Food and Drink Part 1

We have given the blog quite a bit of thought over the past few weeks and the topic of what we should eat and drink whilst shooting kept coming up, over and over again.  It’s a difficult topic as it involves life changes.  It’s not just a case of changing what you do from during the week to the weekend, as your body needs time to adapt.  This really needs to be a change that you make throughout your daily routine and not just for the day you shoot.

Ok so let’s start with Hydration.  Being able to keep your body hydrated throughout a shoot is vital for peak performance.  Even as little as a 2% drop in hydration can affect your performance level when shooting around.  Remember your eyes are made up of a huge amount of water.  When dehydration starts they can be one of the first things to be affected.  Not good when you rely on them as much as you do!

How do you know if you are dehydrated?  Well you could feel one of the following:-

Two early signs of dehydration are:

• Feeling thirsty
• Dark-coloured urine. (Remember the lighter the colour of the Urine, the more hydrated you are). 

This is the body’s way of trying to increase water intake and decrease water loss.

Other symptoms may include:

• Dizziness or light-headedness
• Headache 
• Tiredness
• Dry mouth, lips and eyes
• Passing small amounts of urine infrequently (less than three or four times a day)

Dehydration can also lead to a loss of strength and stamina. It’s the main cause of heat exhaustion.

What can we do about this?

• Have a water bottle with you whether training or shooting around.
• Make sure you take a sip at every end.  If you feel thirsty remember you are dehydrated.  It really needs to be part of your shot routine; it’s that important.
• The content needs to be more than water as when you sweat or urinate etc your body loses important minerals as well.  What to drink will be discussed in the next blog as there is a huge amount of information that needs to be covered.  Let’s concentrate on changing our drinking habits.
• The drinking bottle needs to be somewhere where you can access it easily.  Having it at the bottom of your kit bag is no good.  Leaving the bottle by your bow acts as a good reminder, so when you put you bow down after each end, you have a sip.

Remember changing your drinking habits is an all-round thing, not something that you change just because you are shooting.  If you increase your liquid intake, yes you will need to use the bathroom a little more, but this will settle down once your body gets used to the increase.

Make sure you carry a water bottle with you throughout your working day.  Have a bottle on your desk in plain sight.  If it is there you are more likely to drink from it. 

These changes will take a little time to adjust to but will be worthwhile in the long run, so stick with it.

The next blog will look into the pros and cons of what to drink…

If you have some thoughts on this please do drop us a line at blogs@aim4sport.com and title your email “Food and Drink Part 1”, and some of the replies will be posted online.  Please let us know your thoughts.

Shoot ‘em strong and see you on the shooting line soon.

Author Archives: Dave Leader

Dave has been in and out of the sport for the best part of 40 years. Shooting with his family from 8 years old, Dave has seen many changes to the sport throughout the years. Dave mainly shoots Recurve, but has a secret passion for Compound.

Now having owned Aim4sport since August 2012, Dave has worked through his coaching and coaching training levels and has been an AGB Senior Coach since 2018 and AGB Coach Developer since 2016.

Still enjoys the opportunity to shoot and still have aspirations, however, time is the main issue :p

Archery, Uncategorised

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