Alexandra Ndolo is a German-born left-handed épée fencer who fences for Kenya from 2022 on. Ndolo was born in Bayreuth, Northern Bavaria, Germany. She is half Polish half Kenyan.
In this episode we dived into all things lifestyle of a professional athlete, the power of mind and the pressures of being in the public eye.
Chapters:
0:00 – Introduction
1:44 – Alexandra’s Background
12:47 – Fencing & travelling
15:00 – Dieting & training
20:48 – Cycle synching & training
24:04 – The power of mind
30:41 – Bullying
35:08 – How to stay in the moment
38:10 – The world of social media
45:00 – Speaking your truth
58:05 – Alexandra’s contact info
#fencing #athlete #mindset #thepowerofmindset
Hello my wonderful listeners this week’s conversation is with Alexandra and doo Alexandra is a German fencer who is half Kenyan half polish and I knew that I had to chat with her because I don’t know about you but I have noticed from a long time ago
That there’s no one who has this whole mind game figured out and by mind game I mean being in control of your mind mastering your mind Law of Attraction staying in the moment being present no one has it figured out as well as professional athletes and Alexandra was
The proof of that I think you’ll be fascinated to hear a what it takes to compete in professional sports and competitions and B how amazing her mind works and how much control she has of her mind she’s like a true representation of your mind being your
Muscle that you have to train so we chatted a lot about that about how much your mind has uh a role or how big of a role your mind has in you know in her case fencing but really it I feel like it transfers throughout your whole life really and we
Also chatted about our backgrounds because she’s half half polish so we chatted about the Eastern Europe ins side of things difference in cultures and life in Europe and also social media and being a public figure and certain negative aspects of social media and putting yourself out there and I know
You’ll enjoy this conversation and if you do as for usual please give it five stars thumbs up whatever the rating button is on the platform that you’re listening to this on enjoy and stay Blessed nice to have you on caman Alexandra welcome thanks for having me we kind of started to dive into the subject of your Slavic roots and then your African roots and that’s like the first thing I want to talk about because you’re gorgeous and I feel like that’s why cuz
You’re half Kenyon half polish right exactly yeah um so my dad’s Kenyon and my mom’s polish and um I mean people from the former udssr they know that there used to be a lot of scholarships so my dad was actually an academic scholarship um recipient and that’s why
He met my mom in Poland at University I love that uh you kind of so I I have quite a two friends from like East Africa and obviously lots of Eastern Europeans and Slavic Slavic people so I feel like you’re like a combination of very beautiful um very beautiful jeans you
Know so that’s why you’re so gorgeous that’s awesome and you were born in Europe right exactly I was born and raised in Germany which adds another layer to that whole background story um because my dad did his PhD in Germany so he met my mom at Uni in po and then they
Moved after they both graduated they moved to Germany and that’s where me and all my sisters were born that’s awesome and how was life in Germany um it’s great I mean I was born here and raised here so I would say um out of the three cultures that’s maybe
The one that I know the most of because yeah I spent summer holidays in Poland with my with my grandma and my cousins and everyone um and if people look at me they think usually more of a black woman than than of Europe but Germany is is
Really like I I know I would say almost everything because I grew up there um yeah it’s it’s your home right do you feel like you have a home in in I guess because that’s I feel like that’s what happens with either when you immigrate
Or when you’re when you have such a rich cultural background you kind of end up feeling at home everywhere you go in a way like all the places where you come from so to speak and but you also kind of feel like you’re not at home in all
Those places CU you’re so do you feel that as well um I feel I feel fine almost everywhere in the world I would say because I’ve also traveled so much for work um I feel very connected to all three um let’s say all three countries you know that that combine that I
Combined within me but I don’t fit in 100% anywhere that’s a feeling that I’ve had since I was a little kid because in Europe I I wasn’t white right so I was perceived as black and then in Africa or especially in Kenya which I know the
Most when I go there people often call me um the name mungu or the phrase mungu which means white person I was like um what you know so I’m always kind of in between and then um even though I have a German passport and I consider myself definitely also German there will be
People who will say but if neither of your parents come from this country then how can you consider yourself German you know so it’s always like and yes everywhere and but nowhere fully nowhere 100% right you’re like I’m a global citizen okay like I I feel yeah it’s I
Feel like in the last few years especially I have since getting my Canadian passport I’ve also sort of reconsidered the way I think about like citizenships and countries you know because so many people move to places that you know where the lifestyle is a little bit better where you have more
Opportuni so this whole idea like um almost nationalism is kind of um not I don’t want to say dying down because you still you a lot of people feel patriotic and attached to a certain place which is fine but also like I don’t know I love
This idea of being a global Citizen and just going to places where you’re treated best or where you see more opportunity where you know like it’s just it makes perfect sense to do that you know so I really like the idea of being proud of um the places that you’re
Living in or the places that you come from I just don’t like that how we are better than you approach you know so I I know what’s going really well in Germany but I also know what’s going not quite so well at the moment you know uh the
