I still vividly remember my first tournament. The crowds. The noise. The excitement. One of my most vivid memories was a guy guzzling an enormous energy drink right as his weight class was called. I have never done that at a tournament, but I have seen lots of people doing it and was wondering what the benefits/risks are of drinking large amounts of caffeine or energy drinks on tournament day.
I am going to do some research, but I want to know what all of you think? Does caffeine help or hurt athletic performance in tournaments like ours? Do you use it at tournaments? What has been your experience? 
Things are really, really bad.
2 months ago
7 comments:
I have no factual information, nor have I ever in my life consumed an energy drink, but personally I would be worried about a post drink crash. I know you can crash from a post competition level grapple, and adding a caffeine/sugar crash might spell disaster if your next fight was delayed or you had a long time between divisions.
Unless of course you were planning on chugging before every grapple. I have no idea what the plan is for that kind of thing.
If I chugged an enormous bottle of *anything* right before stepping on the competition mat, I would upchuck.
I thought of a post I saw awhile back on the Jiu-Jitsu Sensei blog that might be helpful... How Caffeine can Enhance your Physical Performance. Personally, I try to not ingest too much caffeine before a competition because I get nervous enough as it is, and caffeine just makes it worse. Good luck at the tournament :)
Best of luck girlie :)
Caffeine has no effect on me at all, so I'm useless for this.
But I think having a bunch of sugar and/or cold liquid in your stomach suddenly before a match is a bad idea. Maybe occasionally train after drinking some so you know its effects, then drink it an hour before your matches to give it time to be processed?
I'm a bit sensitive to caffeine, and the amount in energy drinks make me feel ill as it is, so I never drink them. If you time it right, they could help, but just be sure you've done it before and are familiar with the time period of action and effect on your body, and after-effects in case it wears off before you're done with your matches. Honestly, though, I think adrenaline is just as effective.
Thanks for all the info!! I don't plan on using energy drinks or anything like that. I usually am so terrified before I compete that caffeine would probably put me over the edge. lol. I was just wondering if caffeine actually helps or hurts athletes.
I have no scientific backing for this but my guess is hurt.
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