Academy Spotlight: Sarah Lawson Tilley

This time, we meet Lead Academy Performance Nutritionist Sarah Lawson Tilley, who explains the science, planning and education behind fuelling Palace’s young players – and why her ultimate aim is simple: to ensure every child in the Academy is fed.

Walk into the Academy restaurant on any given day and there is a good chance Sarah Lawson Tilley has already been there.

Before the players arrive, she has checked in with the chef, spoken to Val, who oversees the Academy’s restaurant, inspected the buffet and made sure everything is ready for the day ahead.

She will then meet with the medical team, check whether any players have been flagged for additional support, monitor hydration and nutrition, oversee snacks and shakes around training, speak to players individually, liaise with parents and prepare upcoming education sessions.

It is a role that touches almost every part of Academy life.

And, seven months into her time at Palace, Lawson Tilley is clear on its fundamental purpose.

“My biggest responsibility is ensuring that players are fed, because without food they will not perform,” she explains.

“Their bodies just won't have the right building blocks that they need to fuel performance, whether that's training or match days, and recover.

“So really, I touch on logistics, operations, the restaurant, match days, training, support with parents – just absolutely anything you could consider that impacts a child's eating behaviour, that is my responsibility to look at.”

It is a career which has taken Lawson Tilley through several sporting environments.

After graduating with first-class honours in Nutrition, she completed a Masters in Applied Sports Nutrition, earning a distinction and an award from her university.

Her early career was spent in women’s rugby, working in academy environments before moving into Women's Rugby League Super League and Harlequins Women's Premiership Rugby.

A spell at Queens Park Rangers, leading on nutrition in their Academy, was where her interest in football really took hold.

“I just really fell in love with football and the support we can do with the Academy, because it's like a food-first approach,” she says.

“Then an opportunity came up here at Palace, and I've been here for the past seven months.”

Now working across every age group from Under-9s through to the Under-21s, one of the biggest challenges is that no two players are the same.

That is particularly important at Academy level, where players are developing physically at very different rates.

“They're all coming from different backgrounds and experiences, so it's my role and responsibility to align those practices so that they're all fuelling in the right way,” she explains.

“Somebody might be an early maturer in the Under-14s, or somebody might be a late maturer in the Under-18s.”

That means nutrition cannot simply be viewed through the lens of football performance.

Health, growth and development come first.

“You have to put calories in to match calories out,” Lawson Tilley says.

“If you don't, we run the risk of injury, poor health, getting sick, having ligament and tendon issues, maybe even bone stress fractures, or preventing as much growth and maturation as that player could potentially achieve.”

And the demands of football add another layer.

Young players are training, competing, sprinting, testing and recovering while their bodies are still developing. Nutrition can therefore influence not only how they perform physically, but how they think and make decisions on the pitch.

“If we put enough energy in the tank through carbohydrates, the research and the evidence shows us that they will perform to a higher standard in those later minutes in the game,” she says.

“We need them to focus as well. If they haven't put enough food in the tank, are they able to focus? Are they able to listen to their coach?

“As we know, when the boys are on the pitch, they're making thousands of micro-decisions throughout an entire game.”

For Lawson Tilley, however, the biggest opportunity comes from establishing good habits early.

A player who learns how to fuel themselves properly as an U9 should not have to relearn those lessons when they reach the U21s.

“If they can build those habits early, like having breakfast at the right time and having the right food, then when they hopefully progress to that first-team stage, they don't really have to think about nutrition anymore because it becomes second nature to them,” she says.

“It's a habit, it's a behaviour rather than, ‘Have I had the right amount of carbohydrate three hours before a game?’”

That education is now being built into Academy life through a new programme being introduced this season.

Monthly workshops will be delivered for the U9s through to U16s, while the U18s and U21s will each have two sessions every month.

Importantly, they are designed to be practical rather than simply classroom-based.

“We don't just speak at them for 30 minutes on education. Every single session is applied.”

One example is taste testing, which allows players to try different products they could use to fuel themselves around matches.

It might sound simple, but Lawson Tilley sees it as an important part of making nutrition individual.

“You might have a player that likes an apple gel. You might have a player that doesn't like any gels at all and they want the chews,” she explains.

“If they're not fuelling going into a game because that flavour isn't available, then we're not optimising their nutrition.”

The sessions also allow players to gradually become accustomed to different amounts of carbohydrate – a process known as gut training – so they can discover what works for them without introducing something unfamiliar on matchday.

It is another example of the role being about much more than simply putting food in front of players.

The same applies to recovery.

“Other than sleep, nutrition is the number one recovery tool,” Lawson Tilley says.

Protein supports muscle repair, carbohydrates help refuel the body and fluids aid rehydration – all important after training and matches.

At Palace, that can be as simple as the chocolate milk provided across the Academy.

“It's a perfect carb-protein ratio, and the boys really like the taste of them.”

The objective is to begin the recovery process as soon as possible, helping players be ready for what comes next.

But perhaps the most important part of Lawson Tilley’s role is what happens when players eventually leave the Academy.

Whether they progress into the professional game or take a different path, she wants them to leave with skills that belong to them.

“There's so many arms to nutrition rather than just food – label reading, costs, just knowing when or how to build a healthy plate,” she says.

“Building lifelong skills is really important because what we don't want is our athletes, no matter how short or long they may be with us, when eventually they're not here, we want to know that they've left with the skills that they need.”

That could mean understanding how to buy food, make sensible choices while travelling, recognise when something is wrong or simply having the confidence to ask for help.

For Lawson Tilley, it all comes back to the same principle.

“My overall aim is to ensure every child is fed in our Academy and to ensure that I am supporting every player as best as I possibly can to allow them to have the best success they can.”