MEDI214 Lecture 12 - Transcript PDF

SPEAKER 0 Where is he? Yeah, how are you doing? All right. She's doing research. Yeah. No, it's Tuesday. I just, yeah, I want to see. So. Yes, that's just taste them. Yeah. Know my changes with the, um, Sasha. So washing pots, arms the chair. I was, which is fine. Which is one. Ok. I'm sorry. Altho...

SPEAKER 0 Where is he? Yeah, how are you doing? All right. She's doing research. Yeah. No, it's Tuesday. I just, yeah, I want to see. So. Yes, that's just taste them. Yeah. Know my changes with the, um, Sasha. So washing pots, arms the chair. I was, which is fine. Which is one. Ok. I'm sorry. Although she's pretty wrong. That's great. You said? Do you want ABC? No, this is so dread. Oh, why did you think for us? What are you thinking? Right. We've got a good, I suppose for this. So, thank you for those who haven't been back to us and you can hear her, please. Pardon? That you, uh, sports art dragons. Um, before she gets started, I might just say just to avoid maybe some confusion. We've got the computer labs, this sort of this. I think I saw, no, we've got this one up in the computer labs. So I think they're in room building 17 106. So check your timetables for those. Um, and, uh, I think they start straight off that. That's our community hands up if you've got a, a computer, like straight after this. Yeah. So there is a a lump straight off though. Actual thank you very much for that car on, very loud my voice. SPEAKER 1 Uh Thanks for coming. This is a nice intimate group that can I turn SPEAKER 0 it down the mic radio mic. SPEAKER 1 Is that alright? Can you still hear me? Ok, great. Ok. Um Really excited to be here and with a nice small group, we can kind of have a bit more chat, a bit more conversation around things that you guys want to know. First of all, what are, what are we studying? Science? Anyone different to exercise? Science, nutri? Hey, medical science. Ok, cool. Alright, great. So we're gonna be talking about nutrition for team sport. Um I thought before we start, I might just give you a little bit of my background kind of how I got here. Um, it feels weird talking about yourself a lot but I always, when I go to other people's presentations, I love hearing about like how they started and what they did. So hopefully you find this useful. Um, so I studied here at UOW a long time ago, um, actually started in nursing cos I just knew I kind of wanted to help people. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. So nursing, it was uh did a year of nursing hospital placements. Not for me, nurses are amazing, couldn't do it. Ah, so then I switched into um Bachelor of Science, nutrition and Population health. It was called back then and I did my undergraduate and then I went into nutrition and dietetics uh master's program after that. Um So I still knew that I didn't want to do hospital work. And the dietetics program here at UOW is very like clinical hospital based. So the whole way through, I was like, when's the sports? So we had one sports lecture. So we had two, about four hours. I think it was of sports in the whole program. And it was like the best day of my life at UNI but it didn't continue. So after that, we did placements, hospitals, etcetera, etcetera. For me personally, I i it was good, I learnt but I was like, just get me to the finish line so I can study sports and do more in sports nutrition. Um I like I grew up dancing, Dan, like I was a dancer, dance teacher for a really long time. Until a few years ago, my brothers always played sport. We got three brothers, um footy union surfing skating, like they're really sporty. I always wanted to play footy but I was never allowed cos girls didn't really play when I was young. Um So I just, but I just love the concept of nutrition for sport and helping people to be better help with their performance, etcetera, etcetera. So um when I finished, I graduated in 2013, I did my sports nutrition course, which you can do in nutrition straight out of uni um but you have to wait a few years till you can actually be accredited. So I did that straight away. Jumped in blind, started private practice, just started seeing people. No idea what I was doing really quite naive actually. Um And have been in private practice now for like 11 years. So I kind of was seeing people who were like runners or like recreational athletes in the community. I worked out of a gym so I saw lots of gym goers, a couple of bodybuilders that kind of clientele to start with. And then I got my first opportunity in sports in 26 I did a season with the Dragons in 2016. It is, it was nothing like what I do now. So I would like come in one day a week, they'd like stick me in an office. They're like, here's your list for today. They'd make the boys come in and see me, like, go and see the dietitian as if like go to the naughty corner. Like that's that kind of vibe. So I'd talk to them about their nutrition, whatever. I'd go to some lunches and like, integrate with the team a little bit. But it was really just like, I was like a side thing uh to the team. So I did that in 2016, had second baby at the end of that season, didn't continue, uh more Children, etcetera. That sort of happened. And then in 2021 I was still doing private practice through this whole time. But in 2021 I, um, expressed interest again with the dragons. I knew the guy who was the head physio at the time. So I just said, hey, like, I'm finish having Children. Like I'm ready to work. Let's go. And he was like, we've got someone. But thanks, like, I'll keep you keep my name in mind. And then, yeah, probably about March that season. I got a call up, the girl who was in the dietitian at the time was leaving and I didn't have to, I just got, I just got the job came in, kind of knew a few people which was great. Um Pointed that story network, let people know you're interested in things, talk to people, that's how jobs in sport come about most of the time. So this is my fourth season that we've just finished now um at the Dragons. So in that time, I've kind of worked, started at one day a week, increased to two next season. I'll be 2.5, 3 days. Um So it's not full time. So I've always done private practice as well, seeing individual athletes. Um for a period of time, I worked at the New South Wales Institute of Sport, seeing their divers, their diving team. And then I also at the moment, have a contract with Begara Dance Theater and I do their nutrition for their dancers as well. So a lot of sports stuff I've recently, um, done my eating disorder credentially because I see so much disordered eating in private practice and in sport, even at the Dragons, um, a lot of disordered eating. Um, and more recently since I specialized in a lot of clinical eating disorders in athletes, which is like this really unusual niche area that I've kind of found myself in, which is cool. It's really challenging. And then, like, I suppose that gets me to now where I do a bit of everything I teach when I first started, when I first graduated I taught at the uni quite a bit. Um, just sort of medi 101 or whatever. I don't know what it's called now, second year, this kind of subject. I used to do a lot of tutorials, all that sort of stuff. I taught dancing. I did everything my life is a little bit chaotic and I really like it like that. Like I put me behind a desk five days a week. Could not do it. You guys sort of the same? I feel like people who are in this area generally kind of are a little bit the same. Anyone in sport exercise, all that sort of stuff loves being, doing different things. So it really, it has worked for me over the years. Ok. So I suppose today I wanted to give you a bit of an idea of actually what I want you to get out of this. I don't need you to know a lot about like the solid nutrition recommendations. How many grams per kilo, etcetera, etcetera? I just, I really want you to have an understanding of how nutrition has an impact on performance in a team sport environment. And obviously because I am, you know, involved in rugby league, almost all of my examples within team sport are gonna come from rugby league. Is anyone else involved in another team sport themselves or has like really good knowledge? Just some smiles at the front. Ok, cool, competitively, right. Feel free to give me any examples from that context cos I don't know anything about that. It's like a kind of like how many like how many people on the team, how if you're going for SPEAKER 0 like, so like a bit over 27. SPEAKER 1 Who, where do you join a frisbee team? SPEAKER 0 Keep going? Like amazing. Cool. Um That's really like super interesting. SPEAKER 1 Also someone I met through private practice at the, the UNI has so many different sports. He plays underwater hockey. Like I I can't um he was tall actually like hockey on the bottom of a pool. They have a team here. Amazing. He also plays frisbee. What great things that I have never heard of. So if you have any examples that you wanna throw in yourself, please feel free to do. So also like it's a small group, ask questions as you as they pop into your head, don't wait till the end, you know, interact. That's, it's, it's fine. Ok, so I want you to get an understanding of the types of team sports, how nutrition can impact, um, team sport. Maybe some of the requirements, we will go through a little bit about requirements and how to sort of know if an athlete is meeting these requirements. Um, I want you to gain a little bit of insight into the way that, you know, a dietitian might plan and implement any sort of nutrition strategies within the team. Um, catering and food service. We're gonna talk about cos that's a huge part of my job. Massive. And, um, a little bit of insight around how our supplement program works specifically for the dragons. Other, other sports may or may not have supplement programs, um, with their team. Also the thing I want to, um, stress when I'm talking about nutrition for team sport is that ours, the sport that I work in has a pretty good budget for nutrition. Like we prioritize nutrition, you know, they have a dietician on board who's well integrated into the team. That's not always the case, even in other rugby league clubs, that's not the case that the dietitian is well integrated or, you know, um, has a lot of say in what goes on. I'm really lucky that we do. There's a lot of team sports that have no nutrition integration, um, at Frisbee. Any nutrition going on there? Yeah. Cool. So, yes, that's right. So, there, it's different for different codes. It like a fl all have full-time dietitians. They all travel with their teams. Um, NRL is kind of like from 1 to 4 days. Normally, usually don't travel but sometimes do, um, any sort of lower level than that. Usually don't have a lot of nutrition support. But for example, our strength and power coach that we have at the Dragons at the moment used to work in the NBA before he came back here and he's like, oh, Nicola, we could do like at, in the NBA, we used to like have our own microwaves and we'd take them on the plane and we'd get all this food and we'd heat it up in the change room. And I was like, I don't think I'm gonna get that over the line. Like budget is dependent on the sport and how much support they have. Ok. So types of team sports, generally, they're divided into two sort of like field sports and court sports. So we've got, you know, your strength and power sports, which obviously our examples are gonna come from today. Rugby league is one of those union is another more endurance based sports. So a fl soccer, football, um, hockey, most of those are more endurance based, um, all of your batting sports. So cricket, softball, baseball, etcetera, and then you court sports like basketball and netball So generally they kind of fall into some of those categories. Um Basically in team sport, we've always got repeated high intensity sprint activity and then long or short rests in between. So if you think about league, actually, who knows anything about rugby league, do you follow league? Anyone like you have an idea? Ok, cool, cool. Um If you don't just ask questions, so generally in something like league, there is quite short periods of rest in between the activity, but something like cricket of really long periods of rest, sometimes between their activity. So it would depend varying um with each sport, but usually we're focusing on speed, strength and agility and really understanding what