Tournament Nutrition

Oh Em Gee, Why? We’ve all seen those “you are what you eat commercials”. Some of them are creatively hilarious, while others put you to sleep. The unfortunate reality, is that there is some truth to that. We aren’t saying you’re going to take the shape of a banana or a piece of bread, but what you eat could be the difference between feeling tired and sluggish and acing match point.

Can food make conditioning EASIER? When you are exercising, you are burning calories (big shocker…we know). If you think about it, while you are demanding bigger hits, better passes, and stronger serves from your muscles, your muscles are being selfish and taking energy away from other systems. When your heart rate increases, your body will go through two types of exercise, anaerobic and aerobic. Anaerobic exercises are short, high impact exercises that require metabolic pathways that do not use oxygen, such as sprinting or heavy weight lifting. Aerobic exercise is when your body uses metabolic pathways that consume oxygen. Aerobic exercise is the scientific way of how people define being “in shape” (because aerobic exercise will increase efficiency of oxygen transportation in the cardiovascular system). The efficacy of these systems can be impacted by what is in your body. TRANSLATION: When you sprint to a shanked pass, you’re performing anaerobic exercise and throughout the entire game, you are preforming aerobic exercise, which is why you feel out of breath. The right food can help with this.

So… How does what I EAT impact how I PLAY? Your body is going to use the energy from food for both types of exercise. When you eat, your body goes through various different processes of breaking your food down from what you are putting into your body, to small stores of glycogen (we will save the science for later). To improve your performance and sustain your energy level, your body needs to keep your glycogen stores full. This can happen by eating complex carbs. When you eat simple carbs, such as “junk food”, the carbs enter your blood stream and are metabolized quickly, this is why you feel a “crash” soon after eating. This is exactly what we are trying to avoid. When you eat a complex carb, such as whole grains, they take a long time to be broken down by your body, giving you the sustained energy you need. Your body will burn carbs first, then fat, then protein for its energy. TRANSLATION: Candy and refined sugars give you instant energy that goes away quickly. Whole grain bread will give you sustained energy over a long period of time.

So… Protein?! There are high protein items like peanut butter that we all think are great for us. While this is true, peanut butter is a high fat protein; it takes a long time to digest (this requires blood flow and while exercising your muscles are taking excess blood flow from your stomach, slowing you down). Because proteins can take a long time to digest, your body will use carbs as its first source of energy. However, protein is essential for maintaining muscles. The correct protein will benefit the performance and development of the athlete's body. TRANSLATION: Eat high fat protein the night before the tournament and stick with lower fat proteins, like eggs or cottage cheese the day of the tournament.

Day before the tournament: –Breakfast: Protein (can be a high fat protein), complex carb (whole wheat toast), Fruit –Snack: nuts, fruit with protein –Lunch: High complex carb lunch with protein (Beans, brown rice, chicken) –Snack: Carbs –Dinner: High complex carb dinner with protein (Whole grain pasta with meat/fish) WATER WITH EVERY MEAL,EXTRA WATER WITH DINNER!! **Drinks high in sugar cannot be had the day before. NO soda, Starbucks, high fructose corn syrup. Ok, so here’s your PLAN:

TOURNAMENT DAY (For and 8am game time) –Breakfast at 6-6:30am: Dairy and fruit (Yogurt, banana, granola) WATER –Snack –Lunch: Complex carb, protein, natural sugar (lean meat sandwich on whole grain bread with fruit) –Snack –Dinner: This is your recovery meal. You’ll want to have carbs and protein to replace all that you have burned throughout the day. WATER. **Breakfast is a smaller meal which will require 2-3 hours to digest **Snack list on next slide **For upset stomachs, liquid meals are a good substitute.

The DO’s Snacks: –Fruits: apples, grapes, pineapples, strawberries, raspberries, bananas. (Fruits serve as a natural sugar to provide quick energy while carbs will provide sustained energy) –Veggies: carrots, snap peas, broccoli –Hummus –Granola bars –Yogurt –Lean meats DRINKS: Water, Gatorade

The DONT’s NO: –Grease –Desserts –Cookies/Candy/Treats –Pizza –Burgers –Chips –Large, heavy meals DRINKS: NO soda, high fructose corn syrup, coffee, Starbucks

Additional Resources need-most/ need-most/ athletic-performance-and-recoveryhttps://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/sleep- athletic-performance-and-recovery life/pdf/Nutritional%20Guidelines%20for%20Fe male%20Athletes.pdfhttp:// life/pdf/Nutritional%20Guidelines%20for%20Fe male%20Athletes.pdf