Sports Nutrition Knowledge of Saudi Football Players and Coaches - Essay Example

Proposal: Sports Nutrition Evaluation of Sports Nutrition Knowledge of Saudi Football Players and Coaches Introduction Fitness is of prime importance for remaining competitive in the sporting arena. In general all the sports require stamina, games like Football call for optimum functioning of the liver and the muscle glycogen for the supply of the nutrients. Reilly and Doran (2000) stated that due to the irregular change of pace and anaerobic efforts superimposed on light to moderate aerobic activities, football is considered a physiologically demanding game. This underlines the need for prescribing nutritionally rich diet for the football players, which can be done quite effectively by the sports management people in general and the coach in particular. But, these people will be able to fulfil this role if they have the requisite knowledge about the diet principles and the requirements of nutrients. The healthy diet includes solid as well as liquid food items. In order to compete with European and American teams the Saudi footballers will have to make good use of healthy food items. While carrying out a study for Business Insights, Siddika Jaffer (2008), find that the overall market for sports and energy drinks has seen immense growth in the European and US markets and this growth is expected to continue at a rate of about 5 percent till 2011. The study points out that the during the period 2001-06, the Spanish market for sports and energy drinks has witnessed the highest percentage of growth pegged at more than 13 percent. Nutrients help in sustaining the long term needs of training and short-term needs of competition (Hassapidou et al, 2003). It is believed that formal training with proper dietary intervention leads to a number of advantages in enhancing the performance of an athlete in aspects like physical performance, better protection against injuries, maintaining a stable stamina, and proper muscular growth. Therefore having updated information regarding the dietary principles suitable for sportspersons provides an edge to the coach. This study is an effort to analyse the knowledge level amongst the football players and the coaches in Saudi Arabia in general. Review of Literature Literature review not only helps in going through the findings and conclusions of earlier researchers, it also helps in shaping a direction for the present research activity as well, because the researcher tends to get fair idea about the areas requiring particular focus. In this case also we are bound to come across a number of research papers about the necessity and usage of rich energy diets for sportspersons in general. It will our endeavour to go through some such research papers and taking a lead figure out how it is relevant in today’s context. Citing a number of research activities undertaken by different analysts, Ingram and Davies (1996), opined that such sporting activities like soccer, demand a strenuous routine like performing a combination of sub-maximal running and brief periods of sprinting. This in turn tends to reduce the glycogen concentration in muscles to critically low levels, which in turn results in impairment of the performance of the player/s. Bangsbo et al (1992) found out that increased amount of carbohydrate before undertaking a field test involving games like football, has resulted in improving the performances of the player. It was therefore recommended that football players must take increased amount of carbohydrate before the match. Well, it has been many more years since then. On the one hand the football field has become quite competitive while on the other hand a number of companies have come out with stamina enhancing food and drink items. The findings of a survey conducted amongst the football players of 18-32 age groups, in England and Wales in 1995 indicated that about 94 percent of the football players were of the opinion that nutrition is indeed an important element in influencing their on-field performances (Ingram and Davies, 1996). In this study, while majority of the players were of the opinion that ‘proper’ diet has a big role in enhancing their performances, only 6 percent of the participants were found to have the first hand knowledge about the requirement of ‘carbohydrate’ as one of the key ingredients. The study also found out that while about three-fourth of the players had been given formal nutritional advice, more than one-fourth of them were not given any such advice. It is therefore quite clear that while the level of awareness is high amongst the football players, the lack of formal advice and training on the subject is resulting in performance impairment of the team. Niemen (1999) concluded in his analysis that, ‘Nutrition most often ranks third, behind talent and training as a factor that affects athletic Performance’. It was however contended by the researcher that by putting into practice sound Sports Nutrition principles, athletes can optimize this talent and training. It is also very clear that despite the large number of studies undertaken on the subject, not much published data is available detailing the nutrition knowledge of coaches and the type/adequacy of nutrition information they provide. Wolinsky (1998) contended that many coaches tend to prescribe meals, diet regimes, supplements etc. despite not having adequate training in nutrition and imparting scientific information. It has been stated that such misinformed coaches, while expecting weight gain or loss from their athletes, might make things complicated not only for the athletes, but it might adversely impact their overall team performance. Shoaf et al (1986) also indicated that a large number of athletes achieving a low mean nutrition knowledge score, were often under the impression that they had adequate nutrition knowledge. Rationale of the Study Some of the studies undertaken in the recent past have come out with the finding that Saudi Football Club Coaches and players have a low mean of nutrition knowledge due to less education in the field of nutrition. It will therefore be an occasion to do a recheck on such findings and to figure out the level of improvement that has been undertaken after the publication of such reports. There have not been many studies in Arabic language, the primary language spoken in a large part of the gulf region. The football players often come from lesser educational backgrounds, which often results in their not having a polished English proficiency. Therefore a study in Arabic Language would not only help such players, but it will also highlight some issues specific to the Arabic world. Despite having a pool of talented football players, the regional teams have not been able to participate in world championship matches, because the local teams are often found to lacking in the killer instinct and the long lasting stamina. Research Questions The main intention of this study is to develop an understanding of the concepts of nutritional diets in general and how such knowledge can help the football teams in Saudi Arabia. During the study an effort will be made to figure out the diet schedules of some of the teams at couple of clubs to seek answers to the following key objectives. 