Did Olympic team taper?

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 13:44:14 GMT

Everyone seems to be thinking that the team performance was down because of the second taper. How about the pool? It was definitely windy. The commentators said that it impacted the Breastroke events and I would think that others would experience the same thing. And the pool itself.. was it fast or not?

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 16:11:03 GMT

Yah, Allen- and we need all the synergy we can get for the last ten meters of a 200m ***, eh?

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 10:41:42 GMT

The introduction to the chapter on tapering in Swimming Fastest has this to say: Presently, more mystique than fact surrounds tapering procedures. Only in the last decade have researchers conducted a significant number of studies on tapering. As a result we are beginning to know more about the physiological reactions associated with tapering. Still, the exact nature of the physiological changes that result in better performance after a taper continues to be a mystery. Strangely, the book doesn't seem to address the question of how long peak conditioning can be maintained. Could someone who set a world record at trials be "maintained" in that state through to the Olympics rather than going through another training cycle?

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 14:57:48 GMT

One additional point to remember about the preparation for a big meet (or meets) is that it isn't just the decrease in volume/yardage that is part of the taper. It is also the increased focus on intensity in the weeks leading up to the meet, meaning more practice swimming at race pace and more work on the little things, like starts, turns, breakouts, etc. All of these components fit into an intelligently-designed training schedule, whereby a swimmer should be able to peak for a competition "season" that may last 4-6 weeks, not just the traditional few days of one big meet.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Allen Stark — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 09:04:35 GMT

As Yogi Berra might say-Shaving & tapering is 90% physical & 90% mental.Tapering does make significant physiologic changes that improve performance (see the section on taper in "SWIMMING FASTEST") Shaving clearly reduces drag. Both are also part of the ritual of preparing to swim fast. In my opinion it's a false dichotomy to try to separate them out in importance as they work synergistically.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 15:22:32 GMT

ced357 only makes my point. The whole world of sports have known about Performances, Lactate Responses and Pre-competition Plasma Cortisol Concentrations yet so many swimmers fail to do their best times at the Olympics. The hardest thing in the world is to do your best performance on one day a year. Yet there are athletes such as Amanda Beard who have learned to swim fast many many times a year. Mark Spitz could roll out of bed and break a world record any time he felt like it. Swim magazine really did a great job predicting most of the winners and top three at this years Olympics.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 12:42:17 GMT

Baahhh! It's in your head man, it's in your head!:D Seriously though, excellent point, you must have a higher education to have them kind of brains huh? I ain;t never heard of no learnin about that kind of stuff. appreciate the lesson, I stand corrected in regards to my stance on the taper being psychological, but I'm holding my ground on the shave vs unshaven issue.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 11:46:18 GMT

"This taper thing has always been too much art and not enough science." I agree with you Breastroker. I have always compared the taper with shaving down for a big meet. It's primarily psychological, which can be just as effective as a physical benefit in many cases. I feel that it depends on the particular swimmer. I would be willing to bet that just as many records would been set with or without a taper, with or without hair. It's in your head man, it's in your HEAD!

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Frank Thompson — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 06:16:55 GMT

I remember seeing Dennis Pursley on TV during the 1992 Olympic Trials which were held in early March of that year. He said that USA swimming would experiement with having an early trials in 1996 also and then make changes if they need to. The NCAA was not favor of the Trials during this time because it disrupt the college season and there Championships. Also there were swimmers in the summer of 1996 that were swimming faster than Olympians that made the team. The one I remember was Misty Hyman and her time that year at summer nationals in the 200 Fly was faster than any American but she did not swim that fast during the High School season in March which was about 4 months ago from her fast swim. I beleive she when 2:10 and went 2:13 in March of that year when trials were held. Phil, great first post and I do remember the detailed analysis that Swimming World did back in the Fall of 1997. Also in the June 2004 issue of Swimming World you did an article about the South African 400 Free Relay "Out Of Africa" and how they would become a threat to every country and go about 3:13.65. Nice prediction.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

ced357 — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 04:30:44 GMT

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.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 15:50:31 GMT

