Our guest is Aaron Luo, a Vet-40 Men’s Epee Fencer and member of Fencers Club in New York City who was featured in a high-profile piece in The Wall Street Journal.
In this episode of First to 15, we're joined by Aaron Luo, a Vet-40 Men’s Epee Fencer and member of Fencers Club in New York City.
Aaron is also the proud father — and coach — of two fencing sons — 9-year-old Alexander and 6-year-old Sebastian.
And when he’s not fencing or cheering on his boys, Aaron is the CEO of two companies, including Caraa, a sport bag and accessory company, and Mercado Famous, a gourmet-food company.
We chat with Aaron about how he keeps in fencing shape, his return from a 10-year hiatus in fencing, and how he manages his busy schedule.
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First to 15: The Official Podcast of USA Fencing
Host: Bryan Wendell
Cover art: Manna Creations
Theme music: Brian Sanyshyn
EPISODE 17
[INTRO]
[00:00:01] BW: Hello, and welcome to First to 15, the official podcast of USA Fencing. I'm your host, Bryan Wendell, and in this show you're going to hear from some of the most inspiring, interesting, and insanely talented people in the sport we all love. First to 15 is for anyone in the fencing community and even for those just checking out fencing to see what it's all about. So whether you're an Olympian or a Paralympian, a newcomer, a seasoned veteran, a fencing parent, a fan, or anyone else in this wonderful community, this podcast is for you. With that, let's get to today's episode. Enjoy.
[INTERVIEW]
[00:00:40] BW: Today's guest is Aaron Luo of Vet 40 Men's Epee Fencer and member of Fencers Club in New York City. He's also a proud father and coach of two fencing sons, nine-year-old Alexander and six-year-old Sebastian. When Aaron isn't fencing or cheering on his boys, he's the CEO of two companies, including Caraa, which is a sport bag and accessory company, and Mercado Famous, a gourmet food company.
We are so excited to chat with Aaron about how he keeps in fencing shape, his return from a 10-year hiatus in fencing, and how he manages that busy schedule. So welcome to the podcast, Aaron Luo.
[00:01:13] AL: Thank you. Thank you, Bryan, for having me. Very excited to be here and chatting everything, fencing, life, and all of it.
[00:01:20] BW: Yeah, yeah. There's a lot to cover. So I want to start with how you got involved in fencing. I know from reading about you that you were a high school fencer, and you competed in college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. So what was that journey into fencing like for you?
[00:01:35] AL: Yeah. I mean, so I grew up in Spain. I'm Chinese in terms of ethnicity, but I grew up in Spain, and last year of high school had a chance to expose to the sport of fencing and loved it. I didn't really quite a bit compete while I was in Spain, but just kind of fell in love with the sport, in terms of not just the athletic side of things, but also just the mental side of things, which, to me, was quite interesting. When I started school in the States, lucky for us, we had a team that I was able to join. I mean, ever since, I got kind of hooked to the overall sport, and that was kind of the beginning of the journey.
[00:02:08] BW: That's great. So Spain. Now that you've seen your own son's go through fencing here in the US, are there any differences that you notice from fencing in Spain and Europe versus fencing here in the United States?
[00:02:21] AL: Yeah, quite a bit. I mean, of course, neither the countries – When you compare in terms of the popularity of the sport, it's not popular, right? Unfortunately and hopefully, we're going to change all that. When I was in Spain, of course, the soccer, basketball, football, those are some of the more popular sports. So there were very few limited clubs that you were able to go to.
I think that's actually a little bit better in the States. I feel like given the size of the country and the different clubs I was exposed to, I feel like fencers here actually have a lot better opportunity to have access to the different clubs in the university. So from that perspective, I feel that in the States, and especially growing, kind of raising two boys in the States, they actually have a much better chance to get access to the different facilities and also a chance to fence different fencers. I'm pretty grateful that we're actually in the States and be able to actually practice this sport here.
[00:03:16] BW: Yeah. There's a lot of clubs across the country. You're right. Especially in New York, where you are, there's some pockets of the US where we still are looking for more clubs to crop up, but that's really great. So after college, you took a break from fencing and launched your career. You’ve started two successful companies, like we talked about in the intro. What was that decision like? Because I can't imagine it's ever easy to press pause on a sport that you love.
