Nutrition

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

What a gorgeous day today was where I live. A high of almost 90, sunny all day long, with just enough breeze to make it tolerable to work outside.

Just the kind of day that can sneak up on you if you're not careful. With the summer tournament season getting into full swing I thought it might be a good time to go over a few reminders for dealing with a day in sun, heat and humidity. And not just for players, but for coaches and parents too.

We say it all the time, but the first three rules of dealing with an all-day tournament are hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Even if you don't feel like drinking water, drink water anyway. Lots of it.

Water is good. It's most of what your body is made of. When you get hot your body releases water (sweats) to try to cool your body. Nature's way is that the sweat sits on your skin, and any passing breeze against it helps cool your body.

Solving the Pre-Game Meal Misunderstanding Once and For All
Guest Post by Jeff Cavaliere, MSPT, CSCS
http://www.softballperformance.com/nutrition

It’s important to understand that while yes, the choice you make for your pre-game meal can have a huge impact on your ability to perform just hours later, it’s just as important to look at the contribution the last few days’ worth of eating can have on the game you’ll play today.

Pre-game meals are usually given such focused attention because it is usually the last thing you put into your body before taking the field.

However, if we were to look at weight training in the same way, we’d mistakenly think that the rebound that you just grabbed was a direct result of the last set of squats you did in the workout the day before the game.

Do you think that’s true? Of course it’s not. The fact that you were able to out-play three or four other players had more to do with the consistent efforts and hours you’ve been putting in in the weight room for the last eight months to gradually build up your lower body strength and power with hundreds of sets of squats…not to mention lunges, step-ups, and plyometrics.

You've probably seen games before where mental errors cost a team dearly. Just about every coach and player would like to reduce mental mistakes to increase their chance of success on the field.

Well, there's actually a very simple thing you can do…

Stay hydrated

Yup - that's it and it works! Did you know that your brain is comprised of water more than anything else? And did you know that your brain's function becomes impaired and/or reacts slower when you are dehydrated?

Impaired brain function is not a good thing when you need to make the right decisions quick or when you need to think on your feet during a play.  Keeping your brain working at 100% by staying hydrated can help you reduce your chances of making costly mistakes.

As you can imagine, just a fraction of a second can be a big deal! It can be the difference between a safe call and an out call. It can be the difference between scoring and being gunned down at the plate. It can be the difference between getting a hit or not getting a hit. You get the idea…

Just a quick note today to let you know about a free Sports Nutrition Webinar taking place TONIGHT!

In this webinar, nutrition expert Jeff Cavaliere is going to share 5 very simple, yet important, nutrition truths that can help you increase your overall performance and energy level.

Being someone who never paid attention to nutrition until recently, I can understand if you're wondering whether it really makes a difference or not.  I'm here to tell you that it DOES!

Last year while shaping up (after having 5 kids) I finally started consciously trying to make better nutritional choices and I was very surprised at how much it affected my performance.  Actually, I didn't really notice until one day, after weeks of eating healthier, I slacked off and had a fast food meal for lunch.  Not only did my stomach protest, I just felt plain slow and sluggish during my workout that afternoon.

I couldn't believe how much having that "junk food" before my workout made such a big difference in my energy level for the rest of the day and more importantly during my workout that day. (Man that was a tough one!)

Softball Nutrition can play a role on performance.  And since we live in a society that's always looking for shortcuts and instant results, supplements are very attractive (I have to say they are very well marketed…) but are they necessary?

See what I have to say about that.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="164" caption="Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are essential for good health and optimal performance"][/caption]

We all think fat is bad for us. It's true for certain types of fat. However, there are other types of fat (EFA's or Essential Fatty Acids) that are good for you. In fact, they are essential for good health and optimal performance.

Young female softball players need these good types of fats. Some of the benefits for softball players for getting enough of EFAs (good fats) are:

• Increases brain function and decision-making
• Improves mood
• Speeds up recovery time
• Maintains joint and connective tissue
• Reduces PMS symptoms
• Helps maintain a good level of muscle-repair
• Other health benefits (decreases risk of cardiovascular disease and of cancers, etc.)

Good sources of good essential fatty acids (EFAs or good fats) are:

1. Fish oil
2. Nuts
3. Avocados
4. Vegetable oil
5. Supplements

For the best EFA supplement, I definitely recommend EFA Icon by Prograde Sports Nutrition.  The supplement is an extract from Antartic krill that is highly unsaturated (very healthy!) and been shown to be one of the best EFA source on the planet (much more powerful than all other EFA sources).

I got an excellent question from one of my readers. He asked: "What is the most effective way to recover mentally and physically between games during weekend softball tournaments?"

While there is no secret formula, there are several things you can do to help you recover faster between games especially when you have to play 3-4 games in one day. In this video, I share a few things that you can do.

I want to talk about how softball is a very conservative sport. We are very old school for many of the things that we do. Unlike many other sports that adapt and pick up on new research findings to improve their game, we tend to stick to the old-fashion way of doing things far too often.

