Thanks again! Current time: 12/02/2020 05:53:04 am (America/New_York) Since the avocado is a monounsaturated fat, we need the egg yolks for our saturated fat to help with the promotion of testosterone and long lasting energy. Another way you can prepare, as I prefer to, is with a smoothie. These are broken down into glucose to provide the energy that you need during the game. Having enough energy and the proper type of energy, is just as important as the game itself. Being moderately dehydrated, 2% of your body fluids, has drastic effects on your performance, decreasing endurance by up to 30% (3). 1 pc, 100 % whole wheat bread, 1 tablespoon jelly, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 1 pc turkey/cheese sandwich and 20 ounces sports drink, Low-fat fruit yogurt, 1 banana and 8 ounces sports drink. Mainly it's most important to drink lots of water directly before the game. Find a way to add it into your morning, and it will help your blood sugar response and your energy level throughout the game (2). Chewing gum for 10 seconds has been shown to improve reaction times by 7% for up to 15 minutes, because when you chew, you stimulate the promoter cortex, which prepares your brain for movement and reaction (. Maintain this through to game time. Drinking sports drinks in slushy form was shown to improve exercise endurance by 10% (, I know I said early don’t skimp on the yolk, but the coconut oil provides the saturated fat needed in this smoothie, Cacao powder is damn awesome, and I’ll talk about it in the future. This timing depends on what and how much you eat. Load of the on the veggies in the scramble. The more we develop a community of players, coaches and performance specialists helping each other out, the more we all gain. Make sure it’s nothing big that will take the resources of your blood circulating away from your muscles and brain. The figures indicate the amount of calories you need to eat if you eat at 3-5 hours, 2-3 hours, 1-2 hours or 0.5 to 1 hour before the game. It has long been advised that players should eat a high Carbohydrate meal up to 3 hours before a match. While fruits are fructose, a type of sugar, they don’t digest as quickly as most carbohydrates because of the fiber in them. With the above tips, I’ve already recommended a banana before the game and plenty of water. While bacon and steak shouldn’t be our go-to pre-game meals due to their higher demands of digestion, we can go for eggs and some ham. I know every player has had at least one practice where he or she ate too much too closely to practice and then felt sick during it. The night before a soccer game is your opportunity to take advantage of eating a large meal. The carbohydrate sources I recommend for game day are spinach and kale. However, through proper nutrition, we can avoid our body going catabolic along with the muscle soreness that comes along with it. We want to feel light, with our blood circulating through our entire body and not in our bellies digesting meals. Because carbohydrates are easily digestible and give you a great deal of energy, they tend to be best pre-event meals. Testosterone. They should drink while they eat and afterwards. We want to have plenty of amino acids in our system so we can avoid breaking down muscles to get the amino acids we need for energy. “Carbo loading” the night before a game when your muscles are already rested and filled with glycogen and your liver has plenty of carbs for normal body function will just cause the extra carbohydrates to be stored as fat. This means: Breakfast for a mid-day kick off Lunch for a mid afternoon kick off Dinner for an Evening kick of Studies have shown that combining a sports drinks with a high carbohydrate meal leads to the greater … A banana before warm up can help as well. 3-4 Scrambled eggs with veggies and slices of avocado. And surprisingly, as I’ve forced some of my past teammates to realize, it doesn’t taste gross. Do not skimp on the eggs with egg whites. Your energy will be high, you will feel light, alert and aggressive yet relaxed and composed at the same time and it’ll last the entire game. If you can’t do 100% all the time, you should at least try to do it for game days. If solids don’t sit well before a game, or players are very nervous, a liquid source of protein and carbohydrate such as a fruit smoothie can be a good option. Memory usage: 3330.88KB. Have a meal two or three hours before the game. Also, avoid large consumptions of fluids before eating. Last game I ate pizza, cookies, drank coke and felt horrible! What to Eat Before a Morning Soccer Game. Start hydrating the day before your game. So what should I eat? Keep sipping on water, sports drinks and juices, but avoid soft drinks. One is to get solid sleep. You have to be the field in about an hour for warm-ups, so now is a good time to take advantage of the benefits of tea. “The night before games I’ll have chicken, pasta, fish: all the normal stuff you would expect us to eat. If you try to replace all the glycogen in your muscles on game day, then you’ll be forced to spike your blood sugar by high carb intake, which as we all know leads to a quick drop of blood sugar. Also if you get a flavored protein powder, that will add more flavor, but I prefer to go with the one with the least ingredients possible. Adding in berries and raisins in are a good add as well for some more carbs. We should be drinking as much water as possible the night before and the morning of a game. We want to be feeling light when we go into a game. We want our glycogen storages in our muscles to be full and ready for our explosive movements. Higher testosterone levels will not only make you fight harder, but they will make you want to assert your dominance more. This meal should have lots of carbs and some protein. Extra Tip: Eat a tablespoon of honey before bed to drastically improve the quality of your sleep (12). I go into depth with amino acids and protein here. Rather, if your pre-game meal is Get 2 glasses of water in you within a half an hour of waking up. Some kids will need two hours to digest before they play. Eat carbohydrates 2-4 hours before the game and drink water. Have your first snack within the first half-hour after the game and then continue every two hours for the next four to six hours. 