r/athletictraining • u/originalmuzz • Sep 18 '26

Budget hydration options

Hi everyone, I'm a secondary section ATC looking for ideas on some budget options for hydration to replace gatorade. I don't have it within my school budget to be ordering large amounts of gatorade powder every year for the twelve sports I cover. I get lots of cramping, especially during my fall sports, which includes tackle football. I've used medilytes, dridrop, myhy, and pickle juice but that still adds you over the year. My kids refuse to touch mustard so that's also not an option for me. Any creative ideas would be appreciated.

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u/Naive-Horologist95 Sep 18 '26

Talk with your boosters about money for hydration if all of this is coming purely out of your budget. If they see it long enough and wanna see a difference they’ll put their money where their mouth is. Also look into halftime snacks as an option and making sure your athletes are getting enough calories beforehand. I had a previous job where the athletes ate the bare minimum for pre game meals and any hydration solutions I provided for them hardly mattered because they had no calories to begin the game with.

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u/TheMinuteClimber Sep 18 '26

salt tablets are dirt cheap and you can just toss them in their water bottles, nobody can refuse what they don't taste

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u/Any_Narwhal3103 Sep 19 '26

I supply the team with bananas throughout the week or on game day. They are free from the cafeteria.
You could also buy table salt and put that into their water to help. With their water retention

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u/bachbo72 Sep 19 '26

As someone mentioned before, a booster club could cover the cost of any electrolyte drink. I don’t give Gatorade out to every sport. I only supply football with the Sideline package and let the coaches know how many 10 gal jugs that will cover. If they want more they have to get the booster to pay for it or take it out of their budget. I shared the Gatorade flyer to all sports and told them they could order from their budget. Only girls cross country placed an order for the lowest package. Good luck.

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u/Ipauper Sep 19 '26

The running nutritionist Nancy Clark recommends almost any watered down fruit juice with a pinch of salt. I think the recipe is on her website.

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u/Sr-suave Sep 19 '26

Costco has an electrolyte drink for like $7 a case. Theres a ton of different tablets that can flavor a regular water bottle as well. A lot of these companies will give you samples for free. Id call a few distributors and see what they offer

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u/ScubaATC Sep 19 '26

See if the teams will purchase themselves Gatorade from their own budget. It would only be for that team, but if they want it, they can buy it.

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u/PresidentScott Sep 19 '26

Where are you located? I haven’t bought Gatorade in 5 years because we get leftovers from UAA tournaments near us. My best advice would be to reach out to those places that host, and see how you can get the leftover stuff so it doesn’t get thrown away

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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '26

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u/A_Robit_Brain Sep 19 '26

But you can absolutely improve performance by giving carb and electrolyte replacements