Category: PERFORMANCE

Get used to planning what you’re going to eat each day. Planning helps to stop eating whatever, whenever. Check the labels for the amount of fat, carbs, and protein they contain.This is an example of an eating plan for a player who has a light run in the morning followed by training or game in the afternoon.

Drinking adequate amounts of fluid can prevent dehydration, reduce heat disorders, and provide a convenient source of energy. It can get pretty hot in all that gear and fluids help regulate your body’s temperature. Ensuring you have sufficient fluids before and during training, can improve your performance. Replacing lost fluid after training helps in your body’s recovery.

Water

Water is the easiest and most convenient fluid to drink. You should drink at least 2 litres of water each day, but more when you train. You should drink adequate water prior to training and games to keep you hydrated. Drink regularly throughout training – about every 15 minutes. Afterwards, water should be drunk to compensate for lost fluid from sweating. It is a good idea to drink water that contains electrolytes to replace the ones you lose through sweat. If you train longer than an hour or at a high intensity you would benefit from a sports drink.

Sports Drinks

As well as keeping you hydrated, sports drinks provide a source of carbohydrates, and sodium to fuel you during intense training sessions and replace lost electrolytes.

For most goalkeepers water will be sufficient during trainings and the game. After the game consume more fluid from either water or a sports drink. If the training session is particular intense, look to have a sports drink.

Note: Don’t confuse energy drinks with sports drinks. Energy drinks can contain caffeine and although they can give you a quick hit of energy, they do more bad than good. Energy drinks should be avoided.

Bruises, sprains, knocks and even broken bones come with the territory of a goalkeeper. Protein helps in the repair and recovery of damaged muscles and tissues, and in the recovery of energy stores. Consuming sufficient amounts of protein enables your body to recovery from training and to build strength. For young goalkeepers, protein is also needed for normal daily growth of the body. Those who are wanting to “bulk up”, must also consume protein.

Most people consume enough protein for their normal daily needs but sports people need to monitor their protein intake especially when they are trying to increase muscle. You should daily consume 1 – 1.5g of protein per kilogram of your own weight so an 80kg person should consume 80-120 g of protein each day depending on the intensity of the training. Young goalkeepers still growing should daily eat 2g/Kg of body weight.

Dairy products, eggs, meat and vegetables are all good sources of protein as to are protein bars and protein shakes.

Extra weight can slow you down. Although fat helps protect the organs from damage, we prefer our gear to do that. Simply put, if you eat more than your body needs, you get fat. Obviously the moral is not to overeat. Consume enough food to provide energy for all your daily activities – training, recovery, growth etc.

Extra weight can slow you down. Although fat helps protect the organs from damage, we prefer our gear to do that. Simply put, if you eat more than your body needs, you get fat. Obviously the moral is not to overeat. Consume enough food to provide energy for all your daily activities – training, recovery, growth etc.

As well as how much you eat, you should also consider what you eat. Decreasing fatty foods such as fast food, fried food, and junk food will reduce the amount of fat you consume but by also decreasing your sugar intake (sweets, cakes, biscuits and soft drinks) will stop your body converting sugar to fat.

By keeping energy requirements and food consumption in balance, and consuming very little fatty foods and sugar, you can not only avoid fat increases, but also decrease the amount of fat that you do have.

Think of your energy levels as a fire no fuel, the fire goes out and your energy levels decline. You need to continually feed the fire to keep your energy levels up. It’s important that you have sufficient fuel before, during, and after your training to keep your fire burning. If you’ve ever felt tired, light headed, uncoordinated or weak, it might just be that you’re low on fuel and your fire is going out. If you have high levels of fuel stored before training, you will be able to use that energy to train harder, for longer. Carbohydrate is the body’s fuel that stokes up your fire.

Good sources of carbohydrates come from breads, grains, pastas, fruit and vegetables.

Energy for training:

The way you train is different to the way you play on game day. You may shed the gear and train with the rest of the team runs, sprints, aerobic exercises etc. Then the gears back on and it’s working on drills, agility, reflexes, and saves. Training can be quite intense, long, and arduous. It’s in these training situations that you have to have sufficient energy to get you through. Eating a carbohydrate meal before hand brings your energy levels up. Look to consume about 200g of carbohydrate 4 hours out from training. This will give you plenty of fuel to have your fire burning throughout training.

Consuming carbohydrates while you train, in the form of a sports drink, keeps your fire burning with a ready supply of energy to your muscles. This enables continued performance and delays the onset of fatigue.

After training, carbohydrates help maximise recovery and restore your energy levels to have you ready for your next training session or game.

Energy for the game:

On game day your energy requirements are different to training. Stretches, a light warm up run, a few practice saves, but nothing too physically intense. Then during the game, it’s short spurts of energy when the opposition’s on attack. While your team mates are out there running a marathon, your energy levels aren’t required to be as high, so a light carbohydrate meal should be sufficient a few hours out from game time. Sports drinks can be used before or during games.

Today’s goalkeeper needs to be a super hero – speed, strength, courage, energy, reflexes, coordination, agility, skill, decisiveness, and determination. It’s no longer the fat person who gets put in goal just because they take up the most space.

There’s an old adage that says, “You are what you eat”. If you want to be a fireball of energy, a steel ball of muscle, or a butterball of fat, it’s going to depend on what you put into your body and how you train your body.

Good nutrition is a key aspect to the performance of any keeper. If you’ve ever felt tired during training, or worse during a game, it may be that your nutrition needs are lacking. Consuming the right foods at the right time can ensure that you have sufficient energy levels to get you through your toughest training and game. It also enables your body to recovery faster, your muscles to grow stronger, and your mind to stay sharper.