https://community.usms.org/swimming/f/general/2997/tapering-what-is-itOk So I am a bit slow. I have heard of &quot;tapering&quot; but I figured it was about &quot;streamlining&quot; yourself to go through the water better. You know a &quot;tapered haircut&quot; LOL.. Let me take a guess.. Training really hard then slacking off a bit? Eatingen-USTelligent Community 12https://community.usms.org/thread/24022?ContentTypeID=1Mon, 07 Mar 2005 09:43:01 GMT3187ac58-ba85-4314-b79a-c45cd885e09a:3417d893-1644-45eb-88b3-0854293e3c6bFormer Memberyea, and typically during taper you are decreasing your daily yardage gradually. though you do less yardage per practice, you&#39;ll probably do alot of allout/sprint work on longer intervals. also, during taper one is expected to get lots of sleep and good nutrition.<div style="clear:both;"></div>https://community.usms.org/thread/24008?ContentTypeID=1Sun, 06 Mar 2005 01:09:19 GMT3187ac58-ba85-4314-b79a-c45cd885e09a:f3905108-93d6-4965-b395-bdd98807a3e6swimsharkTapering is used to get ready to compete in a meet. Our team does a small one a day or so before a smaller meet but will do a big one, like 2 weeks, prior to the bigger meets (Associations, Nationals, etc). You start off doing a bit less yardage, increasing your interval times and it gets better from there. You also use it to work on the strokes you are going to do in the meet as well as starts and turns. I don&#39;t see tapering mattering to fitness swimmers unless they are competing. And if they are competing, then they wouldn&#39;t be called fitnes swimmers :D<div style="clear:both;"></div>