Dan Pfaff taught me the emotional battery is sometimes the most difficult to recharge, so I make sure that they are fresh upstairs as well as in the legs. I don't back away too much from the intensity of the work, but I pullback on the volume.
Our main secret to success with tapering is how we adjust the weight program during the key meets and the end of the season. Because we keep our kids lifting all season long, 3 days a week, when we start to back off on that, they typically peak when we want them to. It is so easy to adjust the weights for tapering. Much easier than trying to mess with running intensity or volume and the injury risk is quite low comparatively. We back off on the weights differently for male and female athletes and have found a lot of success with this simple strategy. We have found that the kids will peak whenever we want them too with this approach. If they need a huge PR to make it into our league meet, then we adjust the weights 1-2 weeks out and BAM, they get the performance they needed to advance into our championship season. These kids are at the most risk, though, because, with our league, you have to qualify based on time first, and then each week after that you have to qualify based on place. So if they peak just to try to make it into the league meet, it is more difficult for them to maintain that level past the district meet.