Same goes for Kenya the same goes for Poland and I would never say oh my God Poland is perfect because it’s not I know you know all the issues and I still find things that I really really love about this country so I’m I’m proud of
The good stuff and the bad stuff I’m kind of like okay we should work on it and we should talk about it that’s such a good like you know if everybody in the world thought that way I feel like we wouldn’t have any of the problems on a
Global scale that we have right like that idea of like hey I’m proud of where I come from I proud I’m proud of my roots I’m happy I wouldn’t change anything about it but I’m not better than somebody just because I come from a place that I come from you know and I
Feel like I don’t know I feel like a lot of people have this like thing right where they’re like no well our our our place is better and we’re going to if you know we’re going to compete or we’re gonna yeah I I really you know if I could highlight something for the
Whole world right now it would be that phrase that you just said is yeah be proud of the good stuff but also like don’t don’t be arrogant about it you know yeah yeah absolutely and you so your English is perfect is that because you obviously would have you know German
Since you were born in Germany and you lived there this is a very ignorant question of me I know that in Germany people speak English very well but you like don’t even have a German accent so you spoke English growing up as well no no actually that is so funny because
Just today I thought about the fact that if I think of my father I think in Polish because my parents decided once um once we moved to Germany or they moved to Germany they decided to teach us polish because it’s a way more difficult language than English and so I
Spoke polish with my dad and English actually I mean I heard it through my parents’ friends but I learned it in school like all the other kids too I think I don’t have an accent because maybe I grew up multilingual you know so maybe you you develop an ear and also I
Lived uh in Phoenix for a year as an exchange student and um once I adapted to the accent it just stuck amazing what about your so you you mentioned that you were in the Army for 11 years before we started recording I want to hear about that before we get to
Fencing cuz my my you know thought was just good to go straight to fencing and and and how you got into that but let’s talk about the Army that’s so cool it’s so interesting yeah um in Germany that’s usually the way how the government supports Elite athletes so unless you
Are a male soccer player where there is a lot of money in the system a lot of sponsorship you um you go to the Army and the Army has one group which is called the sports soldiers where yes you do basic training which which was very serious um uh other than that you’re
Basically paid to win medals and do your stuff but um it’s one-year contract so that’s what’s kind of stressful because it’s not usually when you join the Army you can sign up for at least in Germany four years eight years stuff like this we had one-year contracts and if you
Didn’t perform on a um athletic level they would kick you out like every year in the summer um my Federation and the Army would meet and they would be like okay is she up to far no okay then I would have been gone you get kicked out
Oh wow yeah so you were you knew you were going to be dedicated to an athletic life and that’s why you chose to go to the Army yeah exactly because I mean there comes a point when uh I went to college and I finished a degree um and fencing was just going
Really well which I was sped with because I’m very optimistic and I believe in myself but you know I didn’t want to ask my parents for financial help anymore I was just like okay um that is not the age I was 24 25 and I just said you know
This yes for me it’s a job but to my parents it might look like a hobby right so asking them to well especially like East African and Eastern European parents like for sure right they have that mentality unless you’re a doctor or a lawyer like what are you even doing
Yeah yeah to this day my mom is like I think she’s stressed for me even though I said Mom I mean I’ve done it for so many years it’s going well I’ve proven myself but she’s still like I don’t know I don’t know explain that lifestyle you have to be like
That oh I love that that’s so funny yeah amazing and so you got into it you got into fencing how early in life I got really late into professional fencing because I was doing sports all my life but I first did track and field since I
Was like four or five years old then when I was 10 I started doing a sport which is extremely crazy it’s running horseback riding shooting swimming and fencing um I did it because my my older sister did it and I fell in love with it but fencing was just one of the five
Sports so you can imagine it’s just a small part you don’t learn all the specifics and uh even the formula of the competitions is very different to the fencing that I do now I did that until I was 16 and then I had to quit because um
Yeah my my team dissolved the coach left the club and when I was 21 I decided to try one more time to be a professional athlete or actually the first time as an adult and just see how far it goes or how far I can go in
Sport looks like it went really far good for you that’s awesome yeah I’ve always been curious about I’ve never tried it I remember when I first moved to Canada I just wanted to try it right cuz it to me it just looks so like elegant it’s intense but it’s like elegant somehow
And I love that it’s it’s got that I guess vibe to it for lack of a better word right when you when you watch it it’s somehow it’s like almost um it’s you have to be so focused on watching it that it feels like a meditation to you when you’re watching
It and it always seemed to me like if you’re if you’re in it that must be like the level of focus that you have to maintain I mean it’s like that with any sport really like tennis for example you have to be very focused right to succeed
But with fencing is just so like to the point um but I never ended up trying it actually so it’s we have to we have to get you in a fening suit I make you know where because there are some clubs in your city so we’ll make that happen I’ll
