I was able to watch some of the swimming from the Olympics while attending the Long Course Nationals in Savannah - GREAT meet by the way- and although I was impressed by many of the swims, I couldn't help but wonder if the trials were held too close to the Games and as a result compromised the taper of the US swimmers?
The competition at the trials was fierce. Many world records were set. Many had the swim of their lives at trials (I was lucky enough to attend several sessions). But there was only one month after trials until the games. For that elite level it seems to me that many of the swimmers would be into a four week taper following the trials. But inorder to swim their best to make the team in Long Beach, they would have had to taper for trials. Look at Brendan Hansen with two world records or come from nowhere Katie Hoff.
My understanding is that if you hit your taper you can expect (about) a 2% drop in time. Did anyone do that in Athens? My question is why do we have trials so close to the Games? Seems to me we should have had trials two or three months before the Games.
Any comments?:)
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I've never swam at a level where a taper mattered. My understanding is that a taper targets a narrow time frame -- perhaps two days or so.
How can someone taper for a 10-day meet? Either the taper hits the beginning few days (and then I guess you would start losing conditioning after that?) or you target the last few days. (Or maybe I'm just way off base, and therefore I would appreciate some education here!)
What kind of workout would someone like Phelps have done during the days of the olympic events? Would he do long warm-ups each day? Or would he actually do some sort of workout as well?
I've never swam at a level where a taper mattered. My understanding is that a taper targets a narrow time frame -- perhaps two days or so.
How can someone taper for a 10-day meet? Either the taper hits the beginning few days (and then I guess you would start losing conditioning after that?) or you target the last few days. (Or maybe I'm just way off base, and therefore I would appreciate some education here!)
What kind of workout would someone like Phelps have done during the days of the olympic events? Would he do long warm-ups each day? Or would he actually do some sort of workout as well?
