General Information ......

Volunteers Needed

Like all clubs, the real backbone of Welland Junior FC are the volunteers. Without them the club would fold and any help is always greatly appreciated, no matter how small. How can you help?

The club has recently appointed Jo Goodger as the volunteers liaison officer.
Please contact if you wish to help in any way.

Food for Football

Here’s a fact: Young footballers can have all the skills in the world but without the proper nutritional support, they won’t be as fit as they could be and their performances will suffer. They won’t be able to train as hard or as long, so
won’t improve their play, and during games run the risk of getting tired. How they perform during games and raining depends on what they eat and drink before, during and after each match or session. If they eat and drink the right
stuff, they will improve.

Here’s some advice to make sure they’ll be a bundle of energy out on the pitch! First off, let’s look at the essential nutrients young footballers need to be eating, and the foods they’re found in. Nutrient found in:

Footballers need increased energy to gain that extra edge, and that’s most commonly found in carbohydrate. Now, in a healthy diet, 55-60% of it should come from carbohydrate, but for footballers, it’s even higher - as much as 70%.

Of course, players need other nutrients too and it’s not easy to get the perfect intake of carbohydrate from eating a
regular three meals a day. The way to do it is by snacking - snacks play a crucial role in a player’s diet, especially if eaten immediately after training or a match. That’s when the energy stores in the muscles which have just been working are best refuelled.

Snack Attack

These snacks are high in carbohydrate but low in fat:

Fluids Rule - I’ll drink to that!

The importance of fluids in Football nutrition has been recognised now for over a decade. Fluids are a vital part of proper football nutrition. It’s with virtual certainty that fluids and proper hydration will improve your football performance.

First, lets establish and rectify the myth that you only need to think about sports drinks on match day. Fluid replacement is just as important during training as it is during a match. If you are going to use sports drinks during a match, then it’s imperative that you first try them out during training. Why? Simple, some drinks can make you feel bloated and even upset your stomach. Have you ever tried to play with a bloated stomach? Can you possibly play at your peak with an upset stomach?

Another common myth surrounding the football fields is that you only need to drink on extremely hot days when you
become thirsty. This couldn’t be further from the truth. For starters, you need to drink whatever the temperature. Also if you wait until your thirsty to drink then the chances are you’re already dehydrated and your performance will suffer significantly.

So why do we need to drink?

When training or competing on match day, many metabolic reactions take place in your body to produce the energy required to make your muscles contract. Through these metabolic reactions heat is produced within your body. You might think to yourself so what? But we must remember that our body temperature must be kept relatively stable within certain temperature ranges. When we exercise, the extra heat we produce is released from the body in the form of sweat. Sweating is our bodies defence mechanism and allows our body to somewhat cool down.

The problem with sweating is that it eventually reduces our performance. Medical journals and scientific literature document that a loss of 2% of your body mass in sweat will create a significant reduction in your performance. So don’t be afraid to drink.

During football it’s customary to drink fluid during breaks like half time, substitutions or even injuries. Don’t you think its coincidence that when a player goes down injured, all his team mates run to the bench for drinks. When America hosted the world cup I clearly remember watching Greece vs Argentina and the South Americans (staff) throwing little plastic fluid bubbles onto the field from the bench at every stop. Players like Gabriel Batistuta, Diego Maradona, Simeone all the big name players running to them like their lives depending on it. This clearly shows that even the biggest players in the world understand the importance of hydration.

As a player you must aim to drink whenever you can. Little amounts and often is proven to be the best method of hydration.

Although I’ve mentioned sports drinks for hydration, it’s a safe bet to announce to the world that plain water is better than drinking nothing at all. However drinks with small sodium or electrolyte concentrations are the best for
football hydration. These drinks will not only speed up the rate at which fluids are absorbed, it also increases the amounts of fluids absorbed by the body.

Lets break down the facts a little, a football player competes for 90 minutes and performs most of his duties at high intensity. This high intensity level depletes the players carbohydrates rapidly. How do we overcome this? Another good source for football players are the drinks that also contain a small concentration of carbohydrates. These drinks can aid in restoring and even protecting your glycogen levels found in your muscles. High carbohydrates
drinks can also be great for immediate post training or post game recovery.

Coaches and parents should NEVER deny a player a drink when they ask for one during training or a game, no matter how inconvenient it may be