Show you I would love that absolutely yeah next time you’re you’re in Canada I’m going to make sure that I’m here as well cuz I booked a trip I know you were saying you’re coming here um but next time definitely I’m I’m going to make
Sure I’m in Canada so how often do you travel for competitions and such so at the moment I travel once a month um we have those like yeah we have a World Cup Series and it’s all around the world so this um this month there was a competition in Italy next month there’s
One in Canada the month after we’re in Qatar end of March for example we’re in China so really um every every month there’s one big one and we also have every year Continental championships and World Championships so out of the 12 months in the year I have a season that
Goes for 11 months so it’s quite intense so your life basically is constantly revolving training and and and working towards competitions if you’re not competing you’re training all the time is that correct I guess it would look like this for Outsiders I still think that I I still
Think I have free time my friends especially because most of my friends have nothing to do with professional sports they would say like uh no we never see you what are you talking about um I mean I train six days a week once or twice a day so maybe it is
Mostly fencing but as I said I feel like I still get to do so much other stuff I mean I just you have to be very well organized and I guess very disciplined to have the possibilities to do other stuff um last year and the year before I
Wrote a children’s book that came out this spring so I did do other things and I plan on doing other things it just means that I really have to be careful what I what I do with those free moments that I have twice a day training so for all of
Our listeners who or or My audience who who messages me and says I don’t have time or uh for workouts right this is specifically for workouts like oh you know half hour a day or 15 minutes a day to do yoga or something like that uh I’m
Too lazy just just play this part of this this podcast where Alexandra said she trains twice a day six days a week you know like when you hear something like that you’re like oh okay you know I understand you’re a professional athlete so obviously it’s
My job it’s yeah yeah yeah but but still I I find it very motivating when when you hear that I went to cir Dole um two weeks ago and I walked out and I was like wow I better like up my stretching game you know because you see them do such crazy
Stuff that it inspires you you’re like wow now I’m going to like go and learn how to do this and learn how to do that so yeah that’s that’s amazing and what would you say just you know because it’s such a level of curiosity I think that
Everybody has like what does your diet look like for for example do you are you very strict on how you eat and what you can put in your body and stuff like that yeah I I always say that I don’t have a strict diet but it’s kind of the same
Like with the an that I just gave you because from outside it might look like no no no you do but you have to understand that I grew up with people from countries where um it was absolutely normal to cook right there was whether in Kenya nor in Poland there
Was like highly processed food in the time I parents were young and grew up and learned how to cook themselves so my dad was an awesome cook um and even when we wanted french fries he would make them himself and they would not be bad for you right so I’m just not really
Into fast food um yeah I grew up like really with a really healthy diet I would say and so I eat as much as I want but I don’t eat highly processed stuff or I don’t even have the craving for like a lot of sugar stuff like like this
Like you can’t tempt me with that because I think my my um say food palette yeah palette your palette is is yeah yeah it’s just different you know so yeah isn’t that interesting how that works I think I had to unlearn Sugar cuz I liked sugar before but I find that if
You really convince yourself that it’s really bad for you and you almost like when you start taking care of your body when you really start watching like okay this is really bad for me I’m not going to put this in in in my body your body
Almost starts to reject it so now I don’t really crave sugar yeah you know it doesn’t really I don’t really have a particular craving to eat anything bad per se the only guilty pleasure that I have is wine like I love glass of dry red wine that’s my favorite thing but
Other than that your your your body gets used to what it gets used to you know so it’s so interesting that you’re saying like from a young age because you weren’t eating processed foods you said that and I thought about I had pretty much the same thing like we didn’t
Really have fast food like in former USSR countries like that just was not a thing right McDonald’s was like the most glamorous place to be when it first opened it still is actually like when I go back home I’m like people go there to pre-drink cuz they serve like I think
Beer there and you’ll have like luxury vehicles in the parking lots people will be like literally like a glamorous you know pre-drinking spot let’s take some selfies look where we are exactly we McDonald’s yeah I think people are now realizing that it’s really bad for you but yeah like
Before I remember it was it was so bizarre like you especially like after living in Canada I’m like ew McDonald’s here is like yeah really not that cool you know yeah yeah for sure I think it’s also the fact um because how you said once your
Body is off certain things it tells you that it’s feeling good I know what what my body feels like when I’m in great shape when um I’m I mean I hardly ever drink so you know I know what it feels like not to be hung over or you know all
Those things and once you know that feeling you you kind of don’t want to go back you know so um also I’m not 20 anymore so when you’re 20 you can drink whatever right you don’t get get a headache but now I really think about is
It worth it I don’t want to get a headache and also I don’t want to lose half a day just feeling like really bad so I will never say anything against that one glass of wine or two you know but anything excessive I just yeah it’s
Not worth it for me yeah 100% I agree with you it’s it’s just the feeling and some people are like well it’s only half a day and I’m like half a day is a lot you know and to feel sick for that half a day and for me it’s the same thing
