Nutrition

As a Coach, it is important to understand that only certain health professionals are qualified to provide nutritional advice, including:

• Medical Doctors
• Accredited Nutritionists/Dieticians

Nutritional guidelines from the High-Performance Unit focus on two key nutritional targets:

• Nutrition to support performance.
• Nutrition to support recovery.

Performance nutrition focuses on providing the body with enough fuel to support upcoming training sessions or races. Key strategies include:

• Consuming a meal containing carbohydrate sources (e.g., bread, rice, fruit) approximately 60 minutes before a training session.
• Ensuring paddlers are well hydrated before and throughout training.
• For sessions longer than 60 minutes, using a sports drink (e.g., Gatorade, Powerade) as a source of extra carbohydrates can help maintain energy levels.

It is also advisable to experiment with different pre-race meals to determine how the paddler feels on the water after consuming them.

Nutrition is also an important recovery method. Some simple strategies for recovery nutrition include:

• Consuming a post-training snack within 60 minutes of completing a session is recommended. The snack should consist of a combination of carbohydrates, protein, and water.
• Increasing water intake beyond the usual recommendation of 2 litres . 
• Distributing protein intake evenly throughout the day instead of consuming a large serving in one meal.

Below is a stack of eight (8) cards with various post-training snacks. The good options are things that include protein, carbohydrates and water? snack foods. Drag and drop the Snacks into the appropriate boxes

As a coach working with paddlers, it’s important to adopt the stance that sports supplements are not necessary. Paddlers at this level can adequately fuel, recover, and improve performance using simple whole foods and consistent training and racing strategies. 

Supplements pose a risk of containing banned substances, which could result in a ban from training and competition under Sport Integrity Australia and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) regulations.

Coaches should complete the Sport Integrity Australia Clean Sport 101. Additionally, they should familiarise themselves with the Sport Integrity Australia mobile phone application, which serves as a convenient and accessible resource for information.

https://www.sportintegrity.gov.au