SwimSwam sat down with Bob Bowman, the Director of Swimming at the University of Texas, who delivered the Longhorns a national title in his first year at the helm. Bowman, who was coming off of winning a national title with Arizona State the year before, discussed the similarities and differences of winning national titles at ASU and UT, noting that Texas has a storied history of national success that gives a confidence boost to its athletes.
Bowman also addressed Leon Marchand’s scheduled return to competition, the Pro Swim Series in Ft. Lauderdale, confirming that we may see the 4x Olympic champion in some freestyle events. To round out our conversation, Bowman told a few stories of watching his grandchildren (Boomer, Beckett, and Maverick Phelps) play on their respective soccer and baseball teams, the latter of which their father, Michael Phelps, is the coach of.
- 0:00 Bob Bowman Introduction
- 2:41 Blending Texas Tradition with Bowman System
- 7:22 Winning an NCAA Team Title
- 14:01 Preparing to Swim Under Pressure
- 17:34 Indiana Dual Meet
- 21:45 LCM Training
- 24:56 Return of Leon Marchand
- 26:40 Summer McIntosh
- 27:05 Olympic 50s of Stroke
- 30:10 Hubi Kos at Hungarian Nats
- 34:51 Michael Phelps as a Coach
In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Hello, I’m trying to become a d1 swimmer and was wondering if there is anyone who could give some tips on standing out among the crowd and some things coaches are looking for. I am currently gathering information to craft emails to send to the collages I hope to swim for. Any answers would be great, I appreciate all advice. Thanks! 🤘
Swim faster.
For D1 – pull conference results for last 3 years. Do your times score in finals (can be ABC depending on conference) If yes those are the schools to email. D1 can be broad – it might mean a top school like Texas/Cal ect.. or maybe a very fast at their conference level like Louisville that makes NCAA but isn’t at the point to win it. Or it might be a mid major conference like MAC/WAC/Horizon that doesn’t make NCAA often but.
Now if you say you are top 8 in those see if your times would have qualified for NCAA, or if it’s a mid major conference go up to a different conference.
If no – those are times… Read more »
Thanks so much, this really gave me a different perspective.
*Phelps as a freshman
Does he train any of the women?
I believe I saw you in past SwimSwam articles and mentioned in a Swim Breakdown that he trains some of the distance swimmers from both teams.
Bob thinks girls are icky
“I want your brother.”
you win the SwimSwam peanut gallery today.
Bob saying he enjoys working with Shaine has got me giddy. This summer will be sick
what does “go to the well” mean?
Tapping into stored potential energy.
Equates to extra days off from swimming, easier practices, shaving, etc…i.e. tapering
Old school mentality was train hard all year and go to the well once prior to your championship meet.
Newer philosophy holds that you can “go to the well” more frequently throughout the year for minor meets and still perform just as well for the championship as compared to the old philosophy.
get some tough work in
It’s a phrase alot of teams use, meaning they are “filling the well” with their hard efforts throughout the year.
All those hard practices, doubles, gym sessions, etc. They are adding to your stored “untapped potential” for use at major meets. Aka. Once you get to the focus meets, you can pull from the well and trust you will perform well.
Another way to just say trusting the process and giving a brief in the system your coach uses for training.
Just because you swim fast prior to your conference meet and NCAAs doesn’t mean you went to the well.
We live in a different era than 15-20 years ago where everyone was beat down until your conference meet then dropped a lot of time.
You can swim fast throughout the season then swim faster at the end of the season. You won’t drop as much but who cares if you’re swimming your best at your biggest meet at the end of the season.
But is that “best” better than it would’ve been if we hadn’t “gone to the well” so often?
I don’t understand why people still think what everyone did in the 80s/90s/2000s is what’s best. Swimmers can swim fast at any time, especially if they suit up.
Going to well to me means resting and shaving. If a coach gives the team 1-2 days of ligher work, that’s not going to the well. That’s allowing the swimmers to recover a bit for a specific purpose.
Bowman said that if you’re going to continue to pound swimmers going into a meet, what are you really getting out of the meet? If you want to compete like you want to at the end of the year, you can’t pound them every day forever. Built in recovery days/smaller rest periods… Read more »
Back in the day blokes would go 16K meters a day, sometimes even 18K meters a day. That takes the intensity up to 10.
But now you’ve got to go to 11. If the dial goes to 11, that is maximum better.
im pretty impressed texas performed as well as they did at ncaas given a lot guys on the roster “went to the well” quite a number of times throughout the year (indiana invite as bob confirmed, midseason, conference, roster cut time trials).
i suspect since the roster will be more set and the team will seemingly have more confidence in bob theyll have a more traditional relationship w the well this upcoming season
Although BB is old school in many ways — he’s not afraid to “go to the well” multiple times, especially if you look at his ASU history. Marchand broke a 4IM ncaa record in a January dual meet.
Marchand was just that good
but interestingly enough the two guys who performed the best this year at ncaas also “went to the well” the least — hubi and luke appear to have only come down for short course worlds
Who’s the tall dude standing on Bowman’s left? I see that guy next to Bowman in every pic.
Eric Posegay
Eric Posegay
Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing with this comment….
https://swimswam.com/kos-maurer-germonprez-shine-as-texas-opens-season-with-orange-white-intrasquad/#comment-1477229
Swimswam gooner over here remembers all comments
When there are like 30+ YGBSM comments from the past year on how close Posegay stands next to Bowman, kind of hard to forget
Why do you hate Eric posegay so much?
Coach B pushing the “Mini-Me” narrative by having Eric always standing to his left! Love it. Go Texas!
Was his response to the summer question implying she may end up competing on Texas college team? Or is that out of the question?
yeah I didn’t understand that answer at all, how is she a “prospect-age” athlete?
It sounds like it’s just a CYA answer to anyone the NCAA may consider a prospect age – even if they aren’t a real prospect
She’s 18 yrs old — how is that not a prospect aged athlete?
I mean in terms of age sure (but that doesn’t really seem to matter) but she’s said many many times that she is not swimming college so as in she isn’t a “prospect”
That’s irrelevant from a compliance standpoint.
Isn’t she training with Fred Vergnoux in Antibes these days ?
She was there for a training stint but is back in Sarasota right now.
I’m guessing Bob is a) being cautious b) using that as a cover to not have to talk about the possibility of coaching Summer until if/when it is finalized,
She might be back in Antibes
https://fr.linkedin.com/posts/cn-antibes_summermcintosh-paris2024-activity-7320369307308179456-B4MR
From all her interviews, Summer has no plans to swim college/university. She has already gone pro athlete. She talked about potentially going to swim with the Texas pro group and it was thought she was going to go visit Texas in March