1. Establish a well studied relationship between the knowledge about nutritional diets and the overall performance of the teams. The relationship might have undergone some changes in the competitive era. 2. To find out the knowledge level of some of the coaches in regard to dietary principles and how such knowledge helps the coaches in their recruitment and subsequently in firming up their rapport with the players and the management. 3. Utilizing the Nutritional knowledge questionnaire, prepared by Zinn (2005) to investigate the nutrition knowledge level of Saudi club Football players and coaches. 4. To investigate the factors that predict the level of knowledge of Saudi club Football players and coaches Ethics As this study requires participation of human subjects, consent and confidentiality will be a significant issue. This study would communicate its aim and purpose to the participants through the covering letter accompanying the questionnaires. The covering letter will also list the contact information of the researchers and other details. By providing this relevant information, the research participants will be made aware about the study prior to completing or sharing any information. Acquiring informed consent is vital to a researcher. Such a consent document serves as protection both for participants and for the researchers involved. In the beginning itself the respondents would be provided a form requiring their consent and approval for the study. Besides detailing the needs and purposes of this study and the involvement of the researchers, this document also protects researchers from false accusations by ensuring that researchers know the respondents and fully understand the purposes of the research. In addition, this informed consent discloses a promise of confidentiality and protects participants from potentially harmful consequences. This consent form also ensures that the information gathered from each respondent will be used only for the purposes of this study and will not be distributed or sold to any other parties. It is worth while here to mention that the consent form will highlight that; The research participant has unquestioned right to withdraw from the study at any stage of the study, if he/she so desires The data will be used only for the purpose of this study and it will not be used for any commercial purpose. Being part of an academic activity, the findings of the research can be published in some college magazine or academic journals, but it will be ensured that the identity of respondents would not be unduly highlighted While analysing the data it will be ensured that the final outcome is not affected by any bias. In fact the bias factor would be taken care of while preparing the size and composition of the sample respondents. Research Participants It will be worthwhile here to mention that the participation in the research activity is purely a voluntary activity, and, it being an academic exercise, no remuneration or conveyance will be paid to the research participants. The composition of sample respondents for this study will be; Ten Saudi Football Club Coaches (25 years and older) Levels 1&2 100 Saudi Football Club players (18-36 years) Levels 1&2 Research Methodology Research approaches and methods have a definite influence on the research content and, consequently, the policies designed in response to that content. If carried out in an objective manner, research not only helps the researcher in knowing about many unknown aspects, but it often provides a benchmark for future researches as well. In this case also, if the study is done in an objective manner, it might help some of the football clubs in strengthening the nutritional values of the diets being offered to players and encouraging their coaches to undertake courses enhancing their skills in diet management. This dissertation is a a qualitative case study as it intends to analyse some of the teams and clubs, their functioning, their dietary schedules, and steps taken by them for making their diets nutritional. To carry out such a study in general we resort to some of the steps as detailed below; Taking note of the age, body weight, and education level of the research participants Preparing the sets of 20 questions relating to a variety of nutrition and sport specific nutrition topics Zinn (2005). The questionnaire would be handled within a day or two Visiting one club every day to collect data Meeting Coaches and Players Illustration of the questionnaire, so that everybody is able to understand the questionnaire well. Taking informed consent from the research participants Collecting the filled-up questionnaire Data Analysis The data once collected will be analysed with the help of software tools like SPSS Analyze the data. To analyse the data will use SPSS. One way analysis of variance i.e. one-way ANOVA would also be used for comparing the data For the purpose of analysis, we need to mix between-within subjects ANOVA Measure differences between and within groups Accuracy of response Differences between other variables (age, level of experience, etc.) Limitations The research study might have to come across certain limitations like; It may be difficult to find Saudi coaches, as most of the clubs prefer coaches from abroad While collecting the data there might be situations resulting in collection of doubtful data, on account of a variety of reasons like the respondent not able to understand the question/s, oversight etc. Some participants may not be honest to tell the truth, which might result in deliberate attempts to pass on doubtful data Read More