Was this the comm games? He came out the water 1st didn't he?

Ya he led the entire swim pretty much, domestic for his brother. Fairly rough out there too, so perhaps that added to his apparent flogging of the water...(-;

Eric, I've noticed many swimmers (experienced) to have a windmill-type (straight arm) recovery on their breathing side, and more of the traditional bent-elbow recovery on their non-breathing side. Nathan Adrian appears to do the same thing in the 100, not so much the 50. I have the same type of thing going on w/my stroke. Maybe I'm seeing this incorrectly, but Allistar appears to be doing that in the video also. Or maybe it was just because of the chop. Just wondering if I should actively look on fixing that part of my stroke (or just being paranoid idk).

Is there video of this race somewhere online?

Doesn't look to dis similar to Varga (they trained with each other for years so maybe I'm imagining that)

Ali made no attempt to lead the swim (he didn't or has never had to) always wonder how good he is though compared to Jonny, Gomez, Schomen, Polyenski's i.e the other front pack swimmers minus Varga.

I think any swimmer's recovery style is, generally speaking, simply their personal preference. I bend both elbows in my recovery but that's just b/c it feels natural to me. I just don't feel comfortable doing the big high straight arm recovery, it feels like it takes more energy than the traditional bent arm, fingertips almost dragging across the water surface style that was taught for many years. But, it could be i'm just more comfy with the bent arms b/c i've doing it that way for a few decades now. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Is he sighting every stroke?

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Not that i'm aware of but i haven't looked very hard. IIRC from the general Commonwealth Games thread, in some countries you can get it and some not.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

It kinda looks that way, doesn't it??? However, i *think* that, b/c he's going pretty damn fast and riding very high in the water, it just kinda looks that way. I've seen similar head position and "head behavior" with fast swimmers in the pool, when they really would have no need to sight. Also, the purple buoys are on his left whereas he's breathing mostly to his right and looking forward. I would *think* if he wanted to sight, he'd use those buoys and breath left. Further, he's using the "gallop stroke" that Phelps and a lot of top freestylers use, which requires large amounts of power to get up above the water enough to do "the gallop". It is a pretty asymmetrical stroke which some argue is less efficient but the top guys almost all use it, as well as some girls like Ledeckie.

Others may disagree and say he is indeed sighting every stroke cycle.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

having binge watched the last 5 years of WTS races, I can tell you he, and *many* other guys sight every stroke.

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That's exactly what I thought, that he was sighting. It certainly looks like that. Maybe he is, but he's found a way of doing whereby his stroke doesn't suffer. I sight a little as possible, I'd like to sight more, but my stroke suffers.

Swim smooth put an email out about this and they said his right side breathing was so he could see where Jonny and Henri were as they had started on different sides of the course...

We've been watching Alistair and Jonny Brownlee swim for many years and we know both prefer to breathe to their left. That normally works out OK in most ITU races because more often than not they are anti-clockwise courses so breathing left lets you keep an eye on course buoys and assess the race line. It was the same on this course too.

But today Alistair's draw was on the left side of the race, with Jonny and Henri Schoemann (eventual winner and another phenomenal swimmer) drawn on the right. Alistair spends most of the first 300m of the swim watching Jonny by breathing right as he knows he's his most valuable ally.

Once around the first turn he starts breathing much more to his left once he knows Jonny is there. He switches and changes at will without any loss of rhythm or momentum:


Great versatility! This ability to swap sides is something that you can easily work on in your own swimming, not just to keep an eye on your allies and opponents around you but to avoid breathing into a running swell or into a low blinding sun. And of course bilateral breathing helps keep your stroke symmetrical too so that you swim straight in open water.

This is why we've been endorsing the benefits of bilateral breathing and the ability to switch sides at will for so long.