[00:03:40] AL: Yeah. That was tough. That was tough. To be honest with you, I was naive enough to really kind of try to continue the sports, especially in the early days of my career, and I failed that miserably. But kind of just unpack a little bit on that path after college, before starting my own businesses, I was fortunate enough to work with a fortune 500 company in the States, General Electric, and really had the chance to travel quite a bit with the company. I think for the 10 years that I spent with the company, I traveled more than 30 different countries, lived in over 12, and just learned a ton.
Early phases of that journey, I was naive enough to bring all my fencing equipment with me. I remember one of my first countries I lived. It was in Hungary, and I'm like, “Great.” But I'm going to be in Budapest. I’m going to live there. I'm going to go to all this club and so on, so forth. The reality is that, unfortunately, for the early stages of my career, I was so focused on work and building a career. It just – There wasn't any time.
For me, I'm the kind of guy that likes to go all in or nothing. I said instead of going halfway in the sport and halfway work, I kind of made a tough decision and say, “You know what? I'm going to pass the sport for now. Really focus on building the career, making – Kind of fill myself up in terms of making sure that I can fruitfully afford to fence it later in life and kind of go from there. On the hindsight, I think that was the right decision. I would love to actually find balance if I could have in terms of juggling the two things at the same time. But the reality is that I think to really be successful at your career, especially in the early stages, I think it's kind of tough.
[00:05:23] BW: So you said pause. You said that you were actually thinking of it as a pause at the time, and there's a lot of sports where you can't do that, right? You give it up, and that's it. Maybe you're playing recreationally, but you're still competing at a high level now. So did you know at the time that you'd be back?
[00:05:39] AL: 100%. 100%. I said pause because I was still keeping up with cardio, right? So cardio, conditioning, stretching, agility training, those are things that you could do without really going to a fencing club, right? So any sports club that you are in, anywhere that really has a mat that you can have access to, I think those are things that you will need to actually keep up with your personal conditioning.
I try as much as I can during the 10 years that I took kind of that pause from the sport. The only thing I didn't really do was bouting, taking lessons, and so on, so forth. But in terms of keeping myself up in terms of physicality-wise on the conditioner side, I kept it up as best as I could. Knowing that once I hit mid-30s, I knew that once I started traveling those crazy schedules or places I was going to, and once I had that little bit more stability, I knew I was going to come back to the sport.
[00:06:34] BW: Yeah. That's great. There's a great article about you in the Wall Street Journal that we'll link in the show notes of this episode. But in it, you talked about your return to fencing after about a decade pause, and one of the reasons was as an outlet for stress. You talk about your career and how many great places you got to travel to and great experiences and all the success you've had. To some people, that also would sound like a pretty stressful experience. So what part did you return to fencing? What part did trying to mitigate that stress play in your return to fencing?
[00:07:05] AL: Yeah. I mean, I joke around with my friends. I feel like, especially in my 30s, once my career really start peaking as far as kind of owning two companies, have investments, and so on, so forth, that to a certain extent, fencing saved my life in a sense that it really brought some sanity into my day, right?
I mean, if I break down my day, just really quickly, right, I started the morning, and this was before really kind of coming back to fencing full time. I wake up early, early during the day to talk to either Asia or talk to Europe, just because the time differences. By the time that's done, rushing to get out of the door. You're balancing all this with the kids. It's very stressful. I mean, you can imagine, and I think many of the listeners probably can relate to it, especially if you're in the 30s and 40s, in terms of having to balance just between work and family and so on, so forth, right?
That led to really bad habits. That led to very little sleep, very little exercise or exercise, really, without a schedule, eating whatever you can grab on the go. I knew that I needed to bring some sanity back into my routine, right? So that's honestly one of the reasons why I started coming back to the sport and start exploring a little bit more, as far as like how can I incorporate fencing packed into my career?
Which, honestly, it's hard in the beginning, right? Because you're so busy, and your entire day is really built around family and work that how do you fit in that three hours or two and a half hours of fencing every single day, whether it's fencing or the cardio conditioning, what you do in the gym. But little by little, I was able to actually incorporate that and successfully incorporate it into the schedule. I always kind of joke around and say it's saving my life in the sense that when I go to my club or when I'm working now, it's kind of like going to church. It's like going to that safe place where I'm not thinking about work. I'm not thinking about family to a certain extent. All I think about is how to improve my skills to beat my opponent.
