NUTRITION FOR THE SERIOUS
YOUNG ATHLETE – THE EDUCATIONAL APPROACH
by Jane Griffin BSc RD RNutr
Serious young athletes form a very special group of individuals within the sporting population. In effect they live two lives, one as an elite athlete and the other as a schoolchild or student growing up at home, school or college with their non-sporty peers. This can pose many lifestyle problems for young athletes, one of which revolves around their nutrition not only for normal growth and development but to meet the extra nutritional demands of their sport. The problem is compounded by a certain lack of knowledge of what the athlete’s diet should contain and once that knowledge is gained, knowing how to apply it practically to the every day situation. This article offers guidance for anyone who may have a part to play in this part of a young athlete’s life.
EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES
Educating young athletes (and their parents/carers and coaches) about the role nutrition plays in sporting performance can help them to reach their physical potential and train effectively. Though not necessarily an immediate concern for the young athlete, nutrition has an important part to play in ensuring long-term health and hopefully a long career in sport. Coaches and parents should be included in the education process so they can encourage young athletes to pay particular attention to their diet and eating habits and less to the advertising and promotion of dietary supplements. Such products do not compensate for a poor diet. This applies to all athletes but particularly to young athletes who should achieve gains through well-planned training and dietary programmes. However they are often so keen to reach their goals as fast as possible that the persuasive advertising of such products becomes just too tempting
Educational approaches should motivate the young athlete by giving information in a clear and relevant way that is pertinent to their age. The athlete must feel that the information is personal to them and it must also be presented in a strong, persuasive and interesting way with technical terms and scientific jargon kept to
a minimum. A study carried out in Turkey in 2005 investigated the response of university students to eight different nutritional messages all aimed at getting students to eat more fruit and vegetables to reduce risk of heart disease, cancer and obesity (1). Positive commands using ‘could’, instructions incorporating ‘should’ and rhetorical questions such as ‘how about’ were considered much more persuasive than ‘eat at least’ or ‘avoid eating less than’.
The England Rugby Academy set up by the Rugby Football Union has the central purpose of developing better players. It operates at three levels. Level one is a National Academy for a select group of up to 60 players mainly in age groups under 19 to under 24.
Level two includes the network of regional academies each of which serves a discreet geographical area of the country. There are about 300 young athletes aged 15-21 at this level. At level three, regional academies work with players aged 12 to 14. The following is an educational programme developed at one of these academies by the author. The aim is to show the reader how the player’s knowledge is developed over their time in the Academy system. Working with elite level young athletes does present a problem that may not occur with seniors in that young talented athletes may fall by the wayside for many reasons and others may be identified as talented at a much later stage. For these reasons not all players may go through the full educational process and an element of catch-up might be needed with the late.
Educational sessions are kept informal for this age group. The aim is to get across the basic difference in their diet compared to their less active friends. Plenty of discussion time is allowed so that specific questions can be answered, particularly those common to a lot of players. Though the information is very practical, there is still an underlying theoretical base to the subject matter. This is an age group that wants to know ‘why’ not just ‘what and how’. Themes have included:
- The role of breakfast (introducing the importance of dietary carbohydrates, blood sugar, mood and concentration).
- Coping with school meals including what is/is not appropriate and how to avoid excessive amounts of fat and fast foods.
- Balancing up the daily diet using food groups and the Balance of Good Health, (a pictorial representation of the food groups showing the proportions you should aim for to get a balanced diet) to highlight which foods supply which important nutrients.
- Late night eating, whether it is it alright and if so what to have, particularly after an evening training session.
- Keeping the body hydrated including the sweat mechanism and the effect of dehydration on physical and mental performance and how to keep a fluid diary until the next session.
- Role of sports drinks and what to drink generally during the day. Taking care of teeth is also covered.
- Managing body fat. How to lose excess fat and not performance but only if this has been correctly identified by a coach or trainer.
- How to increase muscle mass, placing significant emphasis on the role of diet first and then a discussion on the use or otherwise of supplements – with emphasis on the ‘otherwise’.