Why is that? I don’t really know. Perhaps it’s because most of our coaches are volunteers and are not well educated in sports sciences – all they know really well are techniques and strategies. Also, coaches often tend to use the same methods that they have experienced in their playing days and some of these methods might be out of date.
There are many things that we “still” do that are totally out of date. Here are a few.

1. Keeping the elbow up at the plate. Probably the biggest flawed coaching tip given to young players in the history of softball and baseball. Even in my playing days, when I was not successful at the plate, the first thing that my coaches or my parents would tell me was to keep my elbow up like it was the magic trick to cure all hitting problems. I have no idea where it is coming from but any decent coach or hitting instructor will tell you that it is the most ridiculous thing ever!

This past weekend, the weather was gorgeous outside (it was about time since we've mostly a crappy summer over here in Montreal!) so I decided to go for roller blade ride with a good buddy of mine.

After riding for 45 minutes and breaking a good sweat, we took our blades off and stopped by a little snack bar. He bought a water and I got myself a healthy shake.

Knowing I was going to a family dinner in less than 90 minutes, my buddy looked at me funny and asked me why I was getting a shake right before a family dinner.

My response: "I'm having the most important meal of my day!"

Clearly, by the look on his face, he didn't get it.  So, I went on to explain.

I started with a question:  “If I told you that you could literally screw up everything else in your diet, but if you did just ONE thing correctly, you’d achieve much better results than if you did EVERYTHING ELSE right and left this one thing out?  Would you be interested in knowing?

“absolutely!”, he replied.

So I pointed to my shake and told him: “THIS is that one thing.”

As a strength coach and fitness expert, people (including girls playing softball who are always concerned with their look) always ask me, "What snacks can I eat that will help me lose 'this'?

When they say "this" they are pointing to some part of their body that has a bit too much fat for their liking.

Now I think some people are waiting for me to say, "Oh, don't worry, you can eat cookies, chips and candy all you want. Everyone has been lying to you. They actually make you thinner!"

Seriously, sometimes people really do want me to tell them what they WANT to hear.

But, fortunately, some people are serious (and most softball players are) when they ask me that question. They really do want to know some healthy snack options that will help them lose 'this'.

So here's what I tell them:

Raw almonds, walnuts or pecans (Not the roasted variety. And don't even think about the ones with sugar sprinkled on them!)

Fruit or veggies cut up into sticks (Stay away from dipping them into things you know you shouldn't)

Hard boiled eggs

Low-fat cottage cheese

Hummus

For those of you who don't know, in addition to coaching softball, being a softball peak performance coach, I've also been teaching at the community college level for the past 10 years or so.

I currently teach nutrition, sports conditioning, and weight training classes.

I've also taught sports psychology and a few other  fitness-related PE classes in the past.

Last week, in one of my nutrition classes, we were doing  our traditional food log analysis.

I asked my students to keep a detailed food and exercise log for a whole week. After that, we input all the data into a popular online tracking software and look at the results.

This is the most significant exercise of the semester as students get to learn a lot about their own eating habits and are often shocked at what they find out!

One of my students is a 6'3", 18-year-old talented female basketball player that plays for the college team.

We were looking at her numbers and what she discovered blew her away.

Her estimated daily caloric expenditure is around 4000 calories which is totally normal for such a tall and active elite athlete of that age.

In this podcast, Marc Dagenais discusses the various performance factors in three major categories (technical training, physical training, and head training) that you should be working on during the off-season. He explains why it's important not to underestimate some key performance factors in the physical and head training categories while also discussing what to emphasize more in the technical training categorie.

 

 Podcast #13 - The Key Performance Factors to Train [22:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A few years ago I was running a tryout and about 1 hour into it, one of the girls started to be sick, weak and looked a little loss and confused.

Being a Red Cross first aid instructor, I recognized the signs and immediately suspected a drop in blood sugar levels - a condition called hypoglycemia.

I took her out of the sun and into the dugout where  I had her sit down and relax.

I asked if anyone had a juice or some sugary beverage.  One of the athletes had a fruit punch. I gave it to the young lady and told her to drink it.

Within minutes, she started to feel a lot better.

What happened is that she was so nervous about the tryouts  because she really wanted to make the team that when she got up that morning, she was not hungry at all. She was too nervous.

So she didn't have breakfast and her last meal consistent meal was the night before when she had diner. That means that the body wasn't fed any food in the previous 18 hours and she was pushing her body hard to impress me!

As I told you a few days ago, I am presently in Kitchener in Southern Ontario at the Tri-Nations Cup where Canada, Venezuela, Japan and Australia are competing against each other in preparation for the Olympic Games

I have been here for 2 days working with the Canadian athletes helping them prepare for the China Games. All of the teams are staying at the same location so it allows to also observe what the other teams do outside of the ball field.

I can tell summarize everything that I have seen by this:

==> Little Details Do Matter a Lot <==

What I mean by that is that the best players on the planet don't take anything for granted.

They realize that little things and little details do matter when preparing for competition.

They don't left anything to chance. And that's true for ALL the teams.

Here what I mean by that:

• They watch what they eat
• They make sure their shoes shine
• They tuck in their uniforms
• They all have a bottle of water or Gatorade
• They sprint to get on and off the field