The physically draining practices that challenge the team throughout the entire season began to wind down a couple of weeks ago, progressively becoming less intense as the the Big Ten Women's Swimming and Diving Championships nears. The tournament will be at IU Feb. 15-17. The taper method is used by many coaches and is valued by swimmers as a time to rest and store up their valuable energy as well as focus on their upcoming events. Sophomore backstroker and butterflyer Colleen McCracken said the taper helps the team focus more on these details.
Repetition is key in swimming.
Once you start feeling those starts and turns and you get into the taper, and your body's not tired, you can do them much quicker than you could before. In a sport where a race can be decided in one-hundredth of a second, these small aspects can make a huge difference and can determine the winner. Coach Dorsey Tierney said the intense training is over now. She has cut the workload down to about one-third of what the team is used to. But sometimes through that conditioning, you become a little tired, little things tend to slide a bit.