Hello,
My 16 year old has been swimming 3000-4000 yards 5x week on the local team for the past 5 months. (This is after a year out for shoulder surgery, and a year of swimming prior to that. His shoulder is doing fine.) He has 6 months until high school varsity swim team tryouts in August. High school workouts will be 6000 yards 5x week beginning in August.
I want to plan his training to both peak for his varsity tryout in August, and to be acclimated to the increased yardage.
I know nothing about swimming tapers so I'm strictly guessing. Roughly I thought he might begin now adding 1 - 6000 yard workout a week say for the first month, then 2 per week etc, until in June he can do 6000 - 5x a week. I would guess that July he would taper in some way....maybe:
First week 6000 yrd 1x, 3000 4x
Second week 3000 yrd 4x
Third week 3000 yrd 2x
Fourth week 3000 yrd 1x
Your advice is appreciated.
Thank you!
See if you can find out for his strokes and events what qualifying times he will need to hit at HS tryouts in August and communicate those to his USA coaches so everyone is on the same page. Obviously, he will need to be able to swim the 5x 6000 workouts, but it's one thing to swim through the workouts and another to exceed the tryout times. What are the times he will likely need to hit and where is he now?
Your body makes adaptations to work when it rests, and a taper provides the additional rest to maximize the adaptation. Getting a good nights sleep and eating right provides the daily rest needed for recovery and the taper provides the finishing touches before a big meet.
See if you can find out for his strokes and events what qualifying times he will need to hit at HS tryouts in August and communicate those to his USA coaches so everyone is on the same page. Obviously, he will need to be able to swim the 5x 6000 workouts, but it's one thing to swim through the workouts and another to exceed the tryout times. What are the times he will likely need to hit and where is he now?
Your body makes adaptations to work when it rests, and a taper provides the additional rest to maximize the adaptation. Getting a good nights sleep and eating right provides the daily rest needed for recovery and the taper provides the finishing touches before a big meet.
