To Taper or Not To Taper

Question
Hi George,
I am a summer rec. swim coach. We are approaching our biggest and last event of the season. I would like your opinion on whether or not summer rec league teams need to taper? I'm thinking no since the most our swimmers swim at a meet is a 100 IM, but another of our coaches (whose opinion I value) believes we should begin to taper. Thanks for your opinion.

Answer
Hi-
Here's my thought.  Since you are a rec. team, the odds are that you really don't put in a huge number of yards each day in practice, therefore you really don't have a distance base to taper off of.  Even for the kids swimming 100 yard distances,in order for a taper to work you have to have a significant base to actually taper from.  At best, you should have the kids "rest" for the meet, concentrating on sprints(25's and half lap sprints) to get their speed up.  You don't have to tell the kids that they aren't tapering,because a big part of a "taper" is mental in that you are feeling faster and with the coaches help and encouragement(ie. wow, you're looking fast, etc.) to help them feel faster.
A taper needs to be a gradual drop of yards and without an 8,000-10,000yd. base and about 3 weeks to drop off with, the best you can do is rest your swimmers.
Hope this helps,
George