Kennisteam Sport and Exercise Nutrition biedt studenten de mogelijkheid om zich een half jaar lang te verdiepen in het thema Sport & Voeding. Ben je benieuwd wat studenten tijdens deze minor kunnen leren en wat de ervaringen zijn van andere studenten? Lees hier verder.

Als HAN-student Voeding en Diëtetiek heb ik gedurende afgelopen semester ik de Minor Sports Nutrition gevolgd. Hieronder beschrijf ik mijn ervaringen met deze minor.

Onderzoek en praktijk
Deze minor heeft natuurlijk centraal staan dat het gekoppeld wordt aan sportprestaties, maar zelfs studenten die later niks met sport willen doen kunnen deze minor als zeer leerzaam ervaren. Zo wordt er binnen de Minor Sports Nutrition heel veel aandacht besteed aan het leren lezen, analyseren en interpreteren van recente, relevante sportvoedingsonderzoeken. Hieronder een greep uit de sportvoedingsonderzoeken die geanalyseerd en besproken zijn tijdens de les:

• het belang van vocht en koolhydraten tijdens inspanning bespreken;
• wanneer nutrient timing wel en niet zinvol is;
• zin en onzin van eiwittiming bij spiergroei;
• voor welke sporters supplementen wel zinvol zijn.

Meerdere onderzoeken over een zelfde thema met elk een andere uitkomst werden bijv. met elkaar vergeleken en daadwerkelijk in de les onder begeleiding van een docent besproken en zo leerde ik om, om (verouderde)richtlijnen heen te kijken en een eigen, goed onderbouwd standpunt te vormen.

De docenten hebben veel praktische en theoretische kennis en duidelijke praktijkervaring. Hierdoor ervoer ik de manier van lesgeven als zeer prettig. Er wordt veel begeleiding gegeven door docenten, vragen worden erg duidelijk beantwoord.

Communiceren in Engels
Daarnaast werd er tijdens de minor in het Engels gepraat en moesten producten in het Engels aangeleverd worden. Hierdoor heb ik een duidelijke ontwikkeling gemaakt in het Engels. Dit is niet alleen goed voor mijn persoonlijke ontwikkeling, maar ook voor mijn ontwikkeling als diëtist. Om als diëtist op de hoogte te blijven van de recente ontwikkelingen is het belangrijk om Engelse literatuur te kunnen lezen en te begrijpen.

Theorie over fysiologie
In de minor heb ik diepgaande kennis over  (inspannings)fysiologie en voedingsbehoeftes van atleten ontwikkeld. Een nauwkeurige blik op de behoefte voor vocht is bijvoorbeeld behandeld, iets waar geen richtlijn je bij kan helpen. De kennis die je geleerd krijgt wordt toegepast op praktische opdrachten en projecten waarbij je elke les tips krijgt die je kunt toepassen op je cliënten in die projecten.

Toekomst als sportvoedingskundige
Ik ben dus zeer tevreden met deze minor. Ik zou deze minor dan ook aanraden aan elke Voeding-en-Diëtetiekstudent die zich later wil ontwikkelen tot sportdiëtist. Mocht je ook een stage zoeken in de sportvoeding dan is deze minor van grote meerwaarde. Zonder deze minor kom je waarschijnlijk zeer veel kennis tekort om met sportdiëtisten mee te kunnen draaien.

Echter ook als je niet verder wil in de sport is de minor van meerwaarde! In de minor is er namelijk veel aandacht voor het normale functioneren van het menselijk lichaam tijdens rust en fysieke inspanning en wordt bijvoorbeeld de spijsvertering, circulatie, ademhaling en spierwerking uitvoerig behandeld. Iets dat in de reguliere opleiding nog niet is gebeurd.

I am 25 years old and I am from Sevilla, south of Spain, place where I strongly do not recommend to go in summer, at least, you are sure that you can survive with 40 degrees every day. This has been my story.

I studied physics for three years and then I realized I needed to do something related with sport because I did not want to spend the rest of my life in a desk, seated on a chair. I wanted to get older with my sports clothes and changing people’s life throughout the sport, Thus, after a hard and boring paperwork, I joint to the bachelor degree of my dreams, science of the physical activity and the sport, where I thought I would become a great trainer but, I have never been so wrong.

