Last night, I watched an awesome game between the two teams representing Ontario at the Under 18 National Championships. The 2 teams were very evenly matched, with Team Ontario Red eventually pulling out the win late into the overtime. Team Ontario Blue was definitely disappointed with the result. They battled so hard against an older and more experienced team and just fell short in the end.

It’s always tough to lose a tight game - and it’s even tougher to turn it around and play again less that 24 hours later.

So what’s the best way to recover with such a tight turn-around time to be able to compete against one of the best teams in the country in less that 24 hours?

Here’s exactly what we did step-by-step:

1) Post-Game Nutrition:
Players immediately had the best post-game recovery drink ever (chocolate milk) even before we started the cool-down. Getting that high-quality and high-energy back into your system ASAP will make a massive difference on how you feel for the next game.

2) Cool-Down:
We then went for our jog, did our dynamic stretches to loosen up their tight hockey muscles and spent 10 minutes focusing on 4 keys stretches that will help them recover their best. At this point, it was almost 11pm at night and the last thing the girls wanted to do was a 15 minute cool-down. Well, cool-downs are non-negotiable when playing at this level, so we went through the whole routine which made a HUGE difference in how they felt and played today.

3) Post-Game Meal:
Once we were done with the cool-down and ready to jump on the bus back to the hotel, it had been about an hour since the game ended. The girls hadn’t eaten for over 6 hours, so they probably could have (and would have) eaten just about anything at that point. We gave them the quickest and healthiest option we could at that time of night - subs on whole wheat bread and lots of water. Tons of carbohydrates, a good amount of protein and tons of water to rehydrate within 90 minutes of the game really speeds up the recovery process.

4) Pre-Game Warm-Up:
This mornings pre-game warm-up was the final key in getting the players to perform their best with such a tight turnaround between games. They were definitely tired and a little bit tight today, so we did an extra long warm-up with a lot more dynamic stretching than we would normally do to shake off the effects of last night’s game and get them feeling 100% for today.

All of those recovery strategies must have worked - Ontario Blue ended up winning 3-1 this afternoon.
Those 4 little things really made a HUGE difference in their performance and they will make a huge difference in your performance too.

What strategies do you use in between games with a tight turnaround to make sure that you perform your best out on the ice?