Youth Baseball Tournament – Just A Vacation?

Youth baseball tournaments are an exciting time for everyone. While your players are there to play ball and compete, the trip is also like a mini vacation for them. As such, players are likely expecting to go out to eat a lot during the trip, and may make poor food selections. It is your responsibility as a coach to steer your players towards healthy foods and good places to eat so that they are not sacrificing their health. One way to be a fit, healthy baseball player is to watch what you are eating, and your players need to be aware of this. Read the following article to learn how to encourage your players to make healthy food selections during their youth baseball tournaments!

The key to knowledge is education, so educate your players about what is and isn’t healthy. While this may seem like common sense to you, some of your players may come from homes where healthy eating is not a priority, and the kids are unaware of how unhealthy certain food are or how you can get fat by eating too much of particular foods. Have an earnest chat with your players before the youth baseball tournament to talk about healthy eating choices.

Teach Them Before Getting to Any Youth Baseball Tournament

Remind them of all the hard work they have done training and preparing their bodies to compete. Let them know how much unhealthy food choices can ruin everything they have worked for. Let them know what a waste of time it is to spend so much time training, only to undo all of that hard work by eating foods high in sugar and fat.

Kids learn best when doing hands-on demonstrations. Perhaps you can bring in certain foods and show your players the calorie equivalent of a bowl of ice cream with a handful of Cheez-Its, or a Mcdonald’s Big Mac with a Subway Fresh Fit sandwich. Then make sure you provide them with a list of places and menu items that they should consider getting when on the youth baseball tournament. This will make it much easier for them to decide what to get rather than having to guess at what they should steer away from.

If there are places you feel just don’t offer enough healthy options, feel free to create a “ban list” that you provide to players and their parents. Make sure, once again, that you explain to students and in a hand-out for parents why you feel going to Mcdonald’s may not be the best option. It may seem obvious, but there will likely be some people who just do not understand.

Keeping Motivation High in a Youth Baseball Tournament

The best way to get the players on your side is just through motivation. Motivate them to want to be the very best baseball players they can be. Ask them how many times they think professional athletes go out to eat fast food. Ask them to think about their favorite role models in athletics and then ask them to think about what foods they believe that person consumes.

When players see the link between their performance and the foods they choose to consume, they will be more likely to not resist the “ban list” or healthy food choices you encourage them to consume. Everyone is a member of this team and everyone wants to do their best in the youth baseball tournament.

Therefore, if you are careful in how you approach the subject, we believe you will have no problem in getting everyone on board. Youth baseball tournaments are for healthy players, and healthy players are healthy eaters!

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Tags: baseball player, Baseball Tournament, food choices, food selections, healthy eating, healthy food, waste of time, youth baseball, youth baseball tournament 8211 healthy eating while on the road, youth baseball tournaments