Complete Material Cost #3,000
Order for Complete Material now
ABSTRACTS
This study focused on the effect of nutrition on sports performance among athletes: A case study of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rivers State. A simple random sampling technique was used to select two hundred participants. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using frequency and simple percentage. The finding of the study showed that 32% of the respondents like to play football, 20% like track events, 14% like basketball 10% like volleyball, 9% like tennis, 8% like table tennis and 7.0% like to participate in handball. The study showed that 55% of the respondents indicated that nutrition will affect the sports performance of an athlete, 57% of the respondents were of the opinion that poor nutrition will make an athlete not to perform better in sports, less than half (44%) of the respondents indicated that knowledge of nutrition has relationship with sports performance, less than half (44%) of the respondents indicated that knowledge of nutrition has relationship with sports performance, and 34% of the respondents agreed that age of athletes have relationship with sports performance. From the results of this study, it was concluded that, poor nutrition will make an athlete not to perform better in sports. It was recommended that Government should ensure that a good nutrition programme is designed for athletes at all levels of education.
KEYWORDS: Nutrition sports, performance, athlete.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
This study investigates the Effect of Nutrition on Sports Performance among Athletes of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni Port Harcourt.
Nutrition affects sportsmen in many ways. At the basic level, it plays an important role in achieving and maintaining good health. Optimal nutrition can reduce fatigue, thereby allowing an athlete to train and compete longer and recover faster between training session (Lin & Lee, 2005).
Brown (2005) defined nutrition as a chemical substance in food that the body uses for a variety of functions that support growth, maintenance of body tissues, repair and replace body tissues and good health. Manone and Thompson (2005) defined nutrition as the science that study food and how food nourishes our body and influence our health. Marie (2001) on the other hand defined nutrition as a substance obtained from food and used in the body to provide energy and structural materials to enhance growth, maintenance and repair of body tissues.
Nutrition also involves studying the factors that influence our feeding habits, making recommendation about the amount we should eat of each type of food attempting to maintain adequate food supply to the body systems. Nutrition enhances sports performance. An active lifestyle and exercise routine along with good diet is the best way to stay healthy, [Millar, 2015].
Naturally, food has been a major concern of every living creature, life generally depend on what we eat. Athletes’ performance and recovery from training are enhanced by attention to nutrient intake (American College of Sports Medicine, 2009). Optimal nutrition for health and performance includes the identification of both the quality and quantity of food and fluid needed to support regular training and peak performance (American College of Sports Medicine, 2007).
Appropriate nutrition is essential for the proper performance of exercise. In particular, correct nutrition is critically important for improvement of athletes’ performance, conditioning, recovery from fatigue after exercise, and avoidance of injury (AOT, Naito & Yoshikawa, 2006). Thus proper nutrition is needed by athletes for optimal performance as poor nutrition will affect the level of recovery from fatigue and prevention of injuries. Basic balanced diet alone cannot provide all the needed nutrients for athletes as several natural food components have also been shown to exert physiological effects, and some of them are considered to be useful for improving athlete’s performance or avoiding the disturbance of homeostasis by strenuous exercise. Therefore, proper nutrition is needed for improvement of endurance, enhancement of muscle strength prevention of injury and fatigue as well as maintenance of immunity.
The effect of inadequate nutrition on the athlete may be adverse as it predisposes the athlete to poor health conditions and poor performance as well. Without the right kind and proportion of foods to balance body nutrition needs even the physical conditioning and expert coaching do not suffice to bring out the best. According to George (2014) many sports scientists agree on the fact that sports, health and invariably the nutritional status are interrelated. Therefore, poor athletes’ performance could be partly due to poor physique and unsatisfactory physical fitness resulting from under or over-nutrition.
