Teenage Squash Player Diet Plan: Before and After Training

Squash doesn't look like an endurance sport. It looks like short, explosive rallies in a small glass box. But the numbers tell a different story: elite squash match-play produces an average heart rate of 92% of maximum (1) and an energy expenditure of nearly 5,000 kJ per hour [2]. This is much higher energy expenditure compared to a recreational squash player.

Now multiply that by three or four matches in a single tournament day, with an hour or less to recover between them, and you have one of the most physiologically demanding, and nutritionally under-prepared-for situations in youth sport.

Why Squash Punishes Under-Fuelling More Than Most Sports

It runs almost entirely on glycogen. Squash is a high-intensity intermittent sport, meaning short, all-out bursts (sprints to the front corner, sharp direction changes) repeated over and over for the length of a game [3].

This kind of movement burns through muscle glycogen, the body's stored carbohydrate, very quickly. The body can store roughly 1,500 calories as glycogen, which is enough to sustain intense squash for a bit over an hour [4]. A single best-of-five match can already push close to that limit; a full tournament day pushes well past it.

Fat can't keep up with the pace squash demands. Once glycogen starts running low, the body has to shift toward burning fat for fuel. But fat cannot release energy fast enough to support the sudden sprints and lunges squash requires [2]. This is exactly why a player who felt sharp in game one can look a full step slow by game four: it isn't fitness failing, it's fuel running out.

Sweat losses are high, and easy to underestimate indoors. Because squash is played in an enclosed, often warm court, players can lose up to 1.5 litres of sweat per hour [2]. A detailed study of elite squash players measured an average sweat rate of 1.11 L/hour during training alone, with individual sweat sodium losses of 46 mmol per litre — and found significant differences between players, meaning there's no single "correct" hydration number for every athlete [3].

Even a relatively modest fluid loss of 1–2% of body weight has been shown to clearly impair performance capacity [5, 6].

Recovery windows between matches are short — sometimes too short. The same elite squash hydration study found that players who trained again on the same day were often unable to fully replace fluid and sodium losses before their next session, unlike those who had a full day to recover [3].

In a tournament format with two or three matches on one day, a young player is frequently starting their second or third match already partially dehydrated and glycogen-depleted from the one before.

What the Research Says About Fuelling for Squash

This isn't guesswork — it's been tested directly on squash players.

A controlled study had squash players follow either a high-carbohydrate diet (11.1 g/kg body weight) or a low-carbohydrate diet (2.1 g/kg) for 48 hours before a simulated five-game match. The high-carbohydrate group completed the match significantly faster (2,340 seconds vs. 2,416 seconds), with higher blood glucose throughout play [4].

Clinical insight:

Loading up on carbohydrate two days before a big match measurably improved performance, not just comfort.

Guidance from the Hong Kong Sports Institute's own squash nutrition education program reinforces this at the practical level: squash players who don't consume enough carbohydrate between sessions risk fatigue and unwanted weight loss that directly hurts performance and training gains, and are advised to consume 50–100 grams of carbohydrate within 30 minutes of finishing a session to support recovery [5].

Critically, that same guidance specifically flags that players going through puberty need extra energy and nutrients for growth on top of their training demands [5] — a detail that applies directly to teenage squash players and is often missed by adult-focused nutrition advice.

Tournament-Day Fuelling: The Part Most Young Players Get Wrong

A normal training-day diet is not the same as a tournament-day strategy, and this is where most junior players, and honestly, most adult players, fall short.

Two to three hours before the first match, a carbohydrate-focused meal helps top up both muscle and liver glycogen stores ahead of play [6]. Whole grains, fruit, and legumes are commonly recommended sources, offering both a quick and a slower-release form of energy [6].

Between matches, the priority shifts to fast top-ups rather than full meals. Choose from sports drinks and easily digestible carbohydrates to help delay fatigue and support blood glucose levels, especially as players become progressively more glycogen-depleted over a long day or a long week of matches [5]. Fluids should be sipped consistently between games rather than only when a player feels thirsty, since by the point thirst is noticeable, some degree of dehydration has usually already set in [7].

After the final match of the day, recovery nutrition should combine carbohydrate and protein, ideally within 30–60 minutes, a period often referred to as the window where the body is particularly receptive to nutrients for rebuilding glycogen and repairing muscle [8]. A player heading into a second tournament day tomorrow cannot afford to treat this as optional.

