The Wheel of Pain and the Making of a Swimmer

Every now and then, a scene from an old movie pops into my head during practice, usually when the set is tough, the swimmers are tired, and the grind is starting to show. One of those scenes comes from Conan the Barbarian (one of my all-time faves;-)... It’s not a swimming, or sports movie (not even close), but it captures something I think every athlete experiences at some point in their journey.

There’s a powerful moment early in the classic movie, after his village is destroyed, young Conan is taken captive and chained to a massive mill called the “Wheel of Pain.” There are no words in the scene, just a passage of time. Day after day, year after year, he’s forced to push that wheel in endless circles.

It’s a wordless sequence, but it says everything. At the beginning of the scene there are others with him, chained to the wheel, but over time all drop away. At the end, he is left standing alone. As the years pass, the small, frightened boy becomes a mountain of muscle. A man forged by monotony, effort, and suffering. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t quit. He simply pushes.

That wheel is the great metaphor for athletic development and for swimming in particular.

Every swimmer has their own “Wheel of Pain” phase. Those long stretches of training when it feels like you’re doing the same thing over and over. Aerobic base work. Technique drills. Kick sets. Early mornings and long meets. It can feel like you’re just pushing that same wheel around the pool, lap after lap. But that’s where transformation happens, not just in the body, but in the mind. You’re building endurance, rhythm, and the ability to handle discomfort without falling apart.

Later in the film, Conan is freed and trained by masters in the art of combat. He learns strategy, precision, and discipline. The raw power forged by the wheel becomes refined skill. Without that foundation, he couldn’t have reached mastery; without refinement, he would have remained just brute force.

Swimming follows a similar arc. The grind phase: the wheel, builds your base: lungs, legs, heart, and grit. The skill phase: stroke work, race strategy, pacing, and technique, turns that raw fitness into performance. One without the other doesn’t work. Together, they forge the complete swimmer.

The wheel builds your engine. The training sharpens your stroke. Together, they make the racer.

So, when you’re in the middle of a tough training cycle and it feels repetitive or endless, remember Conan and the Wheel of Pain. You’re not stuck; you’re being forged.

A Quick Disclaimer (and a Wink)

This post is meant to be fun, and to draw a few connections between story and sport. I LOVE MOVIES and will probably make a few more wild connections between movies and sport;-) It describes a method, one I’ve leaned on in the past and still think about often as a microcosm of a season: the grind that builds you, and the skill work that shapes you.

I’m not suggesting anyone start training their youngest swimmers like Conan. No chains, no ancient mills, no barbarian diets.

But as a metaphor, the Wheel reminds us that great swimmers aren’t made in a single season. They’re built, lap by lap, push by push.