the goal of the program is. Like. Do we need them to be faster? Do we need them to be more agile? Do we need them to be um bigger and have more muscle mass? So their power, like they've got more power behind them, like really understanding what's going along, what's going on physiologically helps me with my nutrition recommendations. Um Usually a combination of anaerobic anaerobic energy system. So we're using both. I know you've learnt about energy systems already, but because of that as high energy requirements, carbs are usually our main fuel source. Now, you would think that this would be a no brainer, right? People like carbs, great performance, great. No, people still don't like carbs. Apparently this has been happening since I was at uni um in like, sort of mainstream media, uh, weight loss circles, I suppose carbs are still like a bit evil. Still. GPS think carbs are still a bit evil sort of. Um, so it's really sometimes a hard message to get across. It used to be very, like paleo diet type and it's, it's kind of like carnivore keto. Now, you're nodding your heads, like you understand. Yeah. So this high protein, high fat diets are still um trendy and cool outside of sports. Like that's not what we're talking about today, whatever, but like in something like a team sport, we need our cops, we need them to perform. Um One of my players e so even in other clubs, people are sort of talking about carbs in different ways. So one of my players who was new this year we were on camp in Terrio. Um So all the food supplied turns up to camp first day. He's never met anyone. Whatever. A seasoned player like has been playing for a really long time. Turns up, comes to dinner, can see him sort of freaking out a little bit and he comes over, he says like, are you the dietician? Yep. What can I do for you? He was like, there's potatoes on the table. I was like, yeah, I, I like, I put, that's, I made the menu that's, they're there for, I put them there. He was like, there's wee bis in the kitchen. I was like, Yeah, like I, I bought the wee Bix. He was like, can I eat those? Like? Yeah, mate. Yeah, you can eat the wheat be, that's fine. And he'd come from a club where throughout the whole of preseason they weren't supposed to be eating carbohydrates, they were all super lean, shredded, six packs, all of that, which they loved. But like, four weeks into preseason, noone had the energy noone could train well. And there it wasn't their dietitian, it was someone else like was like, you just gotta get through the, like the fat burning stage and then you'll be great where they'd all just fallen off a cliff. Cos noone was eating carbohydrates, but that was being pushed by someone at the club. So carbs are needed, but carbs aren't always encouraged in some sports. Ok. So some just some things to think about. Um, obviously the science and all the physiological stuff that goes on behind, you know, exos science, nutrition, knowing all of that stuff super important. But if you can't integrate yourself into the team environment and the culture of that environment to be able to get your messages across, it's going to be completely ineffective. So you can have all the knowledge. Like there's so much stuff that I would love to be able to tell the players and I have to wait for the right time for them to ask a question. Sometimes sometimes when they come, there's a bit of a trust thing going on, particularly with our um Islander boys that would always come in to hear everyone's messages, someone they don't know from a bar of soap. So it's really important for us as clinicians or the people who are trying to educate them to make a decision about how and when to give those messages and when is it gonna be most suitable? Um My role as the dietitian is a very small role within a very large well oiled machine. It's important, but it's not, it's usually not the focus. It's usually not the thing that they care about the most and it's usually not the thing that the coaching staff care about the most. They, they know it's important. Super lucky at our club that our coach is really on board with all of our um you know, like health and well-being initiatives, but it's not the thing that they care about the most. So in my role as the sports dietician, one of the things that I kind of look to do is build life skills for these players. This is particularly relevant for sort of young development players. Those who come into our system, we're giving them skills around cooking around meal planning, feeding themselves. Sometimes it's their first time out of home, they've moved away, they're renting an apartment with other young players who also don't have many life skills in the kitchen. So developing those skills is really, really important. Um Also tricky though. Right. Because they're usually not on amazing money when they come in. So then the idea of them going and spending a couple of $100 a week on their shopping is less, especially someone who's like 1718, they come into the program that young, they're like first paycheck. No, thanks. I'll go and get something better. Go out whatever, do whatever with their money than spending a lot of it on nutrition. So sometimes it's tricky to get that message across that. Actually, it's gonna save you money if you just go and do a big shop and make some food. So that can be a little bit tricky but important. Um Obviously, we're doing individual ed nutrition education and advice with the players. Um data collection, monitoring and feedback is a big part of our role. And actually every other um every other part of the performance team like exci physios, strength and power, they've all got all these like amazing ways to collect data, strength data in the gym, jump data. It might be um GPS, data, etcetera, etcetera. And in nutrition, this is something I've really had to like um think about and try and be innovative around of how do I collect data for the players that show where they, where they're at with nutrition and it's not just body comp data because you ask anyone what does a dietician do? And they say the dietitian does the skin folds. That's like body comp, that's it. Dietitian helps you lose weight, whatever. That's been like the traditional role of the dietician. So for me, it's really important like, yes, we obviously we have body comp data. Um We used to use skin folds. Um Does everyone know what skin folds are? Yep. So we used to use skin folds, like very convenient, very cheap. Like I just need to be qualified and know what I'm doing. But it's like quick and easy, etcetera, etcetera. But also someone female in, you know, for some of the boys, um, that doesn't bother them at all. But for others it's quite confronting, um, like clothes off, they're in their shorts or their undies, they often wear their undies, um, pinching your body fat all over your body. Like, not like, not an amazing experience in my opinion. Like, I don't love doing that when we train, we have to do it on each other. It's really quite confronting. So it's something that, you know, every sort of way that you measure body composition has pros and cons. So actually this season at the dragons, we've got an inbody machine which has been really, like, really nice actually, cos I, I like, I have everything to do with it, but I don't have to be the one to pinch their body fat and then be like, oh, it's gone up or, you know, like just give feedback on that. I've got this external thing that collects data that we, you know, we have to do it, we have to make sure it's standardized, we have to make sure they come in faster. We have to make sure that they're not training before they use it. So it's always, we try and standardize it as much as possible cos it also has, you know, downfalls, but it's been really nice in terms of a um removing me from the equation a little bit. That's been really great. Um We'll talk a little bit later as well about some other ways that we collect data on the players. So food service, like I said before is such a big part of my role as a dietitian because I'm not there all the time. I have to make sure that the environment is, you know, set up in a way that helps the players to choose the right food to make sure that I'm catering for them correctly. So again, in all, not all team sports will be the same, but for us, we provide lunch every day that the players are at training. So I have to organize all the meals, etcetera. And I'll show you an example of that later. I organize all their meals when they travel. So it's really about like me having a presence there when I'm not in the room. Um training and competition fuel and fluid delivery systems. That was a mouthful. Ah that's important. We talk about training fuel all the time because performance really is what we're there for, primarily to help these people to perform better. So we wanna make sure they're fueling and we wanna make sure they've got systems in place so they know how to do that optimally, one of the biggest things that I feel like has made a difference in my role in particular, is collaborating with other staff in particular, the coaches who went a change of coaches this season and have made it my business to sit with them at lunch or like make sure I'm talking to them about little things about nutrition, not in a, in a way that's kind of overbearing and oh my God, Nicola, here she comes. She's gonna talk about nutrition but just making sure that I'm on a really easy, um you know, communication basis with them to that communication basis. I don't know, I talk to them a lot, basically I talk to them a lot about other things, but also about nutrition. So they can come to me and be like, hey, how's this player doing or hey, can you tell me about this, how this trend's going or whatever and what, you know, whatever they need to ask, they'll come directly to me and I can do that with them as well, which is really, really helpful. And then of course, another part of the role is professional development reflecting on that or we're always trying to be innovative. Um So I'm really, you know, part of my role is to upskill in things that other people in the team don't have time to do. So that nutrition is, um valuable in other ways. So this, you know, really focusing on things like sleep. Um, this season, we're doing a big deep dive into blood work and how we can use that for performance. So looking at other ways that I can upskill, not just in nutrition but other things as well that are gonna have an impact with our team. Ok. So how can nutrition, how nutrition can impact performance? I love this photo because every time I look at Moses in person, sometimes when you're with people um who are enormous all the time, you f like you don't really realize and then you might like sometimes I see them at the coffee shop that we go to for work and you see them in the wild and you're like, man, that is a big human being and imagine that person running at you full speed and you have to like tackle it. That is terrifying in my opinion. Um But part of that is us making him the strongest, fastest, most effective player that he can be on that field so that he is that imposing, terrifying player. Ok. So the team is comprised of individual athletes. So obviously, there are things that we talk about in nutrition that go across the board, right? Fueling recovery game day nutrition all of that sort of stuff. But what we need to talk about with each individual is going to be different based on who they are as an individual. They all have different things that they're focusing on. Some of them really need to focus on like meal planning and, and shopping for their food. Some of them have, you know, gastrointestinal issues that when they eat certain foods, their stomach hurts, all those, no, those normal things that lots of people experience. Some of them have disordered eating behaviors. Some of them, um, are development players coming into the preseason for the first time. You know, it's a huge increase in training load and a lot of them will come in, they'll, you know, put everything into it for the first five weeks and then they'll just fall off a cliff if they're not eating properly, you know, they'll get home in the afternoon, they'll sleep for five hours. They'll get up at 1112 o'clock at night, eat dinner, go back to sleep, won't eat breakfast cos they get up late, come to training train all day. So these like patterns of eating come become really, um, kind of disturbed