As a general problem of all bachelor degrees in Spain, mine degree also was too theoretical and unspecific. In Spain, you go to class around 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, with a teacher who does not really care about your opinion, to attend to theoretical and boring lectures about subjects that you do not really like, but you cannot choose others because most of the subjects are mandatory. Even with that landscape, I wanted to do my best and expended 3 years of my life seated on chair and studying things which I already knew that they would not be useful for my goals.

After 3 years, I got quite good grades but I still had the feeling that I was not learning as much as I could, and because of the schedule in the university I did not have time to do extra courses. Thus, I decided that I needed a big change in my life and applied for an Erasmus scholarship. I did not think that they would teach me better in other country but at least I would learn English, because in Spain, if you want to learn English you have to go to academies and spend hundreds of euros during years to have a minimal English level.

My first minor in the Netherlands that I took was called “Sports Performance Enhancement”. The first surprise was that teacher interacts with you, she or he really cares about what you think, even when you do not have 2 master degrees and 1 doctorate (something hard to understand for someone from Spain). The second thing that called my attention was that I already knew all the subjects. I had seen everything in my degree but I could not answer all the question in class, the easier the question the more difficult for me to answer. Why? Because in Spain they do not think about what can be useful for the student, for his/her future as a professional. They teach you about one subject like if that was the most important subject in your life and make you memorize a lot of things, names, processes, etc. very specific for that subject which you cannot remember more than 2 days and you will never use in your life. The main problem of that is that while you are trying to memorize useless things, you are not learning useful things because the day only has 24 hours. In my opinion, all the problems would be solved if you ask the right questions. When the question is related with real life problems, then, you look for real life solutions, and eventually, to achieve that, you need to use the science behind that, to be able to understand why things are like they are and what happens when you do this or that, how your body works and how it adapts to different stimuli. But, If you only teach science because that is the name of the subject without asking yourself the right questions, then you and your students are losing their time.

During the first minor, I understood a lot of things which were messed up in my mind and I did (for the first time in my life) a practical intervention with a basketball

team. That was like a punch of reality when I saw how my wonderful theory did not work. A lot of problems came up but because of that I learnt even more. Also, thanks to that minor, in a workshop (something new for me because there are not workshops in my degree in Spain), I met a strength and conditioning coach of Sport Cetrum Papendal. I made a proposal and they hired me to work there as an intern.

Because I was so happy with my first minor, I decided that I wanted to stay in the Netherlands as much as possible and I took another minor, Sports and Nutrition.

It was another surprise for me when I realised how practical the minor was. Teachers made us resolve practical/real problems related with nutrition and sports physiology. And when you put everything together, you have a clear understanding of how your body works and that gives you skills to think and develop by your own, something that should be the final goal of every study, because when you know the bases, you can face any problem, although you have to be update about your field of study to provide with the best advice to your athlete, but a good basis is a good start. Thanks to this minor I realised how important nutrition is to achieve your goals. Athletes expend thousands of hours in the gym and in the field to be a 2% percent better every year and maybe most of them do not know that with a correct nutrition the improvements can be even bigger. In my opinion, nutrition, training and rest must be focus on achieving your final goal, if one those components is lack you cannot use your whole sports potential.

In both minors, teachers really woke my curiosity up for learning, for searching by my own. My self-esteem was higher because they treated me as an equal, even when they know much more than me. Trying to solve practical problems also makes you believe in your knowledge, because you realise that you really can help people and that encourages you to study harder, because you are seeing the product of your effort. In my case, also a good teacher makes me study harder because I do not want to disappoint him/her. That is my way to say thank you for your great job.

I want to be the best trainer that I can be. I want to go to an Olympic Games as a strength and conditioning coach. If I do not achieve that goal but I have done my best, then I will be very happy as well, you never know when the happiness can be, you just try to guess it. Achieving or not a goal can depend on a lot of factors, but not doing your best has not excuses, there are things that can help and things that might not help, but no excuses, then is your attitude what does not work, then you set a goal higher than what your mind can accomplish.

The most important thing that I take from theses minors is that they opened my mind to a new way of learning, searching for the right questions which drive you to the right answers and make you become a good professional. I am very thankful to my teachers in these minors for their effort and dedication. Now, I feel closer to my goal than one year ago when I started this adventure, and I think that it must be the right way.

Lees meer informatie (eisen en aanmelding) over de minor Sport en Voeding via Kies op Maat