To be in that level of concentration and to be able to have that moment of focus, it gives such a mental relief and physical relief that, I mean, honestly, now, I can go any week without having that kind of rigor and schedule. So it's a very well-invested time during my day, despite of my busy schedule. But like I said, to a certain extent, I think without my mental and physical state, it would not be balanced.
[00:09:27] BW: The article really gives a nice picture of what that balance looks like through the course of your week. So can you walk us through maybe a typical week, if there is any such thing, as it pertains to how you're balancing everything and what the training looks like? I was especially interested to see that it's not – Your fencing training isn't all bouting. There's a lot of – You could call it cross training in there as well. So what does that week look like for you?
[00:09:51] AL: Yeah. It changes a little bit better, right? You probably can appreciate this. I mean, depending if there's a NAC coming and that you're training for the NAC or training for specific tournament versus if you're just kind of hitting a lot of regional tournaments and try to improve or work on certain things that you're trying to work on.
But I think, look, I'm in my 40s, right? I think I always say this. My number one enemy, it's not just the skills and the footwork and the distance and the tempo. My number one enemy these days is actually not getting injured, right? Because once I start getting injured or certain parts are not working right, my fencing is going to suffer. So the reason I incorporate a lot of strength training or agility training or stretching or cross training for that matter is not just to improve my own personal condition. It’s to prevent against injuries.
But just kind of to answer your question, just to lay out a little bit of my week looks like, Tuesdays and Thursdays, it's club bouting time. That's my time to take what my coach has taught me all week or things that we're working on, and put it into practice a little bit, right? Fortunately enough for me, Fencers Club, it’s one of those establishments where a lot of great fencers are either in it, or we have a lot of great fencers that come to visit us from time to time that I get the chance to actually practice with outside tournaments and NACs. Again, Tuesday and Thursday, that's my time to really kind of work on those things that I'm trying to improve.
Monday and Fridays usually are conditioning days. So I go to another different gym, where I do a lot of cardio, a lot of strength training. It's interesting. A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to meet a bunch of different football player from Miami Dolphins, and I was just kind of sharing those with them, as far as like what their trading routine looks like versus like a fencer. One of the things I was very interested in is that they actually told me that they do a lot of heavy lifting for a number of different reasons.
I kind of say like what's the rationale behind heavy, heavy lifting. I'm talking about heavy squats, front squats, back squats. A lot of them actually said it's not just for strength, but it's actually preventing injuries, which I thought was kind of interesting. So more and more, during the Monday and Wednesday strength and conditioning practices or sessions that have, I actually started lifting a lot heavier, which in the past, I only tried to lift heavy in the beginning of the season. During the season, I tried to keep the weight light, just for maintenance purposes.
Now, I'm actually pushing and actually adding a lot more weight, even during the season, which actually is proving to be quite helpful with my strength and also with my agility during the bouts. Then Wednesday, it's footwork class at Fencers Club with my coach, Alexei. So Wednesday, it’s – Most of it dedicated to footwork and some drills. Then Saturday and Sunday is for my kids. It’s Saturday, I take my kids to my local club in New Jersey, where I do a little bit of footwork, but really spend the time to kind of coach them on a number of different areas. Then Sunday, like I said, it's a little bit of resting day for me, and then I try to spend as much as the time I can on Sundays, coaching the kids in terms of their practice. So it’s a pretty packed week.
[00:13:01] BW: Yeah, seriously.
[00:13:02] AL: It’s tiring. But to a certain extent, I think I'm at the point where it's more or less a routine where, like I said before, if I don't get it, my body craves it and, mentally, I kind of escape in order to keep sane. So it's hectic, but it's good.
[00:13:19] BW: Yeah. I think a lot of people, when they first start in a sport, they don't realize how much time is spent not using the equipment in that sport. In other words, basketball players spending time in the gym, not holding a ball. A fencer without a blade in sight, right? There's a great picture of you in that journal article, where you're holding a kettlebell up high, and there's no fencing equipment in that entire photo.
So how important is that part of your training, the part that doesn't involve those Tuesdays and Thursdays bouting? Can you actually notice a difference when you do get back on the strip of the gains you've made in the weight room?