Squash Player Diet Plan: Why This Matters More for Teenagers Specifically

A junior squash player isn't just recovering from one match to the next. They're also growing, going through puberty, and often juggling this training load with a full school day. The same physiological principles that apply to elite adult players apply here. But the margin for error is smaller, because a teenager's body has additional energy demands that an adult's doesn't.

This is closely related to the broader pattern discussed across youth sport generally: adolescents who don't match their carbohydrate and overall energy intake to training demands are at higher risk of fatigue, poor recovery, and, over a full season, disrupted growth and hormonal health. A single under-fuelled tournament day is a performance problem. A season of under-fuelled training and tournament days, repeated month after month, becomes a growth and health problem.

Common Questions Parents and Young Players Ask

Why does my child play well in the first two games and then fall apart in games four and five? 

This is a classic sign of glycogen depletion, not a lack of fitness or mental toughness. Once glycogen stores run low, the body cannot switch to fat fast enough to sustain the sprint-and-stop demands of squash, and performance drops sharply [2]. A pre-match high-carbohydrate strategy has been shown to directly improve match completion time in controlled testing [4].

How much should a teen squash player drink during a match? 

There's no single universal number. One detailed study of elite squash players found meaningful individual variation in sweat rate and sodium loss between players [3]. As a general principle, sipping fluids consistently between games (not only when thirsty) and replacing losses with an electrolyte-containing drink during long or multiple matches is the safer default [2, 5].

What should my child eat between two matches on the same tournament day?

Something carbohydrate-based and easy to digest, such as a banana, an energy bar, or a sports drink, rather than a heavy meal. The goal between matches is topping up blood glucose and staying hydrated, not "recovering" fully, since full recovery meals are better suited to after the last match of the day [5, 8].

Does my teenage squash player need a completely different diet on training days versus tournament days? 

Not completely different, but tournament days do require more deliberate timing — pre-match carbohydrate loading, between-match top-ups, and a proper post-match recovery meal — compared to a regular training day where one or two well-timed meals around a single session are usually enough [5, 6].

Can dehydration really affect a squash match that much?

Yes. Fluid losses of just 1–2% of body weight have been shown to clearly impair performance capacity [2], and squash players can lose up to 1.5 litres of sweat per hour in an enclosed, often warm court environment [2, 3] — making squash one of the higher dehydration-risk racket sports for exactly this reason.

The Bigger Picture

Squash rewards the player who is still moving well in game five, not just the one who looked fastest in game one. That's a nutrition outcome as much as a fitness one — and it's one of the most fixable parts of a young player's tournament preparation.

This connects to the broader tournament and recovery principles covered in The Complete Nutrition Guide for Teen Athletes, and to the hydration and cramping considerations discussed in Magnesium Glycinate vs Magnesium Citrate: Which One Is Better for Sleep, Stress, and Digestion? — magnesium and sodium losses through heavy sweating are a common, overlooked factor in match-day cramping. If your child is also dealing with digestive discomfort around match days, Top 10 Foods for Gut Health: How to Feel Your Best is a useful companion read, since tournament-day nerves and nutrition timing often affect gut comfort together.

As a nutritionist working with junior athletes across India, the US and Canada, the squash players who improve the fastest aren't always the ones who train harder. They're the ones who stop fuelling for "a match" and start fuelling for the whole tournament day.

References

1. Turner, O., Mitchell, N., Ruddock, A., Purvis, A., Ranchordas, M.K. (2023). Fluid Balance, Sodium Losses and Hydration Practices of Elite Squash Players during Training. Nutrients, 15(7), 1749. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15071749 — https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/7/1749

2. Chemtob, C.H. Sports Nutrition Strategies: Reduce Your Risk of Injury on the Court. Squash Magazine. https://squashmagazine.com/2015/08/sports-nutrition-strategies-reduce-your-risk-of-injury-on-the-court/

3. Turner, O., Mitchell, N., Ruddock, A., Purvis, A., Ranchordas, M.K. (2023). Fluid Balance, Sodium Losses and Hydration Practices of Elite Squash Players during Training. Nutrients, 15(7), 1749 (PMC full text). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10096645/

4. Raman, A., Macdermid, P.W., Mündel, T., Mann, M., Stannard, S.R. (2014). The effects of carbohydrate loading 48 hours before a simulated squash match. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab, 24(2), 157–165. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24092769/

