By Olivier Poirier-Leroy on SwimSwam
Tapering for swimmers is often thought of as a giant eraser.
You work hard over months and months, building up lots of fatigue, soreness, and training load.
And then taper takes a big eraser to all the tiredness, revealing the performance you’ve worked hard to create.
But tapering isn’t a switch.
And in the same way that you have to “earn” a taper with lots of hard work, the way you take care of yourself before tapering can matter just as much as how you taper.
Why Pre-Taper Fatigue Matters
A study (Bretonneau et al., 2024) with a group of elite French swimmers tracked them in the months leading up to a championship meet.
As they approached taper, swimmers could be categorized by fatigue.
Some of the swimmers were tired from all that training, but weren’t destroyed. For these swimmers, taper response was textbook—they swam 1.8% faster on race day.
See also: How Long Should Swimmers Taper?The other swimmers were also tired, but had basically been run into the ground. Fatigue showed up across multiple physiological and psychological measures, but most clearly—on the clock.
For this group, even tapering wasn’t enough for them to bounce back, and they swam slower on race day.
It’s important to emphasize that all the swimmers were doing the same training.
Volume, frequency, intensity—same across the board.
Poor recovery during hard training was what separated them.
Recover Better to Taper (and Race) Better
A follow-up study by the same researchers, with a fresh group of elite swimmers, found the same distinction with fatigue levels.
But this time they took the “destroyed” group and preemptively added some recovery strategies.
Things like:
Relaxation/breathing strategies Sleep education sessions A thermal mattress topper Five nights of cryostimulation or contrast bathsThe goal was better sleep and also to help body temperature drop more reliably before bed so that swimmers fell asleep more quickly.
Sleep scores did improve. Swimmers slipped into deep sleep quicker. And more importantly, the taper response was much better and they swam faster in competition.
See also: Sprint Tapering for Swimmers: Why You Can Feel Slow and Still Swim FastYou can’t out-taper bad recovery
Swimming is not an easy sport. Mastering it requires a lot of dedication, time, and energy.
In the process, recovery can take a back seat.
Instead of falling asleep we are doom scrolling on our phone. Instead of warming down and stretching, we head for the exit. Instead of eating well, we eat what’s “easy.”
And then when taper hits, then we get serious about these things.
But as we saw, what we do in the big training blocks has a huge impact on how things go during taper, and more importantly, on race day.
Work hard, recover hard, taper well… and swim fast.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national-level swimmer, 2x Olympic Trials qualifier, and author of several books for swimmers, including YourSwimBook, Conquer the Pool, and Tapering for Sprint Freestylers.
The book is a 98-page eBook packed with actionable insights and research into what makes an explosive taper unfold on schedule. Everything from duration to taper type to managing your dryland to navigating the mental ups and downs of tapering for sprinters.
Tapering for Sprint Freestylers combines evidence-based insights with a collection of 15 ready-to-go sets (plus the “regular” versions to better understand how they scale down), a Taper Blueprint to plan your taper like a pro, and a 12-week sample resisted sprint program to show you how all the principles come together.
No more guesswork or hoping for taper miracles.
Show up on race day explosive, fast, and dangerous.
Learn more about Tapering for Sprint Freestylers
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