Mar 31, 2017Recovery Time
Perhaps the area that high school athletes know the least about, yet will have arguably the biggest impact on their success, is recovery. By educating athletes about this topic, you can ensure they are ahead of the game.
The two areas we focus on are proper nutrition and sleep. When it comes to nutrition, we emphasize regular hydration, not skipping meals (especially breakfast), healthy snacking, eating lean protein, and integrating fruits and vegetables each day.
There’s also a color-coding system in our cafeteria that helps athletes with portion control:
- Items marked with a green sticker or serving spoon are healthy, and athletes can have as much of these as they want.
- Yellow items should be eaten sparingly.
- Red items should be avoided as much as possible.
This approach gets athletes used to recognizing and selecting healthy options at meals, so they are prepared to make the same decisions in any dining hall or restaurant.
When it comes to sleep, it is well-documented that adolescents don’t get enough. This problem can get worse when there are increased demands on their time. Using articles, posts on our bulletin boards, and regular conversation, we educate our athletes about sleep and ways to develop good sleeping habits.
