Practicing your dives will make you become a better diver; practicing the elements that make up a dive will make you an even better diver.
One of the best ways to do this is by using a series of dryland drills that simulate the movements that occur in a dive. One such drill is a back somersault tuck kickout.
Learning how to stop a somersault from spinning, or rotating, is one of the most important aspects of learning to dive. The ability to stop a somersault allows a diver to progress from simple, voluntary dives, to the harder optional dives. To be able to stop (actually to slow down) a somersault that is spinning, a diver must learn the proper technique for a kickout, both with forward spinning somersaults, and with backward spinning somersaults.
A kick-out, in simplest terms, allows the diver to slow the rotation of the somersault, and maneuver their body into a stretching position for the water entry that will follow. The tutorial that follows is a dryland drill that will help a diver practice a kick-out to stop a backward spinning somersault in tuck position.