Does your DC compete in a high level sport?

[SportNovice]

So I am the most un-sporty person you will ever meet and I don't know where DC gets it from but she's doing quite well at the moment. I, however, am out of my league. She never seems hungry before matches (nerves?) but I need to feed her. What do your DC eat on a competition day? And the day before?
I've been taking along e.g. a cheese sandwich , some carrot sticks, apple, fruit pie, couple of cereal bars which she just picks at. In the second half of the competition, she seems out of energy. Most other people seem to have a whole array of food to offer their offspring. What should I be providing?

My son is a runner. The night before a race, he needs lots of carbs, so eg pasta and garlic bread. The day of a race, carbs too, but say 3 hours before the race: maybe beans and cheese on wholewheat toast.

I take flapjacks/pasta salad/banana/cereal bar and jelly babies to a race, for energy, then after he will have a packed lunch.

What does your dd say about her energy? Is she nervous before a match, so doesn't want to eat? What do her friends take?

I don't really have any comparison there as she's the only one in her age group from the club. She says she isn't nervous, but acts like she is, I don't want to insist that she is and make her think about it. It's so drawn out, there's a group stage and then a 60-90 minute break and then playoffs. Seems to me she's struggling to keep her energy levels up for the play offs, and also I guess, deal with nerves due to the threat of elimination.

I also have a runner, he eats bowls & bowls of porridge at all times of the day & night. Plus bagels, bananas, chicken, steak, pasta and a lot of yogurt.

Race days, will be porridge with honey plus a toasted bagel with butter for breakfast. He doesn’t like to eat then before a race but might have a bit of dried fruit (mango or apricots) and has a couple of dextrose tablets about 20 mins before.

DD plays county netball, they seem to mainly live off sweets in between matches 🤣

Just thinking about what he eats when it’s athletics season (as opposed to cross country), so might be there all day. For in between events I take:

Those pre-packed individual pain au chocolat.
Fruit loaf
Dried fruit
Cereal bars/flapjacks
Bananas
Protein shakes

I used to take sandwiches, but he never ate them, I think it is nerves. He would rather graze on small snacks as opposed to having anything more substantial. Then he usually is starving afterwards and wants 20 McNuggets on the way home!

So I need to lose the real food and go for more dried fruity things.

they seem to mainly live off sweets in between matches DD would definitely do this! I thought it would be unhelpful over all as it wouldn't give her a stable energy supply. Is that wrong?

Are they allowed "sports" drinks or is that frowned upon? I have a big issue getting her to drink enough, I've been taking flavoured water mainly.

Without knowing the sport, it’s hard to advise on nutrition. Fuelling for a 200m swimming event is very different from fuelling for 90mins of rugby.

What I would say is that sugar is generally good. She needs to think about carb loading in the couple of days before the event. And then on the day itself eat more easily digestible, quick release sugars. A cheese sandwich and fruit pie are likely too heavy and fatty. Nothing wrong with a handful of jelly babies to perk you up during exercise.

On match days, DS will have an omelette or porridge first thing. He doesn’t eat much before the game as it makes him feel sick when playing. After the game in the club house he will hoover whatever is on offer.

The key is carb loading the day before as well as on the actual day.
My DD plays a team sport at a national level.
She's 16 and plays in an U21 side.
The day before match day she has to eat 80g of carbs in every meal and 30g of carbs in 3 snacks. Same on the morning of a match and 3 hours before KO.
It will obvs depend on the amount of activity and your DDs age.
And don't forget you can drink the carbs- so fruit juice is good.
My DD doesn't drink anything other than water out of a match so eats all her carbs. It's a lot.
In HT (so similar to between your rounds?) she has banana and lucosade sport.
She used to be short of energy in games and it was all down to not eating enough carbs. It's been an eye opener.

It depends what sport it is.

What sport and how many hours? You could do sports drink but mainly for intense activities over an hour. Fruit juice prior and water during will likely be ok.

Food wise if she doesn’t want to eat I’d stick to high calorie, simple carbs. (Malt loaf, Kellogg’s squares bars, croissants, Belvita etc). Should be easier to encourage her to eat too.

Night before go for something largely carb based!

Fencing (just started national circuit) and netball (county). She does a lot of training over the week and I do wonder that she eats enough in total. She's 12.

Fencing is e.g. the first round of 5-7 matches of 3 minutes then KO of 6 minutes per round. So very intense bursts rather than constant exertion over a long period.

The key is carb loading the day before as well as on the actual day.
OK this is good to know. Last time I stood over her the day before to make sure she drank a normal amount and was much more successful in the first round. No idea if that had anything to do with it, but I shall try to get her to eat more carbs the day before next time.

