Carbohydrates are the main food source that the body burns to get energy and consequently stocking up on them before matches is crucial. Carbohydrates come in different shapes and forms with some such as sugar giving you an immediate energy boost and others like grains releasing energy over a longer period of time. These are generally best consumed in moderation in the hour running up to the match or at half-time. As the energy is quickly released, eating or drinking these without doing sport leads to the glycogen being turned into fat for later usage.
At half-time, for example, some players may want to eat something with a high sugar content as it will give them an energy boost. Players still have to be careful though as too much will increase your blood sugar levels which will leave you feeling lethargic! Complex carbohydrates such as rice, cereals, pasta, potatoes, and bread are best to eat a number of hours before the match due to the fact that they release energy slower and over a longer time period.
There are a number of other areas which we need to focus on first before looking at what times players should be looking to eat before matches if they want to have their energy levels at the optimum level. Just as crucial as carbohydrates, the body needs liquids to keep it hydrated, focused, and functioning well. Throughout the day before a soccer match you should be drinking a lot of water. If you feel the need to drink, it means that your body has already become dehydrated.
When we sweat while playing a soccer match for instance, we lose some of that water as well as the electrolytes that accompany it. Electrolytes are crucial to how you perform on the pitch and there are a number of ways that you can replenish and replace them. Hydrating well is crucial to your performance and goes a long way to ensuring that you can compete for the full ninety minutes.
In the hour before the match, however, you should stop drinking too much as otherwise you will feel heavier and feel less agile. At half-time you will have used up quite a bit of your water sources due to all the energy and effort you have given during the first half. You can see the truth to this by watching star soccer players on TV. You will only ever see them taking small sips, never huge gulps. While sports drinks are not necessary before a match as your balanced diet should be providing you with everything your body needs, at half-time they do come in use.
This is because the salts and sugars contained within the sports drink will help you to quickly replenish the electrolytes that you have lost. The majority of the time it is best to stick to water which will give you most of what you need to perform to the best of your abilities. Drinks such as coffee, soft drinks, and fruit juice can actually have a negative rather than a positive impact on your body.
This is because these types of liquids act as a diuretic which stimulates urine production which will cause you to lose more water. For many youth soccer coaches, soccer parents and players — this has to be one of the most asked questions. If you are carb-loading or fueling up on processed foods that come from a bag or box, you are potentially decreasing energy, speed, ground covered, and overall performance.
Not to mention, potential weight gain, slower recovery, and weaker immunity. By doing so, you ensure that you are taking in the appropriate amounts of nutrients to fuel your activity. Remember to choose whole foods that nourish the body and work synergistically for you. Always drink at least 2 glasses of water upon waking. We tend to dehydrate while we sleep so drinking as soon as you wake, sets the tone for the day. Add a lemon slice for extra Vitamin C and to gently detox the liver.
Half of your body weight in ounces is the general rule but this could vary according to physical activity and sweat rate. This is about how long it takes the water to get through your system. There is nothing more embarrassing than cramping up while playing soccer. A cramp is simply a lack of preparation. Catabolic means that your body begins to breakdown the proteins that make up your muscles to get the amino acids it needs, and yes, this is as bad as it sounds.
I go into depth with amino acids and protein here. However, through proper nutrition, we can avoid our body going catabolic along with the muscle soreness that comes along with it. This begins with getting amino acids in our body with our last meal.
As I have covered before about amino acids, animals are our best source of them. Eggs are not only a great source of protein, they are packed full of nutrients like protein, Vitamin D, Vitamin A, Vitamin B2 and iodine that our body loves and saturated fat, as I have talked about are actually really good for us 5. An extra tip: BCAAs , or branched chained amino acids, are a great option for extra insurance against going catabolic 6. Since they are purely amino acids, you can take them closer to game time, since they are extremely easy to digest due to the branched chain.
They will help you avoid muscle breakdown along with improving your muscle recovery. BCAAs are legal for college players to take, however, they are not legal for colleges to provide to their players. Another reason for making sure you get plenty of protein in your last meal is for the specific amino acid tyrosine, which promotes the neurotransmitter dopamine 7.
Naturally raising your dopamine will keep you alert, motivated and energized for hours after the meal. This is where things start to get fun. Preparing mentally for a game through food choice is not really discussed often, but it is actually surprising the effect that food has on your thinking. To get the mentality of having lots of energy and alertness, yet being able to focus all this energy towards the game comes from balancing out the minor caffeine that comes from tea with the relaxing and focusing chemicals within it.
Drinking green tea has been shown to do this because of its low caffeine combined with its high levels of L-Theanine 8. The dosage you would want for this would be mg L-Theanine per cup of Joe. Another alternative is to drink Yerba Mate tea. Yerba Mate, which is a traditional South American tea, which gives similar effects of alertness, energy and focus 9. These options will leave you feeling highly alert, yet without any jitters and lack of focus that sometimes comes from consumption of caffeine.
You want to go into a game with confidence and swagger about you that you are going to win. No questions, plain and simple, you are going to win the game. Without balanced nutrition, energy levels, recovery speeds, and peak performance suffer, leaving an athlete feeling weak, heavy, and completely exhausted.
Not sure what to eat? Overwhelmed by decision fatigue? My 4 Weeks of Real Food meal plan gives you everything you need for a full month of delicious, healthy real food meals. Our bodies function as a result of what we put into them. The right food and proper hydration provide us with energy the get-up and go , stable blood sugar prolonged function , and athletic precision neural patterns.
The energy that keeps us moving comes from food, but it must be converted into ATP for our body to use it. This process happens during an all-out sprint or lifting weights. Repeated high-energy outputs use glycogen stored in the muscles.
Stored fatty acids are fuel for longer-duration lower-intensity exercise. Soccer requires sustained energy for 60 to 90 minutes with intermittent bursts of higher intensity. The body is thus reliant on a combination of glycogen, the storage form of carbohydrate, and fat for fuel. The types of food a soccer player eats will impact whether glycogen stores are sufficient and whether the body can effectively access fat for energy.
Proper food choices can help keep blood sugar stable throughout a soccer game. The goal is to prevent a roller-coaster of energy highs and lows, so players compete at their best. Macronutrients — carbohydrates, protein, and fats — provide the energy and essential building blocks necessary for physical feats and mental acuity.
Not only is it important to eat a good balance of macronutrients, but we want to choose foods that are dense with micronutrients. Vitamins and minerals unlock energy, support reactions, and complete pathways to keep athletes in top condition. How you play is affected not only by what you eat hours before the game, but also by your nutrition choices on the days and weeks leading up.
Aim for nutrients to come from real foods rather than gels, bars, powders, and supplements. Avoiding packaged supplements also helps athletes develop healthy relationships with food. Packaged products draw us to the nutrition facts labels and can lead to obsessive behavior over food components.
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