TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer If your athlete is struggling to fall asleep, stay asleep through the night, or is dealing with some mild feelings of anxiety, tweaking their nutrition habits can help. Here, TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer, a registered dietitian and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics, offers a few simple [...]
While it’s tempting to set all your goals for the season around specific athletic performances, goals that are oriented around wellness can make you both a stronger athlete and a healthier human. Simple changes to your daily routine, like making more time for sleep or eating the right snack after practice, can [...]
Deborah Gilboa, MD Building your resilience in the face of adversity is an important part of developing as an athlete and as a human. Passing that knowledge and these practices on to your teammates can also help the team navigate tough moments and get through challenging situations! Here, board-certified family [...]
More conversations are happening about the importance of mental wellness for student-athletes, and mental health is increasingly talked about in similar ways as physical health. But how are communities, schools, trainers, parents, coaches, and even the athletes themselves best able to support mental wellbeing within youth sport? It’s not an issue that [...]
TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer When chilly fall weather hits, there’s no meal that’s more comforting and satisfying than a hearty soup or stew. And with your athlete in the middle of a competitive season and busy school year, soups are also a simple option for parents who are simply too [...]
TrueSport Expert Nadia Kyba You’ve probably heard of self-care, but have you heard the term ‘communal care’? As a member of a team, whether you’re in a leadership role or not, you can be practicing communal care to help your teammates—and to help yourself in the process. But how do [...]
Deborah Gilboa, MD Many parents mistakenly think that setting rules like ‘respecting your elders’ is enough when it comes to teaching kids and teens about respect. But what exactly does respect mean, and what does it look like in the real world? As with many things in life, the best [...]
Deborah Gilboa, MD As a coach, you likely have certain assumptions around receiving respect from your athletes. However, when was the last time you really considered what respect means to you—and how your athletes define it? Respectful behaviors might seem obvious to you, but often, what you consider signs of [...]
Deborah Gilboa, MD As a young athlete, you may struggle to ask for respect from your coach, your peers, and even your parents. For example, you might need your coach to communicate feedback differently or you may want your teammates to stop using a particular nickname. Here, board-certified family physician [...]
From a young age, it’s important that your athlete understands that not all kids are going to look the same or have the same abilities. This diversity can be tricky for very young athletes to grasp, but starting the conversation about physical differences early can help your athlete develop into a mature, [...]
TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer If you’re a busy parent, dump and go meals should be your best friend when it comes to getting nutritious, filling, and even budget-friendly meals ready in minutes. The concept is simple: You dump your ingredients together, hit a few buttons, and come home to a [...]
If you’re reading this article, you likely want to start improving the diversity, equity, and inclusion on your team or at your school, but you’re simply not sure where to begin. Here, TrueSport Experts Michele LaBotz, sports medicine physician; Nadia Kyba, MSW, President of Now What Facilitation; and Kevin Chapman, PhD, clinical [...]
Kevin Chapman, PhD TrueSport Expert Nadia Kyba Unfortunately, the world of sport is not without risk: Even the most highly monitored athletes can fall victim to illness and injury. When Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field, eventually recovering consciousness days later in [...]
You may have noticed the term 'intuitive eating' cropping up on blogs, websites, magazines, and podcasts lately. Maybe your young athlete even mentioned it as a nutritional approach they would like to try. While intuitive eating can be helpful for many people, it’s important to know that it has some limitations for [...]
TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer You may have heard about the importance of B vitamins for young people, especially athletes. But before you head to the store to buy a supplement for your athlete, let's dig into a few of the nuances you should know about when it comes to vitamin [...]
You've probably heard how important protein is for athletes. But how much do you really need, when do you need it, and how is it actually helping you? Here, TrueSport Expert Stephanie Miezin, MS, a registered dietitian and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics, explains the latest research around protein intake for young [...]
Access to sport should be a universal right for kids, but unfortunately, even school sports have issues with access that are dependent on socioeconomic status. From away games and high gear costs to simple access to practice areas in urban environments, there are a lot of hidden ways that sport becomes inaccessible [...]
TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer Noodle bowls are one of the most versatile options that busy parents can make to keep athletes well-fed and properly fueled—and most noodle bowls can be repurposed into leftovers for lunch or tweaked into entirely new meals for the next night! Here, TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer, [...]
As a young athlete, it's natural to feel like there are many things in your life that are outside of your control. But often, we underestimate just how much control we do have over interactions with other people, including coaches, parents, officials, physicians, dietitians, and even our peers and teammates. Here, TrueSport [...]
TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer Multiple studies have found that most people are deficient in vitamin D, one of the essential vitamins that everyone—but especially athletes—need in order to function at their best. Athletes are even more at risk because a low level of vitamin D can be disastrous for bone [...]
Amy Eichner, PhD You might have found yourself in the grocery store staring at two similar bars or drink mixes on the shelf. While they look pretty similar at a glance, the labels on the back may look completely different. Why is that? It's because one is using a nutrition [...]
TrueSport Athlete Ambassador Abby Raymond As an athlete, your circle of care – from friends to coaches – is extremely important to your physical wellbeing and your mental wellness. TrueSport Athlete Ambassador Abby Raymond had to learn the hard way how to create a strong circle around her at a [...]
When he was young, Aaron Scheidies dreamed of being a professional soccer player, but as his vision began to decline, his aspirations of playing soccer became unobtainable. He struggled with his mental health, and was eventually diagnosed with an eating disorder, depression, and OCD in high school. Eventually, he discovered swimming—at his [...]
Many young athletes enjoy setting and working toward sport goals, whether it’s achieving a personal best in competition or just doing a certain number of handsprings at each practice. While goals around sport performance are important, non-sport goals are equally critical to a young athlete’s well-being. Here, TrueSport Expert Amanda Stanec, PhD, the [...]
You may have heard about branched chain amino acids, or BCAAs, in a sports magazine or on a fitness nutrition website and wondered what all the hype was about. You may have even wondered what the heck a BCAA actually is and if you need it. But while BCAA powders and capsules [...]