Section C · The Field & The Court
Soccer
Ninety minutes, about six miles and one real break. The touch goes heavy after halftime.
Afternoon heat, turf, and tournaments that stack two or three games in a day on plain water and orange slices. Most of the sodium lost in the first half never goes back in.
A sugary sports drink at halftime sits in your stomach through the second half. A stick in cold water goes to your legs. One before, one at halftime. One more between tournament games. One stick in 16 oz covers a window; the schedule below covers the day.
Pro players training 90 minutes in the heat lost 1,540 mg of sodium on average. Here that is spread evenly over the game, against 600 mg a stick. The bars are plain math, so they show the shape of the game. Water alone ends it 1,540 mg short, and the last 30 minutes run on the deepest part of that hole. Some players lost twice that, so a salty sweater should take the third stick between games.
The starter kit has 40 sticks in five flavors. That is about 20 games, or a full season of Saturdays.
The numbers behind soccer
Afternoon heat, turf, and tournaments that stack two or three games in a day on plain water and orange slices. Most of the sodium lost in the first half never goes back in.
Why this happens
Sweat is more than water. Every ounce takes sodium with it, and sodium helps your blood hold its volume. Lose enough, and there is less blood to carry oxygen to your muscles. Your heart rate climbs at the same pace. You run hotter. The signal that tells a muscle to relax gets noisy. The cramp, the dizzy feeling when you stand up, and the pace you cannot hold all come from that one cause.
Plain water puts the fluid back, but not the sodium. That is why water alone can feel like it is not working. The fix is to put back what left: water and the minerals that went with it, in about the same mix you lost.
A game is about six miles of running for a top player, in short bursts, often on turf in the afternoon sun. Most people drink plain water before and orange slices at halftime. Sweat runs from the warm-up, and the water puts fluid back with no sodium. The first half feels fine. Then the second half starts on legs that are already short. The touch goes heavy, the sprints get shorter, and the calves cramp in the last 20 minutes. Here is why plain water does not stop the cramp, and the timing guide covers the rest of your day.
A sugary sports drink at halftime sits in your stomach through the second half. A stick in cold water goes to your legs.
About 70 oz of sweat, and most of the sodium never goes back in
A game is two 45-minute halves with one break. In a study of pro players training 90 minutes in the heat, they sweated about 74 oz each. They drank less than half of it back. Sodium was worse: they replaced about a quarter, and the players who drank only water put back almost none. The cards below show the game 15 minutes at a time.
Stick 1 in 16 oz, about 90 minutes before kickoff.
Stick 2, in a bottle you mixed before kickoff.
Stick 3 within 30 minutes, or between tournament games.
A heavy sweater is past 2% of body weight by halftime. The halftime bottle is your one chance to put sodium back before the last 20 minutes.
From 26 pro players training 90 minutes on a hot evening. They could drink as much as they wanted and still put back less than half.
Pro players sweated 57 to 106 oz in 90 minutes in the heat. That is the range drawn here, before anything goes back in. A heavy sweater is past 2% of body weight (51 oz for a 160-lb player) by halftime. A light sweater gets there in the last 15 minutes. The book puts the cramps in the last 20 minutes.
One stick at T-90, one at halftime and one after is 1,800 mg. That covers the middle of the range. A salty sweater on a hot day can lose more, so on tournament days the third stick goes in between games.
What you get back when the sodium goes in with the water
Nine players ran a 90-minute soccer test. With no fluid, their skill scores dropped 5%. With fluid, the scores held.
McGregor et al., Journal of Sports Sciences, 1999Pro players already do 35 to 45% less hard running in the last 15 minutes than the first. Pooled across 28 studies, being dehydrated cost another 8.3% of muscle endurance.
Mohr et al., 2003 · Savoie et al., 2015At about 1.6% of body mass down, men in a controlled trial made more errors on attention tasks and felt more tired. Late in a game, that shows up as the wrong pass.
Ganio et al., British Journal of Nutrition, 2011Drinking more than you lost only rehydrates you when the drink carries enough sodium. Below that, the extra leaves as urine before game two.
