A Crowd Sourced Problem
Okay, here's the deal.Eli 17.3 is in unbelievable shape. The last two games he's played, though, he said his legs were just dead when he hit the ice. No pop at all. This after a very specific warmup given to him by a national-level goalie stretching guru.
This has been a periodic problem for the last three years.
I don't think it's food related. He eats a solid meal 2-3 hours before a game, then takes GU chews a few minutes before he skates on.
What's strange, and it's making this very difficult to figure out, is that he doesn't feel like this for practice, and he's much less careful about what he drinks and when for practice.
What I'm having him do is collect data to try and narrow the problem down to a time slice instead of a 3-hour period. So every fifteen minutes, from 3 hours on in before a game or practice, he's going to just write down how his legs feel (1-10). With a time slice, I'm confident we'd know enough to fix it.
In the short term, we're focusing on possible hydration differences and adding some caffeinated chews for a small burst of energy.
It's ironic that what's holding him back is not his technique or his mental game, but just physically feeling good when he steps on the ice.
Thanks for any ideas you guys have about this. Very, very appreciated.
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