We coach the shake and ignore the kitchen

Squads police a twenty second recovery ritual and never teach the twenty minutes that matter more.

There is a table by the door with a crate of shakers on it. Nobody leaves without one, a staff member checks, and the whole squad has been trained, genuinely trained, to consume something within a window after training. It is the single best drilled nutrition habit in most clubs. It is also close to the least important one.

The reason it gets coached is that it is coachable. It happens in the building, at a fixed time, in front of staff, and compliance can be observed. Everything that actually determines whether an athlete is fed happens at home, alone, at eight in the evening, and cannot be watched. So it does not get coached, and we quietly pretend the powder covers it.

Consider a young player who has just moved out of home for the first time. They can hold a plank for two minutes, name their positional responsibilities in three defensive shapes, and have absolutely no idea how to cook chicken safely. Nobody in their life has taught them. They will eat whatever can be reheated, and the shake will be the most deliberate thing they consume all day.

Treat that as a skill gap, because that is what it is. Skills are taught with demonstration, repetition and feedback, and there is no reason food should be different. Take the group to a supermarket. Give them a budget and a list and walk the aisles. Cook one meal together, badly, and have them do it again the following week without help. Send them home with three recipes they can actually manage and check the following month whether either of them got made.

Clubs resist this because it feels like parenting rather than coaching, and because time on the training pitch always wins an argument against time in a kitchen. I understand the pressure. But a squad hour spent on shopping and cooking will change more meals than another hour of the same tactical shape they already know.

The other benefit is that it survives the athlete. Powder timing is a habit that lasts exactly as long as the crate by the door. Knowing how to feed yourself lasts forever, and most of the people you coach will spend far more of their life as a normal adult than as an athlete.

Police the thing that matters. The shaker can look after itself.