Sports require power, speed, agility, and endurance and all these skills require high energy stores from both food energy and fluids to succeed in games, matches, and entire tournaments. Athletes must eat high energy, preferably higher carbohydrate diets.

As a sport nutritionist, just coming from the Australian Open as the onsite nutritionist, outside of dehydration, the most common mistake I see is under consumption of carbohydrate, particularly in the pre-and post match time. And, as an athlete myself for over 30 years, I see the same sport nutrition mistakes with recreational play that often mean the difference between winning or losing. The following article will highlight other key areas for players to focus on in their diets to maximize your best performance yet!

An optimal training diet is built over time, training the body’s muscles to learn how to store more fuel over-time, just as a runner carbohydrate loads for a marathon. For repeatedly successful games, following these guidelines can help develop winning eating strategies for physical activity. The sports training diet should be focused on high-energy foods and adequate hydration, timed appropriately before, during, and after play.

A diet rich in complex carbohydrates is the key to performance and endurance. Carbohydrates fuel high-intensity work, which correlates to the energy required for movement and physical strain on the body. Muscles store carbohydrates as glycogen, and consuming small amounts of carbs on a regular basis ensures maintenance of maximum glycogen levels.

Select pre-game meals and snacks that are:

Examples of good pre-game foods include bagels, english muffins, pita bread, pasta, bread, fresh fruit, granola bars, higher carbohydrate energy bars, oatmeal, rice, grits, potatoes, corn, lima beans, black-eyed peas, and beans.

Outside of hydrating properly which is described below sports players can also benefit from consuming small amounts of carbohydrate during play. New information in sports nutrition research shows that in stop and start sports, particularly those that last over several hours of time, athletes can benefit from small bite size servings of easy to digest quick energy carbohydrate sources such as that seen in sport food products like sport beverages such as Gatorade and PowerAde (guidelines for beverage intake are listed below). An important tip is to favor sports drinks, as they contain carbohydrates and electrolytes, like sodium, which is key to minimize heat illness risk. Consuming carbohydrates during training and play has been shown to help tennis players maintain more power and accuracy. Gatorade® contains 14 g carbohydrate per 8 oz, which is quickly absorbed and used by working muscles. Sodium replacement is also important since a significant amount of sodium can be lost through sweat during play. If you feel that a regular Gatorade concentration feels like too much carbohydrate in your system, try the new G2, which contains half the carbohydrate content, but the same level of sodium of the regular Gatorade products.

New ideas for nutrition during play:

Other options for players who do not like sport beverages are newer sport food products made from solid food components such as sport energy bars (such as PowerBar or Clif Bar), Sport Jelly Beans or sport energy gels such as Power Gel or Clif Shot. The main limitation of these sport food products over a sport beverage are that none of these contain similar electrolyte levels to current sport beverages that are recommended for rehydration. Energy Bars for the most part contain complex carbohydrates similar to what is in bread or bagels, infact a whole PowerBar is similar to eating a whole medium bagel. Eating ¼ of a bar of this type at a break in play in combination with a sport beverage would be a way to get more umpf to get you through a long 3 set match. Sport jelly bean products are mostly sugar without significant electrolytes and Energy gels are composed of combinations of malto dextrins (a starchy carbohydrate substance) and simple sugars coming from sucrose, glucose, and fructose. If you prefer real food equivalents to these newer sport foods, try salty pretzels or saltines with a sport beverage to get a similar effect. Consuming these at changeovers during a 3 set match may be more helpful that consuming a sport beverage alone, particularly if your energy levels are running low.

Food sources of energy aside, proper hydration during training and on the court is even more critical. Athletes should drink a half-cup to a cup of water every 15 minutes during exercise and two cups of water for every pound of body weight lost during training or play. Fluid is critical to decreasing the risk of dehydration and heat illness. Water molecules are absorbed into the muscle as carbohydrate feedings are converted into glycogen for storage. Limiting fluid intake limits a player’s ability to store glycogen as muscle energy and increases your risk for heat illness.

Remember thirst is not a good indicator of hydration level. Adequate fluid consumption is an athletes best bet for beating dehydration and heat illness problems.

Gain a better understanding of food choices and servings associated with these guidelines by reviewing the food pyramid and related articles at http://mypyramid.gov. The recommended daily number of servings from food groups for the training diet is:

• Grains 10–12 (serving size is ½ cup)

• Vegetable Group 3–5 (serving size is ½ cup)

• Fruit Group 4–8 (serving size is baseball piece of fruit)

• Milk Group 2–4 (2 for adults, 4 for teens; serving size is 1 cup)

• Meat & Beans 2 – 3 portions (serving size is 3 oz each)

• Oils (fats) at least one tablespoon of vegetable fat per day (oil cooked into food or salad dressing)

Following these guidelines is simple and can quickly become part of an athlete's routine. When this happens, it can help a player maintain strength and concentration during training, a match, or several days of play.

To learn more about Page Love Owner Nutrifit Sport Therapy, Inc please visit http://www.nutrifitga.com.