@Namechangedasouting987 would you mind posting what she eats in a typical pre-match day?

2 of mine compete nationally as runners. They carb load the day before but then try and eat protein about 3 hours before (eggs/beans) tend not to eat before a long race.
They did some research into sports drinks and found that water and a banana where metabolically similar but much healthier.

I can do but bear in mind she's 16 not 12 and she plays football so sustained high level activity for 90 mins (she runs average of 11k per match)
Breakfast
2 eggs on 2 slices of toast
Fruit salad
Frusili bar
Snack
Apple and Belvita 2 pack
Lunch
School dinner with extra bread and yoghurt dessert
Snack
Hot cross bun and porridge bar
Dinner
Home made meal with 80g carbs
Sometimes Snack of 2 slices toast ot bowl of cereal
She also trials for 90mins on this day (lower intesnity)

Match day
Same breakfast
11am noodles with prawns (a lot of noodles!)
About an hour Before match hot cross bun
Just before match porridge bar
At HT banana and lucosade

Sorry I should have said KO is 2pm. 3 hours before for a high carb meal is standard practice for sport

My DC competes internationally and is a couple of years older than yours.
carb loading day before.
day of:
breakfast - hash browns. Scrambled eggs, baked beans. Juice and hot chocolate
pre snack-porridge or banana and cereal bar.
water throughout-if it’s somewhere hot may add a SIS tablet
in between races - mixture of jam sandwiches on cheap white bread (as little fibre as possible). Haribo, chicken balls, Nuts, dried mango
after -anything and everything
It’s taken a while to get them to take on enough fluid. This made a big difference

We don’t really focus on eating. Eat as normal.

our comps are usually two or three days away from home, so add in training days and we’re in a hotel for a week. We stock up on snacks- crackers, chocolate, sweets, lucozade etc, then try and eat reasonable meals. Breakfast and lunch would be a sausage butty/baked potato from the sports centre cafe, for example. Dinner would be eating out, again trying for balance.

we don’t really pay attention to the macros etc but eat to appetite and go with what he fancies. Salty stuff like crisps and crackers seem favoured.

pre comp depends on timing.

best post race, and post training is chocolate milk. Everything in there, easy to drink and digest on an adrenalised body.

welcome to the nightmare world of competitive sport 😂

Should also add that there’s some research around the female hormone cycle, with some athletes changing the way they eat and train depending on where they are in their cycle.
The OU have a good (free) course for female athletes. Ill try to remember to add it to this thread later

There can be a problem with eating to appetite as that sometimes it's not enough. My dd doesn't always feel like eating this much carbs, but needs to. Esp the day before. Her glycerol levels need to be high enough to compete effectively.

glycerol levels?

Have a look at Feathersone Nutrition on Instagram. She gives lots of good ideas for pre-run (match) snacks which might be more palatable, and also for fueling during the activity.

I have run competitively since I was a teenager. I would not be able to stomach cheese sandwiches, fruit or veg on raceday either. Before and during concentrate on quick and easily digestible carbs - bagel with honey or jam for breakfast, then have graham crackers, rice cakes, those caramel stroofwaffle things, jam sandwiches, cereal bars etc. for between matches/halftime. If she cannot stomach those you may need to resort to energy gels, or a sports carb drink. Have something like a milkshake and something more substantial (this is the cheese sandwich time) for after its all finished, and then a big dinner afterwards.

Night before, experiment with what works for her, but plenty of carbs and some protein. Could be pasta, pizza, I personally like fish or chicken with sweet potato or rice - just get the food in, but make sure it's simple and easy to digest - not a really hot curry, and not hard to digest veg like broccoli, brussel sprouts etc.

Glycogen sorry... auto correct tryp

Gymnast kid here so intense bursts rather than endurance but she doesn’t like to eat within about three hours of competing - a mix of nerves and not wanting to feel bloated. Just before their session she and her partners might have a a few sweets or a few squares of chocolate but not much. After a comp it’s a veggie burger at McDonalds.

Open learn course-supporting female performance in sport and fitness

Well researched and very informative-Has sessions on maintaining energy balance and the importance of carbohydrates to female athletes

Thanks @Namechangedasouting987 that's good to see I'm doing something vaguely right. So the day before she's eating the right kind of foods, but probably not enough, she has quite a small appetite.

But I've been taking the wrong kinds of food for her on the day. I've re-written my shopping list for this weekend!

@Itsnotalwaysasyouthink will take a look, not there yet, but I'll look at it with her in the holidays.