the breakout, showing a drop in velocity compared to mid-pool swimming speeds.

This pattern:

• Fast underwaters
• Slower breakout
• Fast swimming

…represents a wasted opportunity for momentum.

Butterfly sprinters showed the opposite pattern. About 60–70% of butterfly swimmers were faster during the breakout compared to mid-pool swim speeds.

Additionally, butterflyers transition much faster into their first stroke. Trinidad et al. (2020) measured transition times across different stroke specialists in a group of 74 national-level swimmers:

• Butterfly: 0.26s
• Freestyle: 0.47s
• Backstroke: 0.88s

The big difference ultimately come down to movement continuity. Dolphin kick plugs seamlessly into butterfly swimming, with little change in coordination, leading to a cleaner and quicker breakout.

The Dolphin Kick Breakout

Instead of freestyle kicking to the surface, freestylers should consider using the “dolphin kick breakout.”

This is when swimmers do their usual underwater dolphin kick magic and then do one big final kick as they begin the first stroke cycle.

Several elite freestylers use this breakout technique. Caeleb Dressel uses this kick timing in his freestyle races. Michael Phelps used it too. Elite butterflyer swimmers, unsurprisingly, often adapt to this breakout more naturally.

A study by Takeda et al. (2020) compared two breakout strategies to 15m:

• Dolphin kick straight into the first stroke: 1.888 m/s
• Dolphin kick followed by freestyle kick: 1.575 m/s

Tacking freestyle kick onto the end of the underwater phase caused sharp deceleration and slower times to 15m.

Timing the dolphin kick breakout can be difficult to master, and feels a bit clunky at first, but the potential power boost in that crucial first stroke cycle means you are maximizing your underwaters and retaining speed as you enter surface swimming. The dolphin kick will also help you shoot up into the high head position that is crucial for sprint freestylers.

• Tip: To get the hang of the timing in the dolphin kick breakout, do 25s fast of freestyle arms with dolphin kicking. Start with fins to get a sense of how that final dolphin kick slots into the first stroke cycle.

The Bottom Line

Breakouts can often be an afterthought for swimmers, especially sprinters, who are fired up and ready to get into some supercharged surface swimming. But for freestylers, a clunky breakout can be vulnerable to deceleration.

Freestyle kicking during the breakout:

• Is slower than dolphin kicking
• Introduces an abrupt coordination change
• Acts as a braking phase rather than a bridge

Freestylers who master the dolphin kick breakout, using a big, greasy dolphin kick to support that first stroke, will carry more speed to the surface and generate more boom-boom in stroke one.

Kick fast underwater. Breakout like a stud. And maximize speed from start to finish.

Happy freestylin’!

ABOUT OLIVIER POIRIER-LEROY

Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer, 2x Olympic Trials qualifier, and author of several books for swimmers, including YourSwimBook, Conquer the Pool, The Dolphin Kick Manual, and most recently, The 50 Freestyle Blueprint.

The book is a beastly 220+ pages of evidence-based insights and practical tips for improving freestyle sprint speed.

It details everything from how to master stroke rate, technique, build a thundering freestyle kick, improve your start and underwaters, and much more.

The 50 Freestyle Blueprint also includes 20 sprint sets to get you started and a bonus guide on how to master the 100 freestyle to complete your sprint preparation.

👉 Learn more about The 50 Freestyle Blueprint today.