In this article we want to give you a window into the life of an elite athlete and find out how they train on a daily basis, and how they ready themself for an international tournament.

Because, whether you’re training to elite level yourself, or just trying to stay fit and healthy, what they know and do could work wonders for you.

We want to know how they prepare, both physically and mentally, and even strategically.

What is their training cadence, diet, workout regimen, and mind set?

What is their recovery protocol and sleep routine, and what other tricks do they have?

In short — we want to know what it takes to become the best?

And to find out, we asked one of the best.

Meet Mitchell Saron, a Filipino American, right-handed saber fencer who is, quite literally, one of the best on the planet.

Let’s dive in.

WHAT IS TRAINING & PREPARATION LIKE FOR A TOURNAMENT?

Training for a competition, in the weeks leading up, I may do as much as 6 hours per day, broken up in two blocks.

I’m pushing as hard as I can and I’ll get very sore.

I need to get to the point where there’s no chance I feel any physical exhaustion during the event, so I’m pushing myself and I’m also taking a lot of PerfectAmino.

But I usually do a 30-45 minute warm up, not structured, all on my own, and then we work together and it’s a couple hours of straight fencing.

In another block I’ll do a coach session, working on specific combos and setups that would occur in a tournament, and then it’s into more fencing.

It’s a lot, and it almost sounds simple. But that’s how you get there, by doing it and doing it and doing it again.

You push as hard as you can each day to raise your limits and keep them high.

One great thing about preparing for a tournament, though, is that we get to train with our competitors, something we all benefit from.

This is important. If you want to attain the highest level you can, then you need to be able to go up against the best. It pushes you and teaches you.

Along with that we’ll also do video sessions, watching the other fencers I may be facing to see their style, and their strengths and weaknesses, so I can focus on specific training.

I even journal every day before practice. It’s an outline of how practice will go, deciding beforehand how it will go. Then I do practice, and then I send a debrief on how I performed that day compared to what I wanted to do.

I also do that in the tournament, so I can see how practice will go and how I will compete. I will write exactly what I think will happen the next day and how it will go, and then work to do that.

Beyond that, I also normally do weight training as well, but I stop lifting weights about four days before I compete. I can’t have my body still recovering from a workout when it needs to be ready.

RECOVERY, SLEEP & CORTISOL LEVELS

Recovery is just as important as practice.

I’m trying to have my body in a condition where it’s not having to spend any energy toward recovery from working out or anything else, where everything is set up to give the most that I can during the competition.

And I get extremely sore. Usually, if I’m not training, I'm just laying in bed, resting.

So I try to make sure my sleep is very good.

I keep to my schedule. I wear blue light glasses at sundown to keep my nervous system relaxed.

I focus on cortisol levels and nervous system stress, working to keep them as low as possible, and getting in as much time as needed for recovery.

And that includes any medical: your doctor, chiropractic, massage. You do what you need to do to keep your body in top shape.

Cold baths and sauna are also very good for recovery, I do these daily.

WHAT IS YOUR DIET LIKE?

Eating is very structured at home. A very structured diet.

No starches or wheat. No white rice.

All of my carbs are from fruits or vegetables, and about 40%-50% of my calories are from fat.

All meat is grass-fed, organic, and fish are wild-caught.

I only use raw maple syrup or honey for sugar, no processed sugars.

It’s harder at tournaments. I’m somewhere else, so my meals go off some.

But at home, while I do eat carbohydrates, fats are my primary energy source.

I’ve found I get much more consistent energy from a high fat diet as opposed to the highs and lows and crashes I would get from carbs.

My calories are normally about 40% fat, 40% protein, and 20% carbs.

And I eat an hour before practice, no closer, so I'm not exercising on a full stomach.

I also do Intermittent fasting every day, so in the morning I don’t eat, just PerfectAmino.

And I don’t eat before a competition, or eat very little. You just can't.

WHAT IS YOUR MIND SET THROUGH ALL OF THIS?

As far as a mind set, you need to have the correct motivations.

You don’t want to create motivations in competition that can be taken away from you, or that have holes in them if you lose.

Like, is my motivation to win because I want the glory or the benefits from winning? Or do I want recognition from my family or to make my family proud?

Because that means that, if I lose, then I don’t make my family proud?

It doesn’t work.

So you have to create motivations that aren’t a slippery slope that can crumble or make you feel nervous about not making them.

Create achievable goals and focus on making those.

Take your wins where you get them and take the losses as a way to learn and better yourself. That’s all they are.

Don’t be nervous about the future. Focus on the present.

It’s like what Michael Jordan said about not allowing what he couldn’t control to get inside his head: “Why would I think about a shot that I haven’t taken yet?”

Don't. Be in the present. Look at what you are doing now. Work on that one skill or goal you're focused on until you achieve it and then move onto the next goal or skill or level.

To move from one level to a much higher level doesn't happen overnight. It's a series of steps. We only fail when we try to skip some of those steps.

Don't. Take each step one at a time and practice it until you know it perfectly. Set realistic goals and achieve them and take the achievement before moving onto the next skill or goal or level. 

That's how you create your strong foundation and are then able to build the fastest and the highest.

I wish everyone the best on their journey.