Alcohol is a substance that has been shown to affect overall sports performance. If you play sports and drink frequently, you are in danger of significantly hindering your ability to play well and remain competitive. Because of this, your alcohol intake should be very limited if you even consume it at all. Below are some of the ways in which alcohol can effect sports performance and fitness altogether.

Alcohol can cause dehydration. The last thing you need when playing any sport is to become dehydrated. You should drink plenty of water each day in order to keep your muscles and the rest of your body hydrated. This ensures all body parts will work as they should. This includes your organs. When you drink alcohol, your body becomes dehydrated. You will have to drink even more water just to offset this problem and hydrate your body once more. Add to that the additional water you should drink before and after training and you will find yourself consuming more liquids than you ever thought possible.

Dehydration can also lead to injuries, a decreased appetite and even brain impairment in severe cases. You will also wind up losing muscle mass, thereby negating your purpose of building muscle altogether.

Drinking alcohol will also impair your reaction time and mental acuity. This impairment can linger for several days after the alcohol is consumed. This delayed reaction time is detrimental in any game no matter the sport. Overall fitness and performance will be reduced and the risk of injury increased whenever this occurs.

The consumption of alcohol can also cause a decrease in hand-eye coordination. Here judgment will be impaired which will also have a significant effect for all players in any particular sport.

Alcohol will also interfere with the break down of lactic acid. This can increase the amount of soreness an athlete experiences after exercising.

Alcohol can also bring with it many negative side effects that can be experiences for several days after its consumption. They include: nausea, vomiting and drowsiness. All three of these will most definitely hinder an athlete's ability to practice for any sport let alone play one.

Alcohol can even cause death. It is a common misconception that a lot of alcohol must be consumed n order to cause a person to die as a result. While this is certainly true both in the short and long term, alcohol has been known to cause death in many cases even when consumed in small quantities. Often times when this occurs, it is a direct result of alcohol poisoning. This is very dangerous and should be observed carefully to make sure it does not occur. The best way to do this is to eliminate alcohol consumption completely.