Like I the only alcohol I can drink is wine I can’t drink anything else I get sick instantly from it I don’t know and if I have like that one extra glass it’s not even that I get sick but I have like panic attacks in the middle
Of the night it’s so weird My Heart Like starts racing and and I’m like it’s not worth it why would I do that that’s not fun you’re you know you’re supposed to be having fun with this and you’re not even having fun so yeah for sure and in
Terms of you know I want to I guess go back to the lifestyle of a professional athlete because this is so cool but do you ever find you have you know days when for example uh because this is such an interesting subject to me during your cycle when you are
Feeling like you’re a little bit less maybe active or you want to be less active and how do you deal with that like as somebody who has to you know be somewhere at a certain time and perform at your best yeah so um it changed actually um I would say that 10 years
Ago I didn’t feel any difference now I can feel it uh and a friend of mine who was a bit older than me she said yeah yeah this is like the hormones start affecting you more the older you get apparently that’s what she said so I trusted her um so I obviously always
Have to go to training anyways and uh I go but what I can feel is that there are days when I’m not as I would explain it as stable you know because in fencing especially with your hips you need to have a very stable stance and there are
Those days when I feel just shaky and I can’t get my my ligaments you know like my ligaments are clearly softer than they would be on other days and I kind of communicate that with my coach and I just say okay I don’t feel very stable
Today so we’re not doing any crazy stuff not taking any risks because I don’t want to injure myself so I will show up but I might train differently I will do something because fencing is um because you know you have an opponent so you never know what they’re going to do so
On those days I would maybe try to do something that is more safe that I have under control like doing a light workout at the gym you know in the waight room stuff like this or just a Core workout where I am always in control of how I end my
Mov yeah that’s fair I thought about that because I’ve been so obsessed with cycle sinking lately and you know same thing I I started to feel it a lot more like in the last couple of years or so and I thought about it you know I’m I’m
Like oh yeah you know I’m cycle sinking and this week I’m taking it easy and I was like what if you’re a professional athlete like what do you do when you can take it easy you know and your body cuz there are days when I’m dying right not
Literally but I feel very tired and I feel like I’m hurting and stuff like that and it’s just I was like this is a this is quite a privilege that I can just like take a rest you know or but even even amongst moments when you it would appear
That you can’t do that you’re still managing it which is awesome yeah and you know also I mean the the mind is such a powerful tool so I’ve if when it comes to a competition I can block it out completely because I’ve competed with injuries like really severe
Injuries and the adrenaline and my mind just blocked out the pain and stuff like this this is obviously nothing that I would recommend uh to to someone who doesn’t earn a living with it or who’s not like you know sometimes the Championships just comes along and you
Need to decide whether you want to take the risk as an adult or not um yeah so you know you you can block it out but I would never do that for training it’s only for those really important moments like I had it once at World Championships right so and it was an
Injury and I talked to my doctors and I ask them what is the worst that could happen what’s you know what’s the best we can hope for and after that I made a decision but it was an informed decision again as an adult so don’t do it with your
Kids right I want to I want to Zone into that let’s talk about your mind and how much does your mind matter when it comes to winning and Performing well and all of that I think fencing is a highly psychological Sport and I am aware that
If you run or swim or anything where you compete against the clock it’s also psychological but it’s very different if you have an opponent and it’s about me making sure that I win so you have to lose because I remember when I was swiming swimming as a teenager we could
Be friends I just had a better time than you but here it’s like actively I have for me to win you have to lose and that makes it very very challenging at times you know and um at a certain point a good friend of mine and older Mentor
Once told me you know what at the big championships there will be so many people who are in great shape most people will be in shape whoever arrives on that platform on that day so it will be deci decided in your mind and um it is a bit crazy gunning for gold or
Silver or bronze medal and saying telling yourself yes today out of 180 people that will be me you know but you but you need to have that positive self-belief you’re also need to be able to focus a lot um I can hold this tunnel
Vision for for 12 hours if I have to you know um so it’s it’s a lot of training and I think it’s also especially in today’s society it’s very very tough to be able to to keep that um that level of focus up so how do you do it like you you said
You can keep that for 12 hours how do you not because you know how like the biggest problem with when you’re trying to this is such a fascinating subject I love it so much because it relates to everything right and I found that athletes have it figured out the best
Like this whole mind game athletes have it figured out the best and it fascinates me so you know the biggest problem with when you’re trying to train your mind to see yourself like to have a certain self-image or focus on something the biggest challenge is there’s like I
Had a friend who called it that little voice that shows up in your head Nancy I don’t know why no offense to Nancy if your name is Nancy I’m sorry but like she called it Nancy or like I think I heard Joe Rogan call it the inner [ __ ]