because of this new training environment. So depending on where they're at, as an individual will mean I give them different advice around nutrition. Um One of the big things we can do with nutrition is delaying or preventing the onset of fatigue, which obviously means better performance and that is something I always am reiterating in my head about performance goals is how can we offset fatigue? So usually we can do this with fueling, we can do it with carbohydrates, we can do it with some supplementation so we can use things like caffeine, maybe beta alanine to be able to offset fatigue. But if they're not fatigued, they're training harder, they can do more reps in the gym, they can run for longer in the game. Whatever it might be, that to me is one of the biggest things that I always think about. So when someone comes to me with maybe body composition goals and they're like, we need to lose body fat. I wanna cut carbs even. Maybe coaches have recommended that they eat a lot less cos they need to, you know, reduce their body fat to me if that's going to create more fatigue. And if that's going to interrupt that delaying fatigue, the whole point of your nutrition is to help you to perform better if that's gonna disrupt that, if we can't do it in a way that's gonna help with performance. We have to really weigh up, like is losing body fat going to be the thing that's gonna actually help when they can't train or play as effective as they, they possibly could with fuel. And I suppose that leads into the next point is that yes, nutrition is huge in body composition and particularly in preseason we do a lot of body composition stuff, increasing muscle mass, decreasing fat mass. Um but Lena is not always better for performance and it's been something that's changed this year has been sort of, we've set more solid targets for the players. So when they hit those targets, we're like, yeah, you're in range of your target. There's no need to keep getting leaner if you don't, you know, if you're in range and this is gonna be optimal for you where previous to that with skin folds sometimes and this is under different direction from a performance manager. Sometimes when the players would loot drop skin folds as soon as they did, performance would be like, OK, that's great. Let's go for more like let's get Lena, let's get Lena where for the player to be always thinking about their body composition, the football takes a hit, right or whatever they're trying to focus on can take a hit and it can mean that they're not focusing solely on that either. So body composition is one that you might talk about a little bit more in your um disordered eating eating disorder lecture as well. Um But it's something that can be really tricky within a team sport for the dietician, uh nutrition obviously can make a big impact in recovery. So particularly with so for us, like our preseason is our biggest training block. So the boys will come in. Um This is five days a week in preseason, they'll come in, they'll do like two hours on the field. Then they'll usually have lunch. They'll be in the gym for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Somewhere in that day, they might have a wrestle session somewhere in that day. They might have, um, some sort of active recovery, they might swim, etcetera. So it's a massive day and then they do that five days a week. So two sessions back to back almost every day of the week. So it's huge in terms of recovery, but it also makes doing recovery and fueling really tricky cos they're training most of the day, like that's their job. They come in and they train so it can be really difficult. We'll talk about this in a minute to get everything in that they need to on those big days. But sports like basketball where they like, they play two, twice a week, sometimes three times, like they just travel and play and travel and play and they have to do their, you know, weight sessions after a game sometimes because there's no other time to get a weight session in. You don't want to do it too close to the next game. So they do it after a like after they play it's wild like their schedule. Um So one that sport in particular is really tricky. Um, we can provide good food options and educate them on why they're good choices. So at, at footy for example, I always have the fridge and the pantry stocked with things that for them to be eating. And one of the things I always put in there is I've always got a teller in the cupboard. And the boys always say to me like, can I like, can I eat this? Can I eat this nutella? I was like, well, when's a good time to eat something like that? That's like high in sugar and they're like, oh, like maybe in between a training session, we can have a conversation about why it might be useful before a training session in between a training session. When you could add it to a smoothie, like what's it gonna do? It's gonna add flavor, you're gonna wanna drink it cos it tastes really good. All those types of conversations can happen when they've got those things there to be like, ok, I can include some of these foods that I probably didn't think that I could. And then also I've got snacks in there, you know, like yogurts and really good Muesli bars and fruit. Always there for them to be able to pick at and they can kind of mimic their own pantries at home. Usually off what we've got in the kitchen. Um Nutrition can play a big role in terms of hydration strategies and heat management. Um We be being a winter sport like we don't have to do an excessive amount of hydration stuff. We, we are across it and we make sure we manage it, particularly in preseason, but something like cricket, they do a lot of heat management because they're out there for hours at a time um in really hot environments. So the players, they do a lot of like cooling, like Slushies ice towers menthol, like all those types of things to try and cool the players down. There's a lot of nutrition stuff that goes on behind the scenes to be able to make sure that they're, they manage the heat effectively. Um Nutrition plays a role in health and well-being. And I know this is like, duh, this is, of course it does. But actually this is the, this is the biggest thing that underpins what I do with all the players and I don't really tell anyone about it except people who are interested like students or like other health professionals, but I don't talk to the coaches about it. They don't care, but I'm they like, sorry they do but not really, they're there for performance. But I'm like, how is this player when they retire going to be able to eat? Can they make good choices? Can they understand that this is how we eat when we train a lot and this is how we eat when we don't train a lot. Can they be, can they plan their meals? Can they cook? Can they manage their life post football from a nutrition perspective? And a health perspective. Do they value it? Have I taught them enough for them to be like Nicola told me that it's cool to sometimes eat like this and most of the time eat like this. Like, basically what I teach my kids is what I teach them to try and have a healthy relationship with food. You know, eat really well. Most of the time don't stress too much when you have other types of foods that you might not want to eat all the time. Like all those messages I'm giving to them as well as their performance nutrition. So that when they finish their health is a priority and their well-being is a priority and it's not just about right now for footy. So that's always in the back of my mind. Um Injury, obviously, nutrition can play a big role. This is something I've tried to delve a little bit more into the last couple of years. How can we be preventing injuries? Um You know, good nutrition is gonna do that anyway. But what can we go? What can we do above and beyond that? So some of that falls into the nutrition recommendations and some of that falls into supplementation as well. Um So looking at like our return to play strategies as well when players do get injured, what are we doing from a nutrition perspective to be able to get them back quicker? So, something I've started doing this season is if I'm there on a training session and someone does a hammy. Right. I will go and make them like a protein smoothie straight away and I'll bring it out to the field. Now. They're like, in the worst headspace you can imagine. Like, they're shitty. They don't want to talk to anyone. They've just pulled a hammy, they're sitting there with ice struck to their leg. They're like, not in the right mind. Mind space for me to be like, you know, nutrition is really important now, like make sure you have your protein because it's gonna help you get back on the field quicker. Like I don't want to hear it. So I go and make them a smoothie and I come out and I say, drink this and they're like, oh, ok, some of them are really grateful. Thanks, Nicola. This is great. I'm like, this is protein. It's gonna help your muscle recover quicker. Is it gonna do anything right in that moment? Maybe I could probably, but it's not, it's not magic. It's not gonna magically fix their hamstring, but it's something that's like protein's important. I'm having it straight away. It's gonna help with my injury. It just helps them to put the connect the dots in their brain instead of just telling them the information, which is probably gonna go in one ear and out the other. So that's something where trying to um you know, insert myself into the environment and come up with ways that are going to help them to understand what they need to do is really, really important and then education for fellow staff and coaches on the impact of nutrition. So I think this is ongoing because like I said, how people say dieticians do the skin folds. The coaches also really don't know what I do. They're like, Nicola, she organizes the lunches and they're so good. Like Nicola feeds us like that's what it like. She, I think she's great. She's great at her job. They all say that because I feed them. Like, I don't think, I don't think they know what I do. I don't think they really understand, but that's ok. Like I try to help them sometimes understand something we did this just a few weeks ago with our players who are gonna come into the program in November when we start again for preseason. There's a group of players who this is their first preseason. So in that session where the coaches talk, I also spoke and our strength and power coach also spoke just really briefly and I was able to in front of the coaches which was nerve wracking just, you know, talking in front of people who I don't know why it's nerve wracking, but they're important. So I was able to just kind of say to these players, these are the things that I often see, you know, um, making sure your nutrition is a priority for these reasons. This is what I see in preseason and then the coach was like, well, yeah, that do like that does happen, nutrition could play a role in that. And they got to just see after like a 10 minute talk what I did and how, how I try and help these kind of situations where like I mentioned before the players come in, they don't eat well, they fall off a cliff in terms of their energy levels, all that sort of stuff. So that was a really nice opportunity for them to kind of maybe have a little bit of an understanding of what I do and how I help the players. Yes. Yes. Yes. Actually not somewhere in here. I'll talk about concussion, but yes, um, obviously being contact sport, it's massive with what we do. Um, we have a nutrition protocol, I makeup supplement packs for the team to have on game day. But, um, and we also do a few things in the preventative space as well, um in terms of concussion. But yes, it's a big area, something I wanna do more and really, ok, so some of the things that might influence the actual advice I'm giving is, um, the rules like, um are there, uh, in the, the sport that you're working with, are people allowed to be on the field or the court while they're playing to be able to give nutrition like power aid, that sort of stuff. So in footy Yeah, they can in basketball. No, no-one's on the no-one's on the court, like, offering supplements or anything like that. So, that kind of like the rules of the game really impact how often nutrition is available. And then therefore my advice to the players, um, the field size, how far are they running? You know, what kind of distances are they