Practice, Scrimmage, Competition
Ask how hard the session will actually be, not what it is called on the calendar. A technical practice, a full-contact scrimmage, and a competition make different demands, and a scrimmage is often harder than the game that follows it.
Name the session by its effort, not its label
Two sessions called practice can be forty minutes of technique or ninety minutes of conditioning in August heat. Feeding both the same way is how a kid ends up empty.
Three questions settle it: how long, how hard, and how hot.
| Session | Typical demand | What to send |
|---|---|---|
| Technical practice | Low to moderate, 45 to 60 minutes | A normal afternoon snack sized to the gap |
| Conditioning session | High, often in heat | A larger snack plus deliberate fluid |
| Scrimmage | Match-level effort, sometimes longer | Treat it as a game: earlier meal, small snack, water |
| Competition | Match effort plus nerves | Full game-day timing, and nothing unfamiliar |
A normal training session
This is the ordinary weekday case and it does not need a game-day production. A snack sized to the gap between school and warm-up, water, and a dinner that was decided before you left.
Repeatability matters more here than optimisation, because it happens three or four times a week.
A scrimmage or an intra-squad game
Scrimmages get planned like practice and played like matches. They are frequently the longest, hardest session of the week, and they are where the after-school snack most often turns out to have been too small.
Feed them as though they were games: earlier meal, small snack before, and something waiting afterwards.
- Eat the main meal earlier than on a normal practice day.
- Send more fluid than usual, particularly in heat.
- Have the post-session food ready before you leave the house.
- Keep it familiar if the scrimmage is being watched by anyone who picks teams.
Real competition
Competition is the only case that earns the full protocol: the night before, the timed meal, the small snack, the strict avoidance of anything new.
Saving that effort for the days that need it is what makes it sustainable across a season.
How much does today actually matter?
A normal training day
A hard session or a scrimmage
A real competition
When the coach changes the plan on the day
A practice that becomes a fitness test, or a scrimmage announced at the last minute, is common and is exactly why a spare snack in the bag is worth the space.
You cannot plan for an unannounced hard session. You can make sure there is food available when one happens.
Questions about different kinds of session
Does a scrimmage need game-day eating?
Often yes. Scrimmages regularly reach match-level effort and last longer than the game would, which makes them the most commonly under-fuelled session of the week.
How do I know how hard practice will be?
Ask your kid what the coach said, and track how they look afterwards for a fortnight. The pattern becomes obvious quickly.
Should every session avoid new foods?
No, and that would be exhausting. Ordinary practice days are a good time to find out what works. Competition days are not.
- Feeding Your Child Athlete, Nemours KidsHealth, kidshealth.org.
- Healthy Meals and Snacks for the Busy Athlete, Nationwide Children's Hospital, nationwidechildrens.org.