1. Sports Nutrition for Tennis
The Basic Principles:
Food, Fuel and Fluids
Becky Stevenson
LTA Sports Nutrition Service Manager
Performance Nutritionist

2. Back to Basics
Good nutritional practices should be part of any tennis player’s normal routine.
It is one factor that every athlete can control.
Good nutrition is essential to support training adaptation, injury and illness prevention and optimise performance.
All athletes need to be educated on the fundamental principles of both ‘healthy eating’ and sports nutrition to be able to get the most out of their training sessions.
Good nutritional habits installed in players when they are young will ensure that them maximise all aspects of their training and recovery and also support their growth and development.
Good eating habits can help protect their immune system and long term health. If a player becomes injured good nutrition is essential to help the healing process and get them back to playing as soon as possible. For competition athletes need to know how to fuel and hydrate their bodies to be able to perform at their optimum level plus recover quickly for the next match. The USA use the food pyramid to demonstrate how the diet should be made up of the main food groups for the general population – starchy carbohydrates, vegetables, fruit, milk, protein and sugary and fatty foods, demonstrated on this slide. This forms the foundation of sports nutrition.

3. Key messages in sports nutrition
A good varied diet should:
Meets energy demands of training and competition.
Provide adequate essential nutrients to optimise health and recovery.
Help the player stay hydrated to prevent performance declines.
Help the player achieve ideal physique for performance, plus growth in younger players.
Sports nutrition is about using nutritional strategies that are based on science to be able to optimise sports performance. Sports nutrition is about providing the body with the right fuel and hydration at the right time during the training day or match to be able to optimise performance, health and recovery quickly. Sports nutrition is also about being able to achieve adequate growth in young players and an ideal physique for performance. The science of sports nutrition is constantly developing and is now an integral part of any athletes training and competition schedule.

4. Sports Nutrition and Healthy Eating
Sports nutrition focuses on what athletes need to consume to be fuelled and hydrated during exercise and to promote rapid recovery after exercise.
Healthy eating underpins ‘cutting edge’ sport nutrition.
The Eatwell plate has been devised by the UK government which is a visual tool used to demonstrate how our dinner plate should look. This education tool is used for the general population to educate them on ‘healthy eating’ guidelines. In athletes we adjust the portions slightly to give more of the plate from starchy carbohydrates and less foods from the fat and sugar group. It’s important that athletes know about ‘healthy eating’ as a foundation to sports nutrition.

5. Tips for Healthy Eating
Aim for well balanced diet
Carbohydrate: from a
variety of whole grains,
vegetables, beans and fruit.
Protein from fish, poultry,
leans meats, low fat dairy,
eggs, beans, pulses and tofu.
Fats from healthy sources
such as olive and rapeseed oil,
pumpkin and walnut oil, nuts, seeds
and avocado.
Carbohydrates are the main fuel source and essential to tennis which heavily relies on carbohydrate as a fuel. Ideally players should aim to have a variety of whole grain carbohydrates at each meal to provide essential vitamins and minerals. Protein should ideally come from lean sources such as chicken, fish, turkey and red meat twice per week. An athlete can train on a vegetarian diet but they need to be a variety of vegetable based proteins over the course of the day (beans, lentils, pulses, tofu, nuts, seeds and quorn).
In an athletes diet they need to be more careful with their total fat intake, to ensure they maintain an ideal body composition for their sport. Fats are essential in the diet and therefore we recommend ‘healthy sources of fat, from monounsaturated fats (olive oil) and fats high in essential fats especially omega 3s- from walnut, pumpkin and rapeseed oil.
Athletes need to ensure that they keep to a minimum with high fat processed foods in the diet.

6. Tips for carbohydrates
Healthy sources: wholegrain cereals and breads, pasta, fruit, vegetables, beans and pulses.
Nutritional benefit: energy source, vitamins, minerals and fibre.
Performance benefits: carbohydrates are the major muscle fuel for high intensity exercise, essential to
tennis performance.
Carbohydrates provide fuel to exercising muscles, and amount each players needs will depend on the amount of exercise, type of training and intensity of exercise. Low intakes will results in poor concentration, fatigue, a possible drop in body weight and reduce immunity. If a player is constantly getting colds and chest infections it could be an indicator that they are not fuelling adequately.

