I was wondering what peoples experience was with tapering in combat sports. What works for you? what do the "experts" say? How do we taper? Backstory: I've been run down, flu like symptoms and had a chesty cough since lets put it at Friday last week. (It's Wednesday today in Sydney). It's not dramatic enough to need antibiotics, but I have had to rest and focus on good diet and hydration. I've got a TKD comp, which will be 1-2 fights (3x2min rds), on Sunday. Basically I just had to can my whole routine and rest for the whole week. The last four weeks I've been doing approx: 2-3 sport specific sessions, 1-2 pool sessions, 1-2 weights sessions (which have a serious TKD conditioning focus) and a bunch of other odd ball training here or there. It was heavier than that before hand. I run a class on Thursday nights, which will be the last class for a group of my students that I coach who will be competing. I'm planning a light technical session with some good padwork drills for promoting distance and reaction time. On Saturday I may need to do a sweat out as I was about 82 kg pre-workout, full stomach, last week. I'm fighting -80kg. I've not really experimented with the "total taper" before. Usually I do a normal week of training and have a few days rest, train all the way through, or do a few heavy sessions at the beginning of the week and reduce the load. I know a few sports coaches/physiologists who have suggested that a long taper without training is ideal for recovery before a major comp. "End backstory"