Nutrition Tips for Junior Golfers: Are Your Young Players Eating Enough?

A vibrant platter featuring a perfect balance of nutrients with juicy steak, fluffy rice, assorted fresh vegetables, and a side of sautéed potatoes, embodying the essence of a wholesome and nutritious meal.

One of the things I hear and have heard my entire life when it comes to parents speaking about their young athletes is, "my kid eats everything." I get it; I've been there. I was a young aspiring hockey player, 6'4" and a whopping 165 lbs soaking wet on my best day. I had a big awakening when I went to a junior spring scouting camp. Every scout said, "You need to gain weight." At that point, I knew it wasn't enough, from that April until training camps in August. I finally ate enough. Now, this isn't something I'd recommend these days, but I was 17, not overly nutritionally intelligent. But, well, four liters of milk a day, 2 liters skim and 2 liters chocolate, along with steak and other normal foods daily, seemed to do the trick. I went to camp at 200 lbs, and after two weeks of dry land training, I was 185 lbs. Also, for reference, this was the first time I had been in the gym with some consistency during peak puberty. But hey, 20 lbs is 20 lbs. So when you tell me your kid eats everything, I hardly doubt they do if they are not gaining weight. But here is why and what you can do to ensure your athlete is eating enough, which then can likely, with a high degree of certainty, improve their performance.

First and foremost if you feel or are told by a coach your young athlete needs to gain weight start with a BMR Calculator in this day'n age they can be found online quite easily. your BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate, aka how much energy your body burns just being alive, breathing and sleeping. now most of these calculators will also have examples of Calories needed for activities all the way from a sedetary individual to an extremely active individual. and you would be suprised at the amount of calories truly needed for a teenager who plays sports multiple times a week and is keeping busy in their free time. its not unheard of for them to need almost 4000 calroies day even just weighing 165-170lbs, now if a sedentary 45yr old ate that much it would be completly overkill and unhealthy. it also shows the power of excersise and what it can do and how much food an individual like a young athlete really needs to be able to perform at their very best. here is a link for a general idea BMR CALCULATOR.

That is step one. Now, obviously, there are healthier and better ways to eat than just slamming back 4L of milk in a day like I did. Eating a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins, and complex carbs can go a long way. Learning and understanding how to track food and be responsible for their eating habits can also be a wonderful life learning experience for not only their athletic careers moving forward but also for their life in general. The human body is an amazing machine when we let it become one with proper nutrition. Our thoughts become more clear, our mood increases, and we feel less tired and stressed out from school and employment. There is nothing really negative that comes from having a healthy mind and healthy body. Now, of course, as our athletes get older, some might become more sedentary due to the workplace and moving from multi-sport to single sport or, for some, possibly just a sedentary professional career after high-level sport. So we must be aware that the number of calories we need must be adjusted to match our lifestyle. We have all heard, "I did this diet or that diet," and then when it was over, they went back to their old habits and gained the weight back. We hear that the diet didn't work or "I gained the weight back when I stopped." This should just become obvious since, well, you took calories away, allowing you to lose weight based on your needs at the time. You stopped and likely started eating more calories than you needed and gained the weight back. Also, this doesn't happen in a short period of time on either end. Both should take some time to either lose weight (body fat specifically) or gain weight (muscle mass specifically), as both just don't happen in a matter of weeks. Just like when I went on my eating and drinking milk diet, the scale said I went from 165 lbs to 200 lbs. Dry land then took a lot of energy during two weeks, and I was back to 185 lbs. To say I gained 20 lbs of muscle in that time frame would be crazy, but in order to hold steady at 185 lbs with practice daily and multiple games a week, I had to eat a lot. So to say I was more sedentary during the summer and was overeating my needed calories would be justified. Using calorie tracking apps like MyFitnessPal.

can come in quite handy in learning how to track your calories and Macro nutrients with a built in scanner for bar codes and ability to adjust marcro nutrients which we will cover next.

