*(Note: This article is going to mainly address what can be done from a nutrition and food perspective during volleyball tournaments, but this information can largely apply to all sports and activities of various lengths too).*
**Disclaimer: I am not a registered dietitian and I am not trying to give out specific diet plans for anyone to follow. I do however have a minor in nutrition in addition to my exercise science degree and have also played in 100+ volleyball tournaments of my own over the last 20 years. My goal here is to provide some basic insight on how the human body works and what it needs to operate optimally. In addition, I would like to give some ideas and food options for athletes to choose when preparing what they might eat before, during, and after a day of playing.
This article is very long, but I encourage you to all read it fully to gain a better understanding of what you can do to perform at your best during a volleyball tournament. Here is a summary of what we will discuss:
Summary:
Calories are good, not bad. You need them to have energy while you are playing.
It’s next to impossible to gain weight at a tournament.
Calories come from carbohydrates, proteins, and fat.
Your body uses carbohydrates in the form of blood glucose and muscle glycogen for the majority of its energy needs. Lack of carbohydrates/food will make it very hard to function optimally or have any energy at all.
You can start by making sure you have a good meal the night before playing.
The morning before playing you should also have a well balanced meal of about 300-400 calories with ~40-60g carbohydrates, ~20g protein, and ~5-10g of fat
During the tournament you should concentrate on consuming carbohydrates with some protein. The more time you have between a game the more you can consume
Gatorade is a good option while playing which helps hydration too.
Pretzels, granola/protein bars, sandwiches, and fruit are typically good options
Average 100 calories/hour if possible. Some can tolerate more and some might be better with less if they find it hard to play with food sitting in their stomach.
Longer breaks will also allow you to eat foods higher in protein and fat to balance out your nutrients.
After playing you should try to replenish as much as possible with a larger meal since you likely were not able to consume enough during the day.
Coffee and caffeinated beverages are fine in moderation, but do not rely on these for energy. Coffee on its own doesn’t have any actual calories.
It has come to my attention that many athletes don’t really have a grasp on what they need to be doing to stay properly fueled during long days of training or playing. It’s very hard to keep your energy up over a whole day of playing, and it’s even harder to do when you play multiple days in a row. Most people will ask the question, “What should I eat when I am playing at a tournament?” This is hard to answer exactly because everyone can tolerate different kinds and quantities of food. I’ve seen people eat greasy pizza (not a recommendation) and function relatively fine. Bananas (typically a good recommendation) work well for many, but personally I get a stomach ache when I play and have a banana. I hope to give everyone enough information here so that they can try out some different options and therefore feel much better about playing during these long days.
First and foremost, let's talk about calories. Calories get a bad rap because people associate calories with gaining weight. And yes, it’s true if you eat too many calories you will gain weight. However, it takes an extra 3500 calories to gain even 1 lb of fat and that would have to be in addition to what you burn in a normal day plus all those calories you burn playing. The average high school girl likely burns close to 2000 calories/day. Active ones could easily add a few hundred to that. When you’re at a tournament you could add even more since you’re basically moving around for hours on top of hours. These numbers can vary greatly depending on your size, metabolism, and how much you actually move when playing. I personally run around like a crazy person in the back row chasing after balls and therefore probably burn way more calories than most. Really the point i’m trying to make here is that you would need to consume an absurd amount of calories to gain weight at a tournament. Think if you burn 2500-3,000 calories/day for 3 days your body would need 7500-9000 calories to just break even for those 3 days. Add 3500 calories to that in order to actually gain 1 little pound of fat and you’re well over 10,000 calories. I would highly doubt anyone actually hits that number. Instead, most people will be drastically lower than that which can cause further problems when it comes to performance.
So let's dive just a little deeper into what a calorie actually is. A calorie is actually a measurement of energy. To be exact, 1 calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. Calories are the fuel you need to perform at your best. If you don’t consume enough calories you won’t have the necessary energy to get through games, matches, and whole days of playing. If you’ve ever felt tired and fatigued towards the end of a long day of playing, or during the last day of a multiple day tournament, then there’s a good chance you’re feeling that way because you didn’t properly fuel your body with the right nutrients/calories. This can even apply to long rallies. Your strength and conditioning obviously could play a part in all of this too, but that’s a topic for another day.
