Now that the regular swimming season is over, freestyler Jason Eby is gearing up for the year's big showdown -- the Big Ten Championships -- and he's ready to take it all off.

Shave it all off, that is.

As it gets down to the wire, he's cutting down his yardage in the pool, cutting out his weight training and cutting his hair.

But he won't really cut everything, or will he?

"We shave anything the suit doesn't cover," Eby said. "People ask me that all the time. I didn't believe it at first, but it definitely helps to take four or five seconds off my race."

Almost like primping for a beauty contest, Coach Peter Brown said the shaving process begins a few days before the big meet with up to four or five hours of clipping locks and locks of hair. Then the final buzz comes the night before.

Brown admits that this practice is more of a "psyche up procedure" than anything else, but he also said it's been proven to give a faster performance in the water.

If it's more rest that his swimmers need, Brown recommends cutting out more daily activities.

"Not just getting rest at the pool, it's also important to get rest away from the pool, physically and mentally," he said. "Being disciplined at the pool is not enough. You've gotta get enough sleep and eat right, too."

Eating sensibly in Brown's eyes is not all too complicated, just well-balanced meals and no junk food.

Senior tri-captain Kirk Skoglund says keeping watch over his diet shouldn't be taken for granted. It seems very basic, but any deviation from his eating plan could have detrimental effects.

"Since we're not working as hard in the pool, and if we pig out, we'll get fat and that's bad," he said.

The most important part of training, however, seems to take precedence over all the rest. And that's teamwork.

"We have to go in there as a team," Brown said, "not as each person with his own agenda. We're going there as one force, and that takes work and communication."

Eby hopes that the work he does in these last 15 days before the main event, as well as the practicing he's done since October, pays off this year, his third time at Big Ten's.

It takes a different kind of confidence to swim in a conference championship meet because the pressures are so much greater than at the dual meets on the schedule, the junior said.

"I was overwhelmed my freshman year because we were swimming no one in high school," he said, "and then we're swimming against Olympic medalists and world-record holders."

Eby and Skoglund know competitors from Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa and Ohio State, among other Big Ten schools, will be more than happy to test the benefits of these techniques.

"I would just like to go out with a bang," Skoglund said. "I'm sure all the seniors wouldn't mind doing that."