I go to as many tournaments as possible, and between rounds at every tournament, I make sure to keep a full water bottle near me all the time. I always did it as an instinct or just because my coach told me to. I never gave it much thought beyond “it’s hot in here” or “I get tired easily.” It turns out, there’s a pretty good reason behind it: losing just 2% of your body weight in sweat is enough to cause a noticeable drop in performance. Your reactions can get slower, your de

The night before every tournament, I go for a big pasta dinner; it's become such a habit I never really thought about why. Turns out there’s a good reason behind it: your muscles store carbs as glycogen, and that's the fuel reserve your body pulls from all day once you’re on the strip. A fencing tournament isn’t just one quick all-out bout; it's pools, then a DE bracket, sometimes stretching up to six hours, so having full glycogen stores in your body going into the tournamen

I used to think nutrition was something only bodybuilders and professional athletes worried about. As a fencer, I figured as long as I showed up to practice and put in lots of effort, that was enough. But after a few weeks of skipping breakfast before school or morning fencing practice, I started to realize I didn’t fence how I usually do, even with evening practice. My footwork was okay, but my hands were more shaky, my reactions were slower, and most importantly, I got tire

Throughout my life, I’ve played multiple sports from soccer to basketball to jiu-jitsu. However, I settled on the sport I liked the most - fencing. When I started fencing in a trial class, I didn’t enjoy it very much. It was tiring, difficult, and confusing. But I eventually started to view fencing in a different way. I started looking at it as something that would train my muscles, my brain, my reaction speed, and make me a better athlete overall. Very few sports start off w