Wandle, Parmenter and Waller (2000) stated that nutrition knowledge had a significant association with healthy eating. They found out that nutritionally knowledgeable individuals were up to 25 times more likely to meet fruit, vegetable and fat intake recommendations, compared to unknowledgeable individuals. Poor nutrition knowledge has the potential to impact an athlete’s dietary habits and perhaps overall performance. Most university athletes may not have adequate knowledge on the type of food that can boost their stamina and strength, mobility and accuracy in performance thereby take food supplements that affect their fitness level on daily basis.
This inadequacy on knowledge of food to enhance performance can be seen in almost all ages of athletes, gender and in most cases the socio-economic status of the athletes (Silliman, Rodas-Fortier & Neyman, 2004). This is also prominent in most university athletes in Nigeria.
Therefore, this study intends to examine the effect of nutrition among university athletes in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Statement of the Problem
Nutrition is an important aspect of human existence. Improper nutrition can cause a breakdown of the body and the activities of the body as well. Poor nutrition has constituted an array of failure in our athletes’ performance, ranging from poor performance or inactivity, fatigue and body weakness, overweight and underweight as a result of underfeeding and overfeeding by athletes.
However, sport coaches and administrators consideration on nutrition of athletes is minimal in our university settings. Nutrition of athletes is only considered on the day of a competition or a day to the competition which has led to poor motivation and increase anger that led to violence during competition and training among athletes.
Despite the problems arising from poor nutrition among university athletes, only few studies have been done to find a probable solution. Effect of nutrition can be recorded in every aspect of sport if more studies are done to ascertain it implication on athletes in order for administrators to implement good policies towards athletes’ nutrition.
However, athletes are supposed to be well fed and monitored in their eating habits as to attain the body physique that is needed for the sport, energy level, strength, speed and accuracy for optimal performance. If this is done, athletes will be motivated, excited, decrease anger and low level of violence. This will result in high level of performance among university athletes.
However, on this premise, the researcher tends to examine the effect of nutrition on sport performance among university athletes of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt in order to proffer solution and then enhance performance among athletes.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of nutrition on sports performance among athletes of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt.
Specifically, the study seeks to achieve the following objectives:
- To find out the influence of nutrition on sports performance among athletes of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt.
- To establish a relationship between knowledge of nutrition on sport performance among athletes of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt.
- To find out the influence of age on nutrition among athletes Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt.
- To examine the influence of gender on nutrition among athletes Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt.
- To investigate the influence of socio-economic status on nutrition among athletes Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt.
Research Questions
The following research questions were formulated to guide the study:
- What is the influence of nutrition on sport performance among athletes in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt?
- Does knowledge on nutrition influence sport performance?
- Does age influence the nutrition of athletes and their performance in sport in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt?
- To what extent does gender influence nutrition of athletes and their performance in sport in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt?
- To what extent does socio-economic status influence nutrition of athletes and their performance in sport in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt?
Significance of the Study
The findings of this study have so many significant dimensions to it. The findings may enable university athletes to identify adequate nutrition that could play an essential role in their performance and enhance physical fitness and general wellness. The findings of this study may also help sport administrators and coaches to provide good nutrition of their athletes during training and competition to boost their performance. This study may also assist athletes and administrators to understand the importance of nutrition and performance during training and competition, the finding of the study could also motivate university sports directors to give more attention to nutrition that will increase the performance of athletes. The findings of this study and the recommendation could serve as a gap for intending researchers to work on, it could also serve as a body of literature for researchers, coaches and athletes can also use the findings of the study as a reference on issue concerning sport and nutrition. Moreso, dietitians may benefits, ministry of sports also the data shall be of good help for those that make sports policies.
Delimitation of the Study
The study is delimited to Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt.
Definition of Terms
For clarity sake, the following words will be defined:
Nutrition: This is the organic process by which an organism assimilates food and uses it for growth and maintenance.
Athlete: A participant in a group of sporting activities which includes track and field, road running, cross country, running and race walking.
Food: is any substance, liquid or solid which when taken provide the body the needed nutrients for growth and development and maintenance.
Food supplements: These are vitamins, herbal extract, or chemical compound included with a diet to enhance muscular development.