[00:13:55] AL: Oh, 100%. I mean, I really think that any fencer who is not kind of lifting and, of course, the weights and the specific routine, really it's up to the individual in terms of what they want to do. But I think if you are seriously competing, I think it's crazy not to incorporate a lot of the kind of the cross training or weightlifting and strength training as part of your routine.
I know this tremendous improvement in my routine ever since I started really kind of cranking up the heat in terms of the strength training with weights or with kettlebells. I love kettlebells, just because the way you have to actually activate certain muscles within your body because the weight distribution is a little different. But I tried to combine that together with free weights. But, yeah, I mean simple lunges or advanced loungers, right? The explosivity that comes with it, I mean, I notice a huge difference once I start doing heavy squats or heavy front back squats. That helps me with my routine.
So again, the specifics of it, I discuss that very closely with my personal trainer and kind of cater to that and tweak it a little bit to what's right for me or what works for me. I think each fencer should do the same thing. But, yeah, I mean, I tried to learn a ton from other sports as much as I can, whether it's football, basketball, any other major sports. You see them that strength and conditioning is very much part of their routine, whether it's before or after or during season.
[00:15:24] BW: Yeah. I think that that's great advice. I want to switch gears to something you brought up earlier. Weekends are for your kids, and you have two sons both in fencing. Was it ever a question that they would get involved in fencing, given your background? What got them into the sport in the first place? Really, what's it been like as a dad, watching their development in the sport?
[00:15:43] AL: Yeah. No, look. I think this is probably one of the most rewarding things for me in terms of being able to coach my kids and see them compete. Whether they win or not, to be honest with you, I mean, to a certain extent, it's secondary. Of course, everybody wants to win and do well. But at their age, six and nine, right now, I want them to feel love for the sport.
To answer your first question, there was no doubt in my mind they're going to do this sport. Particularly, I was praying that they will love this sport as much as they do now. It’s interesting, they did in the beginning. The beginning was a little bit of a drag. It's like, “Oh, I got to go train. Why do I have to do the private lesson?” I think for my oldest, at least, I think the light bulb went off when he started winning, which is kind of interesting. When he started winning bouts or winning some tournaments, it was like, “Ah, that's why I spent the time in my gym. That's why we practice at home. That's why we do the personal lessons,” and so on, so forth.
It was a little bit of a journey getting to that point. But I think once they got there, they started understanding all the training and the hard work they're putting into it in terms of how it pays out later on. To me, it's extremely rewarding, to a point where I'm actually enjoying a lot more now watching my kids and coaching my kids and seeing them do well versus me winning any medal or sort of ranking high or coming top in any tournaments.
What I'm actually trying to teach my kids more and more besides, obviously, the physicality of things and the physical exercising and the different play work and distance and footwork and so on, so forth, it’s the mental aspect of it. Just like probably any sport, but I think the fencing, it's definitely up there in terms of how important mental aspect is for the sport. I'm trying to teach my kids a lot more about mentally how to face adversity, mentally how to prepare for a tournament, how to prepare fear.
I got my kids telling me like, “Hey, Dad. Is it normal that I'm kind of scared going into this particular bout?” I tell them I get scared every time, not even just like tournaments, even practice. So it's totally normal. How you deal with that, that comes with maturity, and that comes with time, and so on, so forth. But getting them exposed to those things early on, I think it's not only good for them as a fencer in terms of their fencing career, but also as a human in terms of how they're going to face life and face adversity.
I mean, I tell my kids. I said, “Look, you're going to be losing more than you're going to win, and that's the reality of things, right?” I mean, in business, in life, in fencing, reality is I don't care how great of a champion you are. You will – I mean, statistically, it shows that you're going to be losing more than you win. How do you deal with that as a human, as an athlete, and as a person I think says a lot about a person, how they're going to grow up. I'm having the opportunity to actually use fencing to teach that kind of lesson to my kids, and that's extremely important to me.
So it's a very rewarding experience, Bryan, and I look forward to many more years. But, yeah, I was praying hard, man, in terms of making sure that please love this sport as much as I do. Fortunately, they both do.
[00:18:58] BW: Well, it's interesting that you said that at the beginning, you kind of had to give them that nudge. Because as a father myself, I've noticed that too, just getting my kids into anything. There's going to be that time when they don't want to go. But as parents, I feel like we do have to give them that extra nudge until they get across that line, where they're like, “Yeah, now I get it,” like you said, with your own son.
