A question that is commonly asked is “how should I get prepared for a tournament?” or “what should I do leading up to the tournament?” There are a three important things to consider when preparing for a tournament.
1. Sleep
Sleep is one of the most important parts of preparing for a tournament. Getting a good night’s sleep is important for increasing performance as well as help with recovery. Leading up to a tournament you want to get into a good sleep routine, so getting to bed at the same time every night and getting between 7-9 hours of sleep every night, especially the night before the tournament.
2. Nutrition
Another important part of preparing for a tournament is eating right. Nutrition is incredibly important in increasing performance. The key is eating the right foods and to not undereat or overeat before the tournament. If you undereat, you will not have enough energy and if you overeat you might feel slower while trying to perform your best. The night before you should try to eat a dinner with carbohydrates such as pasta or bread. Carbohydrates are what gives your body energy with activity. During the tournament, you want to have light snacks that have sugar in them or “quick carbs” an example of this would be a sports drink or fruit snacks. These help replenish any energy you may have lost while playing. After the tournament you want to get carbs and protein. Just like before carbs help replenish energy while protein helps the body recover.
3. Fitness
The third part of preparing for a tournament is having a proper strength training program. A lot of people think strength training before tournaments or in season will hurt their game when it can actually help improve your game. If you have a proper training program, you should not be getting sore after workouts and should stay feeling strong and powerful throughout the season. You should also have a solid routine with your workouts, if you usually need a day to recover from a workout, you should not train hard the day before a tournament, you should plan a day to recover and be feeling top notch the day of your tournament. Along with strength training, you should also have a mobility routine paired with it. Mobility helps prevent injuries and helps keep you feeling fresh. You can also have a pre-round mobility routine to help loosen up before the tournament.
Stay Consistent!
The one thing that is most important to prepare for a tournament is having a routine and sticking with it. It is ok to make minor tweaks to your routine but you do not want to completely change your routine mid-season. This could end up hurting your performance and make it even harder to get back on track. So remember, get good sleep, eat right and train properly before a tournament. If you need help with anything from nutrition to fitness, be sure to give us a call at 919-377-2084.
Author-
Alex Shirazi
Director of In-House Performance
