ATHLETES’ KNOWLEDGE OF REDUCED SPORTS NUTRITION

Abstract

Decades of research support the theory that when there are sports competitions the¬re is also the question of what to eat and drink in order to enhance sports per¬for¬man¬ce. Optimal diet can reduce fatigue, and allow athletes who train longer and compete to recovering faster (Lin and Lee, 2005). Nutritional status has a direct impact on the level of physical effect. In other words, the physical condition of pre¬paration much depends on the nutritional status of persons engaged in sport (Beals and Manore, 1998). Methods: The sample was composed of 60 professional athletes from Montenegro (football, basketball and judo). Knowledge of reduced sports nu¬tri¬tion was tested by means of a standardized questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to determine the knowledge of sports nutrition, the ingredients that are nece¬ssa¬ry in order to provide a sufficient amount of energy for training and compe¬tition, the dietary supplements, a meal prior to the competition as well as dehydration and re¬hy¬dration during training and competition. Results: According to the results as a who¬le, it can be concluded that the professional athletes’ knowledge of sports nutrition is at a satisfactory level. Out of 1200 responses 787 correct answers were achieved, or 65.5%. However, when looking at the individual responses then the satisfaction with the relative high percentage is not equal since we observed large gaps on very import¬ant issues related to sports nutrition. Discussion: By analyzing and comparing re¬se¬arch results (Matkovic, Prince & Cigrovski, 2006),in a sample of 56 basketball and ski¬ing coaches, 77.8% of correct answers were received. From a survey (Vasiljevic, Bo¬ja¬nic, Petkovic & Muratovic, 2014) of 30 licensed coaches from Mon¬tenegro (foot¬ball, handball, basketball, volleyball, athletics and tennis) 78.,1% of correct answers were received. By looking into the results of our study, it is clear that the results indicate that athletes provided a lower percentage of correct answers in relation to sports coaches, which was expected.. If we take into account the fact that athletes often use a dietary supplement exactly as recommended by coaches, it would be expected that the people who advise taking these supplements should know about any problems.