Nurturing Good Nutrition Amongst Emerging Talent

Performance Nutritionist Gavin Rackard discusses his role in the Greencore Munster Rugby Academy and the targeted drive to nurture good nutrition amongst emerging players in the age-grade and academy ranks.

Completing Exercise and Health Studies in Waterford IT, Gavin then undertook a masters in Sport and Exercise Nutrition at Leeds Beckett University before joining the province as Academy Performance Nutritionist in February of this year. A wide ranging role, it extends beyond the nutrition of Year 1, 2 and 3 academy members, and also caters for sub-academy and age-grade representatives.

Depending on the age, experience, load and circumstance of each player or group, the requirements can be very different with Gavin tailoring all nutrition programmes to best suit the needs of recipients.

“In most cases, the younger the player, the more we need an education emphasis, whereas those who are in Year 1 or 2 of the academy might need some fine tuning on their diets because they already have the education in place for a good diet.

“The lads are hugely receptive. At age-grade for example, a lot of the guys would not have met a nutritionist before and they take on everything we tell them. They see it as an opportunity to progress and gain an advantage over their peers. The fact of the matter is, I’m receiving e-mails from players first, as opposed to me e-mailing them, telling me what they are doing and the progress they are making.

“Body composition is a huge part of the job. We conduct analysis to figure out what best suits a player and then put together a four to six week plan where we set targets, monitor progress, review it and then go back to see what we can change going forward.”

And it’s not just in-season that Munster’s emerging stars follow Gavin’s advice, with plans also put in place for the off-season and at times when training is reduced due to school or college workload.

“At the moment players are in the off-season and before they left us we sat down and provided them with suitable programmes to bring them back in decent shape for preseason. The better shape they come back in the more they get out of preseason and the higher the targets they can set.

“High quality protein and high fibrous foods are what we would encourage the lads to eat in their down time. Our modules educate them on the correct sources of fat and carbohydrate to choose, so rather than set them certain tasks or recipes, we educate them so they can make their own choices from the right types of food.

“For those sitting exams we recently ran a workshop in UL and CIT on how to maintain lean tissue during that period, how to reduce stress and reduce caffeine intake in the evening so they could optimise their sleep and recovery.

“We also looked at a reduction in calorie intake as the energy expenditure is reduced during these times. In the morning we encourage players to take slow release high fibre foods and maintain a high quality protein intake during the day.”

Gavin also employs fun and practical projects to break up the monotony of theory and allow players put what they’ve learnt into practice.

“One of our aims is to improve the lads’ cooking skills and we decided to improvise a little towards the end of the season, deciding to do Come Dine With Me. Players who live together were put into groups and each group took their turn as host, cooking a starter, main course and desert.

“They also had to provide the recipes and give a full nutritional breakdown of the meal. It gave the guys an idea of what’s involved in good food preparation and it gave me a gauge on their cooking capabilities.

So who was worthy of a 9, or even 10, out of 10?!

“All the guys really bought into it, but if I had to mention a couple of standouts, the Johnston brothers – Dave and Bill – Alex Wootton, Steven McMahon and Sean O’Connor cooked a wonderful seafood themed meal with a desert in the shape of a turtle so I gave them full marks.

“As well as this we sent a number of players to an IRUPA cooking workshop at the Hook and Ladder café in Limerick. Some of the Ireland Women’s team also took part and it was another worthwhile exercise.”

In conclusion, Gavin reiterates the importance of laying the foundation for good nutrition at an early age if players are to maximise their potential within the provincial set-up.

“Getting good nutritional habits in place early is imperative, especially for age-grade players. If they enter the sub-academy or academy with a decent level of education and application around nutrition, then they hit the ground running which aids performance.”