What to EAT TO IMPROVE TABLE TENNIS PERFORMANCE?

Table tennis is a popular sport which is played by people of all age groups. The physical fitness of a player matters more than their age in this sport.

To a large extent, your physical fitness depends on your diet. You can get to the peak of your performance against your opponents in table tennis games by taking the right diet. So, you need to know what to eat to improve performance in table tennis.

To provide you with a better understanding of it, this post will highlight the essentials of the right diet for table tennis players. 

Diet for Table Tennis Players – What should you eat to improve your Table Tennis Performance?

As is the case with other sports, performance improvement is a challenge for a table tennis player. The best way to handle it is to choose the right diet. By adding some foods to your regular diet, you can meet the nutritional requirements of your body and also maintain healthy body weight.

Energy Building Foods

Table tennis may not be as physically demanding as sports such as football. Still, physical fitness has an important role in it; it helps you maintain your stamina when you face an opponent in a table tennis game.

In most cases, you hardly get a chance to rest until the conclusion of a game. To do well against your opponent, you need to be alert and energetic all the time which can be challenging. By retaining the energy level in your body, you can do it without a fail.

To figure out the right diet for table tennis, you can take a leaf out of the ideal ping pong diet.

The recommended level of carbohydrates in the body for a table tennis player is 70%. It may appear to be higher than what you would generally want but storing carbohydrates in the body as glycogen will play a crucial role in the success of a player in a game. Whenever necessary, it helps recharge the body with energy.

There are many healthy sources to fill the slot of carbohydrates in the body. You can get it from oatmeal, wheat meal, wholegrain cereals, brown rice, potatoes, and almonds. These foods help compensate for calories burned in playing ping pong or table tennis.

Lean Muscle Building Foods

These days, more and more table tennis players are focussing on building lean muscle than ever before. The rationale behind it is to increase stamina. In a table tennis game, a player needs to swing arms for a considerable duration of time. Unless a player has the stamina to maintain the same level of energy, they are likely to struggle with fatigue.

Lean muscle building can help boost one’s stamina. Some popular foods for building lean muscle include poultry, fish, eggs, lentils, and nuts. 

Must Read: Top 14 Benefits of Playing Table Tennis

Ideally, the diet chart of a table tennis player should be such that protein should account for 20% of their overall intake of calories. This is an important figure to bear in mind if you wish to build lean muscle for improving your performance in table tennis games.

Brain Boosters Food

Like other sports, concentration plays a vital role in the success of a player in a table tennis game. To make certain that your brain does not get tired easily or you concede any point to your opponent by making mistakes due to lack of concentration, consider adding a few brain boosters to your diet.

Antioxidants can help boost the power of your brain in a table tennis game. Berries and grapes are the most popular sources of antioxidants among fruits. Other foods that you can include in your diet to boost your brain include salmon, eggs, and walnuts.

Hydrants Food

Drinking water is beneficial to the body; sportspeople need it the most. Despite not being as physically demanding as football or other sports, table tennis may cause perspiration which extracts fluids from the body.

Drinking an adequate amount of water not only keeps the mind sharp but also boosts the energy level in the body. Water is your best bet to fulfill the hydration requirements of the body. Alternatively, you can also take fruit beverages to hydrate the body.

Foods that don’t give digestion issues

Staying clear of digestive issues is one of the preconditions of doing well in a sport. To do so, you need to exclude foods from your diet that are likely to cause stomach upset. This move will help you prevent the possibility of a digestive issue while playing a game.

Avoid peas, beans, and foods that are high in fats. By staying away from these foods, you can avoid the major mistake that most table tennis players make.

Table Tennis Players Fluid Intake

Hydration is necessary for maintaining an optimum level of performance in sports. If the body is well-hydrated, it does not lag in energy. It is more important for players who play in the sun. Here’s how you need to hydrate your body for a table tennis game.

Fluids before playing

As much essential it is for a player to hydrate the body while playing a table tennis game, it is also necessary for them to do so before they start playing a game. It must be done 60 minutes (or an hour) prior to the start of a game. They must also ensure drinking water is free from sugars and minerals. 

Also, they need to ensure the right balance between the temperature of water the air. If the temperature of the latter is 20°C, the temperature of the former should not exceed 16°C.

Fluids to take during play

Depending on the performance of players, a table tennis game may extend by several minutes. In such a scenario, you must hydrate the body in the first 20-30 minutes by drinking 50-200 ml of fluids. Thereafter, you can drink fluids at an interval of every 15-20 minutes without exceeding the standard amount of 800 ml in an hour. It is important not to exceed this amount as it may lead to digestion issues.

Fluids to take after playing

A player is likely to feel thirsty after the conclusion of a table tennis game. However, more than quenching the thirst, it is more important for them to drink fluids the lost fluids to compensate for the loss of fluids while playing the game.

You can determine the right amount for the intake of fluid in the body after the conclusion of a table tennis game by considering one’s weight as well as the colour of the urine. Dark urine is an indicator that the body has a low level of fluid. You can hydrate and recharge the body with fluids after the conclusion of a table tennis game based on these factors.

What Sort of Foods to Avoid?

Table tennis players need to avoid foods that put the digestive system of the body under excessive strain. These include beans, peas, spicy foods, and foods that are high in fat.

One must avoid taking beans at all costs as they are high in protein and slow to digest. It can compromise the ability of players to play for extended durations with digestive issues.

What Should The Player Eat Before A Competition?

Before a competition, a table tennis player should adhere to a table tennis diet that caters to the nutritional needs of the body without making it dehydrated. The diet should be based on the composition of 60% carbohydrate and 20% fats. Players can add foods to their diet accordingly.

Popular choices include fruits, vegetables, bread, salads, and noodles. Drinking an adequate amount of water or fluids is necessary to hydrate the body.

What Should The Player Eat After A Competition?

After the conclusion of a game, a table tennis player news to eat a high-carbohydrate meal within no longer than 2 hours. In the afternoon, following the conclusion of the game, they can eat a carbohydrate-rich or low-fat snack.

How much carbohydrate do Table Tennis players need?

Table tennis food of players should tick the right boxes of needs for the concentration of carbohydrates. The best way to evaluate the need for carbohydrates for the body is to consider the bodyweight. Typically, a player needs about 7-8 grams of it per kg of their body weight. 

How much Protein do table tennis players need?

The diet food of table tennis players should be such that they get 15% of protein from their diet. This is the standard recommendation of protein for adult players. One can find out the requisite protein intake for the body by multiplying 0.2 grams with one’s body weight in pounds. Teenagers or adolescents may need to add 2 grams of extra protein to their diet.

How much Fat do table tennis players need?

Table tennis players need to draw their energy primarily from carbohydrates. However, it doesn’t mean that they do not need fats. Depending on their body weight, tennis players need 1 gram of fat for each kg of their body weight. 

Final thoughts

To sum up, a lot goes into working out the chart for nutrition for tennis players. Several underlying factors play a crucial role in determining the right diet for the players of the game. However, the above facts concerning the table tennis diet and nutrition will help you achieve this objective if you include them in the scheme of things.