Fuelling for hockey
What to eat before a game, before a practice, and after both. Written for the person doing the shopping and packing the bag, and simple enough for a player to read themselves.
What to eat, and when
Four moments matter more than anything else on this page. Each one has a different job.
Tomorrow starts tonight
What they eat tonight is what they skate on tomorrow.
- A normal dinner with some protein in it
- Fruit after, if they want something
- Go easy on the heavy stuff. A big plate of pasta the night before leaves a lot of players feeling like a brick in the morning. Rice sits lighter for most
Top up the tank
Slow energy that lasts into the third, not a quick lift that is gone by the first whistle.
- Oats
- Yogurt with fruit
- Eggs and toast
- Peanut butter
- Plenty of fruit
The pre-game meal
Carbohydrates, and enough time to digest them before they skate.
- Pasta, plenty of it, light on the butter and oil
- A sandwich, peanut butter and jam is a good one
- Fish and vegetables
- A smoothie if they cannot face a plate
Start recovery early
The sooner they eat, the better the next practice goes.
- Greek yogurt with fruit
- Something with protein in it, a sandwich, chocolate milk, leftovers
- Anything with real colour in it, berries, peppers, greens
- Water, and more of it than they think
Water
The one that is easiest to fix and gets ignored the most.
A player who is short of water is slower, tires earlier and takes longer to recover, and none of that looks like thirst from the bench. It looks like a bad shift.
The old eight glasses a day line was never a real number. What matters more is drinking through the day before, not just at the rink. A player who arrives already topped up is in far better shape than one trying to catch up between periods.
Why any of this matters
Three reasons, and only one of them is about the game.
Health
Food that tastes good is not the same as food that does anything. A player can eat plenty and still be running on very little.
Performance
Energy in the third period, legs that still work, a body that does what they ask it to. Most of that was decided hours before the puck dropped.
Recovery
Muscles work hard for a whole game and that is why a player feels wrecked afterwards without being sleepy. Eating well after is what gets them back for the next one.
What is actually in food
Three things do most of the work. A player does not need to count anything, they just need enough of each.
Carbohydrates, the fuel
Sugars, starches and fibre. The body breaks them down and turns them into the energy a player skates on. This is the one that runs out mid-game if they started the day short. Bread, rice, pasta, oats, fruit, potatoes.
Protein, the repair
What the body uses to rebuild muscle after it has been worked. Spreading it across the day works better than one enormous plate at dinner, because the body can only use so much at a time. Meat, fish, eggs, dairy, beans, nuts.
Fat, the reserve
Not the enemy. Fat carries energy the body draws on over longer efforts and helps it take in some vitamins at all. It comes with the food. Cheese, milk, butter, avocado, eggs, nuts, oily fish.
Sugar, and food out of a packet
Not forbidden. Just understood.
Sugar gives, then takes it back
A sugary drink or a chocolate bar gives a quick lift and then drops a player, often before the game is over. That is the problem with it before a game, not that it is wicked. Afterwards, alongside a real meal, nobody is going to notice.
Packaged food is easy to eat a lot of
It is built to be, and it tends to leave a player hungry again sooner. The useful word is moderation, which just means the right amount, not none.
Nothing here is a banned list
Kids eat birthday cake and tournament fries and they should. This page is about the four moments above, where what they eat actually changes how they skate.
Vitamins and supplements
The shortest section here, on purpose.
Food first, and for most young players, food is enough. A player eating a normal range of meals is generally getting what they need, and there is no shortcut in a tub that beats a proper breakfast and a real meal after a game.
Supplements, protein powders included, are a conversation for a parent and their own doctor, not something we are going to recommend to a young athlete on a website. Bodies at this age are still growing, needs vary enormously from one player to the next, and we are a hockey app rather than anyone's dietitian.
This is a guideline, not advice. Everything here is the ordinary, sensible version of how a young athlete fuels for a game. It is not a diet, it is not a plan, and it is not tailored to anybody.
Every person is different. Players differ in size, in what they can stomach before a game, in what they are allergic to and in what their family eats. If something on this page does not suit your player, it is the page that is wrong, not them.
Anything to do with your child's health, allergies, a medical condition, or a supplement, belongs with your own doctor. We are not one.