I was having a conversation the other day with a non-swimmer and I mentioned something about 'tapering for an event'. She looked at me blankly and I realised the concept of tapering was unknown.

When we're deeply involved in an activity it's easy to forget that some of the language you use to talk about it makes no sense to people on the outside or, indeed, those who are new to that activity.

At H2Open we strive to produce content that's relevant and understandable to our readers, whatever their current level of swimming experience, but we do sometimes overlook certain words and expressions and may fail to explain them properly.

If you ever do find yourself not fully understanding something we publish, or if you think we haven't fully explained something, please do let us know so that we can improve.

Tapering is the process of gradually reducing your training as you approach a big event. The idea is to maintain your fitness while reducing the fatigue that can result from heavy training so that you arrive on the start line in the best possible shape. And in our Oct/Nov issue, which goes to press next Thursday, we explain how to do it.

Other things to look out are an article from Dan Abel on injecting some fun into your training (it doesn't all need to be serious and hard work), thoughts from Total Immersion founder Terry Laughlin on how to improve your swimming speed by counting strokes rather than lengths and training sessions from Fiona Ford.

If you're looking for ideas for where to swim next year then you'll want to read our Swim Travel section, which this issue focuses on Scandinavia, which is much more swimming friendly than you might imagine.

Sharks may be ocean swimmers' biggest fear but the reality is you're much more likely to tangle with a jellyfish, so this issue we're including a special section on the topic. However much we hate swimming into them, it's hard to deny that jellyfish can be fascinating and beautiful. It's well worth finding out more, and what to do if you do find yourself being stung.

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Happy swimming