running across the field duration and frequency of matches? How often are they playing? Um, how many times a week? How long does it go for? How aggressive do we have to be with fueling before a game because of how long they're out there? Um, definitely the length of the season. So in rugby league we have a 16 week preseason starts in November goes until like March, that kind of time. Then they play from March and they've just like grand finals in two weeks. So some teams are still playing, they play 27 rounds, like 27 weeks of footy every weekend. That's a long time. That's a contact sport. Your body getting absolutely beat up week after week for 27 weeks back. I did respect. I don't know how they do it. Like they walk in, like the living dead and by the end of the week they're ready to go again. Yeah. Um, like, it's definitely something we have to be more on top of, in preseason, uh, but not so much for game day preseason matches, like the end of preseason and maybe early matches or sometimes when they travel to, like Townsville, for example, they're really hot games, but generally throughout the season we're not having to think too much about heat management, but hydration still. Definitely. Yeah. So we do, um, like in terms of managing hydration, we might look at in preseason, like individual hydration assessments, like, um, looking at their weight before and after what they've had to drink all that sort of stuff or it might be during games, we weigh them before and after a game to be able to see how much fluid they've lost and then we can give them recommendations of how much to, to have afterwards. So it is just something we're across, but generally not during season, but yes, definitely preseason, very hot. Um The training phase which we'll talk about like if it's preseason off-season during season and then whether or not they have substitutions for the game. So some players will play a whole game, some players will, they'll have subs, etcetera. Ok. So just on the icons, um powerpoint automatically chose the icons for this. Uh and I just couldn't be bothered changing them. So the hence the turtle, I don't know why that's there. But anyway, it's cute. Um So requirements for training competition, obviously, very individual, it can, it can absolutely depend on body composition, the position that they play their training requirements. So some people will have to run more than others for example, in a training session. So all of that will depend on what their requirements are. Just also very rarely do I sit down and like I do this for some people if they've got issues but very rarely do I sit down and like, look at their BMR and be like, this is what your activity level is or your activity factor. And like these are your requirements and this is what you need to be hitting and you need this many calories, etcetera per day. Not many people I do that for and I don't know, maybe that seems like silly, like surely that's my job. But part of my job is also teaching these players to know how they're meeting their requirements and not micromanaging their nutrition again for the longevity thing. Like I need you to be able to do this and know if you're hitting it or not for some people. I do do all of that stuff to be able to show them if they're hitting it and if they're not, but I also don't need to create problems where there's no problems. Yeah. Does that make sense? So I don't, there's not, I don't do that for every single player like looking at exactly what they require. So their requirements again will change based on the hydration um and nutrition for the climate. So obviously it's hot, their energy requirements going to increase their body's working harder to be able to keep them cool, etcetera, the level of the athlete. So if they're a development athlete versus an elite athlete, their nutrition requirements are going to be different for sure. So development athletes were really looking at their good um, baseline nutrition. Have they got good skills, have they got, you know, all of their foundations covered in terms of food groups, in terms of adequate carbohydrate, adequate protein, etcetera. Are they eating fruit and vegetables, all that sort of stuff? We're our elite players, you know, we're really looking at individual screening, individual testing, um maybe like individual fueling and hy rehydration recovery strategies, making sure their plan or what they need to do is a little more tailored to what they are as an individual. So it will really depend on what level they're at and then their requirements during training and games depends on how many sessions they're doing a day. So this is gonna change from preseason to during season to off season as well. Ok. So this is, this is Tyrell, I spoke to him the other day and got permission to talk about him in the lecture. So uh we're gonna discuss him a little bit really interesting um player. So in terms of meeting requirements, there was a really nice systematic review done a couple of years ago. But all the studies that look at team sports and whether or not they're meeting requirements show that most team sport athletes are not meeting their energy requirements on training days, most of them are not eating enough. Usually compared to recommendations. Competition days were a little bit better. Like most, um, athletes in team sports have been fueling for competition more than they would in training. But like that's gonna have massive impacts if almost all of your athletes are not fueling adequately throughout the day on their training days. But they're just fueling adequately for performance and maybe that's maybe their performance is fine. But could it be better if they were eating more if they were eating better? And a lot of the time, my struggle is trying to get the players to eat more. Um Traditionally in footy. Um most clubs I would say over the years have what they call Fat Club. Have you all heard of that? Like, it's as horrible as it sounds like it's the people who need to lose weight basically get their skin folds down have to do like extras before training or like come in and that's what they've always called it. So anyway, that's like historical. It's always happened in footy in league. Um So over the last few years, there's obviously been some change, not everywhere but thankfully at our club. So our, you know, boys who need to improve. We have an improvement group. They, some of the boys still call it Fat Club and I get really angry. It's not called that club. It's imp improvement. You're in that because you need to improve whatever area they need to improve in. They're in there. So it could be boys who need to put on weight and they're not, they're not strong enough and they need to go and train. So, but the culture of needing to be leaner is still there. So, so many players, I've had players come from other clubs and they get there. They're not eating, I've talked to them. I'm like guys, I really need you to eat something like watermelon is not breakfast. You really need to have something to eat before you come here and train for two hours on the field. And they're like, oh miss that. A lot of them call me miss the Islander boys. I don't want to be in a fat club. Like we don't wanna get, we don't wanna get into fat club. And like after my heart is finished breaking, then I have to educate them around like, ok, well, what happens when you don't eat in the morning and you don't eat much at training, you might have a meal that we've provided you in between training sessions. And they say, oh, we're like, we're so hungry. We get home, we just can't stop eating in the night time. OK. That's not gonna be great for body composition. So why don't we try, let's just do a bit of an experiment when we try eating Brekkie. Maybe like, let's have a piece of toast or two with your watermelon. And they're like, oh, bread. Ok. So they'll try it and then let's try and have something else, you know, like after training, before you drive home, when you get home and at dinner time and then they, they do it for a little while and one of them I said to him, like, how are you feeling? He's like, oh, Miss, I feel mad, like, I feel so good. I was like, that's amazing. That's amazing. Like never had contemplated that maybe eating more would be really helpful. But it's because bloody Fat Club. Yeah. So it's still that stuff still happens, which is a lot of my job is just like getting that stamped out. So meeting requirements on training days, probably the biggest, like the biggest struggle that I see. But also the other reason that it's hard is because someone like Tyrell, for example, so he's at full back. So he would run, I don't know, between six and 10 Ks a game maybe. Um So the most of any of the players in the team, but for any training session, he's running lots kilometers like heaps more than anybody else. He also can run like he can just at like 50% capacity on his really bad days. He can just run and he's fine. He's never um you know, always had a hard time putting on weight. He's always been probably lighter than he needs to be for his position. So we've always been working on since I've known him for four years. Um, we've always been working on increasing his muscle mass, but because he runs so much and because he needs to put on weight, his energy requirements per day during preseason are like anywhere from 5 to 6000 calories a day. So I don't like, I don't know if you can picture how much food that is, but then take out four or five hours of your day. That's just you training, then take another two hours. That's meetings, video, like coaches meetings, all that sort of stuff where you can't be eating, having that amount of food in the day outside of those hours is incredibly difficult, like so so hard. Also, Tyrell's got a few other things going on for him. Like he, he really struggles to eat um like quickly. So he can't just sort of get up and scoff like 10 weeks he like has to take his time, which is, that's just the way he is. He's always been like that, he struggles to eat quickly. So for him, one of his strategies is having to get up earlier in the morning so that he can have a good breakfast before he comes to training. But then also he has to be prioritizing sleep because sleep's gonna be detrimental to his performance if he's not getting enough. So then I have to be like, ok, well, now you've got a curfew and you can't stay on the Playstation. So you have to go to bed at nine o'clock to make sure you get up in time. Like, and this is like, he's like 21 I think 22. Sort of like, it's hard for a 22 year old. Right. But all these things compound. So it's not just like, hey, you need to put on weight, like, why don't you just eat? But, like, we hadn't thought of that, like, it's really difficult sometimes to be able to eat as much as you require when your sport is so demanding from an energy perspective. So sometimes it's no wonder, sometimes they're not purposely restricting, they just can't get as much food in as they need to. Um the other thing I want to touch on with, you know, meeting energy requirements is uh reds. Have you heard of energy availability, that sort of concept? Ok. So, you know, we know that um with energy availability, if it's chronically low, there are other things that can be impacted from a body systems point of view. So hormonal health. So in particular with, you know, male athletes that I work with um low testosterone is a big flag for us. Um But we also see things like um bone mineral density might be decreased, gastrointestinal function might be decreased. So there's all these other like flags that might come up to say, hey, someone's not meeting their requirements and sometimes it's because of restriction. But sometimes it's just because they can't get enough in to be able to meet their energy requirements. So, um you know, traditionally Reds was thought to only be um something that happened in females and in female athletes. Um but we know more and more evidence is coming out that it is something that we see in male athletes. So chronically low energy availability is something that we really need to get on top of. But obviously, you know, to be able to manage body composition, sometimes we do reduce energy availability in the short-term to be able to see those adaptations. Have you got any questions on that? Ok. Oh, wow, it's already an hour. Um ok. So meeting requirements. So with carbohydrates, like I've alluded