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Proper nutrition before training sessions (and competitions) can make all the difference to an athlete’s performance. But the main priority is that they consume enough food throughout the day to ensure that enough ‘fuel’ is available for the exercise they’re about to embark on. Carbohydrates will be their primary source of easily accessible energy, so it’s important that these features are included in their meals throughout the day. If they are at school beforehand, make sure they have access to healthy, energy-dense foods that are ideally not too high in fat. If eaten close to exercise, this can cause sluggishness, which is far from ideal. Athletes eating school dinners are obviously at the mercy of whatever is provided, so sending them armed with healthy snacks will likely be a good move.   Snacks Pre-training snacks like fruit, sandwiches, cereal with milk, granola bars, or smoothies, for example, can provide helpful energy ‘top-ups’. Closer to their training session or match, these snacks should be lower in fibre as this can cause digestive issues during exercise (so, in this instance, white bread sandwiches will actually be a better option than brown!)     Timing Getting the timing of food intake right is essential to allow adequate time for digestion and ensure energy availability whilst also helping to avoid ‘tummy problems’. As a rough rule: A meal (e.g. spaghetti bolognese or pasta bake) should be consumed at least 3 hours before training. Pre-training snacks (e.g. a sandwich and a glass of milk) can be consumed 1 - 2 hours before training.   Hydration One of the most important pre-training nutrition guidelines concerns hydration. Dehydration negatively impacts performance, so making sure your athlete understands this is a good way to ensure they take hydration seriously. Before training, encourage them to have regular sips of water. Water is by far the best option before, during, and after exercise and ensuring they have easy access to it at all times is absolutely essential, especially during warmer weather. See our Hydration lesson for a more detailed account.     How You Can Help Ensuring your athlete has access to appropriate pre-training nutrition is a surefire way of helping them get the most out of each and every session through enhanced endurance, the ability to recover optimally and a reduced risk of injury. This will also assist their overall growth and development. Providing well-balanced, healthy, and energy-dense meals and snacks will ensure they have the energy and nutrients needed to perform at their best. Although more time-consuming to prepare, 'real food', i.e., food made from scratch, will always be preferable to ultra-processed alternatives. Involving your athlete in meal planning and preparation teaches them the importance of proper nutrition while introducing accountability and a degree of control and choice.   Take Home Points On training days, help them to keep their “fuel gauge on GREEN” by providing breakfast and lunch with good carbs, protein, and fats. Provide a substantial healthy snack 2-3 hours before training plus a smaller snack 1 hour before training. Foods containing relatively low fat and fibre are best in the 1-2 hours before training, e.g. a white bread sandwich instead of one made from wholemeal bread. Remember: Athletes respond differently to different foods, timings, etc. What works for one athlete might not work for another. Find what works/doesn’t work. Remind them that pre-training hydration is essential for good performance. If you've found this information helpful, we've created The Athlete Place, our athlete-specific platform that will inform, motivate and inspire your athlete... Evidence-Based Research Our content is supported by: American College of Sports Medicine, 2000. Nutrition and athletic performance. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., 32, pp.2130-2145. (View Paper) Litt, A.S., 2004. Fuel for young athletes. Human Kinetics. (View Book) Purcell, L.K., Canadian Paediatric Society and Paediatric Sports and Exercise Medicine Section, 2013. Sport nutrition for young athletes. Paediatrics & child health, 18(4), pp.200-202. (View Paper) Visit Performance Canteen's Website

  Parents can easily find themselves in a no-win situation regarding the fair allocation of time and attention when a young athlete has siblings, especially if they're not athletes. While reducing time spent prioritising the athlete can adversely affect their progress, spending too much time risks the others feeling left out or jealous, and maybe even accusations of favouritism. It’s alarmingly easy for an athlete’s sport to become their parents' dominant focus at the expense of other children… without even realising it. This is especially likely if the athlete suddenly starts progressing and performance levels increase. Being aware that this can happen allows you to put in place strategies to mitigate the potentially damaging effects on other family members.   