5. Guidelines to a Healthful Diet – Squash. Sport Nutrition Education Series, Hong Kong Sports Institute. https://www.hksi.org.hk/news-publications/scientific-publications/education-pamphlets/sport-nutrition-education-series/guidelines-to-a-healthful-diet-squash

6. Pre-Performance Nutrition: Optimal Timings for Squash Players (2024). SquashSkills Blog. https://blog.squashskills.com/-/pre-performance-nutrition-optimal-timings-for-squash-players/

7. Chemtob, C.H. (2013). Proper Hydration — If You're Thirsty, It's Too Late. Squash Magazine. https://squashmagazine.com/2013/12/lessoncourt-nutrition-proper-hydration-if-youre-thirsty-its-too-late/

8. The Best Nutrition Strategies for Squash Tournaments (2025). Squashpics [the "Squash Memories" byline could not be verified — this is the actual publishing site]. https://www.squashpics.com/the-best-nutrition-strategies-for-squash-tournaments/

9. Turner, O., Mitchell, N., Ruddock, A., Purvis, A., Ranchordas, M. (2024). Physiological and Nutritional Considerations for Elite Squash: A Systematic Review. Journal of Science in Sport and Exercise. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42978-024-00313-9 — https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42978-024-00313-9

10. Fleming, J.A., Naughton, R.J., Harper, L.D. (2018). Investigating the Nutritional and Recovery Habits of Tennis Players. Nutrients, 10(4), 443. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10040443 — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5946228/

11. Mountjoy, M., Sundgot-Borgen, J., Burke, L., et al. (2014). The IOC consensus statement: beyond the Female Athlete Triad — Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). Br J Sports Med, 48(7), 491–497. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2014-093502 — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24620037/ (see also full text: https://cdn.dosb.de/Relaunch_2024/Leistungssport/Gesundheitsmanagement/Sporternaehrung/IOC_Consensus_statement_beyon_the_female_athlete_triad_REDs.pdf)

12. Monopoli, D., Decarolis, N.M., Esposito, S., Biasucci, G. (2024). Nutrition for Children and Adolescents Who Practice Sport: A Narrative Review. Nutrients, 16(16), 2803. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16162803 — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11357223/

13. Everett, S. (2025). Optimizing Performance Nutrition for Adolescent Athletes: A Review of Dietary Needs, Risks, and Practical Strategies. Nutrients, 17(17), 2792. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17172792 — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12430154/

14. How Much Protein Do Young Athletes Need? (2025). UPMC HealthBeat. https://share.upmc.com/2025/11/young-athletes-protein/

15. Protein for the Teen Athlete. HealthyChildren.org, American Academy of Pediatrics. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/teen/nutrition/Pages/Protein-for-the-Teen-Athlete.aspx

16. Game-Day Nutrition for Squash Success. Onyx Squash Academy. https://www.onyxsquash.org.uk/squash-academy/tips-on-game-day-nutrition-for-squash-success/

17. Naderi, A., Samanipour, M.H., Sarshin, A., et al. (2021). Effects of two different doses of carbohydrate ingestion on taekwondo-related performance during a simulated tournament. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 18(1), 40. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-021-00434-4 — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8161610/

18. Grgic, J., Pedisic, Z., Saunders, B., et al. (2021). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: sodium bicarbonate and exercise performance. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 18(1), 61. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-021-00458-w — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8427947/

19. Tarocchi, M., Pellegrino, A., Skroce, K., et al. (2024). Assessing Energy Availability and Glucose Dynamics in Adolescent Cyclists: Implications for Nutritional Interventions During the Competitive Season. Nutrients, 16(22), 3824. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16223824 — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11597734/

20. Muslichah, R., Styles, S.E., Matkin-Hussey, P.A., Love, T.D., Black, K.E. (2026). Role of Nutrition Education in Preventing Low Energy Availability Among Adolescent Female Athletes: A Scoping Review. Nutrition Reviews, nuag032. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuag032

21. Mountjoy, M., Sundgot-Borgen, J.K., Burke, L.M., et al. (2018). IOC consensus statement on relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S): 2018 update. Br J Sports Med, 52(11), 687–697. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29773536/

22. Mountjoy, M., Ackerman, K.E., Bailey, D.M., et al. (2023). 2023 International Olympic Committee's (IOC) consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). Br J Sports Med, 57(17), 1073–1097. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-106994 — press release: https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-publishes-new-consensus-statement-on-relative-energy-deficiency-in-sport-reds-to-protect-athlete-health