Sam Short, Australia's emerging freestyle force, gets taunted by his coach.
Damien Jones admits to using mind games while setting the toughest of physical challenges for his star protege.
And Jones knows, no matter what he does, he'll never win.
Jones taunts Short with the feats of his idols, Australian freestyle legends Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett.
"I do like grounding him with some little facts about Thorpey and Hackey," Jones said at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
"I like to throw in a few comparisons, give him something challenging.
"And I'll say 'mate, Thorpey could do it, Thorpey would have done that'.
"But he just loves all that.
"Everything I threw at him, he just ate it up.
"And he'd look at me and smile as if to say 'is that all you have got?'.
"There's nothing that I've thrown at him the he hasn't been able to succeed - and when I say succeed, just finish the set (of training).
"He will never let me win."
Jones regularly speaks with Thorpe's coach Doug Frost and Hackett's coach Denis Cotterell.
And the two ex-swimmers frequently touch base with Short, whose world titles continue on Saturday with heats of the 1500 metres freestyle.
"He's in awe of those guys," Jones said.
"I'm in awe of the coaches as well, I'm still a bit starstruck talking to Denis here in the grandstand because what they did was phenomenal.
"And now to see that Sam's doing the same or better is just remarkable."
Short laps up Australia's storied history in the 400m, 800 and 1500m freestyle.
And he has set his sights on long-standing records in the events.
In the 400m, the world record is three minutes 40.07 set by German Paul Biedermann in 2009 in the supersuit era - Short clocked 3:40.68 to win gold in Fukuoka.
The 800m world record is 7:32.12, set by China's Lin Zhang in 2009 - Short won silver in Japan in 7:37.76, an Australian record.
"If he's in a race, who knows what he's capable of, there's no limitations on this kid," Jones said.
"I'm not ever going to put a ceiling on ... we're just letting him go and just enjoying the ride."
Australia enters Saturday's penultimate day of competition at the pool with 10 gold medals, three shy of the nation's benchmark at the worlds of 2005 and 2001 and four clear of next-best China.
Kaylee McKeown (women's 200m backstroke) and Cameron McEvoy (men's 50m freestyle) are Saturday night favourites.
But Ariarne Titmus or Lani Pallister must upset American great Katie Ledecky in the women's 800m final to further boost Australia's golden haul, while Matt Temple is an outside chance in the men's 100m butterfly medal race.
