While swim meets and practices are largely on hold worldwide right now due to the effects of COVID-19, BSN Sports still wants to highlight and celebrate swim teams from around the country. Today, we’re taking a look at Foothills Swim Team, a USA Swimming club that’s been serving the Denver, CO, area since 1963, and includes roughly 175 swimmers who train out of three pools.
We spoke with head coach William “Bill” Rose, who has led the team since the fall of 2009, to get a sense of what makes Foothills Swim Team special, as well as some of his thoughts on training in general.
According to Rose, there’s a few things that Foothills focuses on that helps makes the team distinctive.
On the technical side we do three (3500-4000 yard) sessions a week devoted to kicking and underwater work alone. Our program puts a high value on kicking and stability development. From a team standpoint we really believe in the empowerment of moral principles. We want to provide an environment that helps our athletes strive towards moral excellence. Setting a standard like this for our program has been one of the most challenging and rewarding things we’ve done. It’s the best thing we have to offer.
Lots of teams have particular workouts that swimmers would recognize as “iconic,” but for Foothills swimmers, the most memorable training is more than just a single set, but rather an annual block known as “Pyramid Training.” Rose explained that the “The Pyramid takes place over a two week period during the winter break (Dec-Jan). There are ten total practices in the Pyramid designed to challenge our swimmers mentally and physically.” A few examples include:
- 100 x 100 (mixed with sets of 10 on drop 5 intervals and IM)
- “The Sandwich” – 1 x (Broken 500), 1 x (Big Brother), 1 x (Broken 500)
- “Double day” AM – 15 x 100 for time kick @ 3:00, PM – 15 x 100 for time swim @ 2:00
Rose mentioned a few other sets that’ve worked well for the team over the years, including:
- Sets of (25’s & 50’s) with tempo trainers set at goal pace, then on rates, followed by broken swims. “go-to” set
- 12 x 75 @ 2:30 Make GP favorite test set
- 10 x 200’s best average @ 2:40 (Distance) @ 3:00 (Sprint/Stroke). favorite “get up and work” set
For now, though, swim training is hold, so we asked Rose what he and the rest of the coaching staff has been doing to help keep the team connected during the shutdown.
We are currently running voluntary Zoom sessions with each of our groups twice a week covering a variety of topics. Each of our sessions consist of topics that are age and group specific. We are also posting content for review, skill sheets, and learning profiles that all mirror our in the water goals for development. We are using google classroom with our older swimmers and basic email with our age group/developmental swimmers.
Ultimately, however, whether training in or out of the water, what makes Rose happiest as a coach comes back to the core of what swimming is all about, which he puts as “Seeing the positive growth and maturity of our athletes, and the impact that has on who they will become in the future.”
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