What do you do right before a meet?

Question

What goes through your mind right before a meet? Do you have a certain diet the day before the meet? What do you do, Just in general???

I Eat lots of Carbs and Drink lots of Water....

Is that smart?

Answer 1

check the USASwimming website, it has tips on nutrition for meets, practice, and vacational periods. I usually ate carbs before competing, but didn't eat too heavy...
I used to get really nervous before competing, and I found out that a good way to overcome this was to cheer for my teammates and think positive=)

Answer 2

I usually eat as much pasta as I can the night before. Then during the day I eat small snacks and then for lunch I have a high carb meal with a glass of milk or more. Then before the meet you should eat a few small snacks, and have maybe a gatorade. I generally drink an entire gatorade in between races, but I'm in the butterfly in the 200 Medley Relay, the 200 Individual Medley, the 100 butterfly,and the 400 Free Relay so I usually have a gatorade after the 200 I. M. because I'm beat and I need to get ready for my next race. Then I have one after my 100 butterfly throughout the events leading to my next event. Although some of the guys on my team drink Naked the fruit drink. There is supposed to have a pound of fruit in it. It is also supposed to keep you from cramping while swimming because of all the potassium. But I've heard it gives you the squirts.

Answer 3

nothing goes through my mind before the meet i am very calm.
my routine diet before a meet would be eating a light breakfast, light lunch (pasta salad) and a light dinner (any thing with pasta or rice). the dinner and lunch are all complex carbs; such as pasta

yes, it is smart to eat a lot of carbs. if you want to do well at a swim meet eat pasta for five days straight before the meet, it will help a lot. and yes drink lots of water.

Answer 4

Stretch, light work out. Just enough to break a sweat the day before. Focus on the mechanics of your position. Make sure you're relaxed in that time. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich that evening, 1/2 lbs (pre cooked weight) ground beef with pasta. On Game day start in the morning with a solid breakfast at 6 AM. 2 eggs 2 sausage patties a tin of biscuits, butter the biscuits, gravy, what ever, glass of OJ. The point is to have the protein, nutrients, and carbs for later in the day. Mid day you get a light lunch, chicken sandwich, and some fries (baked) NO DAIRY PAST THIS POINT drink water 2 glasses. If you want a snack before game its fine, Energy Bar. About 2 hours before you even hit the road to go any where start drinking a 32 oz Gatorade. Sip on it. Don't chug it. If your Game starts at 6, this is your schedule. Make sure there's a bathroom near when you're there that water you had earlier is gonna want out. Take a crap and piss, then you're ready to roll. At this point you've saturated your body with protein, carbs, and liquids. about 20 minutes before game time you start stretching, 5 minutes before finish suiting up and do your thing to get mentally prepped.

Adjust schedule according to game time.

Answer 5

I don't really have a set meal plan the day before a meet, instead what I do is I try to relax.

Also, when I'm about to go in for a relay (I'm the anchor 90% of the time) I tell myself "Don't get out-touched. Don't get out-touched." This helps a lot, especially in championship time like at States or area league meets.

I also have proof about my de-stress method from a meet about a month back. It was during midterms and I didn't have any midterms the day of our meet. I got up at around 10:30, came on here for a while, played my guitar and PS2 and then I went to the bus for the meet. I swam a 30.17 in the second heat of 50 free (from 31.34), I got 1:18.94 in the second heat of the 100 back (from 1:22.19) and in the 400 free relay our third C relay guy was neck-and-neck with their B relay guy (we were in the lane right next to them) so the pressure was all on me to win it. I ended up swimming a 1:05.64 from a previous best of 1:10.24 and I beat the other guy by at least a full 3 seconds (remember, I was in a C relay and they were a B relay so that was huge for us).

Answer 6

Yes. Carbs are just simple sugar molecules. Sugar, if you didn't know, is what the body breaks down into ATP, or energy. Your body requires much energy to swim with out hurting your self. All those extra Carbs help your preformance.
As far as that water goes; while your swimming, your cells are preforming Osmosis, and lossing lots of water. Having extra water in supply helps insure that you do not suffer dehydration. Just becuase you're in water doesn't mean you can't suffer deydration. In a chlorine contaminated body of water, like a pool, intaking the chlorine can really cause your cells to dry out. Dehydration is really relavent in cases like this.

Keep up the good work!

Answer 7

Ideally, i like to eat a complete breakfast (a little fruit, some milk, grain, and a little protein), depending on the time of the meet I might eat something light at around 12, after that I'll usually have a gatorade 45 minutes before and a couple of cliff bars.

Answer 8

Well, i've been a swimmer for 8 years of my life, and, i dont think you should eat a lot before you swim. Eat a simpled power bar, drink small sips of water. not big ones, okay? And when you're at the blocks, stretch a little bit. your legs and arms. jump up and down a few times. splash a little bit of water to get used to it. =) i know everything. ( i have a swim meet this weekend, and junior olympics next week.)

Answer 9

I used to eat a lot, but then I tried a few different things. I ate just a bowl of cereal, or a small bowl of fruit. What ended up working the best for me was eating either a small bowl of fruit or power bar and drinking a ton of water (two or three bottles)

Answer 10

I usually only drink a cup of apple juice for breakfast and eat a muffin. I have problems with nerves, so eating too much gives me stomach problems. (I think you can gather what I mean by that...) I stretch A LOT and during warm-ups I just stretch out, focus on my technique, and don't worry about the other people in my lane passing me or anything.