Now that we all know calories are good for us we need to discuss how we can go about getting those calories before, during, and after playing. Calories come from Carbohydrates, Protein, and Fat. To be more exact, you get 4 calories for every gram of carbohydrate and protein you ingest, and 9 calories for every gram of fat you eat. Generally speaking, carbs will be your quickest form of energy because they are digested faster. Protein is well known for helping repair muscles, but can also be used for energy when needed. Fat offers more calories per gram, but will get digested slower.
When you’re playing your body will first use what’s called blood glucose (carbohydrates in your blood). After this it will use muscle glycogen (carbohydrates that have been stored in your muscle). Third, it will use fat. By ingesting carbohydrates throughout the day you can keep your blood glucose levels up and then tap into your glycogen as needed. If you don’t eat, then your blood glucose will drop, your body will then go into their glycogen stores to keep your energy up. When that runs out you’re going to really start feeling sluggish. When the day is over you will have the chance to eat and replenish these glycogen stores, but if you neglect eating very much after the day of playing is over, then you’re going to start the next day with even less energy stored in your muscles and will likely fatigue even faster than the day before.
I hope this rudimentary explanation of how the body works makes at least a little sense to all of you. Even if it doesn't, you can still follow what I say next about what you can do to stay fueled and ready to perform at your best through the whole weekend.
Being fueled and ready to play really starts with the night before. I’m sure you have all heard of “Carb Loading” that is a practice of most endurance athletes. Those athletes do that so that their muscle glycogen stores are as high as possible before they start. Now I don’t recommend you try doing this because it takes some trial and error to make sure you feel good the next day too. However, I do recommend that you eat a good normal meal the night before. Nothing special really. Make sure there’s some good protein and carbohydrates for your body to be in good shape to start the next day.
Examples of meals the night before:
Chicken Breast, Rice, and Broccoli
Pasta and Meatballs or any meat
Salmon and a baked potato
Next is the morning of. What you eat in the morning will depend a little on when you actually play and what your body can handle. In general, you want to have a decent size meal that contains a good amount of carbohydrates in addition to some protein and fat. If you wake up in the morning and have to play within an hour, then I would recommend minimizing fat intake and increasing carbohydrates because the meal will get digested faster. Fruit, Toast/bagels, and cereal would all be decent examples of a good high carbohydrate meal. Both eggs and Peanut butter works very well to add some extra calories in the form of protein and fat that can be very beneficial too because it will get digested a little slower to give you some prolonged energy without adding a lot of weight to your stomach. To be honest, most breakfast food will work pretty well. I would however avoid anything fried because those foods can be hard on your digestion and therefore disrupt your performance. Bacon and sausage come to mind. A general amount of food to consume would be about 300-400 calories containing 40-60 grams of carbohydrates, 20-30 grams of protein, and 5-10g of fat. I would stay at the lower ranges if you’re going to play within an hour of eating, and more towards the higher ranges if you’re going to still have 2-3 hours before playing. Personally, I like having a bagel with peanut butter on it and an egg on the side. Sometimes a little extra fruit too.
Examples of meals the morning before:
Bagel with peanut butter optional extra hard boiled egg on the side
3 eggs and 2 slices of toast
Cereal with milk. Egg on the side for extra protein
Pancakes and a small protein shake
Protein Bar with ~20g protein. Juice on the side if bar doesn’t have a lot of carbs
During play can be a little more tricky. A big factor determining what you can eat will depend on what your actual breaks are. A general rule of thumb would be to try to get close to ingesting 100 calories every hour. Some people can function well right after eating, but others (such as myself) don’t do well when there’s too much food in their stomach. I personally try to sip Gatorade or a similar fluid with carbohydrates when playing games back to back because that allows you to get a constant flow of carbohydrates in your body while also helping you stay hydrated. I recommend to have just a couple ounces at a time though because chugging it will won’t feel so great in your stomach. If you have the chance, having small granola bars or pretzels to snack on will help during these times too. When you have longer breaks you can eat a little more and let it digest before playing. Protein and granola bars work really well for this. Look for ones that are higher in carbohydrates too. The longer break you have the more calories you should try to look for. During this time you can also try to get more protein and fat in since you won’t need the carbohydrates right away either (you should still have carbs here). If you have an actual lunch break with 2-3 hours off then I recommend having a meal similar to breakfast. Common foods to look for would be sandwiches, larger protein bars, or pasta (don’t overeat this). Things I would consider avoiding would be anything greasy, such as pizza, wings, or french fries (although a nice baked potato would be great). I also want to note that it would not be a good idea to simply drink as much Gatorade or ingest as many carbohydrates as possible at one time. For one this would not feel great on your stomach, and two it would also cause a huge rise in blood sugar which can consequently cause it to drop soon after. The goal should be to have a constant flow of carbohydrates in your system to keep your blood glucose up, but not so high that it comes crashing down. Which is why the 100 calories/hour rule is a good general rule of thumb.
