Eating and Tournament Preparations

I was reminded about a lot of things when I played earlier this month in a big 2-day tournament, that I hadn't thought of in some time.  So forgive me for writing about random things all of a sudden, lol.

But I think these are great reminders, and here is one of them:

Saturday morning on the way to the pool room, I picked up some breakfast tacos from Taco Cabana for my friend Tina and I.  Didn't really think too much about it, honestly.  Well, except I knew I would have a better chance of playing well with eating breakfast than playing on an empty stomach.  I bought myself 3 tacos - had no concerns about eating that many.  We arrived to the pool room around 9am, and the players meeting didn't even start til 11am, so I had plenty of time for my food to process in my tummy.

On Sunday morning, I found myself still in the main event.  Yay me!

Check out the difference come Sunday morning regarding breakfast:

While I'm getting ready that morning figuring out what to wear and how to fix my hair (lol), I'm thinking about those delicious tacos from Taco Cabana.  I'm also thinking about how I need food for energy (again, don't want to play on an empty stomach and food is energy).  However, I'm also thinking about how too much breakfast will affect my thinking.

I know from experience that if you eat too much, your body is busy sending it's energy and blood flow to work on processing the food in your stomach. This means less blood flow to your brain, and I really need those cells to think clearly in a match, lol.

So, I'm seriously considering all my options.

This particular morning I'm leaving the house 45 minutes from when I will be playing my first match, which means I cannot eat too much in the next 45 minutes.  As I'm walking out the door, I literally stop - "should I just grab a shake?"  Trying to decide what is best with my time constraint.  Not only am I thinking about the amount of food in my stomach, I'm also trying to figure out my practice time before my match.  This means I must figure out how best to fit in eating breakfast.

Hmmmm.....

I decide to still stop at Taco Cabana, order only two (not three) tacos, and eat them on the way to the pool room.

This solves several things:

• I have food in my tummy for energy, 
• But not too much food so I don't feel full and tired from my body processing extra food, 
• I eat on the way to save time (but I drive very carefully), and
• I'm able to warm up hitting balls 10-15 minutes before my match at 10:30am because I ate on the way.

There's a lot to tournament matches and being properly prepared.

And food consumption is an important one.

Think about how much you are eating, what you are eating, and the time from when you eat to when you play.  All of that factors into your decisions to help give yourself the best opportunity to play well.  

Remember, these are things in our control that we must be cognizant of.