Back-to-Back Sports Days
The evening between two competition days matters more than either morning. Eat properly within an hour or two of finishing day one, get a normal-sized dinner in, sleep early, and have day two's food already packed before anyone goes to bed.
The evening between the two days is the plan
Families focus on Sunday's breakfast when the decisive window was fourteen hours earlier. What gets eaten and how well everyone sleeps on Saturday evening is what Sunday is running on.
Nationwide Children's frames the night before competition as a carbohydrate-forward meal, plenty of fluids, and seven to eight hours of sleep. On a back-to-back weekend that instruction lands on an evening when everyone is already tired.
Eating after day one
Appetite after a hard competition day goes one of two ways, and both are normal. A ravenous kid should be fed. A kid who cannot face food should be offered something liquid rather than pressed.
USA Cheer's suggestion for a closed appetite after training is a smoothie with a protein source and a carbohydrate source, or simply a carton of milk.
How is your kid when day one finishes?
Starving
Not hungry at all
Somewhere in between
Sleep and the next morning
An early night is the highest-value thing available on a back-to-back weekend, and it is the first thing a tournament social schedule takes away.
Sunday breakfast should then be small, familiar, and eaten, even if the first game is early. The night before is doing the heavy lifting, but arriving on nothing is still worse.
Packing once for both days
Saturday night packing does not happen. Friday night packing does.
- Pack both days on Friday, with day two's food in a separate bag.
- Freeze two sets of ice packs, because the first set will be warm by Saturday evening.
- Refill every water bottle on Saturday night, not Sunday morning.
- Put the bag by the door before anyone sits down.
When it becomes three days
Three-day tournaments compound everything: less sleep, more eating out, and a cooler that ran out on day one. The plan has to shift from packing food to sourcing it.
Decide before you leave home where day three's meals are coming from, and treat the first two evenings as the ones that decide how day three goes.
Questions about consecutive competition days
What is the most important meal on a back-to-back weekend?
Saturday's dinner. It refills what day one used and it is what Sunday is played on.
My kid cannot eat after a hard day. Is that a problem?
It is common and usually short-lived. Offer something liquid, try solids later in the evening, and mention it to your clinician if it happens after every session.
Should Sunday breakfast be bigger to make up for it?
No. A large breakfast close to an early start tends to sit badly. Small and familiar works better.
- Game Day Fueling Plan for Athletes, Nationwide Children's Hospital, nationwidechildrens.org.
- How to Help If Your Athlete Has No Appetite After Training, USA Cheer, usacheer.org.