How You Can Help Divide Attention Equally Balancing your time and attention between all of your children can be incredibly difficult at the best of times, especially if you’re a single parent. This can become even more problematic when one of them is an aspiring athlete. Having conversations with all of them about these difficulties and showing that you are trying to keep things as fair as possible can often help. If they can see for themselves that you’re in an almost no-win situation, it can sometimes create a more understanding environment. Inadvertent Tension Be aware that the athletes themself can feel genuine guilt that they’re receiving more of their parent’s time and attention. This can create unease within the siblings’ relationships. Encourage your athlete to communicate with his/her siblings. For some, verbalising this guilt might help to reduce any tension that may be building. Involving the non-athlete siblings in the athlete's sporting journey can also help, especially if they can be encouraged to share the sibling's successes as their No.1 fan. Sport Conversations Your athlete’s sport should be an occasional rather than regular topic of conversation during family times, especially meal times, to avoid other siblings feeling left out. Consider saving these conversations for car journeys to and from training when you’re alone with your athlete. Share Parental Responsibility If the same parent always does the training and competition run, difficulties can sometimes emerge within the family as one child can be seen to be receiving an unfair amount of time and attention from that parent. Feelings of favouritism can emerge that can cause unhappiness and potentially become damaging. Consider alternating this parental responsibility to allow all siblings time with both parents. Non-Athlete Siblings Siblings not involved in sports can quickly feel excluded, especially if they have no other interests or hobbies that parents can share with them. Developing strategies to avoid them feeling ‘left out’ and/or ‘not good enough’ will be crucial for preserving a harmonious family dynamic and maintaining the sibling’s wellbeing. They need to know that you care about them as much as their athlete brother or sister and will actively need you to demonstrate this as evidence for reassurance. Expecting them to assume you care might not be enough and can be risky.   Athlete Siblings If the athlete has other athlete siblings, try to keep the interest and attention equal across them all, irrespective of performance level. Parents should try to avoid loyalty issues that may trigger unhelpful competitive jealousies. Showing more attention to the higher-performing athlete can create feelings of ‘not being good enough’ for the other, potentially impacting self-esteem, causing unhappiness and increasing the likelihood of long-standing confidence and self-worth issues. Take Home Points Be mindful of the time allocated to each of your children... try to ensure fairness and avoid favouritism (both can be compromised without you realising or meaning to). Encourage siblings to become the athlete's No.1 fans to avoid jealousy and resentment creeping in. Alternate parenting responsibilities to avoid one parent becoming over-invested in the athlete's sport. Keep loyalties equal across athlete siblings, irrespective of performance levels. Prioritise open communication to allow siblings to express their honest feelings and concerns. Create an inclusive and supportive environment where each child feels valued, respected, and heard. If you've found this information helpful, we've created The Athlete Place, our athlete-specific platform that will inform, motivate and inspire your athlete... Evidence-Based Research Our content is supported by: Bean, C.N., Fortier, M., Post, C. and Chima, K., 2014. Understanding how organized youth sport may be harming individual players within the family unit: A literature review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 11(10), pp.10226-10268. (View Paper) Harwood, C.G. and Knight, C.J., 2016. Parenting in sport. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 5(2), p.84. (View Paper)

Disappointment is THE unavoidable part of being an athlete. It's not just about losing a race or match; there are so many other potential causes: Not meeting performance goals. Not being selected or receiving desired playing time. Dealing with injuries or setbacks. Missing out on opportunities or not achieving expected outcomes. Sadly, there's no escaping the fact that the emotions associated with disappointment are likely to be by far the most commonly experienced. It, therefore, stands to reason that taking a healthier approach to losses or subpar performances will make their experience of sports more enjoyable. Ellie Threlkeld, Professional Cricketer Understanding that no athlete can constantly succeed and that numerous uncontrollable factors can influence a result can help them process loss in a more beneficial way. Acquiring the ability to view disappointments as learning and improvement opportunities, i.e., by adopting a growth mindset, will help, but this will take time and experience and is something young athletes will find hard to grasp. Using the phrase “losing is learning” can be a powerful mantra to help them develop this mindset. In the early days, many will blame external factors like equipment and the weather. Encourage them to become more philosophical and instead look for changes and improvements they can make that might produce a different result next time.   Knowing How to Help A parent's hardest challenge is knowing how best to support them after disappointing performances. Of course, asking them how they would prefer you to help is the most obvious way of finding out, but let's face it: this age group tends to be somewhat averse to conversations about feelings and emotions... especially if it's with a parent!! One thing's for sure: what works for one athlete isn't guaranteed to work for another, so it's not a case of simply copying what other parents do... though there's no harm in trying! Learning through trial and error is your best strategy. Only by trying will you know whether your comments, intended as helpful and caring, are received that way. If they’re not, don’t take it personally. This can feel like the most thankless task in the early days, especially when nothing you say or do seems right! But remember, their frustrations and upsets will always be taken out on their nearest and dearest... and in these scenarios, parents will invariably receive an unfiltered emotional response. You will eventually get to know what helps and what rattles them!!   