For Masters and other competitive swimmers, the spring championship season is upon us, raising interest in how to taper – i.e. reduce training yardage and intensity to promote faster races. Erin Quinn, head coach of the TI-coached Hawks Swim Team in New Paltz, emailed other Hawks coaches with thoughts about how to taper for the team’s mid-March championships. I answered with thoughts on tapering a group of young (average age 11) swimmers whose training volume and intensity is modest.

From Erin:
“All I've read on tapering, plus intuition, suggest that you reduce yardage by 30 to 60 percent prior to the big meet. The idea seems to be that the yardage is ‘in the bank,’ so our goal is to sharpen their ability to race via race-pace sets as well as starts, turns, and a lot of mental training, including creative visualization.

Without thinking of it as tapering, I've been writing practices recently that concentrate on ‘event-specific’ sets. We're not necessarily doing fewer yards yet, but we are doing less distance training.

Now, I think it may be time to begin reducing yardage by providing longer, easier warm-ups and cool-downs and increasing rest between race-pace sets. Many of these young kids tend to race everything. Those who come once or twice a week will not benefit from tapering. But those that come three or more times a week can benefit from a plan. I think it's essential that they believe in the plan.”

Terry’s Comments:

Tapering is often thought of as the key to an entire season’s success. When I swam in college, nearly 40 years ago, our season plan consisted of several months of training seemingly designed to keep us fatigued for several months. Two weeks before championships, we’d cut back on yardage and start doing shorter sets on longer rest, after which most of us did indeed swim much faster than previously.

We thought that meant taper had worked, but didn’t realize such an approach was limiting our true potential. Endless weeks in a fatigued state trained us to survive our training, but neglected the neuromuscular sharpness required for fast races. Rather than cramming speed training into two weeks, we should have been doing it all along, using aerobic training to promote recovery from anaerobic sets, then spent the final two weeks resting.

Training is more sophisticated now, as evidenced by stunningly fast times recorded all season long, though today’s swimmers do far more mileage than my teammates and I did. The right mix of recovery and speed work produces far higher levels of race-ready-fitness yet still allows for significant time drops in taper.

And taper itself has become far more of a science. The distance and number of races – including trials, finals and relays – to be swum in three to four days, an individual’s physical maturity and muscle mass, even personality type (high strung athletes can become “unstrung” during periods of reduced activity) all enter into a careful calculus of how to reduce the workload.

But a more critical factor than volume is intensity. Steeply reducing intense forms of training, while more gradually reducing total yardage, will produce faster times while maintaining the fitness needed for up to 15 taxing races – and twice as many warm-ups and cool-downs – over three to four days. And if a second championship will follow, it’s easier to return to training between the two meets.

An equally critical consideration is the duration of speedwork. Most of the season, intensely demanding sets -- from which it may take two days to fully recover -- contribute to maximizing physical capacity. But closer to the big meet, you should be able to recover from a speed set in an hour or less -- if not in minutes. That means shorter repeats and briefer sets at race speed.

Few of these factors apply to a young “developmental” team like the Hawks, most of whom swim just three to five hours per week, and focus far more on stroke development than on probing their limits. That leaves less opportunity to reduce yardage and intensity.

Erin’s intention to taper "organically" is wise. Rather than focus on reducing the yardage total, lengthen warm-ups and cool-downs, and include longer “form recovery” sets, at exacting efficiency levels, between shorter, more focused “racing practice” sets. The proportion of fast vs. easy swimming can change markedly while the total yardage remains relatively constant.

It is even more important when coaching young kids to emphasize attention and awareness. On every practice, set and repeat remind them that every stroke and turn is an opportunity to Practice The Skills That Win Races. And those longer warm-ups and cool-downs should be “choreographed” to reinforce small details like head position, seamless breathing, and how you break out from each turn.

With age group swimmers, mental sharpening will be the most important ingredient by far. Even as a middle-aged distance swimmer who must be ever mindful of restoration and avoiding overwork, I still prefer to think of what I do immediately before an important event as "sharpening" rather than "tapering." That puts the emphasis on tuning up both mental and physical processes.

Toward that end, Erin’s plan to offer visualization prior to practice is a great idea. It should be helpful to have each swimmer express an intention prior to the start of practice. That intention could be behavior-oriented: to complete every repeat and set, to make five positive comments during practice. Or it could be technique-oriented: to breathe bilaterally, swim more quietly, control head movement, etc.

And finally, as Erin notes, getting the team to believe in the plan will be more powerful than the content we coaches plan.

And what about Masters?

Tapering for the Masters swimmer is a truly intriguing topic. Considering what we know about the aging process, it seems that what I described for younger swimmers going through puberty – more rest as muscle mass increases - might work in reverse. As you move into your 40s and beyond, it may make sense to gradually abbreviate the taper. A complicating factor is that we are also less resilient as we age, so it generally takes longer to recover from a given workload or intensity.

Speaking personally, my weekly 15,000 yards is approximately 20 to 30 percent of an elite swimmer’s training. This leaves little room to drop yardage -- especially as I typically swim the longest events at Masters Nationals. So I keep my volume steady until just a few days prior to an important meet, then reduce it more steeply.

The more significant change is in abbreviating my “race rehearsal” training over the last few weeks. I use those to “tune my nervous system” by swimming as close as possible to the Velocity, Stroke Length and Stroke Rate I hope to maintain during my races. I hope that by activating my muscles in the precise loading patterns they’ll experience during the race, my neuromuscular system will continue to perform that task unerringly, even through fatigue. But I’m careful to avoid creating residual fatigue with these race-pace repeats. Within the last five to 10 days prior to the meet, I need to be able to quickly recover from work of this type.

Here’s an example: In May 2006, I set a goal to swim under 20:00 for 1650 yards at Masters Nationals -- a pace of about 1:12 per 100. Five days prior to the meet, I attempted a set of 8 _100 on 1:30, trying to hold that pace at an 80% effort level at 14-15 SPL. When I couldn’t do it with the ease I was aiming for I experimented with repeating 75s on 1:10, holding 54 seconds. This still felt a bit too taxing. So, I tried alternating a 50 and a 75 at 36 and 54 seconds respectively, at 14SPL. After a few rounds, it began to feel easier, so I added a 100 to each round, swimming 50+75+100 at pace, plus a 25 easy between rounds. I did four rounds like that with the ease I was aiming for.

Five days later I swam 19:52 for the 1650, holding a 1:12-per-100 pace all the way and placing 3rd in the 55-59 age group.

The lesson is to be flexible. Use race-pace sets to rehearse the exact stroking pattern (V, SL and SR) you hope to maintain in the race, while also focusing on making that pattern feel as relaxed and sustainable as possible. Adjust repeat distance and/or rest interval until you achieve the pace, stroke length and ease you seek. For my shortest races – 200 Fly, 200 Back and 200 Breast -- I may do several rounds of, say, 2 x 25 plus 1 x 50 with ample rest and some extra recovery swimming to achieve the same non-fatiguing-rehearsal effect.

Read a "live chronicle" of Terry's preparation for his next important mile race - March 27 at the New England Masters championship in Boston.