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). They are full of fiber, are slow digesting carbohydrates and are extremely nutrient dense, especially kale (1). You might have your own routine established and if so, you shouldn’t suddenly change it. Once you do begin to eat this way, you will be surprised at the difference this will make in your game. When it comes to food, avocado, almonds, kiwis and bananas all have the amino acid tryptophan, which is the key ingredient to making serotonin in your body (11). This meal should be balanced with carbohydrates and protein. You will want to eat complex carbohydrates like breads, grains, and pastas. I know the night before you're supposed to eat pasta, and I know you're supposed to eat breakfast, but 1 1/2, 2 hours before the (finals) soccer match, what should I eat to be at my best game? The cholesterol in fats is a precursor to testosterone, and a boost of it through fats such as a fish oil supplement, avocado or coconut oil will help give you some extra swagger when you walk onto the pitch. Drink lots of water; 16 to 24 ounces is a perfect guide. Don't eat too much before hand, maybe have a meal 2 hours Now you can get an enhanced effect of this high energy alertness with an overall sense of calm by drinking coffee and supplementing with L-Theanine, since regular green tea does not have much caffeine in it, and it’s L-Theanine levels are not that high. Testosterone is a steroid hormone that, for soccer players, is important due to its effects on aggression. 2-4 eggs the morning of a game will leave you with amino acids and nutrients to keep your body in high gear for 90 minutes. Working backwards, this means that we would want our last meal before the game to be between 9-10, which will give us plenty of time to digest. Doing this successfully is easy if you have a nutritionist guiding you. Your thinking and mood are based on the presence of hormones and neurotransmitters in your body, and while this sounds complicated, it’s not. But you need to consume he right foods at the right time. The carbohydrate sources I recommend for game day are spinach and kale. 9. If you enjoy the information here, please share it and/or comment below. It’s time to step out on the pitch and begin warm-ups. Also, eating fruit or carbohydrates in general, with protein and fat slows down the digestion of the carbohydrates, which in turn helps suppress and insulin spike. It’s not a lack of passion for college soccer, you’ve proven your passion during training, in the … This will give your body plenty of time to digest it, get the waste out and have the nutrients circulating through your body. Avoid power bars, soft drinks, protein drinks and powders and gels. If you can’t have a real meal around this time, a lighter meal biased towards carbs and little protein will suffice. 1. For example, “Food Guide for Soccer” recommends eating trail mix, an apple and cheese sticks or a chicken dinner with rice and vegetables. So, if your glycogen storages are full the morning of the game, then that is perfect. Let’s use a game at 1 o’clock for our example. 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. Carbohydrates are key with a moderate amount of protein, adding in some antioxidants if possible. Many soccer players have rituals bordering on superstition when it comes to what they eat before a game. We want to have substantial potassium to avoid muscle cramping. The goal of this post is to answer the question we all ask, “what should I eat before a soccer game?”. A pre-game meal routine might look like this: Eat breakfast within the first hour after waking. We want to come in confident and ready to fight to the death, but with an overall sense of composure, not too amped up and not too relaxed. What to eat and drink during games Players should work closely with an Accredited Sports Dietitian to trial nutrition strategies during training and matches … Now while this smoothie appears to be a hodgepodge of random foods, I’ve picked all of them to fill a specific need for a soccer players needs. Plain and simple. My pre-game smoothie (remember since it’s not solid food to have it closer to 3 hours till game time than 4). Try to drink about a gallon of water a day. You also might rush to the game What you are is what you eat. A cramp is simply a lack of preparation. Yerba Mate, which is a traditional South American tea, which gives similar effects of alertness, energy and focus (9). Fruit will help provide vitamins and minerals that help your body function as normal. While nutrition is a daily necessity, it takes on an even greater importance as the day of the game approaches. Recovery options after the game need to include carbohydrates to replace depleted energy stores and protein to rebuild weary muscles. I played soccer for 15 years and usually it was whole grain pasta and raw fruit before games. For a 90 minute game, you want your blood sugar at a steady level, which means you should load your body with glycogen the night before DEPENDING on your past weeks activities and carb intake. This will help you do better when the game date arrives. Don't eat too much before hand, maybe have a meal 2 hours The dosage you would want for this would be 100mg L-Theanine per cup of Joe. This is a common