Nutrition and Hydration
Nutrition and Hydration
To create awareness of how nutrition and hydration impacts performance!
For developmental athletes, building an understanding of their nutrition and hydration needs is just as important as the training itself.
If you put good fuel in, you get good performance out!
General healthy eating is the first step to balanced lifestyle as an athlete. As the coach, you should encourage your athletes to:
- Eat three meals EVERY day and vary their diets to include a variety of foods.
- Include fruit and vegetables in every meal.
- Learn how to prepare their own healthy meals.
We all know that the body requires regular hydration to perform well, but younger athletes often forget this. As the coach, you should encourage your athletes to:
- Drink water with every meal and at regular intervals throughout the day.
- Take water bottles along to any activity and drink BEFORE they get thirsty.
- Adjust their fluid intake so it is appropriate for training and competition schedules, travel, altitude and temperature.
- Avoid energy drinks!
On competition day, nutrition can be planned around the timings of the contest. As the coach, you should encourage your athletes to:
- Eat enough food over the course of a day so that they can train and compete without feeling hungry.
- Eat snacks that are carbohydrate rich with a small amount of protein.
- Eat immediately after competition to maximise recovery.
- Balance main meals so they are mostly carbohydrate, with some protein and minimal fat.
For more serious athletes, you can help them develop a nutrition plan which incorporates appropriate protein and carbohydrate portions/amounts, and is timed around both training and competition to maximise performance and recovery. Seek the advice of a nutritionist here if you are unsure.
Nutrition and hydration can be affected when travelling. As the coach, you should encourage your athletes to:
- Eat and drink as they normally would when at home.
- Pack extra healthy snacks, take extra fluid and organise any special requirements prior to commencing travel.
- Avoid over-eating of snacks, especially those with high sugar content.
- Drink one cup of water an hour for hydration.
Food not Supplements
Educate your athletes to understand that the biggest performance gains come from a food-first approach and that supplements are not advised unless under specific circumstances.