Sport-specific nutrition: Practical strategies for team sports

Abstract

Implementation of a nutrition programme for team sports involves application of scientific research together with the social skills necessary to work with a sports medicine and coaching staff. Both field and court team sports are characterized by intermittent activity requiring a heavy reliance on dietary carbohydrate sources to maintain and replenish glycogen. Energy and substrate demands are high during pre-season training and matches, and moderate during training in the competitive season. Dietary planning must include enough carbohydrate on a moderate energy budget, while also meeting protein needs. Strength and power team sports require muscle-building programmes that must be accompanied by adequate nutrition, and simple anthropometric measurements can help the nutrition practitioner monitor and assess body composition periodically. Use of a body mass scale and a urine specific gravity refractometer can help identify athletes prone to dehydration. Sports beverages and caffeine are the most common supplements, while opinion on the practical effectiveness of creatine is divided. Late-maturing adolescent athletes become concerned about gaining size and muscle, and assessment of maturity status can be carried out with anthropometric procedures. An overriding consideration is that an individual approach is needed to meet each athlete's nutritional needs.

Nutritional Recommendations for Water Polo

“…Reported daily energy intake for male and female aquatic sport athletes were 14.3 and 8.5 MJ · day-1, respectively. This is remarkably similar to that reported by Holway and Spriet (2011) in a recent review including 819 male and 283 female team sport athletes (15.3 and 8.6 MJ · day-1, respectively). Surprisingly, Greek male water polo players had a lower carbohydrate intake (3.6 ± 1.3 g · kg body mass-1) compared with male swimmers (5.0 ± 1.5 g · kg body mass-1) and with the weighted mean intake of team sport athletes reported by Holway and Spriet (2011).…”

“…This is remarkably similar to that reported by Holway and Spriet (2011) in a recent review including 819 male and 283 female team sport athletes (15.3 and 8.6 MJ · day-1, respectively). Surprisingly, Greek male water polo players had a lower carbohydrate intake (3.6 ± 1.3 g · kg body mass-1) compared with male swimmers (5.0 ± 1.5 g · kg body mass-1) and with the weighted mean intake of team sport athletes reported by Holway and Spriet (2011). In a study of elite Dutch athletes, male water polo players consumed a diet high in energy compared with other team sport athletes (van Erp-Baart et al, 1989).…”

Estimates of Energy Intake and Expenditure in Elite Female Touch Players During an International Tournament

“…Muscle glycogen concentrations decrease by ~40% after an 80-90 minute rugby and soccer match (Bradley et al, 2016;Bangsbo et al, 2007). Whilst time in play is lower compared to soccer and rugby, multiple fixtures over a four-day period means that muscle glycogen is important and potentially performance limiting (Holway & Spriet, 2011). Despite no published data on effects of repeated high-intensity matches over consecutive days, this physical load is likely to result in disturbances to metabolic homeostasis and other central and peripheral factors of fatigue (Dziedzic and Higham, 2014).…”

Riesgo de deshidratación entre deportistas y sedentarios con discapacidad intelectual / Incidence of Hypohidration in Athletes and Sedentary Male Adults with Intellectual Disability

“…Otras técnicas para evaluar el estado de hidratación incluyen el uso de cartas de color de orina, aunque el color de la orina puede ser modificado por la ingesta de suplementos vitamínicos (Holway y Spriet, 2011). En este sentido, cabe señalar que los suplementos dietéticos para mejorar ya sea la función cognitiva o el desarrollo psicomotor son tomados normalmente por personas con DI a pesar de que una revisión sistemática de la literatura científica sugiere resultados controvertidos (Salman, 2002).…”