practice among elite athletes. A banana or half of an energy bar also works in the half hour before game time. This is about how long it takes the water to get through your system. They fruit will provide more carbohydrates for your body, and since they are being eaten with fats and protein, they will digest slower than if they are eaten on their own. These will provide slow releasing carbohydrates. Soccer requires speed, endurance, a consistent energy supply and focus. Get plain oats and cook them. Besides what to eat before a soccer game, for best performance your body needs adequate hydration. For each pound of body weight, eat one half of a gram, high quality carb. If you don’t have amino acids readily available for your body to use, it goes catabolic. Eating like this will prepare you properly for a game. Taking your game day nutrition seriously will give you the solid foundation to display all the hard work you’ve been putting in at practice. Don't overdo it and consume too many carbohydrates before playing sport, as this will direct blood to your digestive system instead of your muscles when you become active. The following is a whole-day menu for what to eat before a soccer game. 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. So we have just covered many ways to fully prepare yourself for coming into a game as prepared as possible. Another alternative is to drink Yerba Mate tea. 5 things to do before a soccer match Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email With the arrival of game day, it can be difficult to keep the nerves in check, but with a little pre-planning, rest assured, all you'll need to do is focus on your soccer game - playing hard and hopefully winning. Also, eating fruit or carbohydrates in general, with protein and fat slows down the digestion of the carbohydrates, which in turn helps suppress and insulin spike. This, combined with have plenty of glycogen storage, physical preparation through trainings and having some salt with breakfast or in a sports drink will keep you from getting cramps during a game and embarrassing yourself, because you’re better than that. We don’t want to be going into a game with extra weight slowing us down. The cacao powder, almond butter and banana are the driving flavors in it. What to Eat Before a Soccer Game for Optimal Performance, Examples for What to Eat Before a Soccer Game, The Best Soccer Player Diet Plan for Optimal Performance. List of Foods for Soccer Players. A general rule to consumption is to eat between 20 to 40 grams of carbohydrates one to two hours before playing sport. They should come to the table hungry (after main meals, snacking is encouraged.) If you are a recreational soccer player, you might arrive at a game after eating a large meal and find you're too full to run well during a 90-minute outdoor contest or a 48-minute indoor one. If eating like this is different for you, experiment with practices, and then move to games. The game begins at 8 PM. They are full of fiber, are slow digesting carbohydrates and are extremely nutrient dense, … And how many hours should I eat before the game? As I have covered before about amino acids, animals are our best source of them. An extremely important part of pre-game preparation is being fueled to compete. To keep on top of your game, you will need to replenish this energy with the proper foods. Make sure to have a few glasses of water with breakfast. These options will leave you feeling highly alert, yet without any jitters and lack of focus that sometimes comes from consumption of caffeine. Now while this feeling is often breed into players, there ways that foods can help your drive and confidence through promoting the right hormones and neurotransmitters. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the support of the OS community. Lets begin by looking at what you need of your body come game time and work our way backward to see how our food choices can optimize our bodies to meet the requirements. We can boost our testosterone through healthy fats. Soccer is an aerobic sport that uses a lot of energy. Milliseconds can make a difference. Being fully hydrated is almost too necessary to explain, but there are points to hydration that we need to be aware of. Since it’s high in fiber, the insulin response will not be great, but it’ll add a little extra glucose into your system right before your begin using your glycogen storages in your muscles. In the study, participants’ reaction time increase on average by 36 milliseconds. I have a soccer game tomorrow, I play forward which means I do most of the running. Mainly it's most important to drink lots of water directly before the game. Ideally it should contain easily digestible starchy foods such as pasta, bread, rice and fruit. Avoid power bars, soft drinks, protein drinks and powders and gels. 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. The iced tea will have the same effects that the hot tea, so there is no need to avoid this advantage because of the weather. The eggs have the essential amino acids we need to provide energy for our muscles and are enough calories to provide us with energy for the game. Naturally raising your dopamine will keep you alert, motivated and energized for hours after the meal. As one athlete explained, “I don’t want to have food in my stomach when I’m competing. When it comes to pre-match meals, starchy carbohydrates are your friend as they break down into glycogen really effectively. If you are eating a solid meal, then you’ll want to give yourself time. I also would eat a banana as well with breakfast. This is not what we want. Choose high quality carbohydrate foods such as bagels, whole grain bread, tortillas, English muffins, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole grain cereals, fruits such as apples and bananas. In order to avoid having water splashing around in our bellies, we should taper off heavy fluid intake about 45 minutes before a game. Everyone has heard of it, but do you know what it is responsible for and how you can promote it? There is nothing more embarrassing than cramping up while playing soccer. You should not eat all the calories indicated from 3-5 hours to 0.5 to 1 hour. During the game, carbohydrate supplement drinks given before the game and at halftime have been shown to increase running volume and intensity in the second half in soccer players. Drinking green tea has been shown to do this because of its low caffeine combined with its high levels of L-Theanine (8). 