Competitive 40K: Staying Healthy When You Play
Playing in a tournament takes a large amount of time. Here are a few things to keep yourself healthy and further your enjoyment of the event.
Even a one-day tournament will last almost twelve hours. Depending on the tournament organizer, the tournament could start as early as eight in the morning and finish as late as nine at night. There are even some tournaments that run from dusk until dawn. For this reason, it is important that you maintain some healthy habits during the tournament, whether it is a one day or multi-day tournament. This is so that you don’t ruin your enjoyment of the tournament by something happening because you didn’t take care of yourself.
Snacks
For a lot of players, we miss out on the most important meal of the day, breakfast. With the hustle and bustle of getting things ready for the tournament, let alone getting your stuff in the car, there sometimes isn’t enough time to get a good meal in. Ideally a protein bar or some type of breakfast snack would be best, but you should get something in your body. This helps to get your mind and body ready for the day. As the day, or weekend, continues it is a good idea to still have some snacks. Although there isn’t a lot of physical work involved with playing the game, the mental fatigue that can happen could cause issues and leave you with a headache, and/or fatigued. There are plenty of places to get some good, and healthy, snacks so there is really no excuse not to have any on hand.
Footwear
One thing a lot of people overlook, in taking care of themselves during tournaments, is their shoes, and to some extent what they are standing on. Ideally you would want comfortable walking shoes, even if they are designer ones. Although chairs are provided, I don’t know many players that will sit down for most of a game. You will be standing a long time and walking around a lot. This is especially true if you are attending one of the larger events. In addition, I have seen some players bring their own ergonomic floor mats. If you’re the type that doesn’t sit at all during a game, these help greatly over time. A lot of places where tournaments are help have some type of hardwood or cement floor. It is easy to find both the right find of footwear and floor pad for you. Usually at a reasonable price, especially when compared to some 40K items. If you have a history of foot or back issues, or just get tired easily if you have to be standing up all day, these two items alone will help greatly in your stamina for playing 5, 6 or more games of 40K over the course of the weekend.
Water
The most important thing to remember, in my opinion, is water. I don’t mean Gatorade, alcohol, or any other enhanced drink. I mean just plain water. Having worked outside for the better part of 20 years, i cannot stress enough the importance of staying hydrated. Many issues can develop due to not being properly hydrated. Although this advice is usually giving during the hot days of summer, it should be applied year round. Just because you happen to be inside doesn’t mean you can’t be affected by a lack of water. If the venue has inadequate cooling, or you just happen to be outside for an extended period of time, you can still suffer from heatstroke. Just this past Las Vegas Open, there was a player in the 40K champs event, in round 2, that had a seizure. it was later discovered that the reason for the seizure was that they were dehydrated due to not drinking enough water. Most venues have access to safe drinking water and there usually plenty of places to go where you could buy drinking water. There really is no excuse for you not to be properly hydrated during your games, so hopefully we won’t see any more players fainting in the future.
These are just a few things to keep in mind when preparing for a tournament, whether is a small RTT, or a large multi-day event. There are other tips and tricks to keep you up and alert throughout the tournament as you try to battle your way to the top, or just hang out with friends and roll some dice.
~ Let us know of other tips to use to stay upright during tournaments, in the comments section below.