It just it starts talking inevitably and it starts saying stuff like well no like why would you like really you think you could do that how do you manage that how do you silence that voice for a whole 12 hours if you need
To um okay so I think a part of this is my initial character that I’m I’m very optimistic I don’t know why but I have a weird mix of being very realistic and also insanely optimistic you know I will look at a situation be like well that’s
What we have to do now let’s get it going and five minutes later I will tell one of my girlfriends but I will end up on the podium on the highest you know platform one day and she would be like what okay if you believe that I’m like
Yes I believe that it will happen so I think part of this is just me and the other part is I was I was bullied in sixth grade like quite severely bullied all year long and I remember getting out of that whole experience and kind of being like it I
Don’t care what these unfortunately it was all girls I don’t care what these girls say I will accept myself and I love myself and it’s so weird that a 12-year-old would like actively tell herself I like me but ever since I’ve been like you don’t like me okay that’s
Your problem you know I I like me and I believe in myself and I think that kind of stuck you know so I always reach for the highest level and if it doesn’t work out it’s fine I know that I will be okay because I’m okay
With myself but why not try I mean what what if it happens what if you know we make it happen so um I wouldn’t call that voice like Nancy or [ __ ] or whatever but um my sports psychologist he calls it fear and he would say whenever fear comes in tell tell them oh
Yeah okay I see you that’s an irrational thought that’s just you hi nice to see you but now you have to go you know so we kind of when if she comes up in those 12 hours or whatever I have to do I’ll just silence her or him that that fear and
Just tell them to go away I like that so you do it in a really like gentle way it’s like hey thank you for showing up but I’m not going to listen to you cuz you’re you’re just you’re irrational and I don’t like you so go away yeah I like
That I I wanted to you said said you don’t know why you’re such an optimist every Kenyan I have met I feel like it’s the Kenyan in you because every Kenyan I have met yeah everyone is so positive and so sweet and so nice and I just you you said you’re an optimist
And I remember my first friend in Canada was from Kenya and anything that could go wrong and you would tell her about it she’d be like no look at all these other things that could go right like she would just ride away like no no no let’s
Not focus on the negative let’s focus on all of the positive that could go right and I remember just thinking my first impression you know my first I guess introduction to um Kenya and anyone from Kenya was like wow you know she’s so positive and then I met a couple more
People and I was like you’re all just so like optimistic and positive and I love it you know yeah and when it comes to also you know you mentioned you you were bullied it’s such an interesting subject because I’ve met people who were very severely bullied
And they came out of it I guess better than they would have if they weren’t bullied is what they said to me you know I was bullied too when I was when I was in grade three and same thing like it it makes you tougher so there’s I feel like
A level obviously where it goes too far and it’s and it’s obviously needs to be dealt with and interjected but so many times I’ve heard stories of people who have succeeded like more than you know 99% of the population let’s say and they they all had to overcome some kind of
Challenge that is related to bullying or some form of violence their life so to speak right so it’s very interesting I think the most interesting people were bullied so I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone but yeah if I’m thinking of my children if I could give them a way of
Just maybe three months of bullying to make them more empathetic you know and not not being harmed in a in a in a plastic way I would almost wish that on anyone because it’s it’s such a profound experience of of a group of people because I’m not
Talking about one-on-one fights but if a group of people decides to just be mean to you for a long period of time um that’s just insane but really the most interesting people I’ve ever met they were bullied and in the end um difficult for a child to to
Understand it but I think the prom king and the prom queen those are not the interesting people later on in life it’s usually the weird awkward ones that were bullied that are like such such cool people yeah yeah you learned how to stand up for yourself and you I mean
Again it could go the other way but everyone I’ve met who you you’re right who has achieved some really great results in Life or who’s doing something super interesting they’ve all been bullied and yeah you learn how to stand up for yourself and you also like you said like you learn almost
Like a part of you that overcomes it and you’re like wow I overcame that so that’s that’s awesome I’m going to love myself for that or you know like it’s it’s cool you said like at 12 years old you realize that you need to love yourself that’s I love
Myself for who I am and I don’t care what you say you know yeah it’s it’s very very interesting what about I want to you know because it’s just such an such a cool I think subject that relates to sports and everything else when it comes to your mind and Law of Attraction
Do you believe that you know so you were saying you you manage your mindset and you can manage it for a long time how much does Law of Attraction play into your win so if if you go into a competition and you just see yourself winning H how does that work like when
You see yourself winning do you win when you when you kind of aren’t feeling as confident ises that how how does that all affect the game and the competition yeah I think I use Law of Attraction beforehand so in my training process that’s when I I Envision stuff I EnV
Vision boards um I have journals you know and so I tell myself what I want to reach but for me personally it works best once the big day has arrived to just be in the moment because it doesn’t help in in that moment you’ve done all the preparation you’ve gone especially
