One thing I’ve learned coaching tier 3 junior hockey and high school hockey players is that they don’t eat enough and don’t eat enough protein.
One thing I’ve learned working with USHL, D1, and pro athletes is that problem doesn’t exist for them.
Earlier in camp we had them do a 3-day audit to allow for this:
Note: These other 2 accounts are also me on Twitter.
I’ve written on a previous piece about one particular player I had in junior hockey:
This group in Dallas was no different. As we were discussing the audits and players were walking me through one of their days, a trend emerged.
Protein consumption was massively under the requirements of an athlete.
Some of these kids are skating multiple times a day, playing baseball, working out, all while eating waffles, chips, a PB&J, and pasta with no meat on it for dinner.
Not a winning formula.
So I gave them a quick guideline to aim for.
1g of protein per body weight in pounds (lbs). Figure that out metric system users…
That’s still under in most cases but we needed a baby step to get closer to what we need to get to…
Don’t let ‘perfect’ rob them of their ability to get better.
3 years ago I wouldn’t have given them an intermediate step.
Now I’ll do it every time.
One of James Clear’s 4 things about habits was to make it easy.
An intermediate step makes it ‘easier.’
Then build from there.
P.S. For those that don’t have or don’t follow me on Twitter. This free package might be of interest to you. Click the tweet to download this: