The goal of competitive swimming is to improve speed, and to beat other competitors in events. An athlete goes through several stages of training. At the beginning, the body is overloaded with work. The workload becomes less closer to the date of the competition. This final stage is often referred to as "shave and taper"; the swimmer tapering downs his or her workload to be able to perform at their optimal level. At the end of this stage, before competition, the swimmer shaves off all exposed hair and dead skin. Often confused within shaving, swimmers shave to rid the skin of dead skin cells to expose sensitive skin to the water. The effect of shaving is a decrease in drag from hair and an increase in the sensation of "feeling" the water.