Swimmen deep-six morning practices

Swimming is a very demanding sport that makes the entire body throb and exercises almost every muscle.

That's why they are taking a break.

The Penn State men's swimming team (8-2, 3-2 Big Ten) has recently cut back its practice length and intensity after finishing the regular season by crushing La Salle last Saturday. The swimmers do not want to be fatigued come the Big Ten Championships on Feb. 26 in Minneapolis.

- sophomore Kevin Smith

"I'm extremely happy our morning practices are over," sophomore Kevin Smith said. "They were way too early."

In addition to doing away with the morning session, the afternoon workout has been decreased to an hour and a half from the usual two hours.

The team is loosely divided into three practice groups -- sprinters, middle-distance swimmers and long-distance swimmers. The athletes, who usually swim anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 yards daily, are expected to decrease those distances with the postseason rapidly approaching to give those aching muscles time to rest.

"I was getting very tired," middle-distance swimmer Paul Monyok said. "I'm very happy we're starting to cut back."

Sprinters have also been cutting back, basically stopping weight lifting and lessening their heavy regimen of other strength-increasing exercises.

It has seemed to work.

"I'm feeling a lot better than I did before we started cutting back," freshman sprinter Jason Pollock said. "I'm using less energy now to swim faster than I did before."

Cutting back practices in swimming is commonly referred to as "tapering." It is general practice in the sport to lessen the intensity of workouts a week or so before the postseason to give the swimmers a break from the arduous training.

"Tapering is pretty simple," coach Peter Brown said. "We try not to make it very complicated because it isn't."

While tapering seems to be a simple method to reach peak times at just the right point in the season, Monyok said something else comes from the end of morning practices.

"It means more sleep."