Three General Principles on the Art of the Taper
Three General Principles on the Art of the Taper
By Tom Slear//Contributor | Monday, February 13, 2017
Perhaps nothing else in swimming befuddles coaches and swimmers as much as tapering.
“A moving landscape,” says Jonty Skinner, a former world record-holder in the 100-meter freestyle and the sprint coach at the University of Alabama. “There are a lot of things you have to take into account.”
To get a sense of just how much that landscape has shifted, there was a time when many coaches believed that the best way to prepare for a championship meet was to work harder, with one of the toughest practices of the season the day before the meet.
That notion evaporated when swimmers such as Chris von Saltza discovered the value of rest. She picked up a stomach bug shortly before the Olympic Trials in 1960 and spent over two days sleeping between bouts of gastric upheaval.
“It was scary,” she recalls. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
She won the 100-meter freestyle and set a world record in the 400-meter freestyle before going on to win three gold medals and a silver medal at the Olympics in Rome.
Word spread: Rest is good.
But how much and for how long? George Haines, von Saltza’s coach, whose Olympic success among his swimmers remains unmatched in competitive swimming, wasn’t sure what to make of this new concept. Swimming, after all, was about hard work. The idea of rest might catch on more than it should. As he once quipped: Some swimmers like to taper for a few days. Others like to taper for a few weeks. And a few like to taper for the entire season.
Over the last 50 years, coaches and swimmers have come to find out that Haines was more correct than he realized.
“A moving landscape,” says Jonty Skinner, a former world record-holder in the 100-meter freestyle and the sprint coach at the University of Alabama. “There are a lot of things you have to take into account.”
To get a sense of just how much that landscape has shifted, there was a time when many coaches believed that the best way to prepare for a championship meet was to work harder, with one of the toughest practices of the season the day before the meet.
That notion evaporated when swimmers such as Chris von Saltza discovered the value of rest. She picked up a stomach bug shortly before the Olympic Trials in 1960 and spent over two days sleeping between bouts of gastric upheaval.
“It was scary,” she recalls. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
She won the 100-meter freestyle and set a world record in the 400-meter freestyle before going on to win three gold medals and a silver medal at the Olympics in Rome.
Word spread: Rest is good.
But how much and for how long? George Haines, von Saltza’s coach, whose Olympic success among his swimmers remains unmatched in competitive swimming, wasn’t sure what to make of this new concept. Swimming, after all, was about hard work. The idea of rest might catch on more than it should. As he once quipped: Some swimmers like to taper for a few days. Others like to taper for a few weeks. And a few like to taper for the entire season.
Over the last 50 years, coaches and swimmers have come to find out that Haines was more correct than he realized.