to already most my experience the research tells us and also like other dieticians that I speak to. Most athletes in team sports are not eating what their requirements are like in terms of from the literature. So we like, you know, if we're looking at these elite athletes who train quite a lot, their requirements might be like 7 to 12 g per kilo of carbs per day. So the average weight of our team would be 100 kg. So it's like minimum 700 g of carbs a day. And again, I don't know if you can visualize what that is, but like a piece of bread is like 15 g, an apple might be like 20 if it's a decent size. So se 700 minimum is huge. Um, most athletes I would say in our team and across, you know, what the literature shows us as well is like 3 to 5 g per kilo per day is kind of typical of what they'd be consuming probably more around games. And whether that's an issue or not is really individual for a lot of people, that's fine. They're ok, they're managing, you know, they've got no issues. Like I said, if there's no problem, we don't need to create a problem for someone who maybe is getting injured or they're chronically tired or they're struggling with recovery or whatever. This is definitely something I would look at. Do. We need to bump up your carbohydrate intake to be able to support those things. So, with, um, protein usually, like the research tells us that most pe, most athletes in team sports are ok with their protein or even exceeding it. Um, I've got a mixed bag within my team. Some of them, like, protein's no problem, but some of them are not eating enough protein. Ah, usually when I'm talking to them, I sort of shoot for that 2 g per kilo just because it's a nice, easy, easy number. So I sort of say to them, if you're like 100 kg, you're looking at around 200 g of protein a day and then we might go through their food and be like, you're getting like 50 g here, 40 g here. Maybe we're running a little bit short. It can be difficult. I find it difficult sometimes if the boys don't like having supplements, which some of our players don't like having protein supplements for whatever reason. Um, sometimes then when we're just using food, it's absolutely doable. But it can be a little more tricky, a little less, like, convenient for them. But I think generally this is, there's less resistance to increasing protein the way that there is carbohydrate. Yeah. Um The other thing, you know, obviously protein is very important for recovery and in recovery, we're looking for a carb to protein ratio of about 3 to 4 to 1. So if you've got like your 30 g of protein in your recovery drink, say for example, or meal, you're kind of looking for maybe 90 to 100 and 20 g of carbs for better absorption as well. Ok. And I know you've done your protein carb lectures, etcetera. Ok. So then after all that, how do I know, how do I know if they're meeting their requirements? Because um my players are typically very poor food diary keepers. They don't do, they don't keep a food diary very well. They forget they will just like despite my instructions, they'll, you know, message me and say like I had wee bis for breakfast. How many did you have milk? Like what did you put on a banana? Honey? Anything like? Oh, Yeah, I had all of those things so they're typically not great at keeping food diaries for me. Um, I can get a good diet history out of them. But usually that's like a, you know, when you're asking someone what they typically eat, it can be a little distorted from reality so it can be tricky to sometimes work out exactly what someone's having. So, how do I know the first flag is body composition? Like are they on track with their body composition? And there's a lot of people who body comp is great. There's no issues with body composition and their nutrition is not great like we see that all the time, right? But that can definitely be a flag to see if they're meeting their requirements in terms of energy to see if they're having enough protein, see where we need to manipulate that. Um If their body fat levels are higher, then we can look at overall energy intake, you know, we can look at photos, things like that. Um I might involve the players, partners or their parents. That's something we often do and do cooking classes and just help them to upskill a little bit. Um Immunity health is a big one. So one of my players is getting sick all the time, I'm really looking into, are they meeting their energy requirements and are they meeting their carbohydrate requirements? Um So we, you know, we take bloods in preseason. Um This is pretty common practice now to be looking at blood results and blood tests. Um, I might look at their, their food diary, their nutrition information. You know, if I'm taking the history, it's gonna be a little bit more reliable in this case. But in other sports, you know, people might keep fabulous food diaries and that makes the dietitian's life much easier. We also look at, uh, like wellness markers. So we, every day and I'll show you this, we ask the players to fill out a wellness form. They have to do wellness. That's what we call it. So they look at, you know, lots of different things but sickness, um mood stress, anxiety, sleep, that they've rate it from 1 to 5 type of thing. So we do that every day, which sounds really great. But some like when you do something every day for 10 months, it kind of loses its shine. So some people are really like n not great with it, they'll just put a five for everything, five whatever. And you can kind of, you can see that some people are really good with it and we'll be quite honest and I think that's definitely improved over time and they can see how it impacts, you know, us asking them questions. I think it also helps. They notice that someone's paying attention cos I look at it every day, sometimes they accidentally put 0.5 for their mood instead of five and I'll be like, hey, Welfare Check, how are you going? What's happening? And they're like, what's wrong? Like I, what are you talking about? I said, have you put a 0.5 for your, for your mood or your stress? And they're like, oh, like it's an accident but they know that someone's actually looking at the data that they're putting in and taking notice of it so that can be something else that gives us a bit of an indication of whether or not they are, you know, meeting their requirements. Performance and training is a big one. If someone is struggling with their performance, they're struggling in training, they're tired, they can't push themselves. Coaches have flagged it. That's a big one for me to be assessing their nutrition and really making sure that they're meeting their requirements or even if they are, what can they do better in terms of nutrition to be able to perform better cos if they're not performing, they're not, they're not gonna stay there. Um, and then injuries is another big one. If we've got injured players, that's a big flag for, you know, how can we be doing better with their nutrition to be able to offset these injuries? Maybe they're nutrition related or not, but there's usually things that we can do to try and improve those a little bit. Ok. So I just want to show you, I know it's really small, but this is our like body composition data and obviously, I've just um hid their names. Um but this is um when we collect the information off the inbody, we have set targets for them in terms of, you know, an individual weight that we're aiming for now. And an ideal weight based on some data that, that our, our performance consultant has collected over a really long period of time working in um origin of like the best players in these positions, generally tend to sit within these ranges. And then we put the players in their position with their height, like all of their individual data collected and the range that they would sit in, which is why we use BM I. So it's not based on, it's not based on like the BM I for the population at all. It's based around these positional targets for um different players. So we've got um their body weight, then we've got their ideal body weight. Now this is based on like the BM I range ideally, where would they sit? So some of our development players are like 10 kg off their ideal body weight, right? They're coming in at like 94 and their, their goal is their ideal body weight is like, you know, 100 and 14 or something. So they might be way off. So then we give them a goal body weight, which is kind of what we're working towards in the short-term. Like where do we want you to be soon. So you can see if they're like, close the difference. We've got their current BM I, and then we've got their ideal BM I, that we've set for them within this range. Um, and then we've got their muscle mass percent and their body fat percent. And you can see it's color code, it doesn't always work properly. But again, within their positions, there's like just ideal ranges that they fall into and they're pretty like they're pretty generous to be honest, which I feel quite comfortable with. They're not super low in terms of body fat percentage and they're not super high in terms of muscle mass percent. Now, outside of this form, I look at the actual numbers. So if someone's sitting at, let's say, let's look at their body fat percent, someone's sitting at 21.1 you know, the their percentage is not gonna be right. If their weights, like if their weights weigh off, their percentage is gonna be based on their weight, it's not ideal anyway. But for me, I'm not necessarily looking at that body fat percentage, I'm gonna go and look at their actual kilos of fat mass and then each scan that we do, I'm looking to see if that's reducing in kilos even though he's way off in terms of percent. I wanna see that he's making progress rather than just seeing that red, that red mark out there. So green kind of means they're on track within range. They're red means they're out of range and um, yellow is like within 1% I think it is. So they're almost there. So with muscle mass, we have a range that they need to be over. Um, and it's usually like over 50 some of the positions need to be higher than that. Um, and then body fat percent is lower and then the visceral fat is on their side as well. So this all comes from the inbody, which is really cool. Has anyone used an embody machine before? Have you seen them? So it's like a um it's like a machine that you stand on and it's got like a tower in front of you and handles and you like they have at gyms. So it's a um biological impedance though. That's how it works. So your feet on like um platform things and your hands and there's sensors on your hands and on your feet and you stand there and then it plays this music for like 20 seconds or something and the electrodes go through you and it spits out the information on a screen which we then input into our system. So yeah, it's pretty cool. Very. Um yeah, it's, it's, it's good technology to have. OK. So this is also body comp information. So you can see on the weight chart, this is over the whole season from November to August. Um So you can see the weight change. So the red is the in body and the black is the scale weight. So basically, we do an inbody depending on the person, the people who are tracking really closely, we might do them like every two or three weeks, the people who were not tracking closely their body f their like body composition is fine, they might do them once a month or even less. So the red, this is obviously someone we're tracking closely. There's a lot of data here. The red is the in body and the black is what they would check on the scale. So um once a week or twice a week, sometimes depending on the week, they would jump on the scales in the change sheds and they'll put it into their wellness data. So um we track weight that way as well. So just an idea of that, we can see both. So for some people who don't put their weight in correctly on their scale weight, some people tend to just, you know, like they'll just say I'm a, I'm 100 every time they jump on, I'm 100.0 which we know that's very unlikely. But we can kind of see if there's a trend going on that their scale weight is vastly different from their end body also in body is always fasted. So in body weight, you would assume would always be lower than scale weight on this side, we can see again, their muscle mass over the season and their body fat over the season where I feel like perhaps there's a number that's wrong in the muscle