How to maximize your child’s performance potential during intense competitions – multiple games in a day, several days in a row

Playing more than one match per day is hard, but doing it for multiple days in a row is grueling – and a good portion of who wins such a tournament comes down to who can keep performing at a high level without getting sidelined by injury. I’ve just been through such a tournament with a collegiate level team and I’m going to break down for you what it takes.

Before the first game

Get your kids started in an optimal state of being rested, fueled and hydrated. If your flight is late and you spend forever at the rental car place, that’s stuff you can’t control, but anything you can control to help optimize your athlete’s situation for that first game is key.

Hydration

Give athletes sports drinks during and after playing – they need to reload their electrolytes. This is critical for being able to handle more that one game in a day and keeping their performance level up. Water is good as long as they drink it with food that can provide electrolytes. Below is a chart that shows a good general idea of how much of what to drink and when.

Ice/Ice bath

The best approach to this is to get ice on anything that’s bothering them as soon as they are finished playing. I suggest that you have one time use cold packs in the car or empty ziploc bags available that you can stop and fill up at a gas station or restaurant. 

 When you get back to the hotel, athletes should go straight to a bathtub. Buy bags of ice at the store (about 6 bags of ice for one bathtub), and fill up several tubs, rotating athletes in for 10 minutes. For an easier time after the second game, leave the water in these tubs. You’ll need to get more ice for them, but they will already be cold, so you won’t need as much.

 *No one wants to do this, but this is the main thing that will keep an athlete playing at a high level. Intense exercise causes small tears in muscles which bleed, building up gradually and causing soreness. An ice bath reduces blood flow, allowing those small bleeders to clot off, helping avoid that buildup. It is especially essential to do on the first day, when they aren’t yet feeling that sore. It will set them up well for the following day!

Nutrition

When playing more than one game in a day, timing of food intake and type of food intake is important. Also, the athletes are burning so many calories, that it may be difficult to replace all they use with filling, nutrient dense food. It’s okay to go for some higher calorie snacks to just reload the calories. Carrots and hummus don’t have that many, you know?

 If they’re playing an early game, make sure they get a big meal the night before plus a snack before bed. Then eat a small breakfast about 2 hours before the game.

 Give athletes a snack as soon as they are finished playing such as chocolate milk and a granola bar with a high amount of carbohydrates to maximize carbohydrate uptake and storage in the muscles. 

How much food they eat for lunch depends on the turnaround time between games. If you have more  than 4 hours they can have a larger meal. If you have less than that, the athletes need to eat smaller amounts, and foods that can get into their system more quickly.

 Once done for the day, athletes need a big meal, plus a snack before bed, such as peanut butter and bananas.

Roll out, stretch, and massage

Muscles are going to get really sore from playing so much. Athletes can help this by rolling out, using a firm foam roller, softball, or lacrosse ball on legs and any other particularly tight and sore areas. 

Stretch all over generally and then target particularly tight areas for a few more minutes. 

Having a massage gun handy can be a life saver for sore muscles! 

Rest

An athlete should get as much rest as possible between games, and put in the effort to get a full night’s sleep. Parents should encourage no staying up talking, going out, watching movies, playing video games, etc. Sleep is crucial to performance the next day. 

Pro tip:

Give athletes electrolyte supplement pills during warmup to help keep up their electrolyte levels during play, and avoid cramping and other heat related problems. There are many different brands to choose from that you can purchase online.

If the weather is hot and humid, and your athlete is not acclimatized to it, have some concentrated electrolyte powder on hand to help with any heat related cramping or heat exhaustion. Be ready to crank up the air conditioning in the car and head for that ice bath!