Sports Nutrition

[Bod Mor]

I know a lot of posters here play sports competively, mostly football, hurling, soccer, rugby etc. What do people find the best nutrition preperation for match days and those gruelling training sessions are.

From personal experience, when I was a young lad if I had a match in the morning I might play on an empty stomach or have a quick fry up in the morning before taking to the field. Lately though I've been taking heed to good nutrition if I play am playing a soccer match or before training. Usually I'd have a big bowl of porridge about an hour and a half to 2 hours before and the difference this makes is unreal, heaps more energy and I find that next day muscle soreness doesn't happen that much.

To be honest I think those energy drinks are a waste of time compared to real food. What do other people think?

I always wondered what a GAA player would have to eat on a match day. Gone are the days surely of having a few pints on the weekend of a match for a serious footballer or hurler.

[RedandGreenSniper]

I can't eat within three hours of training or a match or I'll be sick very quickly - even a piece of fruit is likely to come up 

I'd tend to have a high carb lunchtime meal ahead of a training session that evening. If I have a match before 4pm - which is normally always the case - I'll just be having a light bowl of cereal and some toast that morning or else it does repeat on me. I try to compensate by eating plenty the day before.
Not a fan of energy drinks either. Think they're great after games but, like eating, before games I can get sick from them. Water is your only main as far as I'm concerned.
I'd say for those that having stronger stomachs than myself, a fine feed of cereal or pasta in the run up to a game makes a lot of sense. Fry-ups don't.
But I don't don't think there's a catch all diet, different strokes for different folks

[shapes]

I find that the three hour rule also applies to me but I find the Sunday morning games or training sessions the hardest as it is impossible to eat before them and then you have that rumbling almost sick with the hunger feeling during the session. Hard to beat pasta 3 hours before.

[JimStynes]

For any of use out their who are prone to taking cramps during matches - I used drink about 2 or 3 litres of water on match and training days but my legs would have cramped up all the time near end of a match. I was told that it was because i was drinking to much water and washing all the salts out of my system which was the reason i was getting cramps. Now i drink 2 or 3 litres on match day along with an energy drink about an hour before the match - i have not had a cramp since.