mass version here, that little, um, peak in the middle. Um, and sometimes like, if they've eaten muscle mass goes up, if they've trained anything that's gonna make the muscles swell and like hold fluid in your muscles, they're are like over hydrated, like their muscle mass will look really high. So sometimes we can't take any one measure. We just gotta look at trends over time and then the body fat you can see in the blue there as well. So that's another way that we kind of look at it and we track people over time and that education piece around not taking anyone scan as like gospel. And really, it's just a piece of data that we're putting into a big picture of how we're going because a lot of them can get caught up on like, oh my gosh, it was, it was heaps better today or it was heaps worse today. But really if something was different in terms of hydration, it's going to, it's gonna play out like that. And this is the, this is how our wellness data comes out in terms of like how we look at it or on our end. So you can see a great mood, the stress, anxiety, sleep quality, and then it's soreness for the different body parts. And then across here is if they do screening, they might put their weight in the middle and then this is screening like they do a squeeze, they do a, um, you know, sit and reach that all that sort of stuff sometimes in the morning just to flag anyone who's, who's really tight or, you know, has soreness in, in, in any particular area so the performance team can stay across it. Ok. Any questions. Now, I know, I know that you've had lectures already on like, you know, energy systems like carbs, protein fats, whatever. So this today, I really wanted to be more like a practical type session. Like what are you gonna see in practice? So it's not so much, you know, their specific needs, but more. So how are we gonna use all that information and put it into practice within this environment? So in the preseason, we are, this is by far the most demanding time for a dietician in terms of, you know, when we have a lot of work to do because it's the most demanding for like physically for the players. And it means that there's a lot of input from us as well. So um basically what we're looking at in the preseason, we've definitely got individual goals and we need to set those with staff and with the athletes. So really important to involve the athlete in this because they have really great insight into their own body. And also again, from a trust perspective, like me coming in and saying like, hey, I think you should put on 10 kg and they're like, oh my gosh, like that seems so overwhelming for me to say. Is there anything you want to work on at the, in the preseason? They're like, oh, I think I really like to put a bit away. Like, usually they're on the same page but for me to just dictate what that is, is often quite, um, people can get their backup sometimes. So we do, I do screening, um, we do like testing questionnaires, etcetera. So for nutrition, I always do like an assessment form, basically that I send them out just as a Google form before we start and they would fill that in, you know, all the questions that I would normally ask someone in the first session who does the shopping and cooking in your house. Who do you live with? Um, what are the things that you feel like you're doing well with nutrition at the moment? I just have like a checklist, what are the things you really want to work on in the preseason? And I have a checklist because if I ask them to say it or like think about the answer, I get nothing back. But if I put a list of all the different things I could possibly want to work on, they'll be like, oh yeah, that, that, that, that, that's fine. We'll work on those things. So things like that can be really helpful. And then with them, I'll sit down for an individual consult and be like these are the things you told me you wanna work on. How are we gonna do that? And we set some goals for preseason for each player. Um Recovery nutrition is huge because like I mentioned before, when they're having, you know, so much time at training, so many sessions back to back, we need to be really thinking about recovery. Um This is where a lot of the education for nutrition happens. So we'll try and integrate that into our program, which is super tight, hard to get time, but worthwhile. So again, really lucky that my performance director is on board. He's like every two weeks, we'll do nutrition education or something related to nutrition. So that's really great. Um I think collaboration with other staff is really, really important because I'm not there all the time. So other people need to reinforce the messages that I'm giving outside of the times that I'm there. So really making sure the other staff are on board with all of that is so key so that they can be delivering and driving those messages when I'm not there. Ok. So in preseason, as I said, usually the busy busiest time and the most demanding physically for the athletes. These are some of our boys last season doing some cooking. Um So really this time is a really nice opportunity to work on their specific goals. So it might be life skill development, it might be, you know, assessment data and really looking at how we're going to optimize that for them. And this is also a really nice time that the players are actually thinking about this stuff. It's really important to them in preseason to get their bodies right, to make sure that they're doing all the things where once the season kicks off, other things take over the pressure of the sport, you know, backing up week in and week out being so all that stuff can take over. So we might try some different, you know, nutrition strategies and this is where they often feel maybe comfortable to do that because they're not playing. So it might be that we, you know, can have a period of time where we're experimenting with increasing carbs or, um, you know, changing their nutrition around a little bit. Um, body composition is still the main thing that we manipulate in preseason. Like it's a big part of it, um, in previous years and particularly before I was, you know, like when I first started, like, really typical is that the players would go off off season, have a great time, relax, not think about footy, come back and then they'd have to work so hard to get their body back to where it was in terms of the shape that they were in. Like they didn't train, they didn't eat very well, etcetera. So the longer that I've been there and been able to help the boys in the off season, you know, understand that they can relax, but they can also think about food, you know, all that sort of stuff, like, really trying to help them understand how to eat well and not be too restrictive as well in their off-season has helped them come back in ok shape. So they don't have to do as much work. And so I'm trying to keep them on track all of that time. Um, it's a lot of work but it's, it's really worthwhile when they come back and the coaches are impressed and everyone's happy and they're happy because they've come back in really good shape, which is, which is, you know, great. So, right now in off-season, I've got like 10 boys that I'm tracking really quick, like keeping in touch with, have plans for and talking to them consistently about their food, even though they're, they're off when they're in the off season. And there's not many, like no other real staff member is doing that except for nutrition. Cos nutrition is one of those things that's 24 7. You eat all the time regardless if you're playing or not. And it's something that you can't just switch off from like training, like you can switch off from training, you can go home, not think about it. You're always thinking about food. So helping them to understand how to manage that. Well, when they're on their own, when they're at home is really, really important. Um So during this time as well, we might be like prep planning some of the logistics for the season ahead and then hydration, monitoring individual plans for hydration is something that we also do in preseason and something I often do with students getting them to, um, you know, track a couple of players and do their weights before and after training to kind of give them an individual recommendation for their hydration. So during the season season, we're looking at, you know, what to do on Match day, which is massive, making sure they're having enough food, enough, um, hydration, um, as well, leading into their games, we're looking at match day timelines which I'll show you in a minute systems for nutrition and hydration. Now, this is so important because I'm not there on game day. Some dietitians are there on game day, but often, particularly in rugby league, they're not. So I my gear steward is like my best friend at training. So he is the person that gets there like, I don't know, 10 hours before the game starts sets up, puts everything out has all the subs like, you know, he does all the uniforms like all the normal stuff, but he's like the nutrition guy, he knows what they all have, he has all their drinks sorted. He knows at halftime like this person has half a Red Bull and this person has Powerade and this person has beetle juice and whatever else. He knows everyone's stuff like a little pocket rocket and I don't have to be there. But I can, you know, he's someone that I collaborate with a lot because he coordinates all of that on game day. So having other people understand the role of nutrition is really important. So he's someone I'm always educating cos he actually, he sees a lot more than I do on game day. I'll give you an example. Some of our players. Uh do you know the role of um pickle juice in cramping? Have you heard of all of that? So it, you, do you take it when you, when you cramp right to like stop the cramp? Um It's disgusting. That's why it works cos it, it cuts off the signal cos it tastes so gross. Um Some of the boys were like having it before the game to like, yeah, that face, I also make that um to prevent the cramp, but really annoyingly they put it on the bottle says it like prevents cramps. So they're drinking this like horrible pickle juice before a game to prevent, to prevent cramps like 40 minutes before, before they have to play like disgusting, absolutely disgusting. And that stuff I don't see unless someone else brings it to my attention. So then I have the opportunity to go and say to people like you don't have to, you don't have to drink that. I don't why, like, some of them were drinking it and vomiting before the game because it was so gross. But they don't have to do that cos it doesn't really do much in the way of prevention. So, stuff like that comes up on game day that I don't have any idea about, but that, you know, they can, they can obviously tell me about which is great. Um injury and illness is really something that we look at a lot in like during the season. Um and making sure there's a really good referral process. So when the physios see people for injuries, they know to contact me and be like, hey, this is, this has happened to this person. Can you educate them accordingly on what they need for their injury? So we have specific protocols that we use for like um bone injuries in terms of they need more calcium if they've had a facial bone injury, like a lot of um athletes have had to put on like a soft smoothie dough. I've had a couple of broken jaws where they can't eat for six weeks so that everything has to come through a straw. So those kind of nutrition, um interventions are quite specific. But if it's say a hamstring injury or you know, a calf injury or something like that, we can make sure that they're across their micro nutrient intake, which means a really big focus on fruit and vegetables, which I try to make as like, prescriptive as possible and interesting as possible. Cos if I just say, hey, like, eat more fruit and veg, they'd be like, yeah. Yeah, Nicola's always talking about that. But I have to be like, these nutrients are really important for this part of your muscle and I really try and tie it into what they need for their injury to get back to play and make it sound probably more exciting than it actually is. And so sometimes that means I need you to have two cups at lunch and two cups of dinner. I need you to measure it out and make sure you're getting that specific amount so that it's part of their prescription, they're like invested