Like before big championships like the training can be really really brutal so this is what keeps you going right you’re your your dreams but on the big day just stay in the moment don’t get distracted by where you want to go don’t get distracted what for about what
Happened just um I always tell myself the next touch because that’s how we call it INF fencing the next touch the next touch and the next touch and I managed to get myself so much in the also in the zone um or in the flow during a match that I might have one
Because we we fence up to 15 touches but there are moments when I don’t even look anymore at the scoreboard I just focus on going and the ref will have to tell me like hey um It’s Over by the way stop I me like oh okay good you know and um
For me it it functions really well like this because um if you’re just in the here now the fear also can creep in you know like I don’t know how else to phrase it but it’s kind of like okay here this is all that I can do I don’t
Know what happens in an hour um also in fencing during the day because we have like these direct elimination rounds kind of like in tennis you know the number one seed against the worst seed and so until you reach the final there’s um there always half half half people uh
Lose and then go off and sometimes you would go to a competition and say oh look you know um probably she’s going to win it almost never happens there’s always a surprise so why would you look three matches ahead and be like Oh in three matches I’m going to fence against
Her I’d rather just do what I can do now and and try to win against the opponent that I have right now and then see whatever opponent comes up next what are some tips for staying in the moment how how do you make sure that your mind doesn’t wander around and
Think about you know if somebody says like oh this person is going to win how do you prevent yourself from being like what if they win you know I think in fencing it’s very easy because it’s such a technical sport I mean you have to move so fast and um I
Mean my my tip is so small small and I might try to to hit the opponent right behind their guard on the arm so to do that in full movement while she’s also moving you need you need to be in the moment like you cannot be like oh you
Know look at that or look at that so I think um while you’re moving it’s kind of easy um and if I should find my mind string I have some techniqu it’s like you know you can touch certain parts of your body to bring yourself back
Um yeah or just I usually also have like a loop of phrases you know that I repeat in my mind that kind of bring almost like mantras yeah yeah exactly yeah like affirmations yeah yeah air a mix of affirmations and just kind of things that very clearly say hey be here then
Music also helps but that’s also just me some people don’t like music during the competition I like music certain types of music um I always have a competition playlist um that I that for every competition is it’s a different one or at least for every big competition I have a different
One so you have certain steps that you take to make sure that you’re in the right place what I’m gathering from you is you really you know I think a lot of people think that like their mind is in control of them like you know sometimes people say like well my thoughts are
Racing and I can’t control them like I just can’t I can’t control what’s going on in there and I feel like you’re the prime example of the fact that you are in control of your mind not the other way around yeah the the mind it’s it’s also a muscle if
You want to think about it you know so focus is something that you need to practice it doesn’t help to just have big muscles or or strong muscles or be super flexible whatever sport you’re playing your mind needs to be sharp as well and um of course I’m not perfect so
Sometimes I struggle with it too you know I mean we have Instagram which we both use and which which I love but sometimes it’s also a bit of a burden because there’s so much information you can just you know swipe swipe swipe and then all of a sudden you’re like huh 15
Minutes of my life just passed by and I have no idea what I actually looked at or 15 seconds what what happened the 15 seconds before you know so at certain moments I also have to limit my time on Instagram or social media in general or or just during competition my phone is
In flight mode and I’ve talked about it to younger colleagues who don’t want to do that and I told them uh I don’t think you can be in the competition Hall go on Instagram for 20 minutes and then be be directly in the zone again I would not recommend
It I can totally see that it’s if I go on my phone like half hour before bed I’ll like dream about something that I saw so it definitely affects you like for sure do you use Tik Tok not yet I have an account which I
Created some years ago and I went on and I was like huh I’m not sure about that whole dancing and I went off but I know that by now Tik Tok is so much more you know but just in the beginning I was kind of like I
Don’t maybe I’ll give it to my youngest sister I don’t what no I want to give it I want to give it another try for sure yeah it’s it’s weird because I like downloaded it my social media career took off on it first and then I just you
Know Instagram is stimulating Tik Tok is a whole other level of stimulation I find and I don’t know I find it lately especially a little weird so I like I moved away from it I still have it but I moved away from it Instagram is definitely my main
Platform I don’t know and then there’s also like this weird thing that like when anything happens on a global level yeah you get it shown to you or at least that’s that’s what I noticed like so much even though you’re not like I’m not necessarily spending time on that
Particular issue like or or searching it quite the opposite sometimes you know I’ll often go on Tik Tok to entertain myself like to have that little bit of you know brain brain death after like a long day or something and then I open it and it almost seems like it’s on purpose
Like they’re trying to show you all of these like events that are going on in the world to maybe freak you out a little bit because I know it’s different like in China they say Tik Tok is like they learn math on Tik Tok kids learn