When Words Don't Work... Yes, it can be all a bit of a minefield for parents... If, no matter what you say or do, nothing seems to help, saying nothing will be the best tactic. Some athletes will prefer this 'less is more' approach, and for many, leaving them more time to process what happened before commenting will be what they really need. Acknowledge and accept that their silence/non-communication is probably part of their processing of what happened and that sometimes, they need to shut everything out… including you! Again, don’t take this personally. Sometimes, a better approach is to leave them to offload first to fellow athletes who can better relate to their frustrations. Our own personal approach was to let the coach be the first point of contact. Coaches are far less likely to receive the emotional onslaught and will adopt a more business-like approach, eventually focusing proactively on technicalities and tactics when they feel the athlete is ready. Once this conversation had happened, emotions were calmer.    Rory Leonard, Professional Distance Runner   Post-Performance Analysis Attempting to analyse the performance with them immediately after an undesirable result is unlikely to be appreciated. Emotions will still be far too raw. This goes for the car journeys home, too... NOTE: The last thing any athlete wants is to be trapped in a car with parents intent on discussing where they went wrong in a performance they are desperately trying to forget. Our advice: Don't do this... Dreading the immediate post-defeat fallout and the silent car journeys home benefits nobody, so try to find ways to support them that work for both you and them. Reminding yourself of the hours of training they devote to their sport can help you better understand their frustrations. Defeat may not feel like a big deal to you, but to them, it is. Let them vent their frustrations and respect their need for space, and if they don't want to talk, respect this, too! The standard car journey tactic, especially if unhappy, will be headphones on, zone out. And that's ok. The positive, you can listen to Radio 2!!      The Athlete's Own Learning Curve Athletes will also be learning how to navigate their own disappointment. They will need to understand that ‘storming off’ the pitch/track or removing their vest or top in anger or frustration (usually only applicable to boys!!) will be seen as unsportsmanlike conduct and not viewed in a good light by officials, spectators, or other athletes. Encourage them to reign in these behaviours, to be gracious in defeat and to always shake their opponent's hand. Teenagers, especially, can find it hard to control their emotions in defeat. Embarrassment can also be seen in behaviours such as 'storming off,' especially if they feel humiliated in front of peers. It can be helpful to remember that this age can be turbulent emotionally! Take Home Points Let them know it's normal to feel disappointed. There will ALWAYS be something positive to take from a performance. No matter how bad it might seem. Let them be sad or angry. It can be helpful to let out these emotions right away. Leave time after a disappointing result before attempting to discuss the reasons... Remember, ‘nearest and dearest’ will invariably receive an unfiltered emotional response. This is natural. Sometimes, silence can be the best approach. Less is more!! If you've found this information helpful, we've created The Athlete Place, our athlete-specific platform that will inform, motivate and inspire your athlete...

  Learn how the menstrual cycle can impact performance and some tips to help. The effects of menstruation on females in sports are finally being acknowledged. Thankfully, this is also now being talked about. In 2020, the BBC’s Elite British Sportswomen’s survey found that 60% of athletes considered their athletic performance to be impacted by their periods. More recently, research has found that 100% of sampled athletes report performance decrements during menstruation. Athletes have also spoken out in the media, using their platform to highlight the difficulties of training and competing through unsupported menstruation. For example, Dina Asher-Smith discussed how she was unable to retain her 100m European Championship title in 2022 because of calf cramps caused by her period. Now, this isn’t to say that performance is doomed in the face of menstruation – Paula Ratcliffe broke the marathon world record in 2002 on day 1 of her period! But what this does show is that menstruation is a key factor in athletic performance and wellbeing. Don’t be phased by the phases It’s a very common experience going into the gym one week and smashing through the programme, and then coming in the next week and your warmup weights feel like your final set. Fluctuations in things like performance, appetite, weight, and mood can be really frustrating and often feel like they’re coming out of nowhere. While the primary role of oestrogen and progesterone is concerned with the reproductive system, the changing levels of these hormones throughout the menstrual cycle can impact multiple systems in the body, such as the cardiovascular and metabolic systems. This means fluctuating levels of oestrogen and progesterone are often behind these changes. By learning how they work, things can stop seeming to come out of nowhere, and you can use them to your advantage.      