1. Are you aware how Precious a gift footballing skills are, and what a privilege it is to he a top professional?
2. Are you very ambitious? Do you want to go as far as you can in your career and reach the very top?
3. Have you considered how very little time there is to achieve this as the soccer player's career is so short?
4. Having considered the limited amount of time you have, are you willing to use every moment of this very short time to do everything in your power to use the skills you've been given to the very limit of achievement?

If you have said no to any of the above questions,the following will be of no use to you.

If you have said yes to all of them, please read on.

Skills apart, soccer is an extremely tough game, Players have to endure 90 minutes, or more, of intense, demanding and tough activity. How then is it possible for the human body to create enough energy to go on performing at peak levels without tiring? And - why is it that some top - class players/clubs look tougher, livelier and more energetic than others?

First, of course, there's training.The really ambitious soccer players around the world will always go that extra mile, train harder and longer to push themselves to the limits of fitness. But the very ambitious players and clubs, the ones who are determined to get to the very top will be doing something else - and that is putting just as much effort and care into eating the right kind of diet.

What this will do is (a) make all that hard training more effective and (b) guarantee to sustain energy levels for longer during a match.

Everyone knows that certain foods and drinks are recommended before matches. What is not so widely known ,and certainly not considered anywhere near seriously enough - is just how vital a player's diet is in his everyday life, in season, out of season, in fact the whole of his soccer playing career.

Here it must be stressed we don't mean going on a boring old diet with no joy or fun in eating: that would not be psychologically productive. What we do mean is that the cumulative effects of the right kind of eating and drinking that provide the proper kind of nutrition all the time, will guarantee the following:

1. You will notice increasingly positive effects of training.
2. The amount of high-performance energy you have during a match will be increased, particularly during the second half.
3. The maintenance of increased strength in your bone structure and muscular system will reduce the risk of injury.

What a programme!

So let's ask once again. are you a seriously ambitious soccer player and do you want from now on to take the eating and drinking factors very seriously?

Answer: yes - then congratulations Welcome to the NCFC High Performance Eating Programme which will guarantee improvement in all the areas outlined above, As promised, this is not going to be a strict, no-fun diet. The aim is to help you understand the right kinds of food for football and then help you gradually acquire a new habit of eating which you will find easy and enjoyable and, at the same time, allow you to experience for yourself how it will affect your game.

The very first step is to help you to understand why certain foods are important to soccer player's.So let's start with.,.

Carbohydrate is the number one friend of the player and the main source of energy. It is included in the staple foods of any country anywhere in the world:bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals, biscuits, cakes, confectionery, fruit and vegetables, plus fruit drinks and sports drink. Carbohydrate provides 60 per cent of your total energy, and we will explain later how to Achieve this.

It is well known that a high intake of carbohydrate is needed before strenuous training and matches.What is not so well known are the cumulative effects of a diet that is permanently high in carbohydrate.

This is how it works: when carbohydrate is eaten it immediately gets stored in the body as energy fuel,or glycogen to give it its scientific name. This can then be converted into glucose,which gives the body energy as and when it is needed. Some of this gets stored in the liver but the rest goes off to be stored away - guess where? - in the muscles.

The downside is that without sufficient carbohydrate,training is not not nearly as effective. As you increase the carbohydrate content in your daily diet, the amount of fuel gets bigger and bigger and therefore needs extra storage space. So one of the great benefits of training is that it enables the muscles to develop and increase capacity to store this glycogen (energy fuel).

This stored energy fuel is what the body first uses for energy, so large amounts of it stashed away is obviously going to be the key to endurance, because once the fuel store runs out the body switches to fat stores. The result of this (as you will no doubt have experienced) is fatigue, and the soccer player is forced to slow down. But if he can go on calling upon his reserve store of fuel he will then be able to maintain a much higher intensity of energy expenditure.

A recant study in Sweden measured the performance of two groups of players. One group (yellow) started a match with normal levels of glycogen, the other (green) with low levels of glycogen. Their performances were measured and show the nor mal glycogen group not only covered more ground but also spent more time at maximum speed.

A test was recently carried out before, during and after a match in Sweden when the levels of muscle glycogen were measured. The results are shown on the chart below so you can see for yourself how this affects performance.

What we now know for sure Is that increased carbohydrate in the diet raises the amount of energy reserves in the body. This in turn assists the body to cope with rigorous training and the effects of that training increase the muscular capacity to store a special reserve of energy fuel.

Who on earth wants to go and do all that training and not make it as effective as it possibly can be?

The unambitious soccer player thinks he doesn't need a high carbohydrate breakfast

So the first step in high performance eating is to begin with a carbohydrate breakfast.

For protein read strength and energy. Protein comes from meat, fish, poultry, dairy foods, nuts, eggs and certain pulses such as lentils, beans, peas, etc. Protein enhances strength, growth and repair of injuries and muscle damage. If you imagine a house being built, protein is the strong and secure foundations giving support to everything else: body tissues, muscles, skin, hair, blood cells, hormones and lots more. At least 15% of your energy intake should he in the form of protein.

These are your passport to good general health, which in turn affects energy levels.You don't have to eat special foods or take supplements to include enough vitamins and minerals - they are automatically included if your overall diet is well balanced in protein and carbohydrate and has plenty of variety, with special emphasis on fruits, salads and fresh vegetables (as much as possible of the latter should be eaten raw or with very little cooking).

Dehydration is the soccer player's enemy, because it's hidden agenda includes lethargy, loss of concentration and impaired performance. Drinking at least 2 litres of fluid per day should become a habit, with increased quantities before, during and after a match.

At NCFC the coaching team, with the help of Institute of Food Research dietitian Sarah Schenker and chef Mark Corbluth, are about to embark on an experiment for the 97/8 season, in which players will be invited to take part, and to support a high performance eating programme.We want to see whether our high performance eating programme can produce really positive results.Then, why can't we be the first football club in the world to actually publish our findings and offer the conclusions and results of our research to all soccer players anywhere at any level?

We would very much like you all to be part of this, so let's begin at the beginning, which means striving to eat a high carbohydrate breakfast everyday. This may mean forming a new habit so first you need to make a decision and then carry it through.

Can't eat In the morning? Don't feel hungry? No doubt you've beard the saying lie back and think of England - well how about an English Cap or Irish, Welsh or Scottish for that matter.

A typical "power" breakfast would be half a pint Of freshly Squeezed orange juice,2 ozs bran flakes with semi-skinned milk and a banana. If you are really ambitious,2 slices of toast with marmalade as well would really get the old glycogen levels up. Alternatively, have any kind of cereal, or porridge, or instead of bread why not toasted muffins,crumpets, bagels, or teacakes? Try different types of honey or preserves with a high fruit content. If you want to get really serious,bananas are a soccer player's best friend, so eat as many as you can.

Meanwhile we will be presenting the next part of the eating Programme in part 2.

So keep eating, keep smiling and Bon Appetit.

Fitness exercises

Nutrition for top professional players Part 2  

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