Why Do Tennis Players Eat Bananas?

Whether you watch a tennis match at your local court or at a grand slam tournament, you will notice that nearly all players are eating bananas during and after the match. Is there any specific reason behind that or do tennis players just love to eat bananas? We will go through that and much more in this article.

Why do tennis players eat bananas? Tennis players eat bananas because it includes a lot of fast carbs that gives tennis players more energy. It’s also one of the best ways to fight and prevent cramping, which is a tennis player’s worst nightmare.

Benefits Of Eating Bananas

Fast Energy: First of all, the biggest benefit of eating bananas before or during a match is because it includes a lot of fast carbs, which gives you quick energy. These carbs and sugar from bananas provide you to stay sharp throughout the whole game. One banana includes a total of 30g of carbohydrates, which is ideal for you to get a fast energy boost. Eating bananas helps you to sustain energy levels throughout a long tennis match and help to reduce recovery periods after a workout.

Convenient: Eating a banana is one of the most convenient ways to provide tennis players with all the nutrients needed for running around on the court. Another thing that makes bananas so popular is because it’s pretty much available everywhere. Go to your local store and you will 100% see a chunk of bananas available for you to buy. They are also very easy to throw into a tennis bag when heading to the courts. At the recreational level, it also helps that bananas are one of the cheapest foods a person can buy at the market.

Prevents Cramping: Bananas are known as one of the best ways to prevent and fight against cramping. Which is a tennis player’s worst nightmare during a match. As soon as a tennis player starts to cramp, it can be nearly impossible to continue playing. Cramps don’t go away fast enough and they can’t be treated like a normal injury. Banana includes an electrolyte called potassium, which helps to retain a fluid balance in your body’s cells and that reduces your chances of cramping.

Filled With Vitamin C: Another great thing about eating bananas is because they are a very rich source of vitamin C. One banana contains about 15% of the vitamin C you need each day. Vitamin C helps to strengthen muscles, ligaments and keeps your immune system strong under the stress of exercising.

Eating Bananas During A Tennis Match

Bananas are not only a good nutrient source to eat before and after a tennis match, but also during one. Whether you watch a professional match or a local amateur tournament, you will most likely see players eating bananas during the breaks in a match. There are plenty of different reasons why that is, but these are the main factors why tennis players are eating bananas during a match.

The main reason why tennis players choose to eat bananas during a match is that it gives them fast energy. Some players choose to eat an energy bar, and some choose to eat bananas. Both work fine, but bananas are not only a good source of nutrition, it’s also so easy to pick up and eat.

Limited Time To Eat

Tennis players have a limited amount of time to spend during the breaks and therefore, they need to, whatever they choose to eat, eat it quickly. Bananas are so easy to eat, it takes just about 15 seconds to eat a medium-sized banana, which is perfect for all tennis players with a limited time.

During a tennis match, they are allowed a 90-second rest between and during changes. They don’t want to spend all that time eating, they want to have time to drink water, think about what to change in their game plan, etc. There are not many nutrition sources with the same amount of fast carbs that take as little time to eat like a banana, and that is what makes it ideal for all tennis players to eat during breaks.

Final Thoughts

If you haven’t implemented bananas into your daily workout routine, you are missing out. If you want to perform at your best, you should consider eating bananas or other sources of fast carbs, both before and during a match/practice. It won’t initially make you a better tennis player, but it will allow you to focus and perform at your best level.

Many players are worried about having too much food in their stomachs when running around in a match. Which I totally agree with, that is super annoying and will lead to impaired performance. However, that is not a problem with bananas. They are not only easy to eat, but they are one of the easier nutrition sources for your stomach.

It may be to each individual, but I have never heard anyone had problems with that after eating a banana. If that really was a problem, you wouldn’t see 4/5 players on the ATP/WTA Tour eating bananas during a match.

Bananas are not only delicious to eat, but they are also very healthy and are one of the most convenient ways for any athlete to get some fast carbs. If you feel like you lack focus or have a hard time being at your best during a long game and haven’t implemented bananas to your during match routine, you are missing out. Try it out at least once and I would be surprised if you wouldn’t contain that routine for the rest of your career.

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