Shirreffs et al., Med Sci Sports Exerc, 1996Pro players in the heat drank 45% of what they sweated and replaced 23% of their sodium. The ones who drank only water replaced almost no sodium at all. Their sweat sodium ranged from about 600 to 3,000 mg, so some players need far more than others. Weigh yourself before and after a hot game to find your own number.
Shirreffs et al., International Journal of Sports Medicine, 2005
The research, in pictures
Researchers tracked pro players across real matches. In the last 15 minutes they did 35 to 45% less hard running than in the first 15. That happened in every position. Tired legs are part of it. Being down on water and salt makes it worse.
Men sweated off 2% of their body weight in the heat. Then they had a drink. An hour later, researchers tested how easily a muscle cramped.
Blood salt dropped after the plain water and held steady after the electrolyte drink. It was a lab test on 10 men, and the needles show which way things moved and roughly how far.
The players who drank only water put back almost no sodium at all. Even with drinks on hand, nobody came close to even.
Dry, then hydrated, piece by piece
The red panel is what is happening now. The green one is what the next section buys you, and roughly how long each part takes to show up.
- Warm-up in the sun on nothing but breakfast
- Sweat starts before kickoff
- Heart rate climbs faster than the tempo
- A sugar drink that sloshes for 20 minutes
- Sodium already 700 mg down
- Legs stiffen on the bench
- Calves or hamstrings cramp in the last 20
- First touch goes heavy; decisions slow
- Headache on the ride home from the tournament
What to drink, and when
Start with during. It is the window most people in soccer get wrong. For a normal training day rather than a race, the timing guide covers every window.
BEFORE
- 16 oz with a stick at T-90
- 8 oz plain water in warm-up
Start full so the first half spends what you have, not what you are missing.
DURING
- A pre-mixed 16 oz bottle at halftime
- Sips at injury stoppages
Replaces the sodium from the first half so the second half has legs.
AFTER
- 20 oz with a stick
- Real food between games, not orange slices
Sets up the next game or the drive home.
Every pound you lose in a game is about 24 oz to put back, with sodium in it. Weigh yourself before and after one hot game and you know your own number for tournament day.
What to take, and what we do not sell
Two of these three are things we do not sell. A hydration stick does not fix fuelling, and pretending otherwise is how people end up disappointed.
Electrolytes
Fuel
Worth taking too
The questions we get about soccer
What should I drink before a soccer game?
Drink 16 oz with a stick in it about 90 minutes before kickoff. Then sip about 8 oz of plain water in the warm-up. You start the first half full, so it spends what you have, not what you are missing.
What should soccer players drink at halftime?
A 16 oz bottle with a stick in it, mixed before kickoff and left on the bench. It puts back the sodium from the first half. Skip the big sugary sports drink. It can sit in your stomach through the second half.
How much sweat does a soccer player lose in a game?
In studies of pro players training 90 minutes in warm weather, it was about 70 oz each, or a bit over two liters. Some lost close to 106 oz. They drank less than half of it back. Weigh yourself before and after a game to find your own number.
Do I need electrolytes or is water enough?
Water puts back the fluid you sweat out. It does not put back the sodium that left with it, and without sodium your body cannot hold on to the water. In the heat, pro players who drank only water replaced almost none of their sodium.
How many sticks do I need?
One about 90 minutes before kickoff and one at halftime. On tournament days, add one between games. The starter kit has 40 sticks in five flavors, which is about 20 games.
Why do I cramp in the second half?
By the last 20 minutes you have sweated out a lot of sodium, and plain water put none of it back. Cramps have more than one cause, and tired legs count too. Still, this is where the book puts them. The fix is to start topped up at T-90 and drink a mixed bottle at halftime. Here is why you cramp even when you drink water.
What should I drink between tournament games?
Within 30 minutes of the final whistle, drink 20 oz with a stick in it. Then eat real food, not just orange slices. That sets up the next game, so game three feels closer to game one.
Everything in the box
The book this article came from is in there too. One page for every sport, so the next thing you take up is already covered.
Five flavors, one stick each
Taste is the one thing you have to try for yourself. The starter kit gives you all five, so you find the one you will actually reach for.
- All five minerals sweat costs you, no sugar. See the label.
- Informed Sport certified, batch by batch.
- Mixes into whatever bottle is already on the bench.
