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I once saw a player on the bench sucking on a sugar packet.
(No, this is not one of those juvenile nursery rhymes!
I may be small, but I can see a lot from the corners I get my-self into.)
He thought he was getting energy for his next shift out of it.
I peeked over the boards the next time he went out. Boy, was he sucking wind.
Not to mention, he was carrying a few extra pounds around with him.
I used to tell my slowest players,
"I don't mind you carrying that piano around on your back, just don't stop to play it!"
(Where do think those pounds came from anyway?)
He was either doing the fast food circuit or probably had a few other little sweet habits at home.
Sweets before or during a game is like,
"Shootin' a hole in your gas tank!"
Even sports drinks are not the answer on the bench.
They're fine after, for replenishing what you've lost during a game or a good workout.
But, water is the only thing that will help you during a game.
You've gotta start drinking at least 2 hours before the game,
and stop drinking an hour before the game.
If you wait 'til your thirsty, by then it's too late.
By the time you sense you are thirsty, dehydration has already started!
Here's what Dr. Haas writes about Mineral Loss During Exercise.
When we sweat, we do lose a small amount of vital minerals and salts, and we must make sure that the body has ample stores of these essential nutrients. Competition also depletes blood sugar and glycogen (the storage form of carbohydrate energy), both of which are necessary for energy and stamina. Why not drink sports drinks to replace these nutrients?
As observed, commercially touted sports drinks give your body much more sodium (salt) and potassium and sugar than it needs. Sugar and salt both act to draw vital body water into the stomach and away from the parts of the body that most need water during exercise: the muscles.
These drinks stay in the stomach too long to benefit your athletic performance. Pure water leaves the stomach and enters the bloodstream much faster. During exercise, particularly competitive exercise, digestion virtually ceases, which means that the energy that the sugar in these drinks is meant to provide is not immediately available to the muscles and the brain.
When large amounts of salt (and sugar) finally do leave the stomach and enter the blood, more water is drawn from the working muscles in order to dilute the high salt concentration in the blood. This deprives the hot, over-worked muscle cells of what they need most --more water.
@ copyright 1983 Dr. Robert Haas Eat To Win - The Sports Nutrition Bible Signet Books
I'm sure Dr. Haas wouldn't mind a little plug for his book as long as we reproduce his material word for word. If he does mind, this page will disappear immediately. The only way it might disappear faster is if we get a sports drink to sponsor high school hockey.
Next time: What's your pre-game meal and when do you eat it?
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