By Coach Emmett Hines

Perseverance Can Move Mountains!

Most of you know that my new wife Peggy and I recently returned from the Grand Canyon.

It has been calculated that if Man had dug the Grand Canyon on his own, using conventional excavation equipment and methods, the cost of The Project (at today's prices) would exceed the combined gross national product of every nation on Earth accumulated from the beginning of recorded history. Big job. Kinda makes killing the deficit look like weenie work.

So I find myself dangling my feet over the South Rim, looking at the mere sliver of green that is the Colorado River some 5400 feet below. There is a huge and eerie silence that accompanies the calm that settles over the brink just before sundown. The breeze dies, the crickets grow quiet and the squirrels cease their otherwise constant scurrying and chattering. This encourages reflection upon matters weighty and profound.

For the past 6 million years The River, aided by wind and rain, has slowly and methodically carved away at the earth. Rock by rock, pebble by pebble, grain by grain The River has moved an incomprehensible mass of rock away from what was once a vast mountain plateau.

Today, a weathered geologist might tell us that, given a specific formation of rock and earth and given a constant supply of water to flow across the terrain and given a sufficient number of ticks on the geologic clock, the Grand Canyon was inevitable. Yet I'm sure that if, standing in that spot 6 million years ago watching the first trickle of water creep across the unscathed land, we had been privy to that sort of speculation we would, at best, be skeptical.

Persistence in effort. Attention to detail. Patience in results. These were - are - qualities indispensable to The River in formation of the Canyon. In short, The Project required no small amount of Perseverance.

(You are wondering perhaps how this relates to swimming. So am I. I spent quite a bit of time at the Big Ditch and, dadgumit, I feel like writing about it.)

While perched on the verge of the Canyon I was not interrupted by thoughts of such inconsequential matters as swimming. I did, however, dwell on grand and abstract concepts - how a seemingly miniscule force like that narrow ribbon of water more than a mile below me could keep on pluggin', day in and day out, for more than one hundred thousand lifetimes. Not once could it look up from its work at the end of a particularly long day and say with satisfaction "Gee, we knocked out a big chunk today, eh mate?" Nor could it gaze into the sunset and see the final destination on the horizon and think something like "OK, now we're more than half way there - it's all downhill from here!" In fact the only solace that river could take is to look over her shoulder every million years or so and see where she started, see how much progress she has made up to the moment and perhaps dream about where she might end up. (I'm confident The River is a "her." Men, Job included, haven't this kind of patience.)

Come to think of it, there is a parallel I can draw here. Perhaps if we think of the long-term process of improving your swimming as The Project. And think of your daily training and learning efforts as The River. Recall the indispensable qualities inherent in successful execution of The Project - Persistence in effort. Attention to detail. Patience in results. Just as the Canyon was formed a little at a time, perfect strokes and world records are the result of cumulative efforts over the long haul.

Keep pluggin' and look over your shoulder from time to time.

Editor's Note: I've changed my swimming goals. I now am aiming for breaking the Men's 6,000,035 - 6,000,0039 age group world 100M breast record! Just try to stop me.

Coach Emmett Hines is the head coach of H2Ouston Swims. He has coached competitive Masters swimming in Houston since 1982 and was selected as United States Masters Swimming's Coach of the Year in 1993. Currently he coaches workouts at the University of Texas Health Science Center, the University of Houston and The Houstonian Club.