7. Tips for protein
Healthy sources: fish, lean meat, turkey and chicken, beans, pulses, tofu, low fat dairy.
Nutritional benefit: provides amino acids the building blocks for making protein. Important in digestion, metabolism and the immune system.
Performance benefit: repair and resynthesis of muscle proteins.
Dietary proteins can come from animal sources or vegetable sources. They are broken down by digestion into amino acids which are the building blocks for synthesising protein in the body. Protein is needed for growth and repair of tissues and makes hormones and enzymes that are important in bodily functions.

8. Tips for fats
Healthy fats: olive oil, rapeseed, walnut and pumpkin oil, olive oil spreads, nuts and seeds and oily fish.
Nutritional benefits: major source of fat soluble vitamins, ADEK, omega 3 fatty acids.
Performance benefits: important muscle fuel, need to limit saturated and trans fatty acids and processed foods with high fat content.
Fat is needed in the diet to provide insulation and it helps to provide padding to protect the organs. Body fat is also important for making hormones and is an energy source. Ideally, athletes should aim for lower intakes of fat as they need to maintain an idea physique for performance. Fats are important in the diet as they provide fat soluble vitamins and ‘healthy fats’ omega 3 for health. Saturated fats found from meat sources should be limited in all our diets as it can increase blood cholesterol, although athletes tend to have healthy cholesterol levels because they are so active. Trans fats are found when vegetables oil are heated in food processing and they can be as harmful as saturated fats . You find these fats in processed foods such as biscuits, cakes, pastries and ready meals. Some food manufacturers have now removed trans fatty acids from their products. Olive oil and olive oil spreads are monounsaturated fats which are much healthier for the heart, but players still need to be reminded that all fat contains double the calories of carbohydrate or protein at 9kcal per gram.

9. Healthy Eating for Athletes
Essential nutrients: from the diet support growth, repair tissue, carry oxygen around the body, support the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and protein and immune system.
B vitamins – energy metabolism.
Vitamin C – immunity.
Antioxidants – protect cell membrane.
Calcium and vitamin D for healthy bones.
Iron for transports of oxygen to exercising muscles.
It’s important that athletes understand that supplements are no substitute for a poor diet. Many nutrients in foods are absorbed together and therefore trying to maximise our nutrients through diet is the best way to ensure good health. Nutrients in foods are better absorbed than in supplement form. B vitamins are found in wholegrain cereals and essential for energy metabolism. If a players eats too many processed carbohydrates (white bread etc..) they can may not be getting adequate B vitamins. You also use more when training hard. Vitamin C is important for immunity and increased levels are needed during colds, we give additional vitamin C (1000mg per day) for a few days this would need to be a tested product. Antioxidants rich foods are brightly coloured fruit and vegetables can help to protect the cell membranes from free radicals that are produced when exercising and we are all exposed to them on a day to day from the environment. Regular intakes of antioxidants can help protect against chronic diseases later in life such as heart disease, certain cancers. Athletes need higher levels due to their training. Calcium and vitamin D are crucial to help prevent stress fractures in athletes. Players who restrict their dietary intake are at risk of low calcium levels, this can be seen in teenage players. During the teenage years this is a time of rapid growth and laying down of bone mineral. Vitamin D players a role in calcium metabolism, it is mainly manufactured by the skin in the presence of sunlight. Dietary sources of vitamin D are fortified margarines, dairy and oily fish. Athletes who train at northern latitudes during most of the year with low sunlight exposure can be at risk of low vitamin D levels. Therefore, making sure they get 20 minutes of sunshine exposure per day and good sources of vitamin D in the diet such as oily fish, cod liver oil and dairy is paramount to the player.

10. Athlete Performance needs to focus on both
Healthy Eating ↓
to make sure that the athlete is healthy over the long term.
Sports Nutrition ↓
to help athletes fuel their training and competition, stay hydrated and promote rapid recovery post exercise.
Healthy eating is the foundation before using individualised sports nutrition strategies.

11. Principles of Sport Nutrition
1. Hydration: to prevent dehydration related declines in performance.
2. Fuelling: to provide energy for training and competition.
3. Recovery: to support rapid recovery post exercise.
These are the 3 main principles of sports nutrition. Getting hydration correct as a tennis player is fundamental to performance, the science shows us that with only a small
level of dehydration (>2% of weight loss) can significantly impact performance. The tennis players needs to be able to learn how to manage their hydration status during training and competition in varying environmental conditions. Getting the correct fuel at the right times is again essential to how a player will perform in a match or train, and what they eat post training and recovery can have an effect of their next training session or match.

