Coaches Strength Coaches And Certified Athletic Trainers Perceptions Of Nutrition And Its Affect On Athletic Performance

Abstract: Most people, including student-athletes and athletic support staff, do not recognize or clearly understand the importance of nutrition on athletic performance. The full understanding of nutrition and its effect on athletic performance is still evolving. This descriptive study was conducted to analyze one university's athletic support staff s current perception of nutrition and its effect on athletic performance and determine if there is knowledge-based meal planning. The main scope of this study was to explore current head coaches, assistant coaches, strength coaches, and certified athletic trainers' perceptions of nutrition and its effect on athletic performance, describe the level of the athletic support staff s nutritional education, and determine the team meal coordinator's philosophy and practices toward competition day meals. A survey, divided into four parts, was distributed to 122 athletic support staff participants at The Ohio State University. All participants received parts one (measuring perception of nutritional impact on athletic performance) and two (descriptive information) of the survey and only thirty-six team meal coordinators, one person from each sport, received parts three (measuring types of team meals) and four (measuring factors influencing team meal planning) of the survey. A 51% response rate was obtained. Only 39% of athletic support staff believe their student-athlete's athletic performance is affected by their dietary intake more than sixty-one percent of the time. However, 77% of the staff feels their student-athletic should value the impact nutrition has on their athletic performance more than sixty-one percent of the time. The athletic support staff believes diets high in carbohydrates (60%), protein (32%), and hydration (87% ) positively affects athletic performance more than sixty-one percent of the time. The participants claim to use the team registered dietitian (44%), presentations and seminars (36%), formal college classes (34%), and their peers (29%) to gain nutritional information. Head coaches are frequently the primary team meal coordinators, yet they have a mean score of 1.42 for the number of formal nutritional classes; that is half the mean score of strength coaches (3.20) and less than that of certified athletic trainers (2.06). The top influencing factors in meal planning for home and road trips were balance, performance enhancement, taste preference, moderation, and recovery. Based on the results of this study, athletic support staff lacks continuity in their perceptions about nutrition and its affect on athletic performance. More formal or continued nutritional education may lead to a better understanding of the affects diet has on athletic performance and may impact the outcome of an individual's ability to perform at a higher level of competition. Influencing a meal planning coordinators perceptions about dietary impact of meals may lead to better-prepared student-athletes and even possibly a more balanced financial food budget per sport. More research is needed to fully comprehend the impact nutritional changes by the athletic support staff may have on the student-athletes. In addition, implementing more complex or reoccurring nutritional education courses for those involved with student-athlete meal planning may help deter nutritional misconceptions and behaviors inflected by uneducated athletic support staff influencing student-athletes.