Hi guys! For those of you that regularly compete in tournaments (local/regional/national/international any level!), how do you prepare for your tournament outside of training? What I mean is, how do you eat, hydrate, etc? What do you do with your equipment? Ex. Week before: Focus on eating well (eat lots of carbs and veggies) Maintain hydration (I usually don't drink enough water, so I try to squeeze in 2-3 more cups of water per day) Try to hit at least once or twice (I don't train regularly any more) Day/Night before: Clean my shoe soles (dip a brush in soapy water, scrub, rinse, towel dry, and leave on newspaper overnight Pack my bag (extra shirts, towels, water, snacks etc.) Prep drink mix (mix gatorade powder into a 1gal water jug) Sleep well! Day of: Eat a good breakfast (eggs over rice with a glass of water) Arrive early at tournament to get ~30-45 min warmup Food: crackers, bananas, and beef jerky (small bites in between matches). I try to get fried rice or something else that is bland and carb-y if there is a real meal break. Does anyone else obsess over the little details like me? The only thing I dislike about tournaments is that if I over/under eat, I can really feel it during singles matches.
I don't know if anybody has mentioned before but I find time of day to be important. Most of my play is at night. So morning tournament matches I am a bit 'off'. I will also get my racquets restrung about 2-3 weeks beforehand. (I don't play that many tournaments now). Food I am not too concerned about but this is very much a factor of the tournament. If I expect a few matches of one game on the day itself, then bannanas and sandwiches are ok on the day. If the tournament lasts two or more days (quite rare for me now), with many matches, I am going to be really careful. The first day is really important to keep nutrition up as a slight tiredness will get amplified on the second day.
Week before: nothing special, normal training, normal nutrition (which is quite helathy anyways...) Day/Night before: not too much drinking, staying sober... Pack my bag (extra shirts, towels, water, snacks etc.) Day of: Eat a good breakfast Arrive early at tournament to get ~30-45 min warmup nothing too special. but i play national level only, so no need flying around/organising travel and preparing too much...
Week before: Play games against better club member Training low fat nutrition, rice, noodles and oat, vegetables, mushrooms and tofu drinking mate tea before training smoothies made of mango, banana, apples, pineapple, grapes, oranges and pomegranate Day/Night before: no playing noodles and rice with vegetables and tofu a hot bath with rosemary oil, some sweating and a cold shower last meal a big fruity smoothie with curd 7-8 hours sleep Day of: Breakfast: coffee and a smoothie (energy and not much work for the stomach) arrive early some easy warmup (running, stretching, gyro twister etc.)
Could you guys expand a little on what you put into the tournament bag? Must have and nice to have items.
In my opinion,you know exactly what you need caz no one understands you more than you do.However,I do have experience and my opinions to share with you.For a one night,one session of doing club laddering,A get away weekend,like doing provincial ranking tournament which lasts two to three days and a week of college leagues tournament require different "agendas".It would suggest that you play provincial ranking tournament every now and then,so I'm gonna say accordingly. * A long run is a must,do it slowly,let your muscles absorb oxygen as much as you can. *Grooming,get a hair cut,trim your nails and toe nails,flossing teeth,clean oral thrush,use mouthwash before games. *Say no to your *** partner. *Stop training,drills two days prior to tournament and arrive as early as possible to get familiar with the courts and lights. According to what you say,I would add one or two dishes in addition to your diet.Eat assorted beans and drink some milk with your rice.Call up your health department for information regarding nutrition,you're from a stronger nation,they can provide you with plenty of nutrition information.For kids and young adults they should ask their coaches for preparation lists.This is what I used to do a week prior to games.Now,I take tonic foods such as panax ginseng and glucosamin.There's not much you can do a week beforehand.
Day of tournament, I look like a pack mule! (Unless my girlfriend takes pity on me and helps me carry things) I usually have a separate food/snack bag, and then my usual badminton bag, plus a tripod for recording matches. On top of all that, I carry a gallon jug of sports drink. Starred items are my "must haves" Food bag: *Carb-y snacks: crackers, bagels, etc ClifShot Bloks (energy chews that I can bring on court for a quick sugar boost. Can't tell if the effect is a placebo or not. If I'm already drinking a sports drink, I don't bring this. If I only have water, I bring this.) Bananas Beef jerky (because I get meat cravings sometimes) Badminton Bag: *Racket + back up (VTZF and i'm using an AT900T as my backup, I'm too poor for 2 VTZF lol) 2 tubes of birds: *One with new birds, the other with used birds for warm-up. *Extra water bottles + gallon sports drink *2 sweat towels *3-5 spare shirts, a spare pair of shorts *Wallet, cell phone, camcorder, etc. Spare battery pack for my phone, and a *charger as well (tournaments usually run something like 8am-11pm for me)
Thanks for the details. I see more and more people recommend Beef Jerky. I used bring Edamame but my Chinese friends told me stay away from foods from China - so maybe I'll replace them with Beef Jerky.
IIRC, you can probably find a different brand of edamame that isn't produced in China. After all, edamame is the Japanese name for soy beans. If you check your local Chinese market, and they don't have any not from China, try a Japanese market. (Though in my experience, Japanese markets tend to be more expensive than Chinese ones, though that may just be because there are more Taiwanese/Chinese people in my area than Japanese).
Sadly, Japanese is off my list as well due to Fukushima. Used to drink Sencha tea from there need find another brand.
this is probably the worst example yet, but the first local tournament playing mens doubles that i participated and won some kind of a trophy, we played beer pong the night before seriously, from my experience, a good night of sleep is very very important. if i allow my mixed doubles partner to sleep just an extra hour, she is at least 10% faster on the court, it's so noticeable that it blows my mind!!! sleep, sleep, and more sleep!!!
