While meets are largely on hold worldwide right now due to the effects of COVID-19, and many teams are only just getting back to practices, BSN Sports still wants to highlight and celebrate swim teams from around the country. This week, we’re taking a look at the Aquajets Swim Team of Minnesota. Currently, the Aquajets consist of roughly 380 swimmers, who all train at the Aquajets’ facility in Eden Prairie, outside Minneapolis.
Head coach Kate Lundsten has led the Aquajets for 15 years, and over that time, the team has consistently been one of the top clubs in the nation. Team members have set multiple National Age Group records, made the Olympic Team (Rachel Bootsma), and populated the rosters of college across the country, including some of the top teams in the nation. Lundsten herself has been on staff for a number of USA international teams, including serving as head coach for the 2017 FINA World Junior Championships squad.
Lundsten’s coaching philosophy focuses on the idea that coaches need to be learning and growing right along with the swimmers. “Ask the right questions, and know you don’t know everything, so you are always learning, which makes it such a cool job!”
Additionally, Lundsten and the rest of the Aquajets’ staff really try to focus on the personal connections with the swimmers, something that Lundstren credits with the Aquajets’ strong team chemistry.
I really think the kids know that we really enjoy working with them and they enjoy each other not only in the pool but out of the pool. The staff also enjoys working together knowing that in all of this comes POWER OF (IN) THE TEAM.
We asked Lundsten to reflect on what her biggest struggles as a coach have been and how’s she learned to overcome those struggles.
When I was young which was a long time ago I struggled to stay ahead of the swimmers in their knowledge of swimming and was really insecure that I was going to get caught as a fraud. Now that I have been coaching for a long time my biggest struggle is the COVID 19 because I miss our Circle of Love (COL) meetings and our chalk talks and story telling…..not sure the kids miss it that much but I do.
Lundsten couldn’t narrow down to a favorite coaching memory, with so many to choose from. “There are too many memories to have just one so I am not going to answer that one because every year and season there are new ones.” But, she did add that, if you’re wondering “what is an Aquajet,” her only answer is, “Great question! I have no clue but I like it because it starts with an A!”
Aquajets Swim Team is one of 3,000 swim clubs in the United States. How can we grow that number and promote the sport?
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I’ve known Kate a long time as a parent of kids who swam for her, as well as someone who spent time on the business side of the swim team world. Kate is simply a world class human, and she established a culture from day 1. She is too modest to take credit for any of it, and always deflects the attention to others. It is never about Kate, or individuals, it is about the team. This is a super hard concept to understand in a world where best friends are pitted against each other in adjacent lanes with a clock determining the winner. Kate has managed to bring that culture and team spirit to a sport that does not… Read more »
Well said. It’s amazing to see Aquajets become one of the best clubs in the country in such a short period of time. If you get to know some Aquajets swimmers and parents like I do, you would know why it’s so successful.
The best team and Coaches….Go Aquajets!