Macronutrients are the three basic food types that are discussed for energy, building muscle, and total calorie tracking. They are protein, carbohydrates, and fat. (The fourth is technically alcohol, but I am not going to speak about that when it comes to junior-aged athletes.) Protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram, and fat has 9 calories per gram. You will see some diets consist of 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat, or 50/30/20, or 40/30/30. It really all depends on the person and what their total goals are. Carbs and fats are basically the ones we consider as being used for energy purposes, and protein in its simplest form is used to build and preserve muscle. Multi-sport junior athletes would likely be solid on a 40/40/20 program, and if their sports are even more endurance-based, 50/30/20, since carbs are the quickest source of energy, the most accessible on the go, and easily found. Also, hydration will play a major factor in not only helping process the foods through the body but also staying hydrated will increase performance. It irks me when I hear that coaches of young athletes withhold water during practice or make it seem weak that an individual needs a drink. It's actual nonsense when it comes to performance to dehydrate your athletes.

Proteins - These would be your meats most generally, but many whole grains do hold some amount of protein as well, just in lower overall percentage amounts. Now, within protein, there are distinct differences between something like a lean cut sirloin steak and a fattier cut like prime rib. The same with white and dark meat poultry like chicken and turkey, as well as with fish products like tuna and salmon. The distinct difference, aside from actual flavor, is the fat content. These fats in moderation aren't generally bad for you, as something like salmon has a good amount of healthy fats in it, which do the body good and are great for cognitive function. You can also look at whey-based protein powders that are quick, easy, and supply a very good amount of protein, and these days actually taste really good.

Carbohydrates - This includes your fruit, veggies, whole grains, rice, and potatoes. There is also a lot of junk food out there that is basically sugar when it comes to carbs. These do have their place here and there, but it's not where we want the majority of our carbs to come from. Fruit is an easy option on the go. Berries, apples, bananas, and oranges are easily packed and great for right after a game or traveling from one practice to another. Add a protein shake in there, and you basically have a meal on the go in the car. Just a twist-off shaker cup and some water, and you're good to go with your fruit. Of course, sandwiches can be used as well with quality lunch meats and whole grain sprouted bread, but they could take longer to digest and leave one feeling too full before the next session.

Fats - Now these are and can be your healthy fats: seeds and nuts, like almonds, cashews, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and avocados. Of course, these are more dense calorie-wise, so be aware as it can be pretty easy to consume handfuls at a time. Be cautious of flavored nuts, as the chocolate coating and/or sugared honey coating could just be overkill on the system. Other fats from meats like dark meat poultry, fatty cuts of red meat, and fatty fish do have fat in them, so be aware when tracking. I have no issues with other things like quality olive oil, avocado oil used in cooking, even beef tallow and grass-fed butter, just as long as it's accounted for. This is clearly more for the parents, as junior athletes generally don't do their own grocery shopping.

Extras and things to help out - In this day and age, with new advancements in health and wellness, we have access to more options from the supplement industry than ever before. Things like protein shakes, bars, and snacks can all be useful when on the go or just something quick when a full meal cannot be prepared. Things like CleanmassXL. It is technically a weight gain powder made for athletes from all-natural foods, with 25 real food ingredients netting anywhere from 520 calories to 1040 calories per serving. You could really bump it up if you added berries or made it with milk. Obviously, I will always be an advocate for whole foods, and we call these supplements just for that reason: to fill the gaps and supplement where we need to. ProH20 is another supplement. Although not a calorie-based supplement, it's an electrolyte-based supplement to help with hydration without the sugars of something like Gatorade, which can be full of sugar and underdosed in electrolytes. A company like PVL holds itself to the highest standards, being used by Olympians and other professional athletes, as it is tested for purity and the World Anti-Doping Agency. So there is no fear for athletes of contamination, and it's made in Canada as part of the FITFOODS brand. For some of us, these are daily-used supplements based on time and need to get the job done. I can say my day starts with two scoops of ProH20 to create a better-hydrated body first thing in the morning. And when I am in full training mode for Longdrive and burning in excess of 4000 calories a day based on BMR and workload, CleanMassXL comes in quite handy to stay on top of my nutrition. Other things to consider that will play a factor in performance is sleep and stress(generally lower for junior athletes but in this world as fast paced as it is, there still there) More sleep is better, obviously being tougher with phones and games being much more dynamic now than when i was a child, but if they can fall asleep and wake up on routinely the same intervals you will be shocked at there performance increase.

So with all that said, take a look at your junior athlete's eating habits. Maybe track them for a few days and see what is going on. In most cases, it could use some improvement or cleaning up, and also likely just more total calories in general. As juniors go through their puberty stages of life, things are going to change, and eating well and being nutritionally up to par is going to help them make more birdies and eagles. Until next time.

RG