Math on Tik Tok and they learn yeah yeah they learn and there’s a notification apparently that pops up after you spend like a a certain amount of time there there’s a notification that pops up that says you’ve spend a lot of time on this app like just to let you know yeah we
Don’t have that here doesn’t notify you you spend like four hours on it it’s not going to tell you so it’s weird but yeah it’s it’s very very stimulating just I guess I just wanted to Zone in on on you know how stimulating social media is and
Some people have like Instagram and Tik Tok and Facebook and they’ll go on all of those platforms you know within a span of like an hour and then your brain is just like firing in all cylinders and it’s no wonder you’ll feel anxious or you won’t be able to focus on
Things how do you I mean I know you’re asking the questions but that is a question that I really I’ve talked to my friends so much about lately because how do you deal with the fact that you have a platform we both have a platform and
You can use your voice and I I use it but I don’t want to use it for every conflict that is happening on the planet especially because not even every conflict is being highlighted so I had a really long talk about this with a good
Friend the other day and I told her you know what um I already feel how or I know how anxious it makes me feel seeing all these horrific videos and pictures I don’t necessarily want to add to this I want to be I mean my platform is talking
About myself talking about my Sport and giving people yes hopefully like a a positive message would it really help for me to highlight all those different horrible things that are happening on the planet so I still haven’t figured it out 100% how I want to approach this but
It’s it’s it’s a a big thing I don’t know it is it is a big thing and I think people are people are very quick to you know shoot at you and say like you have a platform why aren’t you using your voice and it’s like first of all I do
Use my voice but I always like this is kind of the the questions that I ask myself is am I contributing to something good in this world and have a huge problem and especially in the western world uh with division yeah you know in Canada people are very divided in United
States it’s like whole other level of division uh Western Europe I know same thing yeah and I always ask myself like anything I post am I contributing to that divide or am I trying to unite people in some way shape or form and inevitably no matter you know you
Breathe and people find that annoying right so inevitably of course there’s going to be people who are going to find something to to pick hat and and and not like you and they’ll get angry about something that’s their problem but the message that I’m trying to share am I
Trying to contribute to something good or am I trying to contribute to further Division and further hate and further you know so it’s it’s a very interesting topic and at the end of the day like my main focus on social media is comedy and lifestyle and my main focus on podcast is learning
From people right like I want to I want to learn how how you got to where you are in life like this is so awesome you’re you’re a fancing champion like I want to talk to you about this right yeah so I try to always look at that
Through the lens of can I make fun of it can I contribute to learning and growth and inspiration of somebody and can I contribute to unification of people and and love rather than forther hate and forther forther division you know so yeah that’s great yeah yeah I like I like that very
Much I like that very much especially maybe adding on to that I am not an expert on a lot of humanitary crisis right and I don’t want to be some one more person that Mis um educates others right so yes I would I would have to go
And learn so much about a certain situation before I would speak up and so I know that I can speak up about Kenya I would I wouldn’t even speak up um about political state in Poland I would talk to my family and my close friends yes I would never educate anyone about it
Because I’m like I I didn’t study um law and you know um and that certain topic so let me not Mis interpret I totally I totally agree with you it’s one of those things like I’m a huge proponent of speaking your truth and freedom of speech I really believe in that because
You know you have background of um a background of somewhere where for Generations you weren’t allowed to speak you literally weren’t allowed to speak you know if if your opinion different from from the opinion of the government and that’s still the case in so many places so I’m like okay my grandma would
Be so proud of me that I made it to a place where I can speak my Truth where I can speak up more or less without consequences now that’s kind of changing right especially in Canada but she would be so proud of me that hey you made it
To a place like that so speak your truth so I always say it’s very important to speak your truth and freedom of speech is really important to me but you have to be confident in your truth like you have to know that this is this is the information this is the consequence or
Not the consequence sry this is the conclusion that I’ve gathered from the information that I have this is what it is and I’m confident that at this moment this is my truth you know but if I’m not 100% sure if I’m still trying to figure out and educate I’m not just gonna you
Know blur out what I think it is at the moment and you know two days from now I’ll be like wait a minute I completely changed my like I would rather just I would rather just learn and educate myself as much as I can and then if I
Feel compelled and if I feel the need to I’ll say something you know and I always say like it’s it’s kind of one of those things that we we talk a lot about thinking critically which is very important but we’ve almost like forget to think humanly you know like so many
Of these conflicts in the world that are happening people are often almost justifying like yeah well we we had to do that because like and it’s like wait but that’s people that’s innocent people so I’m always the proponent of like wait wa wait let’s let’s think humanly these are human
Beings they’re they’re like they’re they’re the they’re us you know like what are we doing so it’s yeah it’s a very very interesting uh subject and I love to connect with people who also think humanly first and then they maybe turn on their critical thinking and try to analyze the situation from that
