TargetTalk

Can I have some suggestions about the best meals/drinks to take before and during a match?
Thanks!

Mountain Dew and Twinkies! ;-)

Hi

Good question. A lunch Water and a turkey sandwich will calm you down and make you shot better. Personally I shot 30 points better in .22LR Bullseye after eating a turkey sandwich.

A dinner of Tamales, re-fried beans, cucumbers, and pickled eggs the night before a match will make all of your neighbors shoot worse.

Mike

There is a short but interesting article on choosing a sports drink on one of our GB web sites.

It is obviously a bit dated as the reference to caffeine being prohibited above certain levels is now wrong.

David Levene wrote:There is a short but interesting article on choosing a sports drink on one of our GB web sites.

It is obviously a bit dated as the reference to caffeine being prohibited above certain levels is now wrong.

Are you saying caffeine isn't bad for shooters? Why? Which levels of it are we talking about?

I'd like to know the source of such info, since I always read that caffeine is a stimulant and bad for shooters before and during a match.

Thanks.

mcmoura wrote:

David Levene wrote:It is obviously a bit dated as the reference to caffeine being prohibited above certain levels is now wrong.

Are you saying caffeine isn't bad for shooters? Why? Which levels of it are we talking about?

I am not saying that at all. When the article was written, caffeine was a prohibited substance above certain levels under ISSF/Olympic/WADA rules. Now it isn't.

I never knew that caffeine was formerly verboten in the International games. I believe a good cup or two of Coffee ( High Test that is ) is the best solution to pre-shot jitters---you get the jitters over with quicker. I knew a shooter who was what we call here in Estado Unidas ---a "Wet Shooter"---he had a bottle with a Sprite label in place---but that wasn't Sprite in that bottle. By the time we got to the fifth target in FP he wasn't too coherent and did things like turn around with a cocked, locked Hammerli 150 in his hand. Needless to say when I was the RO he got kicked off the line. He finally stopped coming to the matches. As for these sport drinks I cannot use them being a diabetic---too much sugar---I wish there was something else as I lose essential minerals through perspiring (sweating) and do suffer cramps in the legs due to this loss.

Bob Riegl wrote:I never knew that caffeine was formerly verboten in the International games.

Looking back at my old lists, caffeine was classed as a stimulant with a maximum permitted concentration in urine of 12 micrograms per millilitre. Above that and it was classed as a positive test.

I believe that the limit was only dropped on the list effective from March 26th 2004. It is still however part of the monitoring programme so it could be put back on the list in the future.

Some people may be interested in reading the 2005 Prohibited List

David Levene wrote:

Bob Riegl wrote:I never knew that caffeine was formerly verboten in the International games.

Looking back at my old lists, caffeine was classed as a stimulant with a maximum permitted concentration in urine of 12 micrograms per millilitre. Above that and it was classed as a positive test.

I believe that the limit was only dropped on the list effective from March 26th 2004. It is still however part of the monitoring programme so it could be put back on the list in the future.

Some people may be interested in reading the 2005 Prohibited List

Didn't some Olympic Free Pistol shooter from Europe (Sweden?) lose a medal over this back in the 1960's or 1970's?

sparky wrote:Didn't some Olympic Free Pistol shooter from Europe (Sweden?) lose a medal over this back in the 1960's or 1970's?

Before my time I'm afraid.

Hello!

Guest wrote:Can I have some suggestions about the best
meals/drinks to take before and during a match?

A modest meal.
Tea with sugar, some biscuit... for example.

During the match, Your blood circuit must be concentrated in Your head (and eyes)... it helps you to shoot better.
With rich meal, your blood circuit will fall down to stomach (to help with digestion).

Sincerely

When I was competing in smallbore in the late 1980's, I believe the caffiene limit that you could safely dring was about 80 - 100 mg, which is about 1 strong cup of coffee. The unwritten rule was 1 Coke was ok (50 mg? ea) and 2 Cokes was close to danger.

Bob Riegl wrote:As for these sport drinks I cannot use them being a diabetic---too much sugar---I wish there was something else as I lose essential minerals through perspiring (sweating) and do suffer cramps in the legs due to this loss.

There is certainly at least one sugar free sports drink. The company I work for sells one - I think it's called lucozade aqua (?). It might not be available over there but I'd be suprised if there isn't something similar. Failing that good old water is better than nothing although it obviously won't replace salts lost through sweating etc.

