Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

What to eat on tournament days!

24 Jul 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:48

In this short coaching video, the speaker introduces a simple "1:1 rule" for tournament nutrition: match the number of minutes between matches to the grams of carbohydrates to consume. The rule is illustrated with concrete examples—15 g of carbs (e.g., an applesauce pouch) for a 15‑minute break, 30 g (a banana) for a 30‑minute break, 45 g (banana + applesauce) for a 45‑minute break, and so on up to 90 g, at which point a protein source is added. The purpose of the rule is to keep athletes continuously fueled throughout a multi‑hour tournament so that performance in later games remains as strong as in the first game.

Chapters

Athletes, in your tournaments, I need you to be following my 1:1 rule. Now, for the 1:1 rule, you are going to match the number of minutes that you have between your games to the grams of carbs you need to eat. For example, if you only have 15 minutes between game 1 and game 2, 15 grams of carbs is what you're gonna be eating. An example of that is a little applesauce pouch. If you have half an hour between game 1 and game 2, a banana, 30 grams of carbs, is what you're gonna be looking for there. If you have 45 minutes in between your games, you're looking for 45 grams of carbs. A banana plus applesauce is what you're looking for there. Now, this will go up. 60 minutes, 60 carbs. 90 minutes, 90 carbs. You want to get some more protein in there once you get to the 90-minute mark. However, this is going to keep you fueled. It's going to make it so you don't go 5 hours during your tournament without playing, and it's going to allow your last game performance to be just as strong as your first game performance.