I don't think there will ever be any consensus on when to hold trials. I can see advantages to holding trials earlier. Holding the trials 3-4 months earlier than the Olympics gives the swimmers enough time to go through another training cycle before tapering again. However, there is no guarantee that the people swimming the best 4 months ago will be the best come the Olympics. Having the trials a month before the Olympics pretty much guarantees that you are taking the fastest swimmers at this particular moment. It's not the easiest thing to hold the taper for a month but it's certainly not something that's impossible. I think anything in the 2-3 month period before Olympics is not a good idea. You would get to the point where you can't get into another training cycle and it would be hard to carry a taper through that long of a period. Good arguments can be made for either case but I would lean towards doing it the way we did it this year. You'll often see age groupers taper for a meet, make a junior cut, and then go to nationals a few weeks later and swim even faster. Same thing in college swimming with the time difference between conference meets and NCAAs - excluding the few who get A cuts during the season.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 15:48:56 GMT

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?

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 06:12:17 GMT

This taper thing has always been too much art and not enough science. But there is one great thing to come out of this years Olympics, Amanda Beard. She performed great. Why did she do so great and many of our other women did not do as well? This one is too easy. Amanda learned to swim great on any day of the year. By swimming World Cup where big Bucks (and I don't mean deer) are at stake. She might swim in Sweeden one weekend, and win $50,000. The next weekend Berlin, Ka-Ching another $50,000. Then on to China or London, more money. This is where she played with the 200 freestyle and 200 IM. Mark Spitz could break world records in practice, I bet Phelps could do it too. This bit of only swimming fast once a year is just poor coaching. Speaking of the womens 200 freestyle, how lame is a 1:58? Sippy Woodhead was doing that 20 years ago. Natalie would have won the 200 easily, she only led off the relay in a 1:57.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 05:00:12 GMT

When the OIOC of USA Swimming was considering when to hold the 2000 Trials, we (at Sports Publications) were asked to analyze the percentage of best times performed at the Big Meet depending upon how far in advance of that Big Meet the Trials were held. (For this analysis, "Big Meet" referred solely to the Olympics and World Championships.) We went back about 30 years and what we found was that the highest percentage of personal best times at the Big Meet occurred when Trials were held about 4 weeks (+/- 1 week) ahead of the Big Meet. There was some difference between men and women (a higher percentage of men than women performed PBs with this time interval between Trials and the Big Meet), though this time interval was still the best one for the women. There was also, of course, a great deal of individual variation, with some swimmers performing better with longer intervals. Still, overall, the 4-week interval appeared to produce the best results. Consequently, USA Swimming adopted the 4-week interval for the 2000 Olympic Games and reaffirmed that decision in fixing the dates for the 2004 Trials.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 13:24:34 GMT

As I remember in 2000 we had early trials & in general we did better than expected. Trials were pretty much exactly the same in 2000. We swam about the same dominated both Olympiads. Just b/c not many records were broken and they might have been a bit slower, from what I hear the pool/weather/atmosphere were nothing like Syndney or Long Beach for that matter. In 1996 we had trials much earlier, some people said we didn't have the team unity we had in 2000/2004 since they broke after trials and did not come back together until months later. This way right after trials they go into training camp and don't break until after the Olympics. You have to admit the team looked like a team ex Gary Hall. I always think having trials so close to the Olypimcs might not be a good thing, but you can't argue the results. Yes some people did not swim as well but look at the other countries. We dominated again no questions asked.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

ced357 — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 09:03:44 GMT

Yeah, there was no time for the US swimmers to build up any yardage after trials for a good taper into the games. I hope in the future they will alot more time between the venues.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Allen Stark — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 06:28:11 GMT

I thought many of our swimmers looked like their taper was off.As I remember in 2000 we had early trials & in general we did better than expected. I hope USA Swimming will take this into account for 2008.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

Former Member — Sat, 28 Aug 2004 15:34:16 GMT

Certainly not all US swimmers swam better but many did. Some swam worse. I would expect that to happen regardless of when we had the trials. Australia had trials much earlier and my very unscientific observation is that they didn't do any better.

RE: Did Olympic team taper?

swimpastor — Sat, 28 Aug 2004 10:55:03 GMT

Like Australia did.