[00:19:18] AL: Yeah. One more thing to add to that, right? What I love about our fencing community is the friendship they build throughout their career. Again, they don't have a career just yet. But sometimes, I even have to hold myself back. My wife is great at this. She reminds me all the time and say like, “Hey, they're six or they're nine. Like sometimes, they just want to hang out with their buddies at the club and maybe play a little video game, and that's totally okay.” Because to me, as long as they're building a solid community within the sport or around the sport and love being there, to me, that has value, right? So it's not always fencing and practice and cardio and all of that. It’s, “Hey, I want to go there, maybe just hang out with my friends.”
To me, that's, honestly, a good carrot to kind of dangle in front of is like, “Hey, go to the club. You don’t have to fence today. Maybe just go hang out with Bryan and hang out.” So the little tricks I'm picking up along the way as a parent, as a fencing parent, to not only encourage them and incentivize them to actually do well in fencing practice, but those little things. It’s like, “Hey. Go hang out with your friends,” and that's okay.
[00:20:27] BW: I think that's really smart. Another thing that you have to figure out as a fencing parent is that you're also a fencer yourself, as we've said. So how do you balance that? Because I imagine there's weekends where there's a tournament for you and a tournament for your sons, and they're not at the same location, or you can't make them both work. So how do you make that decision in your mind, as someone who still wants to be a competitive fencer himself?
[00:20:52] AL: Yeah. That's a great question. It's tough. It's tough because, obviously, you're facing the schedules. I think for most part, I think the USA Fencing and the different tournament organizer has done a pretty decent job in terms of not coinciding and making sure that veterans are open. It's scheduled the same day as a Y12 or a Y10 or Y8. But there has been a couple of times this year where I had to make that choice. The reality is that when it comes to that, you prioritize your kids, right? Especially because when kids are young, they need the strip support. They need the strip coaching to kind of point out different things.
So I think as the kids get older in terms of getting into the Y12, Y14 kind of in junior tournaments, I think those schedules probably will coincide a little closer to vet or a senior open or a senior tournament. So I'll cross that bridge once we get there. But reality is that as a fencing parent or coaching your kid, I probably prioritize them before myself. But it's a tough one. It's a tough one, just because, obviously, season, it's the same season for everyone. You kind of want to do well, just as well as your kids.
Another thing I want to kind of bring up, which might bring value to the listeners and touched on the point you just mentioned before, it's kind of sometimes tough being a fencing parent that with a fencer like myself, I sometimes project my style into my kid, right? Yes, there's definitely benefits as a parent in coaching your kids because you’re kind of teaching your kids all the mistakes you are making or have made in the past, right? You kind of want to give them the benefits, right? That you kind of went through and so on, so forth. That's a good side of things.
But sometimes, you’re also projecting a little bit on them in terms of your own style, which might or might not fit with their own, right? So sometimes, I take a step back in saying, “Hey, you might be a more aggressive fencer,” or a less aggressive fencer or whatever you are. But that might not be the style of your kid, right? So how do you actually drive that balance and making sure that you're teaching them something, but at the same time making sure that they are discovering themselves and given the time to actually self-discover. It’s important and a fine balance that I think all of us defensive parents need to at least keep that in mind and knowledge that's there, instead of always projecting what you think they should do based on your own style or your own experience.
[00:23:20] BW: I think that's really fascinating, just not thinking of them as a clone of you in every way that they're going to finish the exact same way that you do. How does that come in when you're strip coaching, where you've just got a minute to deliver a message, and kind of the pressure is on, and you're noticing something as their dad and their coach that you want to point out?
[00:23:40] AL: Yeah. That's another fantastic question because my two kids actually very different people. My oldest son, wants the intensity of the strip coaching. So every single touch that he loses, he turns around, looks at me, and looks for feedback immediately. If I'm not there yelling loud and giving the feedback immediately, he actually gets frustrated, right? It's like, “Why aren't you telling me what I need to do better? What am I doing wrong?” He wants that instant feedback.
But my little one actually don't want to hear anything. Maybe he's going to change over time. But I think he's going into it with a playbook. Again, he's only six. So I think why it's a little different than Y10 or Y12. But he's more kind of going there with a playbook and try one thing. It didn't work. Maybe try something else, and he’s not really looking for that feedback. Matter of fact, he gets even more frustrated and more stressed, if I'm giving them kind of that feedback on this [inaudible 00:24:41].