- Match preparation, looking particularly at fitting meals around different kick-off times.
- Time management and how to fit training, school work, rest and recovery time, meals etc into a hectic lifestyle.
Handouts are given out at the end of the session (ie. just before they go home). These cover the sessions in bullet points putting emphasis very much on the practical aspects. Players are encouraged to show their parents or carers the handouts.
Topics for this age group are similar to those for the younger age group but with more depth. The aim is still for players to go away after each session with something they can begin to work on and changes they can make to their daily diet that are going to have either a direct effect on performance or an indirect effect in helping to keep them healthy. The sessions are longer and make use of a Powerpoint presentation but with plenty of opportunities for questions and discussion during the presentation (ie. Rather than saved up until the end).
The topics covered include:
- Fuelling your rugby. The role of carbohydrate as the main source of fuel including when, what and how.
- Gaining muscle enjoyably and legally. The role of protein, again when, what and how.
- Body fat and dietary fat. The role of fat in the diet, good and bad fats and how much is too much in the diet and the body.
- Keeping the body healthy - foods with unique functions eg. Fruit and vegetables, dairy and the role of red meat in a healthy diet.
- Keeping the body hydrated. This covers the sweat mechanism, the negative effects of dehydration on physical and mental performance and health, and how hydration status is determined.
- Fluids. What to drink in training and matches as well as other times during the day. A tasting session of sports drinks is included.
- Match preparation. What to eat and drink from the night before until after the match(es). Different scenarios are discussed (morning, afternoon or evening kick-offs, sevens tournaments etc).
- Nutritional supplements and sports foods. Do they have a role to play in helping performance?
- Performance enhancing supplements. Do they have a role to play in helping performance? UK Sport 100% ME anti-doping DVD for sport is used, particularly a case study of a young rugby union player banned for two years for using a protein supplement that led to a positive drug test (2).
- Alcohol and other social issues. What being the ‘best’ means. (The author is also the Academy Welfare Officer so this covers non-nutritional topics too.)
Handouts are made available and again players are encouraged to show them to their parents or carers.
Three sessions are also held for parents of players in these two age groups covering the balanced diet, keeping well-hydrated and supplements and ergogenic aids. Handouts of the Powerpoint presentation are made available for all parents, including any unable to attend a session. Contact is encouraged via email and this often develops into a regular contact, certainly with some parents.
These players are full-time at the club and train with the first team. During pre-season training and the first part of the season the following topics are covered in weekly one hour educational sessions. Again Powerpoint presentations are used but the atmosphere is informal and interaction is encouraged. This is not
difficult as most of the players have come through the system. Theory is tied into practical advice that players can take away and act on immediately after each session.
- Energy requirement – estimating their own daily requirements
- Carbohydrates – covering fuel, storage, refueling, sources of carbohydrate, glycaemic index and finally working out their own requirements and making a daily plan to meet them.
- Fat – fuel, storage, types of fats, sources of fat and requirements. How to control fat intake.
- Protein – functions, sources, requirements, timing of protein intake and again working out their own individual requirements and a daily plan of protein intake.
- Vitamins, minerals and antioxidants – functions, sources and requirements. Practical advice about eating fruit and vegetables and correcting some myths and misconceptions.
- Alcohol – effect on health, body weight and rugby.
- Fluids – role of water in the body, fluid balance, sweat mechanism, effects of dehydration, monitoring hydration status, fluid replacement, role of sports drinks and energy drinks, general fluid intake, dental care.
- Supplements and ergogenic aids – pros and cons and most common ones found in rugby. How to evaluate supplements and the RFU (3) and World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) (4) policies on supplements.
- Building up the training diet using the information from the previous sessions.
- Dietary strategy for matches, again using the information from the previous sessions.
- Practical aspects of the diet eg. time management, shopping, budgeting, reading food labels, food and personal hygiene.
