6 Tennis Nutrition Tips
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I’m sure some of you’ve heard this so often that you’re tired of it, but I’m going to say it anyway: food is our fuel. You wouldn’t put vegetable oil in the gasoline tank of your car would you? Well many people are putting poor quality food into their bodies while expecting to perform at a high level.
It just….won’t….work.
Handling our nutrition is of utmost importance, and it becomes even more important when we’re discussing the nutrition of an athlete.
No, I am not a licensed nutritionist, but I have spent my entire life dedicated to performing at the highest levels of tennis. From the age of 2 years old, to now, I’ve continuously studied how to become a great tennis player, and nutrition has become a bigger and bigger part of it. I’ve spent a lot of time speaking with experts, listening to experts, and watching some of the best tennis players in the world on a daily basis handle their nutrition. And I want to share the most helpful nutrition tips I’ve encountered throughout my career (please consult with your personal nutritionist to confirm any allergies you might have to certain foods, or what is best for your body):
1. Wake up with enough time for an early morning match.
Sleep is very important, but squeezing out an extra 30-45 minutes of sleep isn’t worth it if you’re waking up so close to your match or training that you can’t have a proper breakfast. Think about this, if you finished eating dinner the night before at 8pm, and you only eat a bowl of cereal for your 8am match, your body will be on empty rather quickly. For 12 hours all you’ve had to eat is a bowl of cereal, and now you need to potentially play a 2-3 hour match? That’s a lot to ask for with very little fuel, and low quality fuel at that.
Wake up 2.5-3 hrs before your match so you can eat a proper breakfast, and have time to digest. Also, it takes an estimated 3 to even 4 hours to properly wake up and be ready to compete at your highest levels! Now, I wouldn’t wake up at 4am for an 8am match, but at a minimum I’d get up at 5:30am.
2. When you have less time in-between matches, eat less for lunch, and snack throughout your next match.
If your part of the USTA junior tennis world, you’ve experienced how little time a player can get in-between matches. Sometimes tournament directions give only an hour, even after a 3 hour match. Handling this situation is tricky and delicate.
I suggest to eat less food in-between the two matches, and snack on foods throughout the entire match.
You don’t want to eat too much when you don’t have time to digest. You’ll then be too heavy to move, and your stomach might even start to hurt.
You also don’t want to eat too little, and not have the energy to compete.
So you need to find a happy medium. Eat just enough for you to feel a bit full, and then have something to snack on throughout the entire match.
For example: instead of getting a full sandwich, eat half, and then have a small bite of the rest every changeover throughout the match. Or eat half of the sandwich, and snack on something like a protein bar, or nuts, or some type of fruit throughout the match.
3. Eat within the first 15 minutes of finishing your competition.
The sooner you start eating, the faster and better your body will recover. It’s best if you can eat something within the first 15 minutes of finishing competition. That can be difficult at times, but if you can do it at least within the first 60 minutes, you’ll still receive some benefit. The first 15 minutes is the sweet spot though.
Most athletes aren’t hungry enough to eat as soon as they’re done competing, so try a protein shake. Be careful with smoothies because they might be filled with so much fruit that there’s too much sugar. You want some protein in there.
4. Hydration starts a few days before the first match
My young self made the mistake of only hydrating the morning of and during the match. My slightly older self then tried doing all the hydrating the afternoon/evening before, only to wake up multiple times throughout the night to use the restroom, interrupting my quality of sleep.
It takes a few days to properly hydrate the body for multiple competitive tennis matches. If you’re first match is on Saturday, start hydrating Wednesday.
However, if you want to do it like the pros do, hydrate everyday. If you’re only hydrating for your competitions, then you’re not hydrating for your training, and the quality of your training will suffer, therefore you’ll be less prepared to do well during the competition. You might work hard, but you won’t reach peak training levels because you’re dehydrated.
So walk around with a water bottle everyday drinking water and electrolytes!
5. Cereal alone is not a quality breakfast.
Most packaged cereals are ultra processed, high in sugar, and extremely low in protein. Many kids, and myself included growing up, would eat cereal for their morning match. I’ve learned……..that is a big mistake.
Is eating cereal better than nothing? Yes. Are some cereals better than others? Yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s the best you can do.
By being high in carbs, and extremely low in protein, cereals can give you a big energy rush, and a crash thereafter. Find a mix of food that has protein and carbs. The protein will help you stay full longer, and help with your muscles ability to recover throughout the day.
My favorite breakfast is scrambled eggs with a bowl of oatmeal that has almond milk, sliced almonds, and bananas.
6. Fruits are high in sugar. Be careful.
While fruits are healthier foods to eat, they are high in carbs (which we need for competition), but high in sugar, with almost no protein. Eating too much fruit without any protein can cause a huge sugar crash.
During my personal research expedition on nutrition at Florida State University, I decided to be healthier one day and only ate fruit for breakfast. Well, I couldn’t even finish the warm up for my match an hour later. I had to ask my coaches for every snack I could get because my energy crashed and I could barely stand. I was starving! Instead of hitting balls, I consumed every snack bar and whatever else I could find until I could move around again. So be careful with fruits!
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The food and liquids we consume, how we consume them, and when we consume them have a direct affect not only our energy, but our mood. If we have low energy, we’ll be more at risk of being in a bad mood, having a negative mindset throughout the match, and we’ll struggle to make proper decisions.
If you’re going to spend thousands of dollars a year on tennis training, the last thing you want is for your nutrition to ruin everything. Give this area the same attention you would any other part of your tennis training.
And finally, be patient. It takes years to figure out exactly what works well for our bodies and what doesn’t. Different weather conditions, different match times, and different foods affect us differently. Everyone loses some matches because they messed up how they ate or drank. That’s normal. But start studying and paying attention NOW so you find what works for you sooner. Heck, get with a nutritionist that understands sports nutrition and get to work!
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