I recently read a study, which concluded that athletes’ performance , to some extent, directly related to their level of hydration or dehydration. The better the body is hydrated, the better they will be able to keep their performance at a high level and fatigue will also settle in harder than with a person who is suffering from mild or acute dehydration.

Obviously, this is not the only factor that affects performance, but it’s one of those small details that make up a whole. And as a soccer player, you’ll want to take care of each detail in order to ensure that the whole, your performance, is intact by the time the ref blows his starting whistle.

I noticed that a lot of soccer player (especially younger ones) tend to put an equality sign between dehydration and thirst. Although both concepts face the same bodily requirement to replace fluids, thirst is a momentary situation that you can solve with a single drink, whereas dehydration is a chronic state. For example, you’re lacking certain vitamins from your body and you’re hungry. Eating a plateful of chicken wings may settle your hunger, but that doesn’t mean that your vitamin problem will be solved.

There’s such a large gamma of sports drinks out there that it’s quite hard to choose the “right” one for yourself, or for your team if you’re a coach. A good sports drink is one that offers a high amount of carbohydrates and water, but that doesn’t mean that good old H2O can’t be good for proper hydration just by itself.

Sports drinks do have some advantages though: they’re better tasting so they can be drank in larger quantities, they have carbs that can’t be found in simple water and they have glucose which helps with reducing fatigue and muscle tiredness.

Obviously, juices and sodas aren’t the best choice. Anything that has carbonation in it can cause you an aching stomach and that’s the worst you could get in a soccer match. Milk is way too heavy on the stomach and can also cause an upset belly, so it’s best if you think of milk as a source of macronutrients rather than a means of proper hydration.

When should I drink it?

In order to keep your self well hydrated, you need to drink well at least 16 hours before the match, several times during the match and a few hours after it’s over. You can start by drinking plain water a few days prior to the match, at set intervals, even when you’re not particularly thirsty.

You don’t need to hydrate yourself using sports drinks that early on, since the extra carbohydrates you get from them will go to waste. However, it’s a good idea to use a sports drink in your light pre game meal as a source of carb fuel for the upcoming effort.

If the game allows it, try drinking sips of a sports drink during the match as well. Don’t drink too much, or you’ll get a full belly that can hinder you from running or being as mobile. However, short sips can replenish your carbohydrate storage and fluids, keeping you at 100% performance at all times.

After the game, you can hydrate yourself using an inverse method to the one used before it. Right after the match has ended, drinking some carb rich fluid will help you relax and replenish your energies faster, so you won’t feel as tired as you would otherwise. It will also help relax your muscles so you’ll be ready to jump right back into training the next day or the day after.

After you feel you’ve refreshed yourself enough using the carb rich sports drink, you can switch to plain water again, drinking it at set intervals for a couple more days, again, even when you’re not thirsty.

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Tags: Hydration, juices, performance, Soccer, Sports drinks

Nowadays, nutrition is a hot topic in both sports and everyday life. It must be emphasized that the weight of a soccer player is not an important factor in his performance. Instead of concentrating on reaching an ideal weight, it is wiser to emphasize on adopting healthy eating habits.

Fat

Soccer players burn a lot of calories but fat should still be minimized in the athlete’s diet, mainly because it is not an efficient provider of energy. Although there is a lot of energy stored in fat, in long duration sports, like football, the body fuels itself mainly from Glycogen (found in carbohydrates)

Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates fuel the body most efficiently in prolonged physical activities such as soccer. As with other aerobic sports, the ideal meal for a footballer should be rich in carbohydrates. Before matches or important events, it is recommended to increase carb intake and decrease proteins. Flour and starch-based foods are a good source of complex carbs.
Examples: bread, potatoes, pasta, cereal, low-fat dairy products

Proteins

Proteins are essential for the regeneration of muscles and tissue. It is important to regularly integrate Protein into meals, but the amount must be kept it in small portions. Not more than 10% of all calories in your diet should come from Protein. As mentioned above, carbs are the primary source of energy for the body in soccer whereas protein is used for cell replenishment. Pre-game meals should not contain much Protein.
Examples: meat, eggs, nuts

Water & Sports Drinks

During matches or practice, your body will lose a lot of water. To keep it hydrated it’s important to drink water frequently in small portions (even when you don’t feel like it) Many sports drinks have flooded the market in the past few years. They contain carbohydrates and claim to potentially improve your performance. In practice, sports drinks would have the same effect as water, if the player using them is following a good diet.

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The amounts and types of food that players eat has an impact on not only their sporting performance but also on their growth and general health levels. This section is provided as a guide to help parents of players as well players themselves understand nutrition and its importance.

It is important that youth players (in fact all children and adults as well) get enough energy from their food intake to carry out day to day tasks as well as any sports activities. This can often mean that three meals a day is not enough and extra energy needs to be supplemented by eating snacks. The problem for most people is that they do not know what to eat for main meals and also what snacks to eat.

The amount and types of food eaten by children and adults that play sports is even more important as their energy requirements are greater, needing sufficient energy levels to not only perform their sport or exercise but also to recover.

Soccer players (adults) can average approximately 10km running during a match, some midfielders run 12-13km. This type of running, at a variety of paces, requires energy as well as fitness. You can be a very fit player, but without enough energy stored in your body, you will not be able to perform well. Many players run out of steam during the second half and this is often seen as a lack of fitness, but it can often be caused by lack of energy, caused in fact, by lack of carbohydrates in the days leading up to a match. This would like, complaining that a car that runs out of fuel is a badly designed car! You have to keep your car fueled and with the correct type of fuel. Treat your body the same way!

It is important that players have a good pre-match meal and also that they take on board carbohydrates during a game and especially at half time. Glucose based sports drinks are ideal as they are easy to digest and easy to drink.

Another very important factor related to this, is the amount of fluids that a player drinks. The body is mainly made from water and its important you keep it hydrated, especially in hot weather. Water is probably the best liquid to drink to replensish lost fluids, but some players prefer water mixed with cordial or sports drinks to make it more pleasant to drink.

Be careful not to drink too many soft drinks as not only do the bubbles make it harder to digest before playing sport, but many are caffeinated and will actually cause dehydration rather than hydration. They may quench your thirst but they won’t help keep your fluid levels high.

Remember also that when you feel thirsty then you are already getting dehydrated, drink before you get thirsty, especially when playing sports in hot weather.

The three main food types are carbohydrates, fats and proteins, and its important that there is a balance of these food types in everyones daily food intake. For young athletes, the balance would be around 60 per cent carbohydrate, 25-30 per cent from fats and around 15 per cent from proteins.

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