• Kathy Johnstone
• April 11, 2025

Taper

The word taper is used across many squads and holds very positive connotations. Taper means training is easy. Taper means a competition is approaching. Taper means fast swimming is coming. Swimmers often don’t really understand what a taper is, how long it should be and what the expectation is. When the coach writes a set on the board containing anything perceived as hard, the mood drops, and the effort levels are reduced to (in the opinion of the swimmer) not ruin their taper and race day performances. But is this the case and which squads/swimmers should be tapering for competitions anyway?

The Facts

A taper can be anywhere between three weeks and three days and is reserved exclusively for peak meets across the season. These are typically a National Trials meet in March/April and a National or International summer competition. In some cases, a December short course meet is also a target competition (again a National or International meet). A taper should be individualised towards the athlete, their main event and their physiology. It is often adapted as the athlete develops and understands more of what their body requires for peak performances and is based on training across the season considering, illness, injury and overall goals.

Taper is a reduction in training volume and a reduced overall intensity. It is important that both volume and intensity are not completely removed as de-training can occur from a reduction in training load, both in the pool and on land. Whilst training might be easier during taper, the extra time and energy should not be used for other activities and sports. Instead, recovery methods (sleep, nutrition, hydration, stretching, sports massage) should be used to improve performance. For older athletes used to fuelling for big training weeks, a reduced training volume should correlate to less calories consumed to compensate for less energy expenditure. A morning off training means sleep start time should remain the same but wake time is later translating to more sleep (instead of a later night). An early finish time in the pool means swimmers can utilise extra time for post-pool stretching rather than a longer shower and more time to chat.

Whilst training is easier overall, it is integral to performance that training still has hard sets, maximum efforts and race pace included. After all, once you add up competition warm-up, race events and cool downs multiple times a day, some athletes still rack up plenty of meters across a 2-8day competition.

The Reality

A rest into a competition is often all that is required for young athletes (15 and under). If it is a weekend competition, perhaps training is reduced in volume on Thursday and Friday evenings and the morning session is cancelled on Friday to allow for a boost in sleep/recovery before racing. A Monday morning is often cancelled following the competition as well, however it is important that training resumes on Monday afternoon and your coach will adapt the session as required to allow for recovery of both the body and mind. Whilst athletes may be tired, their body will appreciate the recovery session and adapt quicker from the weekend of racing.

In-Season Competition

Often, I hear young athletes asking their coach when taper starts before almost every competition. The thought of racing at the weekend without having been completely rested (the entire week) seems outrageous. The majority of meets are known as ‘in-season’ competitions, so called because there will be minimal rest beforehand, and they are not considered a “target” meet. They are in place to provide an opportunity to practice racing and refine skills, and while swimmers can of course PB at these meets, and often do, this should not be the best performance obtained all season, merely a stepping stone towards the next competition and target meets.

I can already hear you all asking why we don’t do a full taper before every competition. The answer is simple. There isn’t time. In line with the Long Term Athlete Development, swimmers will be racing every 4-5 weeks, so if we used two weeks to taper before every competition, two days to race, two days to recover after… when would we train? Your body would never be able to increase the capacity at which it works and whilst you would be competing regularly, you would not be able to increase performance output and ultimately performance would stagnate. For younger athletes this is often not a problem as they are growing and learning at a quicker rate than those who have already been through their biggest growth spurt. They will generally swim faster in each competition across a season. For older athletes, competing whilst tired can be a frustrating experience, however In-season competitions are where you learn the most about yourself and give an opportunity to re-evaluate the plan and objectives in the next training block.

Learning

When racing in-season, you always hope for a lifetime best but often know it is a difficult ask. You may have just completed a big block of work in the pool, gym may be heavy, and school is chaotic. These weekend competitions should be considered a learning experience. Perhaps you will still PB, perhaps you will be close or maybe you will be miles away from where you finished at peak performance meets last season. But what did you learn?

Is the front-end speed a struggle?

Is the back-end speed the current weakness?

Does our stroke breakdown at a certain point?

These are the things taper is useful for. Removing fatigue from the muscles to be able to race quicker from the start and hold efficiency longer throughout a race. In-season meets give swimmers the opportunity to rehearse specific breathing patterns, as well as practicing performing basic skills under pressure such as fast turns, underwater kicking, not breathing first stroke and keeping your head down last 5m. As Rohan Taylor stated in his Dubai Open Clinic, starts and turns are an opportunity for quick improvements and often amount to half a second per length.

When do I get a taper?

Many Academies will have a different training philosophy and season plan. At Hamilton Aquatics, older athletes (typically 15+) can expect to feel completely fresh and tapered only twice a year. Junior athletes will be rested into most competitions (2 days) to help increase sleep and reduce fatigue. Only once you are 18+ (and often much later) will you truly understand what your body requires to prescribe an effective taper for performance. This is where full adaptation can take place, and peak performance can be achieved.