Dinner the Night Before a Game
Cook something carbohydrate-forward that your family already eats: pasta with a red sauce, a rice bowl, potatoes, a burrito bowl. Serve it at a normal time, put water on the table, and get everyone to bed earlier than usual. The night before is not the night to be interesting.
What the night before is for
The night before is about topping up energy stores, hydrating, and sleeping. Nationwide Children's summarises it as a high-carbohydrate meal, plenty of fluids, and seven to eight hours of sleep, which is a short list on purpose.
Nothing eaten on Friday night wins Saturday's game. Several things eaten on Friday night can spoil it.
Cooking what you already cook
The meals that show up across every clinic source are unremarkable: pasta with red sauce and chicken, a rice bowl, a baked potato, a burrito bowl.
Pick the version of that your family has eaten twenty times.
What is realistic in your kitchen tonight?
Someone is cooking
Reheating something
Eating out
Why a new food is the risk
Every clinic source that discusses the night before says some version of the same thing: do not introduce a new food. UChicago Medicine puts it plainly in its night-before guidance.
The reason is unglamorous. An unfamiliar meal occasionally disagrees with a kid, and the cost of finding out lands the next morning.
- No new restaurant, no new dish, no new bar or drink.
- Keep spice and fat where your kid normally has them.
- Skip the very high-fibre version tonight, even if it is what you usually make.
- Water rather than anything fizzy with dinner.
Early games and late games
An 8:00 kick-off and a 4:00 kick-off make different demands on the night before. Early games mean the previous dinner is doing more work, because breakfast will be small and rushed.
For a late game, the night before matters less and the morning of matters more.
When nobody is home to cook
This is the common case and it is why the freezer earns its keep. A portion of something familiar, defrosted on Thursday, is a better night-before dinner than an ambitious meal nobody has the energy to make.
If it is a takeaway night, order the usual. Familiar is the requirement. Home-cooked is not.
Questions about the night before
Is pasta the night before actually necessary?
Carbohydrate-forward is the standard guidance, and pasta is simply the most common way families deliver it. Rice, potatoes, and bread do the same job.
How much should a kid eat the night before?
A normal dinner. Deliberately overeating the night before tends to produce a heavy, poorly slept night rather than a better game.
What if the game is early in the morning?
Then the night-before meal carries more of the load and breakfast should still happen, even if it is small and familiar. Nationwide Children's includes sleep as part of the same instruction.
- Game Day Fueling Plan for Athletes, Nationwide Children's Hospital, nationwidechildrens.org.
- What Young Athletes Should Eat Before and After the Game, UChicago Medicine, uchicagomedicine.org.
- Nutrition for Athletes: What to Eat Before a Competition, Johns Hopkins Medicine, hopkinsmedicine.org.