The Sisyphus Set for the 200 Freestyle

This past meet, Coach Bill had three young swimmers gathered around him, getting ready for the 200 freestyle.  I think all three 9 year olds had done the event before but 200 yards is an awfully long way for a 9 year old to swim.  Especially in a race where they had to figure out how to pace themselves but still swim fast.

This was one of the moments when having an English major for a swim coach came in handy.  Bill told them about a drill he does with the Sharks which he calls the Sisyphus Set.  He didn't push the point, he just carefully explained to them that in the drill you swim four 50s, with each one having to be faster than the previous; for example, if your third was slower than the second, you had to start over at the beginning again.  The point is to get faster each leg of the race, conserve energy at the beginning and go from there.

What I loved was that he didn't go into why he called it the Sisyphus set.  He didn't explain who Sisyphus was or how this applied to swimming; he just explained the drill.  After these kids are done with swimming, having done this drill dozens of times and hearing Bill say Sisyphus even more often, they may not still know what he's talking about.  But that one day when they're studying Greek Mythology, they are going to understand what it was like pushing that boulder up the mountain a bit better than most, remembering the day when the fourth leg of their 200 free was .02 seconds slower than the third.