These upcoming two weeks are my team’s first taper of the year.  We have been through our hell weeks, our 110% of yardage, our extensive max VO2 work, and much much more.  Now is the time to relax.

In Letterman-esq fashion, I have put together a top 10 list of “you know it’s taper when” scenarios.  So, strap up your goggles, leggings, drag suits, and anything else you can think of cause here we go:

You Know It’s Taper When:

1. Coaches spend the first day of taper explaining that taper isn’t necessarily easier, but it’s just more rest (this is always a fun conversation because you get the work-a-holic swimmer who says that more rest IS easier – it’s like the “no it’s not”….”yes it is” conversation)
2. Recovery days turn into great hypoxic workouts to use for next season
3. Coaches spend hours upon hours trying to think of creative practices in order to keep their swimmers interested (as a side note, coaches…just keep it simple).
4. Equipment and outside the box warm-ups are used more frequently to workout the swimmers mentally
5. The swimmers get great at blowing bubble rings from the bottom of the pool (or at least get red-faced trying)
6. These swimmers now realize the meaning of the word drag as their leggings fill up with water because they didn’t cut the toes out of the tights before they got in the pool
7. The swimmers think that it’s play time because they have more rest and they are balled up like little forces of energy – this is how you know you’re doing taper the right way (by the way, herding these energetic swimmers and getting them to focus is sometimes harder than herding 100 cats)
8. The coaches find out more interesting information about high school, middle school, boyfriends, girlfriends, rumors, and EVERYTHING else going on in their swimmers’ worlds because they have more time to “rest”
9. Kids come dressed up like Halloween (leggings, multiple suits that have worn our throughout the years and have knots in them, drag suits upon drag suits of various colors) – see our header for examples
10. The 10 and under kids wonder what in the heck is going on with the older group – this also includes parents of those swimmers, other lap swimmers, and swim lesson participants and their families!  They also want to know when they are going to be able to go through steps 1 – 9!

On a more serious note, number 10 out of the group is probably the best aspect of taper.  In order to grow a team and have swimmers maintain an undying interest in growing with the swim team there needs to be an exhausting amount of (what I like to call) “sparks”.  They are the bells and whistles that the upper level groups get to do.

The drag weeks for taper, the power towers, the paddles, the fins, the snorkels, the creative warm-ups.  It all goes into building a strong interest in swimmers staying with the team – they want to be a part of what Johnny was a part of because he qualified for Regionals at age 11 and 12 and is now qualifying for Nationals.

Coaches, I’m curious…what do you do to create a spark amongst your younger swimmers?