As a coach and father, it's important to actually adapt ourselves or myself as a chameleon to know, hey, depending on the style of your child, how to actually adapt your feedback style accordingly, just because they're not made the same, right? So especially to your point, you only have that three-minute per bout, that very little time to actually give the feedback. You still want them to do well, but at the same time not be disruptive. So I think it comes down to, honestly, self-discovery as a parent. It's really understanding who you are, really understanding your child in terms of the style that works for them.
[00:25:25] BW: Yeah. You might see something and be like, “If I just said this one thing, it's going to change the bout.” But in reality, you think about how the fencer might receive that information, and it might actually have the opposite effect, right? It's just about knowing yourself and that fencer in the moment. I think that's really well said.
[00:25:42] AL: 100%. 100%. One thing I actually think that’s very good and brought tons of benefit for us, so it’s kind of a tip, is that I actually brought for the first time my older son to help me strip coach my younger son during one of the bouts. After the bout, he comes to me. He’s like, “Hey, Daddy. I didn't know how much you can actually see as a strip coach that you can't really see as a fencer,” right? Because you're [inaudible 00:26:09] different angles.
[00:26:09] BW: Interesting.
[00:26:12] AL: Having had that experience himself, having seen that, he now understands why I'm saying things to him the way I say it and when I say that, right? So I think they get a better appreciation to when I do things or why I do things, after going through the strip coaching experience themself, which it's quite good of an experience. Again, for the fencing parents out there listening to this, actually, it's a great way to bring your kid into the strip coaching, if you have that open.
[00:26:45] BW: Yeah. That's a great way to look at it. Yeah. When you're on the strip, in the mask, you've almost got those blinders on that there's going to be stuff that you're, of course, not going to be able to see. You don't have a mirror there to see yourself, and you don't always see what the opponent might be giving you either. So I think that's really well said.
[00:27:02] AL: 100%. No, it definitely brings a different perspective.
[00:27:05] BW: Then finally, before we wrap this up, there's a whole other element to kind of your fencing game, you might say, that comes up in that Wall Street Journal article, which I know I keep referencing it, but I thought it was really, really cool to see and to see fencing spotlighted in such a big way. But it's the diet and it's what you eat, how you feel your body. So I'm very curious if you could share some tips about how you keep yourself in fencing shape by considering what you're eating every day.
[00:27:34] AL: Yeah. Another great question, Bryan. First of all, thanks for the kind words. I was fortunate enough to be picked by the Wall Street Journal and coming up with the story. Honestly, the main hope there is to bring more spotlight to the sports and, of course, more families and more fencers to actually test and try and join the sport. I just think it’s such a fantastic sport that it just needs to get out there more, as far as –
[00:27:59] BW: Totally.
[00:28:00] AL: Influence more people or, I mean, imagine the day where instead of going and do a pickup basketball game, let's do a pickup fencing bout. I mean, imagine the day, right?
[00:28:10] BW: Yeah. Let’s do it. Yeah. That's awesome.
[00:28:13] AL: When it comes to diet, I mean, it's such an important part of the sport, just like any elite sport or any recreational sport, right? I think, for me, it's a little bit of a self-discovery, obviously, and I was fortunate enough to have a coach that can work with me and start exploring the different diets that I test and try and so on and so forth. I think I started really kind of exploring diet when I started doing – I wouldn't say body lifting.
But during that 10 years that I took apart from the sport, because I was traveling so much and when you travel, as you know, probably, Bryan, it’s so easy to really kind of eat bad. You're constantly in airports. Your schedule, it's all whacked constantly because one day, you are in Dubai. The next day, you’re in Hong Kong. The next day, you are in São Paulo, right? So if you're not careful with your day schedule, it's all a whack, you're eating wherever you can get, a lot of time, I believe – I mean, well know that restaurant food is delicious. But you really don't have any control in terms of what goes in there, right? In terms of the saturated fat, sugar, and so on, so forth.
During that period, I already kind of started building a routine of dieting, not necessarily to play or so on and so forth. I really kind of keep up with the cardio. So being Chinese ethnicity and being in the food industry growing up with my family, and my family owned a number of different restaurants back in Madrid, I really kind of understood the importance of balance. If you look at Chinese cuisine especially, balance is extremely important. So in my meals, you're always going to find a carb, a protein, some form of vegetable, and maybe some type of dairy. That's something that I try to incorporate as much as I can.
