Dietary Tips for Serious Hockey players

No matter who you are, what you eat each day is important. However, when you’re an athlete, especially if you’re doing something as demanding as playing hockey, you need to be even more concerned about your daily diet. This is true for youth hockey players too. In fact, it’s even more true for them since their little bodies burn through energy so quickly. Thus, they need all the energy they can get from their diets.

Fortunately, though, by following a few simple tips, all athletes, including young ones, can increase their strength, stamina, and overall health and performance.

Breakfast Really is the Most Important Meal of the Day

First things first, it is important for athletes to eat a healthy breakfast. They should get into this habit every morning, but it’s especially important on mornings when there is a game or a demanding practice.

The breakfast should be as balanced and as healthy as possible. It should include some protein, good carbohydrates for energy, and some fruit. This will propel the young athlete throughout the day.

Also, this breakfast can replenish and repair the body fully, which is exactly what it needs after waking from sleep.

Don’t Be Afraid to Serve a Big Lunch

After serving their children a hearty breakfast, a lot of parents worry about also serving their kids a big lunch. However, athletes are fine to eat a large, healthy meal in the middle of the day, as long as there are still a few hours for digestion before a game or practice.

Start with a protein, like a piece of lean chicken or fish. Add in some vegetables, a few carbs, and a piece of fruit. This, coupled with lots of water, is a great way to get a jumpstart on that game or practice.

Some Snacks are Okay

Hopefully, if your young players eats enough at breakfast and lunch, he won’t want to snack much. However, on game days, it’s fine to eat a snack a little before hitting the ice. In fact, any time your player is genuinely hungry, a healthy snack won’t hurt.

Before games, though, make sure snacks are low fat and low protein so that they digest quickly and easily and also supply energy more quickly. Power bars or other small, healthy snacks are good options pre-game or practice.

Enjoy Some Freedom at Dinnertime

While adults might need to eat a healthy dinner to stay on track, kids, especially active kids, burn calories much more easily.

Thus, it’s okay for your child to enjoy what he likes, within reason, for dinner. An occasional fast food burger or slice of pizza won’t hurt him, as long as he stays active and eats healthy otherwise.

Don’t let your kids go “hog wild” at dinner, but do allow a bit more freedom and flexibility. If you can help your child follow these tips and exercise good control in general, he should stay in tip-top shape.

Simple Tips for a Safer Hockey Season

If you have a child who loves playing hockey, chances are that you want to do everything within your power to keep that child safe. And, while there’s no surefire way to 100% prevent a hockey-related injury from occurring, there are plenty of things you can do to reduce the risk and to have a safe season all-around.   

Take Steps to Avoid Overuse

The most common types of hockey injuries that occur are injuries related to overuse.

To avoid these types of injuries, avoid letting your child play hockey year-round. Kids need some time off from sports, and hurdling them from the hockey season into a hockey camp without any downtime is not healthy. Allow your child to take reasonable breaks from the sport to avoid repetitive stress and related injuries.

If your child just can’t get enough sports, then let him or her try a sport other than hockey. This can actually build strength in new and helpful ways and can reduce the risk of overuse injuries.

Live a Healthy Lifestyle

Something else that can really be helpful for young athletes is just living a healthy lifestyle in general.

This means, to begin with, eating nutritious foods in proper amounts. It also means drinking plenty of water and getting adequate sleep.

These three simple lifestyle changes can make a huge difference in how a player fares through the season. Those who don’t take care of themselves are not only more likely to get injured, but they’re also more likely to have longer, harder recoveries.

How to live a healthy lifestyle is an important thing to learn anyway. And, since it has the added benefit of aiding in an injury-free hockey season, it’s definitely worthwhile.

Always Engage in a Warm Up

One final tip that is often overlooked is to remember to always have your child engage in a warm up, one that’s appropriate to the activity he’s about to participate in.

Good warm ups stretch and prepare the muscles for what they’re about to endure. Not only can they reduce aches and pains, but they can also make it less likely that your child will get injured on the ice.

If you can follow these simple tips, your little one will have a much better chance of making it through the hockey season injury-free.

How Youth Hockey Learned Skills can Lead to a Better Career

When your little one is playing hockey, you probably aren’t thinking about his or her future career. Instead, you’re thinking about how the season is going, what your child’s best skills are, and what he or she needs to work on. If you can put aside present worries and peer into the future for a moment, however, you’ll quickly see that being a part of a youth hockey league can actually lead to better career opportunities in the future.

To begin, years of playing hockey is definitely something that can go on a resume. It looks even better if, sometime in the future, your child serves as an assistant coach or takes on another important role on a team, even if it’s a volunteer role. This shows that your child is someone who takes what he learns and uses it to lead and help others, which employers love. Even if your child doesn’t stay

involved in hockey for years and years, the time spent playing still builds important skills that employers value.

For one, hockey is about dedication and persistence. Hockey players get up early and practice daily in order to be the best. They keep playing even when they lose or make a mistake. These are skills that carry over well into the ups and downs of the working world.

As members of a team, hockey players also have to learn to work well with others. When they don’t, they realize that the whole team suffers. Working environments are like teams in and of themselves. Everyone has to do his part and support others in their efforts for a business or other organization to be as successful as possible.

The bottom line is that playing hockey can ultimately pay off for your little one in the long run. So, encourage your child not to give up, and when your child is older, talk to him about making the most of the skills and values learned from being a member of a hockey team.

Keeping Kids Safe on the Ice

As a parent, your biggest fear is probably that your child would be injured while playing hockey. While the risk of injury is real in youth hockey, that doesn’t mean that you should pull your child out of a sport he or she loves. Instead, it just means that you need to be all the more cautious when it comes to keeping your little hockey player safe on the ice.

Make the Doctor Your Friend

To begin with, your child should visit a doctor for a complete physical before he or she even tries out or signs up for the local hockey team. Most good teams will flat-out require a physical to be

performed to ensure the child is in good enough health to handle the demands and stresses that hockey can put on the body.

Don’t just ditch the doctor after your child’s physical though. Instead, make sure your child visits the doctor at least twice a year for routine checkups. The doctor can ensure that hockey isn’t causing too many physical issues for your little one and that he or she remains in good overall health. Also make sure you see a doctor anytime your child complains of aches or pains or suffers even the most minor injury during gameplay or practice.

Invest in a Great Helmet

It should go without saying that your child needs to be wearing every piece of safety equipment ever invented for young hockey players when he or she is on the ice. However, no other piece of safety equipment is more important than your child’s helmet. Invest in the best possible helmet money can buy. Ideally, you want one that’s been certified by the Hockey Equipment Certification Council and that features a chin cup and a face mask that covers the entire face. Also make sure that the helmet fits snugly on your child’s head.

Warm Up Every Time

You also want to make sure that your child is warming up before every single game and practice. Children’s muscles need to be limber and ready to move before hockey can be played safely and to the child’s maximum ability. Not only do you need to make sure your child warms up properly, but you also want to ensure that your child’s coach understands the importance of warming up and enforces thorough warm-ups before each game, exercise session, or practice.

If you can keep these simple tips in mind, you’ll feel better knowing that your child is a whole lot safer while enjoying the rough and tumble game of hockey.

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