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Inside the Huddle by Becci Twombley, RD CSSD
Do you ever feel like you are spinning in circles trying to get athletes to follow through with the recommendations that you have provided? It is funny how a baseball player would never be without his glove or bat, yet struggles to remember to bring lunch to the field! Here are 5 quick tips to help you achieve better compliance from your athletes!1. Individualize! Everyone wants to feel special. By tailoring meal plans and handouts to each athlete, you are building trust that makes that athlete motivated for success. Athletes who are in High School or College have little expendable income and even less time for food preparation. Addressing these issues will alleviate pitfalls that may arise in the execution of the meal plan. Knowing that you are in their court improves the chances that they will follow through. The extra effort on your part breeds better results in their performance.2. Be Specific! Speaking in “nutritionese” only works in speaking with RDs! As a fueling coach you need to serve as the translator between carbs and protein to actual foods. Rather than stating that your athletes should recover with a 3:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein, give food examples such as Lowfat chocolate milk, nonfat yogurt or PowerBar Harvest.3. Know your audience! The motivation of a football player to eat right may be completely different from that of a female volleyball player. Each sport has a culture associated with it. It is crucial to get to know each subset of athletes… by sport, gender, position etc. This will allow you to give practical guidance that will fuel their internal drive to become the best that they can be. 4. Become ESPNucated! Baseball tonight, College Game Day, SportsCenter… these are prerequisites for communication with your athletes. Knowing the terminology, the trades, the brackets and the stats gives you street cred. If you understand the sport, you can speak the language of the athlete.5. Come armed with information! Education comes in all shapes and sizes. Know how each team and athlete learns best. Visual learners may need cooking demonstrations. Some athletes prefer web based information. Giving meal plans in servings of foods, calories and grams or in specific foods should be determined on an individual basis. PowerBar playbooks and resources are great ways to give your athletes information on the run, and for those athletes who are motivated, a quick pubmed search to show them the research may yield a lifetime of credibility.The bottom line is there is no one size fits all when it comes to working with athletes. As clinicians, we need to work to stay ahead of the curve, advocating for our athletes on every front. To get more practical guidance from the trenches, check out the Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitian Association (CPSDA) at www.sportsdietitian.org, and join us at our annual meeting in Scottsdale, AZ on May 22 – 25, 2011.
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California, United States
Dietitian
Here are some highlights of Dr. Kevin Tipton’s presentation, entitled “Protein and Gains in Muscle Mass.”
By: Tricia L. GriffinRD, CSSD, POWERBAR Sports Nutritionist
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