The Do's and Don'ts of Land-based Tapers

Basics of Periodisation

The structure of the training cycle in Olympic sports throughout the year is often built around classic periodisation in which time periods of lower intensity high-volume training (extensification/accumulation phase) are followed by more intense lower volume training (intensification phase) depending on the sport as swimming volume is likely to increase over the year. Extensification phase builds the foundation so the body has the capacity to handle the intensification phase. There is, of course, more than one way to plan the training cycle using a number of methods of periodisation (classic/linear, block, reverse), all will have some effect, it’s just selecting the right plan for the coach to implement effectively and the best fit for the athlete.

What is a Taper?

Tapers come at the end of the training cycle. A taper is a short period of time in which performance in maximised through the reducing of training volume to allow for full recovery and super-compensation, a temporary enhancement of performance capacity. Tapers a notoriously difficult to get right as each athlete will respond differently so a lot of trial and error is required to identify which method best suits your athletes. Some athletes require a prolonged taper while some athletes don’t respond at all or respond negatively to a taper, performing best when deep in training.

Keeping It Simple

In the final weeks before a competition, some get complicated and change things to more swimming specific plans, however, this is likely to make the swimmers’ performances worse. The land taper for swimming competitions is often best kept simple, only the volume needs to be lowered and intensity maintained. This gradually and consistently decreases the workload on the athlete and contributes to recovery and super-compensation as well as avoiding too sharp a decrease in workload which can impact hormonal responses and increase risks of illness.

Movements

Optimal tapers are critical to race performance. Photo by Maddie Meyer.

If the movements are changed during or just before taper, then a new stimulus is being introduced to the athletes which often results in some serious soreness at a time when they need to be at their freshest. In addition to causing and increasing soreness, new movements introduced, or even taken away, around taper can also interfere with neuromuscular qualities such as coordination, explosive power output etc. The taper is the ending of a highly specific period of training geared towards increasing the performance of a high specific task(s). The last thing the athlete needs is brand new training that will only reduce this specificity of motor skill. The final 4-8 weeks of the training cycle should be built with the taper in mind, including the same movements to maintain neuromuscular efficiency.

Key Points

A land taper should almost feel like the session are over before they have even started.

Keep them short and sweet.

Don’t make major changes.

Athletes must earn a taper.

Finally, maintain the intensity to preserve the physical qualities the athletes have built over the past months as the training principle of reversibility will take hold if the athletes back off the intensity for too long.