12. Hydration During exercise you lose fluid and salts through sweating.
If you don’t replace you can become dehydrated.
Losing >2% body weight during exercise can reduce aerobic performance (~20%).
Thirst is not a good indicator of hydration.
Drinking too much is also not desirable.
Dehydration can make exercise more difficult, you heart has to work harder to pump around the blood to exercising muscles.
In extreme cases this can lead to heat exhaustion and this can be fatal. Dehydration also can impact concentration. Drinking too much is also undesirable as you can become hyponatremia (low plasma sodium levels) which can have serious health consequences. Also you don’t want to be carrying around excess weight on the court.
Thirst is not a good indicator of hydration status, by the time you get thirsty your performance will have already declined.

13. Hydration logs
To individualise your hydration strategy you need to measure sweat loses during exercise.
Use a hydration log in different environments.
Weigh yourself before and after training or a match, try to minimise sweat loses less than 2% body weight.
For every 1kg lost = 1000mls
Replace 1.5 x fluid losses.
To calculate your own sweat losses you can use hydration log. Weigh yourself before and after training or competition. For every 1 kg of weight loss is equivalent to 1000mls of fluid. You need to replace 1.5 times the amount of fluid you have lost after exercise to get you hydrated for your next match or training session. Try to make sure you sip at each change of ends aim to minimise sweat losses to less than 2% of body weight

14. How can I minimise fluid loses?
1. Make sure your are well hydrated before exercising
2. Make sure you don’t suffer from
mild dehydration day to day
Symptoms of dehydration are fatigue, headaches, loss of appetite, feeling excessively hot, light headed and nausea
4. Check urine colour each day
Many people both athletes and non athletes suffer from chronic mild dehydration without realising. Dehydration can be cumulative, which means you can easily become dehydrated over successive day of training and competiting if you fail to re-hydrate fully between sessions.
Practically, you should be producing light coloured urine of large volume – a dark coloured urine of large volume indicate you are dehydrated and is a signal that you are not drinking enough. University of Connecticut found urine colour correlated well with hydration status – specific gravity or osmolality (Armstrong, 1998). Numbers 1 and 2 – very light coloured urine indicates you are within 1% of optimal hydration.

15. Drinking
Always carry a drink and be aware of your daily hydration status
Drink well right up to 30 minutes before training or a match, take few sips before you start exercise
Start drinking early in training or competition, take a few small sips at change of ends
Prevention is better than cure. Seen in runners performing 5000m and a 10,000m run in either hydrated or dehydrated state (2% of body weight) running speed dropped significantly 6-7%. Thirst is not a good indicator of when to drink – you will be already dehydrated. Drink about 500mls in lead up to training or match. Stop drinking about minutes before for the loo stop. Aiming to match 80% of loses. Practice drinking in training session – aim for about 1 litre per hour. When match finishes aim to re-hydrate as quickly as possible for subsequent matches.

16. Water or a sports drink?
Water is ok when exercising for less than 60 minutes in moderate temperate conditions.
Sports drink is ok when exercising for over 1 hour or longer, or any time in conditions that are hot or humid.
Sports drinks contain both carbohydrate and salts. They will provide the player with energy but also help to replace salts that are lost in sweat.
Young players who are still maturing don’t tend to sweat much as their sweat glands are not yet matured. Therefore, as a coach you will see that each player has different sweat rates and therefore will have different fluid requirements. Players under 12 years of age will be ok with water only, the older players can start to be introduced to using sports drinks at the appropriate times. The powdered sports drinks are ideal for tennis players as they can be bought in sachets and easily transported.
Make sure that they are aware of good dental hygiene to protect their teeth is using on a regular basis.

17. Fuel your game Carbohydrates are the main fuel for exercising muscles.
60-90 minutes of high intensity exercise can deplete your glycogen store.
Start training with good stores to delay fatigue and train or compete effectively.
If playing a long match you need to have eaten a high carbohydrate meal or breakfast before hand. Carbohydrate rich foods are pasta, rice, noodles, potatoes, cereals and bread plus sports drinks, sports bar and gels. During a match use a carbohydrate containing sports drink helps top up your carbohydrate levels which are the main source of fuel during your match. Solid food will not be digested while playing as the blood is diverted away from the gut to the exercising muscles during exercise. Therefore, the old tradition of eating a banana during a game will not provide immediate fuel.

