GP Junior (Mar-April 20) Cover- GP | Page 14

Instruction MORE EXAMPLES: Winter (minimum): > 100lb person should be consuming 50 ounces of water per day. > 150lb person should be consuming 75 ounces of water per day. > 200lb person should be consuming 100 ounces of water per day. being fully hydrated, getting good quality sleep, and eating good quality foods should be more than enough to fuel a junior golfers mind and body. The last thing you want to do is amplify the effects of playing under pressure (nerves and jitters) by consuming excessive caffeine. The best thing you can drink to perform for golf is good old fashioned H2O. SLEEP > 100lb person should be consuming 75 ounces of water per day. Sleep is the foundation of recovery. It’s at the base of the pyramid shown in the initial image. There simply is no way around overcoming lack of sleep. And before you’re out of your teenage years, you still require more sleep than the average adult – age 14-17 should be getting 7-9 hours sleep per night. > 150lb person should be consuming 113 ounces of water per day. 4 tips to get the best nights sleep possible before game-day: > 200lb person should be consuming 150 ounces of water per day. 1) No screens (TV or phones) 30 min before going to sleep (blocks melatonin release). 2) Set the thermostat to 68* right before bed. 3) Make the room as dark as possible (light is a stimulus). 4) Track backward to fi gure out what time you need to be asleep to get your 8hrs in. Summer (minimum): http://www.golfplusmonthly.com/subscribe Caffeine is used in a lot of sports as a performance enhancing drug. Some TOUR players will consume a small amount of caffeine even on tournament days. But it is unlikely in the amounts above 100mg of caffeine. Do any of the following side effects of excessive caffeine sound like something you want on the golf course? > ANXIETY > JITTERS > INCREASED NERVOUSNESS > DIURETIC > MENTAL CRASH AND PHYSICAL FATIGUE > INCREASED BLOOD PRESSURE > DIGESTIVE ISSUES The body naturally produces cortisol early in the day to wake you up, and it slowly declines throughout the day. Melatonin is produced in the late evening as your body recognizes night time approaching to help calm the body allowing for sleep. Looking at screens late at night fools your brain into thinking it’s still day time and will not as effectively produce this melatonin, affecting your sleep. Drinking too much caffeine both early in the day and especially later in the day forces your body to produce adrenaline hormones such as cortisol. This then interferes with the natural lowering of cortisol in the evening and production of melatonin, resulting in diffi culty sleeping. Final words How much is “excessive” caffeine on tournament day? I would consider anything over 100mg too much caffeine before a round of golf. See below for an idea of caffeine content in popular beverages: How much caffeine is okay for junior golfers? Anyone under the age of 18 should not be experiencing the stress or lack of sleep that warrants any amount of caffeine. The longer you can prolong caffeine consumption the better. The natural energy felt from 14 GolfPlus Junior March-April 2020 You’ll often hear the argument “what about _____ who smoked cigarettes, drank soda, and ate poorly but won multiple times on TOUR?”. My answer is that there’s always going to be outliers, and this is not the case with 99.9% of elite golfers. To compete on the biggest stage against the best in the world, do you think for one second every single one of them isn’t going to do anything they can to get an edge on the competition? It starts by optimizing the big three for improved performance, increased recovery, and better results.