Flipturned

Taper

Taper has become a necessity for swimming, especially as the mileage swum in practice has reached high levels. Taper refers to the period of time prior to competition when mileage is reduced as the intensity remains strong. This pre-meet decrease helps swimmers rest and allows for physical adaptations that will help swimmers benefit from training.

Fanny Durack, first female to win the Olympic 100m free (the 1912 Games were the first with events for women), trained about 1/2 mile each day leading up to the 1912 Olympics. This wouldn't be very different from the normal amount trained at the time, and this didn't increase much until after 1930. Compared to now, this is very little and there wasn't much need for taper. In fact, taper didn't really exist and swimmers actually increased their practices, including sprint sets rather than just technique.

Some of the first records of taper are from the 1960's but the idea only grew more complex in the 1970's. With the increase of international meets, taper would have to become more frequent. In the end, this would greatly affect the swimmer's ability to perform when needed due to the lack of training in between meets. Correctly tapering swimmers became quite a skill.

Nowadays, taper at the elite level is very individualized based on the athletes physical and mental needs. For example, Olympic swimmer Penny Oleksiak, who is only 16, is still growing. For her, it is extremely important to have a well planned taper as her body needs time to adjust.

Taper has helped to improve swimmers performances greatly and with regular use we are constantly learning better ways of using it.