18. Carbohydrate requirements
Tennis player will need approximately
5-7g per kg body weight.
Low intake will lead to fatigue, poor levels of concentration which can impact performance.
Inadequate carbohydrate intake can reduce immunity.
When players are in a full time training programme they will need to eat plenty of carbohydrate to make sure they support the energy demands of training and also competition. They will need to base all their main meals around carbohydrate containing foods. The first sign that a playing in under fuelling and over training is the immune system becomes depleted and they tend to pick up colds and infections more frequently.

19. Fuelling Pre-match meal/snack
Eat pre-match meal 2-3 hours before playing.
Go for foods that is easy to digest, low in fat, high in carbohydrate.
Take a snack 45 minutes before a match.
Carry foods/drinks in luggage be prepared.
Keep drinking.
Carbohydrate are the main fuel to provide energy for exercising muscles and they help keep blood sugars stable
Low stores will lead to early fatigue, reduced exercise intensity, and sub-optimal performance with poor concentration.
Tennis player need to take in approx 65% daily kcal as carbohydrate – pasta, noodles, rice, breads, breakfast cereals
Inadequate intake of carbohydrates will cause increased stress hormones and reduced immunity
Also low blood sugars could increase your risk on injury during a match or training
Breakfasts – porridge with skimmed milk, oat-based cereals, granary toast with jam fruit juice and low fat yogurts
Snacks – yogurt or low fat milk shake drinks, fruit, sports drinks, energy bars – science in sport, naked bars, nutrigrain oat baked bars, low fat rice pudding

20. Protein requirements
Athletes need slightly more protein than sedentary individuals.
About 1.5g per kg body weight e.g 70kg x1.5 = 105g protein per day.
2g per kg body weight if still growing.
To gain lean mass you need extra total daily calories.
Athletes need more protein than sedentary individuals, but we normally find that if they are eating adequate amounts of food they will meet their protein requirements.
Young players also need additional protein for growth. Whenever possible protein should come from good food choices. Protein should be provided post training or competition in the recovery snack or drink to help with repair and resynthesis of body proteins. Protein taken in excess can reduce the appetite and prevent adequate fuelling for training and competition. Protein supplements should only be used in players with under professional guidance.

21. Recovery Nutrition
Every athlete needs to start refuelling and rehydrating as soon as possible after exercise to be able to recover optimally.
Fuel stores need to be refuelled and muscles repaired and regenerated.
Fluid and salt losses need to be replaced.
Post training there is a ‘recovery window’ when the body is most efficient at resynthesing muscle glycogen and repairing and resynthesising proteins. Therefore, any athlete should make sure that they refuel and rehydrate in this window of opportunity. Therefore, it is important that these meals and snacks are scheduled into a player’s programme.

22. Recovery Nutrition
Poor recovery nutrition can lead to fatigue, low energy stores and poor training adaptation.
Poor recovery may lead to an increased risk of injury, or infection.
Research shows carbohydrate based snack or drink should provide about g protein – ‘recovery window’.
Poor recovery can ultimately have an impact on performance, this may present as the player complaining of low energy levels, poor sleep, low mood or fatigue.
Make sure that players come to practice and tournaments with recovery snacks and drinks, so they are not reliant on what is available at tennis centre or tournament.
Good nutritional recovery habits can be installed while players are still young so it becomes routine practice.

23. Recovery
Important to refuel and rehydrate straight after exercise especially if competing or training again in 24 hours.
Start eating and drinking within 30 minutes after exercise or as soon as possible.
Try a sports recovery drink, or a low fat sandwich with your sports drink, or a low fat milk drink.
Aim to eat high carbohydrate meal within 1 hour.
Research shows athletes need about 1-1.2g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight and approximately 10-15g protein in the recovery snack or drink.
Ideas of recovery snacks – low fat milk shake, sports recovery drink, yogurt based fruit smoothie, s/wich lean meat, and low fat yogurt
Make sure that they start their recovery as soon as possible in the ‘recovery window’, this is especially important if training of competing again in the next 12 hours period. There are commercial recovery sports products available, but make sure they are a ‘tested product’ through the Informed Sports Programme.

24. Summary Looking after all aspects of nutrition and hydration is
fundamental to performance
and long term health.
Remember:
Hydration
Fuelling
Recovery
Good nutritional habits formed while players are still young will give them a good foundation for their future tennis performance.
Good nutrition is fundamental to the success of any strength and conditioning programme.