In the month of January, the University of Missouri Men's Golf team volunteered for the Pinewood Derby Cub Scouts and Coach Laroux went above and beyond by coordinating community service events for his team t0 participate in throughout the rest of the semester.
Congratulations to the Men's Golf team!!!
The Art of the Taper
The University of Missouri men’s and women’s swim teams are getting ready to compete at the Big 12 Championships in College Station, TX and depending on how they fair, the NCAA Championships in Columbus, OH and West Lafayette, IN. People watch the Olympics and sometimes even important college swim meets on TV, but the average sports fan doesn’t truly know everything that goes into the last few weeks of preparation that are so key to the success of every swimmer from the Missouri Tigers to Olympians.
Swimming, unlike other sports fashions it’s training like a mountain, where all year the workouts build up to a peak and then slowly come down in intensity leading up to the Championship meet. This let down in the intensity levels is known as the taper and it represents the best part of the year for the athletes, because tapering means less severe workouts, a build up of excitement and anticipation, and fast times in the pool. The practices get shorter and instead of long taxing swimming sets, workouts consist of fine-tuning the athlete’s speed, turns and starts. Coaches are very important during the taper because it is their job to not only make sure all the athletes are physically ready to swim fast but more importantly coaches help athletes get excited mentally about the opportunity to push their bodies against the best competition in the country.
After all the hard work during the season, taper is a crucial step for the Mizzou swimmers to be ready to take on the rest of the Big 12 and the country in the next few weeks
Go Tigers!
By Scott Martin
