MAG snacks during practice?

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Men's Artistic Gymnastics
Yep 3 hours in that time frame pretty much needs a snack. For kids doing 2 hours, sometimes they can bring a snack but no more than 5 minutes of break time.

I used to keep cheesesticks, milk, bananas, apples, trail mix/nuts, granola bars handy for myself or kids at a few gyms. Not that I wanted them depending on me for a snack but sometimes they would forget theirs. Nothing more worse than a gymnast in practice who is in Crash N' Burn mode because they haven't ate anything in 3-5 hours or they are empty.

Yogurt also works but man my 5 and 6yo boys used to take sooooooo long to finish just a cup of yogurt.

So that's the thing...find snacks that they can finish quickly. This is also something they need to learn instead of just taking their sweet time finishing. Some kids would get an extension because they NEEDED to eat for whatever reasons. Erik ate slowly because of GERD. Some other kids basically needed enough time for a small meal because of the time of day (dinner-ish).

The rest should be able to eat between 5-10 minutes and if they are messing around, burpees. 5-10 for every minute late.

I also preferred to give them a snack break so I could see what they were eating instead of how the girls at one gym just went to their lockers on the way to bathroom/water breaks and would eat stuff out of the vending machines or skittles or M&M's out of their lockers.
 
I pack a snack for DS, who has the same practice time, but dinner is in the car on the way home. It is a 20 minute drive and he simply couldn't make it home.
 
We started our fall schedule this week, and my son (6yo) has been an absolute beast after practice. It's the timing more than the length of the practice, I think. He's there 4:00-7:00, and we usually eat dinner around 6:00-6:30. By the time we got home last night, he was in full on meltdown mode. It was definitely a low blood sugar issue, because he was fine as soon as he ate dinner. He had this issue a couple of times last year even when they were only practicing for 2 hours at a time, and it helped when I started making sure he had a more substantial snack before practice. Yesterday the pre-practice snack didn't seem to help.

Another parent suggested bringing something he could eat quickly during a water break. Any ideas on what I could give him? I haven't seen anyone else eating snacks mid-practice, but I don't think the coach would mind. It would just need to be something quick that he would actually eat. Has anyone else had to do this or is my kid just weird? I have to get this under control, because I know it will be even worse when he starts school in a couple of weeks.
My son likes beef jerky keeps it in his bag when he needs a quick bite. We also feed him right after school at 3:15 and then he eats again when he gets home. He’s been in gym for 12 years now so he is pretty good at knowing what he needs but when he was younger we had to make him snack too or he was a bear!
 

New Posts

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

New Posts

Back