Fuel to Perform: 3 tips on how to effectively teach teen athletes about nutrition
Athletics may just be the most important thing in a teen’s life- giving them a sense of community and purpose, focusing their energy in productive ways, and helping them set and achieve goals. Sometimes, however, success in a sport is narrowed down to a “train more and train harder” mentality but at the end of the day playing a sport is similar to playing the piano where nutrition is the tuning. I can practice the piano all day long but if I don’t tune it, nothing will sound right! Same with sports- if we’re not fueling with proper nutrition, teens will be burnt out, face injury, and won’t be performing at their full potential. Say ‘Goodbye’ to scholarships!
When we’re teaching young athletes the importance of different aspects of their training, to include nutrition, we need to make the content resonate with them. As coaches and educators, it is easy to say, ‘We want what is best for you’ without really showing them how “it” is best for them. Here are 3 things I always try to do when discussing nutrition with teens:
1. Avoid the words “healthy” and “unhealthy”
In a weird way, when we hear the word “healthy” we tend to think “gross”, “won’t taste good”, “I won’t enjoy this” and teens are the same way. We’ve been pushing “health” and unintentionally making it seem like this undesirable burden. We see “unhealthy” as things we like and “healthy” as things we have to have. It’s like chores. If we tell a little kid they have to do chores because we have to keep the house tidy, we teach them that chores are no fun and we just have to get through them. But- when we say “let’s race to see who can put away the most toys”, we make it fun and engaging. We can do the same with healthy eating.
2. Talk about the impact of the food on the body and the training:
When we’re making a change to our habits we need a why that isn’t just “because it’s good for me” or “because I should”. When encouraging teen athletes to make dietary changes they need to know why they’re doing it. Some whys could be:
Eating quick digesting carbs before my soccer practice will help me run faster and keep my energy up
If I have a balanced dinner and good sleep the night before a game, I might perform better when the scouts are watching.
If I pack nutrient dense snacks and a full water bottle for my tournament, I might help my team win
Eating protein and carbs after training will help me build muscle and stability to improve for my next gymnastics meet
3. Get parents, coaches, and teachers involved:
Teen athletes need support! We can teach them all about nutrition and meal planning but if they don’t have the support from parents, teachers, friends, coaches, etc, we’re not likely to get very far. I like bringing parents into talks so that they can walk away with the knowledge of how to feed their children. I encourage coaches and teachers to sit in on presentations to learn how to best support their athletes and encourage them to fuel properly before, during, and after training.
Teen athletes deserve to be set up for success and to be taught the principles of proper fueling. For more information on how you can incorporate better nutrition education for your teen athletes, reach out to me via the contact form or email at camillev.patten@gmail.com!