Rob.

What you eat and drink is quite often an individual thing but there are a few guidelines, two of which have been touched on in the conversation: caffeine and sugar. Both of these can give you the gitters. If I have either in my system I'll drop 15 or more points.

For me, I stay away from caffeine and am sugar free for at least 5 days. I also stay on a low carb, high protein diet. It stabilizes your blood sugar thus preventing any swings up or down during the match. For an at hand beverage, I use an artificially sweetened lemonade or herbal tea. There is nothing wrong with water or flavored seltzer. By the way, I'm a type II diabetic. If you just gotta have something to munch on, I choose raw nuts.

For leg cramping, a real good stretch session works for me, and some vitamin supplements as insurance against cramps due to loss of essential elements.

There's two kinds of those isotonic drinks though - one type has lots of sugar to keep glucose levels high, and the other just has the electrolytes to rehydrate. The latter is obviously better for our sport.

As to meals, I usually had a mozzerella cheese sandwich and some coffee (decaf preferrably) for lunch, or porridge and orange juice for breakfast if it's an early match (occasionally with some decaf coffee afterwards). Ideally, you want a light meal with a lot of complex carbohydrates for long energy release times during the match.

I have two questions, many thanks for your replies.

1) Can you tell me some example of useful food with "complex carbohydrates", to eat before a match?

2) Why sugar is bad in our sport? Couldn't be useful, before of during a match, a fructose sugar tablet?

Bests,
Maxm

Very individual! Personally, when I was competing some years ago, I would swear by a Denny's Grand Slam and a large chocolate milk for breakfast, and a couple of cans of Coke during the day.
When the USnationals were in the Phoenix, AZ area, I froze a half gallon of Gatorade overnight, and drank the contents as it melted during the 2.5 hours of the match. No cramps.
I even did OK ;-)

Full-cugar Coca Cola, Fanta, or similar sweeted soft drinks. Or "Gatorade" or similar "sportsdrinks". "Sin Carbonado" would be preferable, though.
Usually I do not drink that coke "sludge", but during matches I do.

Sugar brings "energy" to your muscles during a prolonged match. That is my experience. Plain, cold "aqua potable" counters dehydration, but gives no energy to those strained muscles.

Just my 5 cents.

funMor.

Anyone interested in diet (nutrition) and athletic performance should probably check out some of the articles written by the sports nutritionists involved in the USOC at http://coaching.usolympicteam.com/coaching/ksub.nsf

Sports nutrition has been studied to a very great extent, and many conclusions are offered to the serious competitor. You will hear many different "stories" from individuals about "what works for them," but like most things in this sport you will be exposed to a lot of folklore, myhology, and superstition.

Steve Swartz

(General principles: avoid simple sugars and caffeine; ditto nicotine. Especially when inside the match window. Stick with a steady intake (many small meals) of complex carbohydrates and stay hydrated; plain water best as many so-called "Sports Drinks" either violate the first principles or include a lot of unecessary components ("electrolytes") that actually delay hydration. Anyhow, don't believe what I say, as my PhD is not in medicine. Read the experts and draw your own conclusions. The experts are remarkably consistent on several key things that are simple to understand and easy to follow.)

While shooting at the 3X air competition a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to sit down at lunch with a fellow shooter. We discussed things we both do to prepare for a match and food intake was one of them.

Prior to this discussion, I was a staunch believer in abstaining from coffee and any other significant caffeine source for at least 48 hours before a match. Then my companion suggested I should consider NOT deviating from usual routine before a match. In other words, if my usual routine was to have a cup of coffee in the morning, then dont change it on the day of the match. The logic behind the advice seemed to be a change in routine may be more harmful than the routine itself.

My own experience tells me that the more I can do to make a match day more like any other day in terms of routine (and therefore less of a cataclysmic event) the lower my stress level is likely to be.

I guess another way of looking at it is if you are accustomed to the intake of caffeine in the morning, consider what happens to your ability to hold when you DONT get it??

I've only tested his theory for a couple of weeks now but preliminary indications are that I can enjoy my usual double shot of Starbucks in the morning with no noticeable effect on my performance for the rest of the day.


I agree that everyone has to find their own individual solutions and that there are almost no black and white answers.


By the way, the advice was offered by John Zurek whom most of you know as a world class shooter and gentleman.

I thank him and Starbucks thanks him.