Nutrition – Avoid Dehydration

When playing football, one of the most prominent risks young players face is dehydration. Dehydration can cause major problems to a player’s health and performance and it’s often hard to spot if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Dehydration (hypohydration) is the removal of water from the body.

It is important to remember that the better the body is hydrated, the better it will be able to perform at a high level and fatigue will set in harder than with a person who is suffering from mild or acute dehydration.

A lot of football players (especially younger ones) tend to equate dehydration and thirst. Although the two both relate to a need for fluid in the body, thirst is a momentary situation that can be solved with a single drink, whereas dehydration is a chronic state. For example, you’re lacking certain vitamins from your body and you are hungry. Eating a burger may settle your hunger, but that doesn’t mean that your vitamin problem will be solved.

What you should drink to keep hydrated?

You should stay away from heavy drinks like milk right before a game and avoid carbonated drinks that can affect your stomach. Sports drinks and water are the best for the purpose of hydrating your body. Sports drinks offer the added advantage of containing carbohydrates which water doesn’t.

When should you hydrate?

To keep your self well hydrated, you need to drink well at least 16 hours before the match, a couple of times during the match and a few hours after the match is over. It is recommended you start hydrating yourself with water and only drink sports drinks closer to game time as the carbohydrates in the sports drink would go to waste 16 hours before a game.

Remember to not drink too much at any given time as you can get a full belly and this too can seriously affect your level of performance.