7-8 hours, in complete darkness is the best way to keep our serotonin levels high (10). Following the directions above about drinking tea before a game can help with keeping composure while adding aggression to our game. Take a small, high-carb snack, with moderate protein and low fat, such as: After knowing what to eat before a soccer game, following are general guidelines on the recommended calorie intake. Prepare the tea the night before and put it in the fridge. Besides training, nutrition will be one of the best ways to prepare for our games. We perform better when fully hydrated. This should feature lean proteins such as meat, eggs and beans. This timing also depends on individuals’ metabolisms, but 3-4 hour window is where you should begin your experimenting at, trying to get the timing down for yourself better and better each game. 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. This will take some planning on your part. You’re not hydrating properly and you’re not getting enough electrolytes, typically potassium and sodium (4). Neither one is better than the other is, but I feel lighter after smoothie then eating a solid breakfast, but other players may like the feeling of filling up a few hours before the game or eating something warm that the above example would give. You want to go into a game with confidence and swagger about you that you are going to win. This means your body is not in that big of a glycogen deficiency. Try a pasta dish with some lean ground turkey meat sauce, or a chicken stir fry Your muscles store around 300 to 400 grams of carbohydrates, and a soccer practice depletes about half of that. With this smoothie, I would continue with the rest of the eating schedule that I listed in the first example. What should I eat before my event? This will take evaluating how you recovered and ate the past few days. Examples of great pre-game meals for soccer players could be… Grilled chicken (4-5 oz. The smell of peppermint increases power output, including running speed (. Excellent ball-handling skills and an enjoyment of running help players perform at their best, and so does proper nutrition. As I mentioned above, if you want a little something after this last meal, a banana before game time would be good, along with a handful of nuts. But for now, Almonds are better for you than peanuts, but it is pricier, so don’t feel bad going with peanut butter if the budgets tight, Curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, is the most anti-inflammatory food in the world and it’s anti-catabolic (. Now lets look at a couple of ways we can put this into practice. Eat a bigger meal two to four hours before go time. No questions, plain and simple, you are going to win the game. I played soccer for 15 years and usually it was whole grain pasta and raw fruit before games. To prepare well for the game, you need to eat a good meal the night before the game. This is important to consider because goals Chew peppermint gum during warm-ups or during the game. I prefer to have smoothies as my last meal, so I tend to aim to finish them right around 3 hours before my game, since they digest quicker due to being in liquid form. Copyright WWW.NEWHEALTHADVISOR.ORG © 2020, All rights Reserved. If eating this way before a game is new to you, I recommend testing it out before practices. To avoid this sick and heavy feeling, we need to eat our last meal 3-4 hours before our game time. So what should I eat? Glycogen is the way our body stores carbohydrates in our muscles. Here is one example of what to eat and drink before a soccer game. If you are 160 lb, eat 80 grams of carbs. An extra tip for lower insulin response is cinnamon. Try to fuel muscles 1-2 hours before an athletic event. If you follow the principles below, you will come into a game mentally and physically prepared. Full Hydration. Starchy carbs include potatoes, breads, cereal, pasta, fruits and vegetables. 6 Run or practice the sport for at least 1-2 hours each day. Start taking more water and fluids three days to game day. 4 Little-Known Methods to Boost Your Energy Before a Soccer Game Sometimes, you just can’t be bothered to play. The ultimate game day nutrition preparation. Soccer is a sport that involves both endurance interspersed with high intensity efforts throught the game. Playing on a hot day? Most players have the day before a game to have a light training, go over tactics and continue muscle recovery from the tough practices preparing for the upcoming game. Otherwise, you need to mind foods to eat before a soccer game to avoid getting cramps, energy deprivation or passing out during the game. Wake up 4 hours before important games or soccer events, eat a simple breakfast (bread + a nut butter), and then go back to bed. Soccer Nutrition - Pre Game Meal #1 - What To Eat Before A Soccer Game - Get a FREE eBook, soccer training videos, and weekly soccer tips - … I explain it more in depth in here, but just know that this energy is used for explosive movements, so we want it completely full going into a game. If