Finally, some much deserved rest.

After months of swimming over 30 miles a week, the Falcon swim team is in the midst of a much deserved reprieve in anticipation of the upcoming Mid-American Conference Championships.

The Falcons’ coaching staff uses a training tactic known as tapering, where exercise is gradually decreased, building energy in anticipation of a big meet. As far as philosophy goes, the Falcons’ coaching staff trains different than any other team in the MAC.

Assistant coach Mark Howard and head coach Keri Buff, who have trained under Olympic coaches throughout their careers, have used the tactics they have learned to help the Falcons succeed in the pool.

The coaching staff’s philosophy of training hard during the season and breaking down the girls’ muscles, only to build them back up before a big meet has proven successful thus far.

“Last year, we had girls drop major time at the MAC Championship,” Howard said.

“Ninety percent of what we do is about pushing the girls through grueling and punishing swims throughout the year.”

“We train hard the entire year,” Howard continued. “When other teams back off before dual meets, we won’t. We teach that you can only replace hard work with more hard work.”

The philosophy is quite a gamble, sacrificing wins at dual meets in order to be as fast as possible at the end of the season can be a tough sell, especially for freshmen who have never experienced the tapering process.”Swimming in college has been totally different from high school,” said freshman Sarah Reinink. “Swimming is as much of a mental game as it is physical. We just have to realize that all the hard work and time we have put in over the past five months is paying off while we are tapering.”

And with the help of team veterans, the freshmen seem to be embracing the tapering.

“The upperclassmen have done a lot to keep me going in my tired state,” freshman Katie Womack said. “Whenever I want to give up they push me further and let me know it will just keep getting better.”

Even sophomore Liz Harper had a bit of trouble adjusting to the tapering during her freshman year.

“When I was a freshman, I didn’t really understand it,” Harper said. “But it really works, last year was not my best year, but after tapering I had a good MAC Championship.”

Asked if it was difficult losing dual meets, Harper said it was at first.

“You begin to realize after a while that the MAC Championships are the absolute most important meet.”

Asked if she had ever used tapering before her Falcon career, Harper said previous coaches had dabbled in it.

“I have experienced it before,” Harper said. “But it’s nothing like what we are doing here. We are training for the [MAC] Championships like it is the last meet any of us will ever swim.”

But we will be rested and prepared when it comes time to swim at the championships.”

Howard believes that all the hard work the team puts in to training during the season will pay off.

“The girls worked so hard, we will drop some major times at the Championships,” Howard said.

The MAC Championships will be held at the Bowling Green Natatorium Feb., 25-28.

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Contact sports reporter John Lopez at [email protected].