Hoops

Sports drinks (Gatorade etc)

I find when I drink Gatorade a get a big belly. Gives me the feeling that there's some not so healthy stuff in there

It's just sugar water with a bit of salt in there. Can easily make a homemade batch.
All it is is clever marketing. Michael Jordan drinks it so all social players thinks it's a magic potion that will suddenly turn them into a player. Just the same as a red bull, just caffeine and a bunch of South American ingredients like guarana. Suddenly extreme athletes think it gives them an edge, but you see kids guzzle it because it's cool.

Water is best but 0 sugar and low sugar gatorades also good and taste better.

Berrocca and "V", the choice of champions.

and lots of water.

Alcohol dehydrates, so I'm not sure excessive electrolytes would help?

A mild stimulant, ie caffeine, also helps

“Basketball question aside, are they any good for hangovers or a waste of time?“

In addition to B vitamins lost to alcohol metabolism.

Basketball question aside, are they any good for hangovers or a waste of time?

Like a lot of things, I think marketing, commercial drive, hype, and cost-control, tend to overtake the actual science.

They can be good for a bit of a sugar rush if you NEED it, but for "energy" muscles use different elements (protein, fat, glucose) in different ways, at different times, and differently by types of muscle. So you really need to have a full and property understanding of nutrition and energy loading, (which I don't) rather than simply relying on glucose.

Yes, they also replace electrolytes lost through perspiration, but unless you are going hard for several hours or over several days, that's unlikely to be a problem if you have a healthy diet. Plus you need to know that you're getting the electrolytes you really need, rather than just what is cheapest (ie common salt).

You also need to be careful that you're not exacerbating dehydration.

People who have got through days of sustained effort and perspiration (usually in the topics) and used only water, have actually died from loss of electrolytes. But for a couple of hours, water is probably fine.

If you don’t know anything about the sodium and potassium pump then best stay away from them.

Yes, but a very watered down version, or only drinking a little with lots of water.

The carbs and sugar in them are beneficial, but the commercial ones you buy actually have too much of both in them.

I learnt about it in a nutrition unit when doing PE studies at school.

Basically just full of sugar. I think a 600 ml bottle has 17 sugar cubes (?)

Essentially they started off as a salt drink to replace electrolytes, but they are not as salty as they used to be in the early 80's.

Please explain?

Elite level adult basketballers might actually need it. That’s about it.

For the next three weeks, the South Adelaide Basketball Club are a sponsor of Hoops.com.au. I think they are probably the first local club to directly lodge a paid advertisement here but with Hoops' very concentrated basketball audience, they deserve credit for giving it a shot.

Here's some info about their juniors setup:

South Adelaide Basketball Club is rebuilding its Junior Girls Program. In the past six months girls member numbers increased enough to nominate three additional teams mid-season. Experienced Junior Coaches have joined the Club and its Girls Program for next year and the club is offering positions to any girls interested in playing the sport, or looking to further their basketball development in a higher division.