Examples of food while playing:
High carbohydrate foods: Pretzels, Fruit, Gatorade or similar beverage
Nuts. Recommended more when you have longer breaks since they take longer to digest.
Sandwiches/subs. Recommended for longer breaks.
Once the day is over you should try to catch up on all of those calories that you burned off. It’s almost impossible to eat enough during the day while you’re playing. I strongly recommend eating directly after the day of playing is over because this is the time that your body will be most prepared to take in extra nutrients to replenish glycogen stores and protein to help those muscles recover. During this time you could even go get some ice cream or get a donut. That would help catch up on some of those calories you burned off. Again, timing can affect this too. If you’re done playing at 2:00 pm you should grab some food right after and then eat a somewhat normal dinner later in the evening. If you’re done playing at 6:00 pm, then you should likely consider eating a fairly large dinner as soon as possible and that might be it for the night. It’s hard to give any calorie goals for this, but I would suggest eating more than you would on a normal day. Especially if you’re going to be playing again tomorrow. You need Protein, carbs, and fat for this meal.
Examples of foods after playing:
Pretty much anything, but I generally would still stay away from anything that could cause digestion issues or make you feel bloated the next day. Fried food and overly salted foods can sometimes do this. Although you will need some salt to stay hydrated too.
Like I said before, what you eat exactly will be determined by what you can tolerate and will vary greatly between people. Use these guidelines to help you decide what you can try. The worst thing you can do is decide to not eat anything and rely on coffee or energy drinks to get you by. Trust me, that won’t go very well. I have also added a “mock day” for myself below if I were to play in a tournament. There are many other things that go into physically being able to perform at your best at these tournaments especially related to strength and conditioning, but I will save that for another article because I do not want to use up any more of your time. We do have a couple other articles we wrote before though if you want to keep reading. I promise these articles are WAY SHORTER. See the links below:
Protein Bars: This was linked earlier in the article too
Post Workout Nutrition and Protein:
Four workout supplements: Note that these are not replacements for what we just talked about in this article.
What is a muscle cramp and can you avoid it:
How to stay hydrated on hot summer days: This was written with outdoor tournaments in mind, but largely still applies to any tournament.
Please feel free to add any questions in the comments section below or contact me directly (danknorr@becomebettersppt.com) with questions or more information on the training we do here at Become Better.
Coach Dan’s Mock Eating Plan For A 1 Day Tournament.
Pool Play times (2 set matches):
9:00 am
10:30 am
11:15 am
Lunch Break after pool play
Quarter Finals: 2:30
Semi-finals: 3:30
Finals: 4:30
7:30am - Bagel/Toast with peanut butter and one egg with a cup of coffee.
9:00 am - water or small amount of gatorade. Breakfast should still be enough energy.
9:45 am half of a protein bar: This one probably. Few ounces of gatorade.
10:30 am - noon: Back to back games will likely mean only gatorade. If needed I will finish the protein bar from earlier between matches
Noon: Larger lunch. I do well with protein bars. This one especially for now because it’s higher calorie and the fat will digest a little slower which is fine because we have time.
2:30 pm - 4:30pm: Gatorade and pretzels. Small granola bar if time.
5:30 pm: Finish any food I have left. Plan somewhere for dinner with the team after a victory.
A multi-day tournament can mimic the above with a few changes. Likely you will be done a lot earlier so you may not need a whole lunch. If you don’t have a large break then a smaller lunch or still a protein bar could be preferred. Then after you are done I would still eat a good meal, but you will also likely be done in the early afternoon, so plan two meals. You also probably wouldn’t be playing as many total sets in a multi-day tournament as you would in a single day, so the overall calorie count wouldn’t need to be as high, but remember you will also need those calories for the coming days too. Please let me know if you want more examples like this.