Equipment
The properly equipped basketball player always wears a mouth guard, compression shorts, an athletic supporter, and ankle braces. The mouth guard is not primarily to protect the player's teeth. Teeth protection is provided, but the primary purpose of the guard is to keep the mouth closed. By keeping the mouth closed, the tongue is protected and the force of any blows to the jaw are deflected upwards to the skull bones to protect the brain. Compression shorts keep the thigh muscles warm during rest periods and provide protection against muscle sprains and strains when activity is renewed. The athletic supporter keeps the player's scrotum up close to the body and prevents testicular torsion. If a supporter is not worn, and testicular torsion occurs; the player only has 4 hours to have surgery before the testicular tissues die. Ankles should be taped or lace-up ankle braces must be worn for each practice or game. Taping or using ankle braces prevents extreme pronation of the foot. Well-designed sports medicine studies have shown that the lace-up braces work as well as ankle taping. The braces are relatively inexpensive.

Nourishment
Optimal game performance is achieved by ensuring adequate hydration and carbohydrate status. The elite basketball player should have 3 well-balanced meals and 2-3 snacks a day with items from each of the major food groups. By definition, high carbohydrate meals have 70% carbohydrates (as opposed to lower carbohydrates = 40%). Studies have shown that these "carb-loaded" meals and drinks prevent muscle glycogen depletion, and thereby prolong athletic endurance.

When competitive events take place 3-7 days apart, carbohydrate loading is probably unnecessary for all but the marathon runner. However, for the elite basketball player who may play 3-5 tournament games in 2-3 days, "carb loading" may be vital to peak performance. Ideally, players should have several high carbohydrate meals within the 24 hours prior to competition. The pregame meals should consist of easily digested high carbohydrate foods eg. Breakfast = bowls of cereal with milk, bagels and fruit. Lunch = meat & several potatoes, or rice with several servings of pasta (eg. spaghetti). Dinner = cups of pasta with tomato sauce, ground beef and parmesan cheese; a vegetable salad and garlic bread. The pre-game meals should be eaten 3-4 hours before games. Eating meals as close as one hour before games may cause reduced gastric emptying, muscle cramping, and a poor game performance. If the team is playing an early morning game, solid foods should probably be avoided in favor of lots of liquids and fruits. The postgame meal should be two hours after each game and also high in carbohydrates.

Water is the only essential liquid. While no studies have specifically evaluated basketball players, many nice studies of cyclers, sprinters, and soccer player are available. These studies clearly demonstrate that high carb drinks taken prior to, during, and after competition helps sustain a high-intensity performance. Expensive colored solutions eg. Gatorade, Powerade, etc. can be purchased, but it is also possible to inexpensively prepare sports drinks at home.

A satisfactory sports drink can be made by adding 6 cups of juice (orange, cranberry, or grape) to 9 cups of water, with one pinch (1/3 tsp) of salt. Remember: if you wait until you feel thirsty, you are already more than 10% dehydrated. Unfortunately, many young athletes compete in a state of mild dehydration. To combat this problem, basketball players should have plenty of fluids readily available and take advantage of every opportunity to drink. To ensure optimum hydration, players should ingest a minimum of 16 oz of fluid the night before a tournament, at least 16 oz the morning of the first game, and a minimum of 16-32 oz within the hour before the first game. Once the first game begins, the player should ingest 7-10 oz every fifteen minutes until all games are over and comparison of pre- and post-game weights coupled with analysis of urine appearance demonstrates an adequate state of hydration. If weight loss has occurred, the player must ingest 150% of the weight loss. eg. if one pound was lost (16 oz), the player must drink 24 oz for hydration restoration.

Before and after each game, the athlete must be vigilant to examine the color of each urine sample. Should any urine sample appear cloudy, or any color darker than very light yellow, 16-32 oz of liquid should be ingested hourly until the urine once again appears clear like water.

Rest
Scientific studies have shown that a minimum of 24 hours is needed for restoration of muscle glycogen to allow an athlete to have a peak performance. This is the reason pro athletes have expressed concerns about playing games on back to back days.

Often the elite prep athlete is called upon to play in 2 or 3 games two or three days in a row. To obtain as much recovery to peak performance as possible, athletes must be in an excellent sleep-wake cycle. Practically speaking, this means going to bed at 11pm and rising around 7am. Athletes should be up on their feet a minimum of two hours before maximum exertion takes place.

Supplements
Vitamins and other non-food supplements are not necessary for the young basketball player on a well balanced diet. The vegetarian athlete is a very special case, and should be under a Doctor's watchful supervision. None of the health food supplements offered to the basketball player offer any advantage. Many are harmful and all should be avoided.

Creatine is the compound most recently touted to the unsuspecting athlete. In its natural form creatine monohydrate is important in energy production for muscle contraction. Studies do suggest that creatine may improve the performance of weightlifters. Even in the weightlifter, potentially dangerous long term side effects are unknown. To suggest that creatine is beneficial for the basketball player or any other competitive athlete is a mistake and without scientific foundation (Creatine supplementation does not enhance endurance exercise performance. PD Haridge, Acta Physiol Scand 149: 521, 1993). In one study of 31 subjects, half developed various symptoms and one developed severe kidney failure. Creatine should be avoided by the young athlete.