When I was coaching in a small town in BC, I stumbled upon a training idea that I ended up calling The World’s Toughest Goldfish.

People often talk about “thinking outside the box.” Honestly, I don’t even know where the box is. Thinking differently is just how I operate—I’m never quite sure if I’m inside or outside of any box. The idea for the Toughest Goldfish came to me while we were prepping the pool for swim team practice.

During public swim time, there was a rope swing set up at the pool. Kids would grab the rope, swing out over the water, and drop in. After each swing, the lifeguard would use a long pole to pull the rope back in for the next person. For our practice, the rope hadn’t been put away yet. I asked one of my swimmers to bring it over. As is often the case, it turned into a group effort—several kids rushed in to “help.” Since they normally weren’t allowed to use the rope, they saw a chance to have some fun.

One swimmer reached the rope first and started climbing up. I quickly yelled for everyone to stop—“Someone’s going to get hurt!”—and they did as they were told and landed on eachother. But the moment sparked an idea; I could use this as a training game.

Rope climbing is tough, and I thought it could be a fun challenge: climb the rope, then drop into the deep end. The top was about four metres high. But the idea kept evolving.

The rope was attached to a structural beam high above. Most of my swimmers were already quite strong, so I figured—why not add a couple of chin-ups at the top? Then, as a test of courage, drop into the deep end. A game started forming in my mind.

From there, it got even better. Since underwater swimming was becoming increasingly important in training, I added a new rule: after dropping into the water, swim underwater all the way to the shallow end—no coming up for air. Once they surfaced, sprint back to the deep end. And, of course, time it! Game on!

And just like that, The World’s Toughest Goldfish Event was born. A brutal, brilliant training set disguised as a reward.