These sessions are followed up with monthly sessions. The other weekly education slots are now given over to working on a one-to-one basis with each player in rotation unless there is an immediate need to see a player. Players now have an opportunity to bring any dietary or nutritional issue, query, problem or opinion that they want to discuss in a group. Alternatively they may be set small tasks such as bringing an item of news or something they have obtained from the internet which they want to discuss. Examples of topics that have been covered include the film Supersize Me, sponsorship of sport by Coca Cola, McDonalds and Cadbury’s, the merits or otherwise of following the Atkins diet to reduce body fat and whether bottled water is better than tap water.
Young athletes today have grown up with the internet, emailing and texting on mobile phones. Sending a monthly or even fortnightly nutrition e-news is another method of educating them. This can often encourage e-mail communications between the sports dietitian or performance nutritionist and the athlete, which can be particularly helpful for the less outgoing young athletes who might hesitate to ask questions in public.
Subjects covered in e-news have ranged from coping with Christmas, eating late at night and getting a good night’s sleep to assist the healing process, eating out and basic cooking skills to try out at home or
while living in an Academy house.
It is important that coaches buy into the nutritional advice being given by the sports dietitian or performance nutritionist. Not only do they provide the time slots for regular education sessions through the season but they must back up the advice that is being given to the young athletes. This is particularly relevant when considering the issue of fluid intake during training sessions. Young athletes are at greater risk of over-heating than adults. They sweat less than adults and are not as efficient at moving heat from inside the body to the skin surface via the blood. Children also have a larger surface area to body mass ratio than adults and as a result they gain heat faster on hot days. They also do not recognise or respond to the thirst mechanism (which is not a particularly good warning sign anyway) as well as adults and therefore are at greater risk of becoming dehydrated just through not drinking enough. Coaches need to be educated about the importance of hydration and how young athletes differ from adults. As a result they will recognise the need to schedule regular fluid breaks during all training sessions but particularly during warm/hot weather.
Young athletes are used to ‘being educated’ but it is worth bearing the following points in mind when preparing an education session for them.
- Adapt the session to the age group
- Be flexible
- Vary the teaching methods
- Be honest if you don’t know the answer - but say you will find
out for the next session
- Keep them entertained
- Appreciate the pressures they are under
- Ask for feedback
- Think outside the box
- Always relate advice to performance.
Young athletes are used to a learning situation. If information is provided in an interesting but informative way and is made totally relevant to them, it can help to give the foundation to a life in sport by setting in place good nutritional practices. A variety of different teaching methods can be used to keep interest, backed up by resources that can be referred to regularly by the athlete. The ultimate aim of nutritional education of young athletes is to provide practical advice backed up by accurate and up-to-date science.
References
1. Unusan N. How university students evaluate the grammatical style of nutrition messages? British Nutrition Foundation Nutrition Bulletin 2006;31:100-103
2. www.100percentme.co.uk
3. www.rfu.com
4. www.wada-ama.org
THE AUTHOR
Jane Griffin qualified from London University with a degree in Nutrition and a postgraduate diploma in Dietetics and is an Accredited Sports Dietitian. She is currently the sports dietitian to London Irish RFC (having previously worked with NEC Harlequins for three seasons) and to the Rugby Football League. She is also the sports dietitian to London Irish, London Wasps and NEC Harlequins England Rugby Academies. She has written extensively for a wide range of sports magazines and her first book ‘Food for Sport’ (Eat
Well, Perform Better) was published by The Crowood Press in September 2001. Her second book ‘Nutrition for Marathon Running’ was published in 2005 and she is currently writing her third book ‘Food for Rugby’.
______________________________________________________________________________
| Title |
NUTRITION FOR THE SERIOUS
YOUNG ATHLETE – THE EDUCATIONAL APPROACH
|
| Author |
Jane Griffin BSc RD RNutr |
| Source |
sportEX dynamics |
| Vol (iss) |
2007;12(Apr) |
| Pages |
p7-9 |
| SIRC ID# |
S-1085428 |
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