The key there is really balance, right? It’s that you want to have a healthy balance of all those things that goes into your body. Of course, if I am going to competition, I’d load myself up a little bit more in terms of carb to make sure that I have enough fuel the next day or the next few days to kind of maintain the rhythm, energy levels. But to me, I think as an athlete or any professional, not paying attention to what you eat, it’s a huge mistake.
So one of the things I think it's really well-invested on my end, at least, looking back in terms of [inaudible 00:30:44] is to work with a nutritionist early on. It doesn't have to be a long-term thing. I mean, you can just go to a nutritionist for an hour to do a consultation, and then get that feedback in terms of, “Hey, here's my lifestyle. Here's the type of sport I do or don't do. Here’s when I would nap. Here’s when I go to bed.” Kind of describe your lifestyle, and then have he or she to really come up with a plan to help you maintain that lifestyle, and then tune it up to the highest performance. I think that's extremely, extremely helpful.
I know now my body is so sensitive that if I don't follow a diet on a daily basis, it complains. If I'm eating too much fat, or if I’m eating too much sugar, or if I'm not taking enough intake of carbs, I can see my body start reacting differently than normal. So I think it's extremely important as an athlete and as a person to actually have a consistently balanced diet in order to coordinate a lifestyle.
[00:31:44] BW: I think that's really smart. Then finally, how that might apply to your six and nine-year-olds because, obviously, kids can be picky eaters, but they are athletes as well, and they're trying to perform at their best on some of those fencing days, which can be super long and physically and emotionally draining. So how do you factor that in with your sons?
[00:32:03] AL: Yeah. It's tricky. It's tricky because as we know, kids are a lot more picky than adults when it comes to food. Fortunately, because we, my wife and I, expose our kids to especially Asian cuisine or Chinese food in the very early days, I think getting that balance into their diet early on, it comes almost like default, right? It's not like, “Would you like to eat pea greens? Or would you like to eat bok choy with your meal?” There's no choice. It's, “Look, you’re getting chicken, you’re getting white rice, and you’re getting bok choy, and maybe some kind of soup.” That’s it.
Or in the winter, we love watermelon or daikon with our soups. I kind of bring that balance very early on into their diet. I think that's important, and it took us a little bit of trial and error, to be honest, right? So it's not just like, “Hey, I love daikon. You will love daikon.” You can’t force the kid. But we take them to dim sum and taking them to different – Expose them to different cuisines at a very early age and allowing them to actually explore and determine what they like, what they don't. I think that's very important.
I know we've talked about kids training quite a bit, but one thing I do want to mention too, in addition to diet, injury and prevention of injury. It's also super important when it comes to kids. So just the same thing I do myself in terms of strength and conditioning, which a lot of it involves stretching and agility training or form of movement into my training. I tried to incorporate as much as I can to my kids as well.
It's funny because my eldest son also likes soccer, not as competitively as fencing, but it's important for him to do soccer and those few other things. We're starting all this [inaudible 00:33:47]. They start complaining quite a bit, right? As you know, probably many athletes do, once you have a little bit of either injury or a little bit of tear in certain parts of your joints and muscles, most likely those injuries will come back, if you don’t take care of it.
That’s one thing I can't emphasize enough, and I share with as many parents as I can. It’s, listen to your kid’s body, so that if there are certain parts they are, needs to be tuned up, make sure that you're actually working on those in terms of stretching or strength conditioning to make sure that they are airtight, just because those injuries will come back if there was an injury in the past.
[00:34:34] BW: That's great, and I think we'll leave it at that. This has been a really great conversation, a lot of fun, and you've had some great insight to share. So Aaron Luo, thanks for joining us on the podcast, and best of luck to you and your kids this season.
[00:34:47] AL: Wait, thank you very much, Bryan. It was great to share our story with the fencing community and looking forward to see you in the NACs.
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[00:34:54] BW: Thanks for listening to First to 15, the official podcast of USA Fencing. We'll be back with our next conversation in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, you can stay up to date on all the latest fencing news by following us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. If you liked this podcast, please help us grow and reach more people by leaving us a rating or review. Until next time, I'm Bryan Wendell, and I hope to see you real soon out on the strip. Bye.
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