My Start

Question
Whenever I'm in a race, I get off the blocks slower than everyone else, therefore leaveing me a bodylength or more behind them. Eventually i catch up with my turns and stroke but I don't want to have to rely on my strokes to catch me up. I would rather have the lead off the blocks. How can I do this?
-Sophomore High School-

Answer
You need to just practice and practice. I imagine it's a combination of both a bad start and bad streamline, so you need to work on both. Good underwater streamline kick is what makes you have a good start, more than the dive itself, so work on practicing 15yd underwater kick. Nowadays most people use a track start (one foot forward the other one back), and I recommend you do so. Try to enter as tight as possible into the water and start your underwater kicking, preferably dolphin kick, as you know that's what most top freestylers use.