in it. So then the other thing during the season is our concussion protocol and follow up. So obviously, concussion is huge in, um, in rugby league, um and something that everyone's trying to get across and make sure that it's not having the effects that, you know, can potentially have. So we have a protocol in terms of nutrition where, um, immediately they are given uh like protein, a pre a premixed protein to be able to get the delivery of nutrients into the brain as quickly as possible, which is really, really important. So we also want that to be food, but often after a concussion, people's appetite is very low, really common for people not to feel like eating or they feel like they're gonna vomit. So we try and get uh a protein in as soon as possible. They also get a specific um like pill pack. So we have um creatine, which is really important um post concussion for quick delivery of energy to the brain. Same way that it does that in muscle regenerates quickly. They take um a high dose of omega three supplements. And um Joel was just saying you had Greg peoples for one of your energy systems lecture. So we've been working with Greg with their Omega three studies over the last couple of years at the Dragons and um looking at, you know, the players Omega three status and trying to optimize that so that for injury prevention and injury recovery as well as concussion prevention. So what we think it's not like their research is, is new. But what we think is if their Omega three index is optimal, so above 8% then their ability to recover from a concussion is, is optimized. It's, it's gonna happen quicker. So we make sure that their levels are increased during preseason. They take more pills than, than what they do during the season to get their Omega three index up and then post concussion. They take Omega three supplementation as well in that immediate post concussion period. So they get three days worth in the concussion pack and then they see me and then they take it for two weeks at a higher dose. We also do um B two supplementation. So, vitamin B two or riboflavin has been shown to decrease the number of days that it takes to recover from a concussion. And um this is relatively like new information. But um there was a study done last year or the year before and it was really quite um like it was a, a well done study. It's the first that's shown that. But also all of these things that we use are very safe supplements to be having. So like the benefit of them, potential benefit outweighs any potential risk of taking those supplements. Like creatine, we're already taking, taking it at a higher dose, very safe supplement. We're already taking omega threes higher dose, very safe B two, same thing. So we do all of those things. We also take magnesium, vitamin D and a probiotic because that's what we take every single day. And I just make sure that they keep taking those things in that post concussion period. So, as well as that they have like a whole sheet that I give them on. Um making sure they're getting enough nutrition in. If they're not feeling like eating, we recommend them to have bland foods. Like if that's all they can eat, try and have bland foods because them having food is one of the biggest things that we need to make sure that they're getting energy back into the system. Yeah, so that all happens post concussion and that happens during the game, but it also happens during training as well sometimes and sometimes it happens and the players don't even realize or know until they're at home later that night. And they're like, wow, I don't, I don't feel that great. So we try and be on top of it as much as we can, but it doesn't always happen like that. Um ok, so this is our just to show you like, this is our game day, like a guide for game day of like what foods to eat. And when the timing of foods, which is something that some of them struggle with eating enough, like trying to get enough meals in before a game. Something we've done a lot of education around this year is really like for the, especially for the NRL boys knowing if they play at eight o'clock at night, like just having lunch is not, that's not ok. Like that's, you have to eat more than that. So you have to get up, you have to have Brekkie, you have to have lunch, you have to have your two hours before snack, you have to have your primer half an hour before you have to have all these things to be able to optimize performance. And this is something that we've really increased over this year. It talks about their caffeine intake. So again, caffeine we use for you know, delaying fatigue. Some of them overdo caffeine on game day. So a lot of education about, you know, the fact that caffeine actually only kicks in like 30 to 40 minutes after you take it. So, like you having, I don't know, pre workout at halftime, it's probably not, probably not effective. It's probably gonna mean you're gonna sleep even less than you already do and most of them would not sleep after a game anyway. So, um, really making sure that they understand what caffeine is effective for and when it's gonna be effective. So we have, you can see that many options for caffeine on a game day. We've got no dos, we've got pre workout, we've got Red Bull, we've got gum and obviously they have their own coffee. It, they don't all take those things. They all have different preferences. So all of that is available for them if they want, if they want to have something. Um, and then game day hydration, we've started making up these drinks a few years ago because we have some really heavy sweaters in our team. Um, every team would have these people who really lose a lot in terms of fluid when they're playing. So s um this is targeted at specific players, but they get this before the game. So it's got hydra light, it's got so hydro obviously has a good amount of salt in it. So it's gonna help with holding on to that water. We use Glycerol, which is also a hyperhydration supplement, which helps to hold on to water. Which Glycerol, uh do you know much about Glycerol? So it used to be a banned substance like a few years ago because they thought it masked the use of other substance because of that hyperhydration. Anyway, it's, it's not anymore, which is great and it's really safe. You can buy it from the supermarket. Um So we, we use cholesterol to top that up and then the Powerade at the top is just for flavor, like whatever, but obviously salt. Carbs gonna be helpful, helpful for water retention. So, um uh Mick, our gear steward makes these up on game day and he gives them to specific players who will drink them before a game. If they are someone who tends to lose a lot of fluid in the game, everyone else would probably just have Powerade like water as well. But we really try and encourage the consumption of carbohydrates and fluid and salt before a game to hold on to that fluid to make sure they're not losing a lot. Ok. So then during the off season, which is what we're in right now, we always do a review of the season. We always plan for next season like we do that at the end of the season. So we, we do a bit more planning in November, but most of the planning's already happened um before we break up So we always look at, you know, body comp manipulation. This is the time for me to really get involved because during the season, it's really hard to manipulate body comp because of all the things that we've spoken about. So right now when they're off, like it's not ideal for the players cos they're like, oh we just want to relax, but I'm like, this is the best time for you to focus on your food cos you can do it without all the training requirements. So body comp stuff is happening. Um We look at systems and things that we can make better for next season. This is across the board. This is every discipline. What are we doing? How can we improve it? What can we do differently next season to make it better? We're always looking to improve and change and and make things a little bit different and then obviously there's our injured players. So the players who are injured in the off season unfortunately have to keep training and they just rehab for the whole off-season. Basically, if they need to with a little bit of time off, ok. Any questions about stuff during the season planning during the season? Alright. So catering huge part of, of my role is doing catering. Um I'm not a foodie either, like I'm not like obviously I like food and I eat and I I cook, I've got a family so I cook every night. Um but I'm not like a real, I don't know, like I don't make delicious food all the time. That looks pretty and put it on Instagram. I don't, I'm not like go out for food a lot. I'm not like super creative with food, you know, like, so I, I need help when it comes to catering. So I have amazing caterer who like put together menus and ideas and I go, yep, that one works. That one works. I need this much protein, this much carbs this much veg. Can you come up with ideas of how that's gonna look and they're the ones who put that in. So I don't have to create the meals. Thank goodness other people do that. And I just kind of coordinate, coordinate it all because my, like people always ask me like, do you have any other ideas or recipes or I was like mate, just taste.com. Like go on the internet. You can find so many recipes and then adjust it to what I'm telling you to do. Like I'm telling you to have these portions this much food. Go for it, go for it. It's not, this is not my, my forte. It's not like um inventing meals. Um, so really important part of the service though. And like I said, this is a great way for people to like kind of not know what we do. But you get by in with people with food because people love food. So if I give them really great food and they think it's amazing. They're like, wow, Nicola's doing a really good job, which I may or may not be, but they think it is because the food's good. So this part of the service, depending on like the team, it completely depends on budget, on travel, on cooking facilities, time constraints. There's so many variable factors within, within the catering. Um I'm really always trying to make sure there's something that everyone will eat. It's really hard. Every lunch I cater for 70 people. Like it's really, it can be really difficult. I have a few players who are fussy who like won't they'll be like me, I'm just gonna buy my own food, only a few, but most of them are happy to eat the food that we provide. So buffets can be really great because it can be a really nice way for people to execute what I've asked them in terms of portioning. Um They can put as much as they need for their own requirements on their plate. They can also go overboard, which is just a learning experience for them, but something that's, that can be really helpful. It's also nice for me to be at the buffet. People think I'm like the food police, but actually I'm just there to like offer guidance and be like, hey, this is a good choice. Like what were you gonna put on your plate? How do you think you could manipulate that, etcetera. Um We often use prepacked meals, particularly post COVID, like I'll show you in a minute meals that are already done. Um You know, they're made up for the players super convenient. You can just come grab your food, eat it like they eat it within five minutes and they're gone and they're done. So that can be really helpful. Um The meal times are one of my favorite times to be able to talk to people about food, especially the sta actually the staff more so than the players, but I'll go and sit with them. We'll have a chat about what it is. Um, you know, but with the players as well, I might be able to talk to them like, hey, you're eating that, like, how do you like it? Um, you know, my player that came from the other club that hated carbs, started eating carbs and he'd asked me about every food, like every meal, like, is this ok, like which one's better, you know, all that sort of stuff. So, really, it's a, it's a nice way to be able to drum up conversation around food. Um, as I told you before, I keep the fridge and the pantry stocked at all times. Ok. I don't know if this is gonna work, but I just want to show you what kind of, what it looks like to cater for a lot of people. So this one is, would be like a typical lunch of prepacked meals. Um, some snacks, some yogurts, etcetera. And this is a day when lunch got, I don't know what happened. We