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?:)
Where you got the idea that a taper is mental, and more of an art than a science, I will never know. I have extensive background in the sciences, so maybe these things just make sense to me. However, I thought the idea of a taper is quite elementary. There is a great deal of science that surrounds the concept of a taper. Granted there are psychological attributes present, however, with out the biological physical changes, a taper would not deem so successful. As I have always been taught, an increase in blood lactate is related to increase in swimming velocity. During high workload volume lactate amount will decrease and then only increase as the workload diminishes (Taper). Therefore, differences in lactate and cortisol concentrations during preparatory and competitions and relations to the swimming velocity are greatly understood. Differences in Performances, Lactate Responses and Pre-competition Plasma Cortisol Concentrations upon research greatly back this concept.
Where you got the idea that a taper is mental, and more of an art than a science, I will never know. I have extensive background in the sciences, so maybe these things just make sense to me. However, I thought the idea of a taper is quite elementary. There is a great deal of science that surrounds the concept of a taper. Granted there are psychological attributes present, however, with out the biological physical changes, a taper would not deem so successful. As I have always been taught, an increase in blood lactate is related to increase in swimming velocity. During high workload volume lactate amount will decrease and then only increase as the workload diminishes (Taper). Therefore, differences in lactate and cortisol concentrations during preparatory and competitions and relations to the swimming velocity are greatly understood. Differences in Performances, Lactate Responses and Pre-competition Plasma Cortisol Concentrations upon research greatly back this concept.
