Hydration: Watching What Our Players and All of Us Put into Our Bodies

As coaches we want our athletes in the best condition both physically, mentally, and emotionally, both before and during games.  A number of years ago I became concerned at the amount of “energy drinks” that were in my dugout during games.  I began to look into these various beverages in more depth.  Full transparency - in previous years I had consumed energy drinks on a moderate basis - but stopped drinking them after I had experienced noticeable side effects such as “crashing after a few hours”, and increased heart rate, among others.  As I started to investigate these products, based on the research that I found, I decided that energy drinks for youth are not healthy.  I told the players and parents that I could not control what they allowed in their homes, but in our dugout, they were banned completely.  Any player found to have them would be disciplined.  Thankfully, I only had a handful of incidents and for over 2 seasons we have been energy drink-free in my dugout. 

What all of us fuel our bodies with, especially athletes, plays a critical role in our success.  I was very surprised when I found energy drinks are not regulated by the FDA.  The only oversight is the limit on the amount of caffeine content*.  So, the natural question is:  How should athletes hydrate?  In my opinion water is the best option!  Sports drinks are also allowed in my dugout.

– Coach David Fiedor

* - Source:  Harvard School of Public Health - https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/energy-drinks/