Much of what I will be writing is based on the great work of Heidi Skolnik & Andrea Chernus in their Nutrient Timing for Peak Performance. The book is around $35 for the print version and about $25 for Kindle. I am also using material learned in my High Performance Coaching program with the National Coaching Institute of Ontario.

I am bringing you a condensed version because if you are a member of our taekwondo school, you are an athlete, and get some of this during classes. What proper timing brings is reduced injury risk, faster recovery, better overall performance, not only athletic but also academic.

So this about what, how much and when you eat and drink. The body is a fuel burning engine. It needs the right foods digested in time to be used when that fuel is needed, As is pointed out,

“Nutrient timing transforms eating into a strategic component of your training, conditioning, and sports performance.”

Four essential components for sport performance are

1. Training

2. Skills acquisition

3. Nutrition

4. Rest (recovery)

Doing more of one doesn’t compensate for the other.

Nutrition has to be built into your daily plan for all activities. It is a partnership between the youthful athlete and their parents to have a plan and follow the plan. It also requires understanding energy systems in your body. We have three types of energy systems that have associated skeletal muscle fibres. These are aerobic, anaerobic lactic, and anaerobic alactic. Each sport uses these in some ratio which dictates how we train and how we should eat. At the same time, our lives dictate when, how often and for how long we actually train. For taekwondo sparring athletes, we mostly need anaerobic alactic and aerobic systems. Anaerobic lactic is hardly ever used. However, most of you are not high performance athletes and do other sports in some cases that might need something different. In future blogs we will go over a variety of situations.

So ask yourself this. Am I willing to build a plan and follow the plan? If not, then no point reading future blogs on this topic. However, if you want to get better at everything you do, then put a note on your mirror that says. “I’m in! I will get better every day!!