The UB WestVic Academy aims to provide its athletes with sound nutritional advice to not only promote enjoyment associated with food and eating but also provide nutritional advice and support to promote optimal sporting prowess.
The advice and information given to athletes and their families can be adapted to provide each athlete with a balanced nutritional intake which can be carried over to other aspects of their life and future development. Along with sports science, biomechanics, physiology and all the other aspects important for developing a compete athlete; nutrition also plays an essential role to help ensure peak performance. Gone are the days where all the focus in purely around training and performance on the day, nutrition now plays an integral role for:
- Ensuring a balanced dietary intake not only for good health but also for peak athletic performance
- Ensuring correct distribution of carbohydrates for adequate energy and recovery during both competition and pre-competition
- Tailoring nutritional intake required for training workloads, performance and recovery
- Understanding the role of carbohydrates, proteins and adequate fluid during sport and on a daily basis.
- Ensuring athletes have a good understanding of the strategies required to meet estimated nutritional requirements essential for each particular sport
- Ensuring athletes have adequate amounts of micro and macro nutrients to make certain deficiencies are unlikely which could lead to poor performance, recovery and increase the likelihood of injury.
- Ensuring athletes have a good understanding of foods required for different times during a competition cycle including: pre event, during and post event in order to promote best performance.
These are just some of the goals important for a dietician to cover during sessions with athletes, coaches, staff and family. Many other aspects can be covered during individual and group sessions depending on specific requirements for each individual athlete and team. 'To be successful in my sport I don't just have to train hard. I need to make sure I get enough rest and eat good healthy food. Be a complete athlete and don't leave anything to chance' Susie O'Neill, Olympic Gold Medalist (Adapted from 'Peak Performance', Hawley, J & Burke, L (1998))
