Swimming trains, tapers to perfection

So you want to be a Princeton swimmer? There are no cuts, so all you have to do is walk through the door.

But here comes the catch: get ready to spend twenty hours per week training. And that's a part time work week — not to mention that the hours start at 6:30 a.m.

Yet the 80-plus members of the men's and women's swim teams are up to the task. They have turned away full scholarship offers from other schools to pay forty grand a year — a large figure, certainly, but less than the average swimmer's weekly yardage — and work harder in the classroom than any other athletes in the nation.

Unlike at other institutions, where it may be like "pulling teeth" to get athletes to work hard, women's swimming head coach Susan Teeter claims it's just the opposite at Princeton, where she often has to tell her athletes to chill out.

"People who come to Princeton want to be perfect at everything they do," Teeter said. "The average Princeton swimmer is someone who wants to excel, in every area of their lives, at 110 percent."

The quest for perfection begins in October, when the team begins to put in their aerobic base, swimming lots of freestyle yardage. October and November can be the toughest training months, as the team prepares for the season ahead and a packed meet schedule.

A typical week in mid-season consists of an aerobic day, an anaerobic threshold workout (characterized by faster swims with recovery), and lactate days, where you swim so fast that, "if you don't swim easy at the end you won't be able to walk the next day," Teeter said.

After those three days is a recovery day, with long easy swimming and more emphasis on drill work. Then the cycle starts again.

For most meets the Tigers won't even rest — they'll train right through.

That's when Coach Teeter asks herself, "Do we want to rest for a Pittsburgh, or is it more important to win the Ivy Championships?"

The ten Ivy League trophies won by Princeton during her tenure are a testament to her good decision making.

Toward the end of the season, however, after months of double workouts, swimmers will typically taper. That means dropping their total yardage and increasing the quality of their workouts in order to be in top form for the championship portion of the season.

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The men's team also prioritizes its meets.

"It's usually up to seniors to determine what they want to accomplish," men's head coach C. Rob Orr said. "I either bring them down to reality or they've more than time again proved me wrong."

Meets aren't a day off, as most swimmers will swim the maximum number of events allowed, diving into the pool four times for an all-out effort in the span of just a few hours.

Princeton's history of success — 28 conference titles between the two programs with Orr and Teeter at the helm — can be attributed not only to a strong work ethic in the pool, but also the team chemistry outside it. The Princeton program is proud of its swimming family.

"A lot of the team is comprised of not our best or fastest swimmers, but individuals who step up in other areas," Orr said, "Which is just as important as swimming fast."

Teeter says she recruits only "quality, selfless" people who are willing to join their close-knit group, and she believes what she teaches outside the pool is just as important as perfecting the freestyle.

"I demand life skills of them," Teeter said. "By making stronger women, I'm making stronger athletes, and if they're able to use those skills in their classes and in their work after they leave, they're going to be A-plus representatives of Princeton University."