had to make our own lunch. We had to go to Woolies and I lucky I had a student with me. Um, we had to go and make toasties. A million toasties, fruit bars, you know, yogurt and Muesli cups, that kind of stuff. So, a lot of food, this is easy to grab sort of stuff. We would often do this kind of thing. We also do the buffet types of things when we go out and then I use places like Guzman and places like things like that all the time and they just bring in food and like the boys love it, which is really good. Ah, ok. So the other things when it comes to catering, uh, I do all their meal planning for travel. So every time the team travels, I do all their menus. So for the hotels that they go at, it helps. We always like the teams in the NRL. They all stay at a co, um, hotels and Acor have like a, like, this is what you can do for breakfast. This is what you can do for lunch type of system. So I do all the menus, but it's kind of guided by their recommendations. Um, sort of. So, um, all of the hotel menus are done. Any like, deliveries to buses, you know if they're traveling, I get food delivered to the field so they can eat lunch before they go to the airport. So they can go and then I get food delivered to the hotel so they can eat when they get there. Then if they're going out to a restaurant, I order, you know, organize all the food at the restaurant so they can eat there, then anything that they have at the hotel. So all of them, all of the planning for travel happens with the dietitian which is um sometimes a lot and then all the game day food has to be provided. So we do pregame meals. So whether that's at a hotel or have to order that in um snacks for the dressing shed are always ordered and bought by the store from Woolies. So we make sure that the gear steward has all of that. Every snack that we want provided for them to be able to pick at is available. Um And we just have things like bars, rice crackers, selection of lollies, very important um bananas, muffins like that kind of stuff, easy food that they can pick out before a game. Um all the performance and fueling sups for a game. So all of the supplementation, the caffeine, the beetroot juice, the pickle juice, all that sort of stuff is there for game day um halftime snacks and drinks and then postgame food. So I always order food for after the game to come in. And that's usually something that's super easy to eat palatable like pizza burgers, you know, sometimes Guzman and things like that, things that they are happy to eat. Cos they often don't want to eat, many of them don't eat until later that night. Cos they just don't have an appetite, whether it's just adrenaline or they've lost the game or whatever, it's really, it can be really difficult to get them to eat after a game. Ok. So in terms of supplements, you've had a supplement lecture. Did you just learn about different supplements and what they do? Is that how it was structured? Oh, great. Ok. Yep. Awesome. So, not all codes. Um, not all team sports have a supplement policy. The NRL bought one in, um, post supplement scandal. I don't know what year that was, but I don't know if you know about that. But anyway, some stuff went wrong with clubs and their supplement use. Um, so the, the NRL brought in a supplement policy that we have to adhere to since that. And, um, also according to that policy, now you need to have a dietician on your team to be able to run the supplement program. So most clubs employ a dietitian at least, or contract a dietitian. Some clubs have just had someone just to do the supplements cos it was a requirement, but usually most clubs have a dietician. So we have a whole policy that we need to adhere to. So we need to do education for staff and players. And you know, obviously we look at food first, the whole approach is to make sure we're utilizing food before supplements. But there is definitely a place for supplements, their requirements um are hard to meet because they're so high micronutrients and macronutrients, they're the performance supplements. Like there's no doubt that, you know, things like Creatine um beat Alanine, there's like all these performance supplements that actually have a really great benefit for the, for the players that we can't ignore and that are helpful and we're always looking for that like 1% that thing that's gonna help them just to be a little bit better. So all of our recommendations are based on the A as framework. Our supplements need to be batch tested or third party tested to make sure that well, you can never 100% make sure but to minimize the risk of contamination. Um And the test that they show up all the time, the people who test um they just randomly show up at training and start doing testing on anyone. So they never know when they're gonna come. But for, for the dietitian, we do all the ordering. I do all the stocktake and the distribution inv inventory of all the supplementation. Um I have to run the supplement committee meeting so we get together three times a season to like review what we're doing. Have a look at what's working, what's not, are we changing anything? Where is it stored? It always has to be locked away all that sort of stuff and then always reviewing, um I suppose our systems and if things are effective, like for example, we use collagen at the moment for um specific players who are either injured, have been injured recently or are old, basically. So higher risk of injury. So, um but at the moment, the way we do it, it's ki doesn't have a great uptake, kind of tastes gross. So I don't blame the boys for not necessarily loving what like to take it. So, are we having to think about now? Like how are we gonna do this differently different next year? Do we get a new supplement provider? Do we set it out differently? Do we just monitor and make sure that we're someone standing there to like witness them taking it all those types of things? So just kind of assessing the systems that we have in place to try and see what's gonna be more effective. Um Any questions on supplements? No. Ok. So the last thing I wanted to talk about was just some other things that I, you know, have the opportunity to be involved in um working in team sport. It's not always just stuff with the team. I actually do a lot of cool things outside of, you know, doing things with the team, which is really great not actually not really ma many of the other staff members have the opportunity to do work like this. So I do um a bit of community involvement at the Dragons. We have a community program that is called the best you can be. It's like a health, health and exercise program. And players and the community team go out to primary schools and they teach them about like movement and mindfulness and nutrition and all that types of things. So, um this is Tara, she's an NRLW player and she's on our community staff. So we like film videos for the schools to be able to use around cooking. So I can't we made muffins or something here. But um that's been really cool to kind of be involved in that other things I've been involved in is like education for sports trainers. So people within sport who want to be like a level two sports trainer. So I do their nutrition education, um giving them some general knowledge and understanding around nutrition and team sports basically. Um I do a bit of education for the whole staff. So basically in football, we have our football staff, which is like all of our performance team as well as coaches, admin, um sports data guys. Like all this whole team, there's a whole other side of the business that does um corporate sponsorships and accounting and like this whole team of peak marketing game day, all that sort of stuff So we do like nutrition education for the staff, like to make sure that they're, you know, have a good understanding and they're being, you know, um on track with their nutrition goals and all that sort of stuff. So that's been really cool. So not targeted at the players at all. Um also involved in our academy programs. So our programs that where our players from, our pathways, teams are like identified as being the best of their group and we bring them in as academy. And basically we train the academy um a little bit differently to the other players and they come the idea is that the academy players come through to our um NRL pathways. So being involved with that has been great. And then as I mentioned before, we did some research collaborations with some of the team from UOW um Greg and his colleagues with the uh Omega three stuff which has been really, that was really cool to be involved in that and lucky enough to get some research published. Um which was great. SPEAKER 0 OK, I think that's it. Alright. SPEAKER 1 Questions useful. SPEAKER 0 Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. My question about the body. There was a guy who was like, he was like 18, almost 19 kg, like under the target weight. SPEAKER 1 How aggressive do you like kind of like I would, well, first I would timeline that. So where is he at? At 17? Like, yes, he's in the NRL squad. But when do we expect him to be playing NRL. So according to like where you are now and the age you're gonna be when we're expecting you to play, how do we see your body comp like how do we see your weight going there? But honestly, with that guy, very aggressive, very ineffective. Yeah. Also the Inbody is super interesting because one of our players is um his 3% body fat always has been, but like you wouldn't look at and when we did skin folds the previous year, he was never super low. Like his skin folds are fine. He's lean, whatever, but he's not like super low skin folds but on the in body for some reason, he's always 3% like he's, I whatever, the way that he reads is just very different. But that, that kid, yes, he is very lean. He's little, he's had lots of broken bones. He w yep, he eats a lot, he eats a lot of food and he's just got that body type where he's just a hard gainer. He just really struggles to put on weight and we just keep do, we just keep working like Tyrell, we, we just, we just keep chipping away every season to put on weight and he's like he's getting there like it's just so it's just so putting on weight is so much harder than losing it for these, for these players. And that's been my experience. It's so much harder. Um And they have to be so much more diligent. It's just it's a really yeah for the people who really struggle to put it on it's it's hard, it's hard work but yeah, I don't know if we'll ever get there with that. Kim. He's got so much potential. He's very talented which is why he's in the program but he's a little it's gonna get creamed. SPEAKER 0 Yeah. SPEAKER 1 Anything else? Cool. Thanks for coming turning up. That's good. Alright, no worries you see that. SPEAKER 0 Yeah, so hi hi here let me turn myself off. Ok. Ok because yeah um he was 12 years old has been helping you to work on the nut so he been playing for um and oxygen. What can I assist you with? Because there's so little but I can't give you all of this because it's just too little. What is he? What does he need to do something with his nut? Um its just the protein aspect. Um he eats a lot of like snacks. He kind of is like eating whatever we give him but like there's no plan like yeah it's all one of the shop like he eats lollies chocolate and ice cream and which is probably fine. SPEAKER 1 Right? SPEAKER 0 Because you know something I often do with people particularly with kids that I see in a lot of them come through. My private practice is we really try and get some structure so it could be used to be like ok, let me and often breakfast and tea. So, like, how do we make Big Pro? And then, you know, school's really hard to change because they've usually got the things that they like. But then after the tea, how do you like, either have something there for him to eat? So, maybe leftovers or? I love breakfast in the afternoon. Like, can you get home? I want you to make eggs on to when you have like eight weeks of milk and like things like that. He could do it to fill him up after school as well. Um, he trains like three days a week. He's busy, busy. He just has no structure. And so he eating is kind of overly disordered like in a way because he's just on the go all, usually not chocolate or like he's just always on sugar. And so I was just looking at this lecture. It's like, what do I give him to make that structure? Because I've got