Soccer food before game

But while buying a specialised oxygen pod or travelling by plane to improve performance is beyond the reach of most teams, focusing on diet can easily boost performance. If you are expending a lot of energy playing soccer, the foods you use to fuel your body become super important to how you perform.

Putting just a little bit of effort into your diet before trainings and matches will go a long way to improving you as a player. If you have already made the commitment to show up to the trainings and matches, week after week, season after season, your commitment and desire might as well be mirrored in the foods you are eating.

By taking on potassium earlier in the day for instance, we can avoid muscle cramps. What we eat is what gives us the energy we need to go about our daily lives whether it is learning in school, going to work, or playing soccer. Soccer is an intense sport to play as you are constantly on the move around the pitch, sprinting forwards to help out the attack, or jogging back into position.

The most effective way to provide your body with energy to fuel all this movement and excel is by eating the right carbohydrates. 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. Drinking a sports drink like Gatorade or Powerade is also a good idea at this stage.

These drinks contain electrolytes, which need to be replenished as the body sweats. Sports drinks also contain a large amount of sugar, so it is a good idea to dilute the drink with water. Try drinking a combination of half-water and half sports drink.

Successful soccer players will keep a strict diet throughout their season, not just in the days leading up to a game. Implementing these tips in your diet will help you perform to your potential while keeping you healthy. Vote count: 5. No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Attacking The Basket The well-known secret to winning any basketball game is to get more buckets than the other team, that much is simple.

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Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram. My CoachUp. January 30, am No Comments. Soccer Pregame Nutrition:. Your choices in nutrition could be the difference between burning out midway through the game and scoring the winning goal in overtime. With a competition day pro-performance plate, the focus should be on simple carbohydrates! Carbohydrates are going to be your main source of energy and you need lots of energy before a game!

For a pre-game meal, chose foods that are low in fiber avoid broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and simple foods like white rice, lean protein, cooked veggies. Additionally, I would recommend raw veggies, onion, and garlic if you have a sensitive stomach. If you really struggle with fueling before games, you might want to experiment with having a smoothie before the game as a source of fuel. While it is important to eat and properly time your breakfast, lunch, and dinner on game days, it is equally as important to be sure you are fueling with snacks before the game, during halftime and after the game to fuel, recovery properly and increase athletic performance.

It is recommended that soccer game snacks are eaten about one hour before the game, during halftime, and no more than 30 minutes after the game ends. For your pre-game top off fuel, snacks should be eaten about one hour before the game and should include ounces of a sports drink or electrolyte beverage and between grams of carbohydrates carbohydrates from the electrolyte beverage count in the carbohydrate total.

Pre-game snacks are extremely important because they allow you to top off your stored energy in your muscles muscle glycogen. It is important to limit fat and fiber in your pre-game top off. These nutrients take longer for your body to digest and your body should not be focused on digesting during your game. It should be focused on winning! Half-time snacks are meant to replenish your energy stores and provide an additional quick energy top-off.

Therefore, focus on snacks made up of simple carbohydrates that provide grams of carbohydrates. It is also important to replenish lost electrolytes and rehydrate with adequate fluid during this time.