The Follicular Phase With the move into the late follicular phase after menstruation comes an increase in oestrogen levels in the body. Oestrogen is often called a feel-good hormone because as levels of oestrogen increase, so do the levels of serotonin. Increased levels of these feel-good hormones can lead to improvements in confidence, mood, wellbeing, and motivation to train. Physiologically, high levels of oestrogen can also lead to greater protection from muscle damage, reduced inflammation, and quicker recovery. This often results in a greater capacity to carry out high-intensity training and can be why you might suddenly increase your performance or energy levels after your period. The Luteal Phase As the menstrual cycle moves into the luteal phase after ovulation, levels of oestrogen and serotonin decrease, and progesterone levels rise. This can lead to mood changes due to this reduction in feel-good hormones. Progesterone is a catabolic hormone which means it breaks down muscle and makes it harder for athletes to build muscle and strength during this stage. High-intensity training can also be more difficult during this phase, as the body is less able to metabolise carbohydrates as fuel and instead favours fats as a source of energy. During the luteal phase, body core temperature can rise by half a degree, which can lead to athletes feeling hotter during exercise. With reduced serotonin comes increased brain fog and reduced spatial awareness that can negatively impact athletes’ coordination. On the flip side, progesterone can also lead to lower levels of anxiety and better sleep, so you may experience better recovery during this phase.      Menstruation, injury, and recovery While oestrogen can positively influence our mood, motivation, and training intensity, it also plays a key role in influencing injury risk throughout the menstrual cycle. While research is limited, studies describe how oestrogen can interfere with joint collagen and create joint laxity, such as joint looseness. Ultimately, this means that during the follicular phase, when oestrogen levels are at their highest, joints can be looser, less stable, and, therefore, more susceptible to injury.    Research: The current state of play At the moment, we’re still playing catch-up in terms of research into menstruation and sports performance. Research findings are currently pretty limited and sometimes mixed. Some performance measures, such as joint laxity and injury risk, have been reported as impacted by the menstrual cycle, while other measures, such as VO2 max, strength, and power, don’t seem to change significantly. However, research looking into experiences and perceptions of menstruation in sport has found that both athletes and support staff report performance impacts throughout the menstrual cycle. This suggests that while an athlete may have the same physical capacity to perform, the symptoms of hormonal changes, such as severe pain and reduced spatial awareness, can influence athletes’ capability to fulfil this capacity.    What You Can Do Track your cycle and write down how you’re thinking and feeling. For example, note down what days you feel you have lots of energy vs the days you don’t, when you start feeling pain, whether you get food cravings, and whether your sleep patterns change. By beginning to pay attention to our bodies, we can start to map out how our body reacts to its own individual cycle. For example, you may notice that every time you’re on your period, you have very heavy bleeding and can feel faint during training, or at a specific time point every month, you experience niggles in an old shoulder injury. Once you have a better understanding of any physical and psychological changes that occur throughout the cycle, you can start to pre-empt them and put strategies in place to manage them. You can use the expertise of your support team or the experts from The Athlete Place to help you do this. If we take the previous example of heavy menstrual bleeding to feel faint, you could discuss this with your nutritionist and see how you could get more iron into your diet during the menstrual phase to support you through these experiences. Take Home Points Peaks in oestrogen lead to increased motivation, confidence, and physical capabilities and can influence injury susceptibility. Peaks in progesterone can impact mood, metabolism, coordination and sleep. Research is still trying to understand the impact of the menstrual cycle on physical and mental performance.   To create this content, The Athlete Place has teamed up with... Emma Quinn BSc, MSc, PhD (ongoing) Hello! My name is Emma, and I’m a doctoral researcher in menstruation. Following my experiences of battling difficult menstruation and the performance expectations of competitive sport, I developed an interest in the topic of menstruation in sport. During my BSc and MSc in sport psychology I researched athletes’ experiences of menstruating in the culture of elite sport, and IDT practitioners’ experiences of menstrual support provision. Alongside my PhD that focuses on menstruation, mental health, and stigma, I work with support staff and athletes to improve awareness and understanding of the menstrual cycle and develop discussions about menstrual support in sport. If you’ve had difficult experiences of menstruation in sport, want to learn more, or have any questions please reach out and we can start a conversation.   Chat with Emma Evidence-Based Research  Brown, N., Knight, C. J., & Forrest, L. J. (2021). Elite female athletes’ experiences and perceptions of the menstrual cycle on training and sport performance. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 31(1), 52-69. (View Paper) Herzberg, S. D., Motu’apuaka, M. L., Lambert, W., Fu, R., Brady, J., & Guise, J.M. (2017). The effect of menstrual cycle and contraceptives on ACL injuries and laxity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 5(7), 232596711771878. https://doi.org/10.1177/2325967117718781 (View Paper) McNulty, K. L., Elliott-Sale, K. J., Dolan, E., Swinton, P. A., Ansdell, P., Goodall, S., Thomas, K., & Hicks, K. M. (2020). The effects of menstrual cycle phase on exercise performance in eumenorrheic women: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 50(10), 1813–1827. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-020-01319-3 (View Paper)