From Iowa City, where I visited the Iowa City Eels, to Chicago it’s a short drive east, crossing the Mississippi river. I made that drive heading to my visit with New Trier Aquatics (NTA). This is the largest club I have visited up to this point, and I had great expectations to see how they run such an operation. Not only did my time there didn’t disappoint, but it surpassed any expectation I could have had!
Head Coach Alexis Keto had ‘warned’ me that she was going to put me to work during my visit. She really followed through as when I first got there she told me something along these lines: “you’ll have the distance group, goal is working on closing the 500 free (last 125yards), 35-45min set. What do you have?” After 4 weeks on the road mostly only watching workouts, it’s hard to explain how great it was to be writing a workout and coaching again!
That kind of openness to ideas seemed to permeate from Alexis to the whole staff and all swimmers. Every coach I came in contact with did more than just tell me what they were doing, they asked for my opinion and advice, and put me in charge of helping a portion of the athletes during practice. The athletes were also open to outside coaching ideas, and welcomed any and all feedback I offered while there!
With regards to seeing a large operation, NTA currently has over 600 athletes split in 14 different groups, who train out of 7 different pools! It’s a huge jigsaw puzzle in order to make it work, and they are clearly up to the task. One of my favorite workouts of the entire week happened in a 4-lane, 20-yard pool – that’s right, the top Senior group in the program was in a short, basement-like pool, and the practice was awesome! Talk about being creative and focusing on solutions with pool space.
The program is impressive top to bottom, with all coaches on staff showing knowledge, engagement, and passion about swimming and helping kids get better. And just as impressive, the kids are all eager to learn, put in the work, and get better as well. At the end of the week, I had a chance to sit down and chat with Alexis for the upcoming podcast, and that conversation is another one I can’t wait to share!
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