8th March 2010 - Carrie Bolt MSc RNutr

Great foods and snacks to eat on tournament day These foods are great snacks to eat both during a tournament weekend and also on a practice night. When you are training straight after school, eating a suitable snack can help keep your concentration levels up, fuel your muscles and improve your table tennis performance.

Great foods to eat on the go

• Fruit: Bananas/apples/pears
• Fruit squash
• Fruit juice
• Isotonic sports drink (easily home-made, see below)
• Handful dried fruit/nuts/seeds
• Cereal bar (e.g. Nutrigrain, Quaker oat bars, Jordans Multigrain bars)
• Sports bars
• Malt loaf
• Currant bun/ fruit buns
• Scones
• Scotch pancakes/crumpets/bagels
• Snack-a-jacks
• Jaffa cakes (6 max.)/fig rolls/ginger biscuits/digestives
• Low-fat rice pudding e.g. Muller rice
• Pretzels
• Fruit salad (fresh fruit or tinned (look for tinned in own juices)
• Yoghurt
• Sandwiches: turkey, ham, cheese, tuna etc
• Rice/pasta cooked and served cold as a ‘salad’
• Jelly beans or jelly sweets (on occasions) Great snacks and light meals to eat at home
• Low-fat milkshake/smoothie
• Toast with jam, honey, banana, peanut butter etc.
• Toast with beans / spaghetti
• Baked potato with beans/tuna/chilli/cottage cheese
• Toast with jam and banana (lightly grilled)
• (Wholegrain) Breakfast cereal with semi-skimmed/skimmed milk
• soup
• Bagels/ crumpets/scotch pancakes/pancakes

How does hydration affect table tennis performance?

We know that it is important to fuel our bodies with adequate energy and carbohydrate but it is also important to keep ourselves well hydrated. Being dehydrated by as little as 2% can affect our concentration, making us feel tired and fatigued and reduce our performance.

How do I know if I am hydrated?

Check the colour of your urine. If you are well hydrated, your urine will be pale in colour, odourless and there will be plenty of it!

Top tips of avoiding dehydration

1. Drink plenty of fluids throughout the day.
2. Take a drinks bottle with you to training sessions and on competition day.
3. Try to avoid feeling thirsty – if you feel thirsty you will already be dehydrated!

What should I drink?

Water and squash

Water will help to replace fluid lost in sweating. Squash will also provide carbohydrate (sugar) which will provide you with some extra carbohydrate fuel. This can be useful on competition day when there is not enough time to eat and digest solid food. It is also useful on a practice evening and for recovery after training sessions.

NB: Make sure that squash contains carbohydrate. Do NOT choose sugar-free options!

Sports drinks

Sports drinks differ from squash in that they provide you with water, carbohydrate and also sodium. Sodium is added to sports drink to help replace sodium lost from heavy sweating. Sodium also maintains your feeling of thirst so is added to sports drinks to encourage you to drink more fluid. It is possible to replace the sodium lost in sweating with foods eaten after your exercise session. It may be advantageous to drink a sports drink if you are not adequately rehydrating yourself during a training session or competition.

Making isotonic sports drinks at home

An isotonic sports drink is any drink that provides water together with around 4-8g carbohydrate per 100ml and some sodium. Commercially available isotonic sports drinks include Lucozade Sport, Powerade and Gatorade. These can be very expensive so it is worth making your own at home.

Home-made isotonic sports drink:

Drink one

You will need:

• 200ml ordinary fruit squash
• 800ml water
• A pinch of salt
• Mix them all together in a jug and cool down in fridge.

Drink two

You will need:

• 500ml unsweetened fruit juice (orange, apple, pineapple)
• 500ml water
• Pinch of salt
• Mix them all together in a jug and cool down in fridge.

Drink three

You will need:

• 50-70g sugar
• One litre of warm water
• Pinch of salt
• 200ml of sugar free squash
• Mix, cool and drink