you are a soccer player, you need to stock up on energy to last you through the 90-minute game. How you perform is greatly affected by what you put in your body beforehand. If you drink sports drinks during games, partially freeze them. Therefore, rely on the timing of your meal to determine how much you should eat. This begins with getting amino acids in our body with our last meal. “Foods like peanut butter, nuts, fruits, and low-fat greek yogurt can be tolerated with closer to 60 minutes before game time. If you start getting your body hydrated right before game time, you body won’t have e… I love engaging in discussion and answering questions in any aspects related to the game we all love. High in fiber and potassium, it will help give your body the glucose it needs to function so your body is running on all cylinders. I like to sauté them in olive oil before adding the eggs in. Sports nutritionists advise that you eat real food before a soccer game. This includes breakfast on game day. You just spent 7-8 hours not drinking water, and your game is coming up. Choose an easily digestible meal, high in carbs, low or moderate in proteins, low in fat and low or moderate in fiber. Also, we can increase serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that promotes calmness, through a couple of ways. Without adequate, balanced nutrition, you won’t have enough energy to play your best. These foods are broken down slowly and provide energy over a long period of time. Do not use the crappy oatmeal with weird flavors added into it. Large amounts of fluids will take away They will help you avoid muscle breakdown along with improving your muscle recovery. Your body uses amino acids for almost all body functions, and when you’re pushing your body in a game of soccer, your body needs amino acids more than ever. ), baked sweet potato/regular potato, ~1 cup roasted vegetables Grilled fish (checkbook size), steamed brown rice (1 cup or 1-2 fists), ~ 1 cup roasted vegetables Baked salmon, quinoa (1 cup or 1-2 fists), spinach side salad, ¾ cup … An extra tip: BCAAs, or branched chained amino acids, are a great option for extra insurance against going catabolic (6). Everyone rushes over to see if you’ve injured yourself, and you have to shamefully tell them, it’s a cramp. 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). If you didn’t refuel your muscle glycogen storages properly the last couple days, then a small side of oatmeal can help. This game is very important and I don't want anything to slow me down. The thing is you want to be careful eating fruit that close to a game , because it could run through you too fast. But it’s not enough to eat the night before the game. The banana will help with serotonin production, potassium levels and another last minute boost of carbs. Your body stores energy for use in the next 24-36 hours. Now lets look at each part individually and see how exactly we can attain it through food. Nutrition While nutrition is a daily necessity, it takes The BCAA’s will help your body avoid breaking down your muscles for energy needs, which will help with post game soreness and decrease muscle loss. A penalty kick takes about 50 milliseconds to reach the goal line. What to Eat Before a Soccer Game Sports nutritionists advise that you eat real food before a soccer game. Last Updated 02 December, 2020. A snack before a soccer practice or game should be something that isn’t heavy, but is enough to keep kids fueled. This will keep our muscles running all game long. If we are only aggressive and are not balancing it out with a sense of composure, then we’re not going to play our best. We want to come in with high energy and alertness, but with a calm sense of focus. When I played pro soccer we usually would be given a granola bar or banana for pregame snack, 2.5 hours before the game. However, we cannot be only seeing red when playing soccer. To come into a game like this, we need to turn to nutrition. Beware of fatty foods as these are not readily digested and can lead to cramping and slowness. In regards to insulin, its a storage hormone, therefore when raised levels appear in the blood, it promotes glucose storage (as glycogen) not the breakdown for energy. BCAAs are legal for college players to take, however, they are not legal for colleges to provide to their players. At this point, you should be drinking water continuously. We try to eat perfectly to optimize our game all the time, but often times it’s difficult to be 100%, and sometimes it keeps us sane to be at about 85-90% perfect and to let us falter a little. When you eat a big meal, your body sends more blood to your stomach to help with digestion. On the day of the game, take non-caffeinated fluids one hour to the game. This is where things start to get fun. So there you have it. Pre-game meals should also be pretty bland as to not upset the stomach. The night before a game a player should eat a high carbohydrate meal to maximize glycogen stores. So think about your practice schedule and your eating for the days leading up to game day to give you an idea of what your carb intake should look like. However, too much water in our stomachs when we go to play can lead to a heavy feeling and sometimes side cramps. We need our blood to be going to our muscles and to our brain so we are able to optimally perform athletically and mentally. That means you only need slower digesting carbohydrates like vegetables and fruits. Your meal should contain about 50 percent carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and cereals. Before a soccer game, you need to consume a large quantity of carbohydrates, a moderate amount of protein and a low amount of fat. We want to be fully hydrated, except without the feeling of water weight in our stomach.