Perspective you know so yeah I absolutely feel that do you find like in terms of having a platform um and and being an athlete do you feel the pressure then like do you do you feel pressured to to speak about certain things or can you kind of tune it out
And do you get uh a lot of negativity and how do you deal with that so I don’t I don’t read so many comments um to be honest I mean there will be certain post that’s a healthy decision yeah there will certain posts where OB obviously
Know that there will be a lot of comments and um it’s it’s important to know what’s What’s um what my followers think about that issue yeah but usually I just as I said I know who I am so I don’t necessarily need to listen to other people um telling me what they
Think or who they think I am even though we’ve never met in real life um right yeah those are the people who seem to know the most amount about you right exactly they will know that I’m I’m not but thank you you know stuff like this you’re like where did you get your
Information from um I I use my platform but I tried to to use it um for issues or things that I know of and I’ve decided not to let anyone bully me into reposting stuff um or you know talking about their issues because at the end of
The day it’s such a global world through social media we are all interconnected but we still live in different parts of the world so living in Central Europe what what happened in Eastern Europe or what’s still happening in Eastern Europe was a huge thing because it’s so close yeah and I don’t blame
People for example from Latin America um about not being so so involved in that whole issue because it’s not right around the corner for them right and if I were living for example in Japan I would think about different things as well um than I mean Africa has has so many so many
Humanitarian crisis um yes that people in Europe don’t think about and then don’t know about they only think about nobody posts about it on social media nobody posts about on social media there’s currently a crisis going on there but there’s no vested interest from from certain parts of the world so
Nobody posts about it on yeah exactly I know so so I I’ll do as much good as I can and what I love to Do privately I mean I’m going to advertise for the app now because I think It’s a Wonderful app um share the meal is an app where you
Can for 70 cents I think yes 70 European cents I don’t know how many dollars you can um donate an a meal for a person in in a endangered situation or whatever um in the world so um it’s so easy right and there might be a week where I can
Only give 70 cents because I’m also on a budget there might be a week where I can give like 10 or whatever so I’ll do that and I don’t necessarily have to do it publicly and I hope that we can come to a to a point again where helping isn’t
Only happening or apparently only happening because I shout about it you know and and where we we might not be go right and and let’s try to be less and I hope no one takes it the wrong way but less um hysterical because as I said just
Because I don’t say something do doesn’t mean that I don’t think you’re right or that doesn’t mean that I think um people deserve the horrible situation that they are in yes let’s not fight amongst each other just because you have the need of posting something every day and I’m just
Privately donating something to that situation yes and that’s another question that I always have it’s like oh this is so I I love that you said that so much because people have we’ve created this world where unless you you are hysterical in social media and you
Are on the side of being virtuous you’re not you’re not virtuous you’re not doing anything and I remember you know when when the situation in our part of the world right in one of our parts of the world uh had started I mean I have family there I have family in in you
Know in Poland and Ukraine and Russia and and when all of that was starting people were attacking me on social media so much and I had to pause because again I always Tred to think to myself like what am I contributing a b if I’m expressing an opinion and you’re
Attacking my opinion because my opinion differs from yours what’s happening there cuz you know if we have we’re supposed to learn from from difference of opinions we’re human beings that have an intellect and we’re supposed to think differently right so we need to learn from one another so if I’m saying
Something you’re attacking me something is something is not right and then the other thing was exactly what you said I was like okay hold on a minute all of you who are attacking me right now yelling at me what have you done like actually like have you done anything to
Help people cuz my family had like rotations of refugees helping them and feeding them and you know all of this stuff so I was involved in that directly actually like contacting being in contact with people who needed help yeah but I didn’t yell about it on social
Media because I’m not going to I’m not going to you know hey look at how virtuous I am I’m helping people here you know if it’s if it’s some yeah like take a selfie like what the if it’s something that requires others to help like if I’m if I’m going to go somewhere
For example and like you you just mentioned the app right that’s something that everybody could use to help somebody it’s an objectively speaking good thing for sure I’m gonna you know I I’ll be if I’m compelled to advertise something like that or if I’m compelled to maybe bring other human beings into
The equation who could who could help sure but if it’s just me in the moment trying to figure out how to help people what like this is what I’m doing but I’m not yelling at everybody on social media so I feel like maybe that’s a little bit
More help than than just yelling you know and creating more hysteria yeah for sure I agree with you 100 per. yeah also at a certain point isn’t isn’t the aren’t the news outlets of course you can always say oh different news outlets have have different um stances or
Opinions or agendas but in the end a news outet is supposed to transport the news and we as normal I consider myself just one person one normal human being isn’t it my job to make sure that as much as I can do in in my immediate surroundings or with an app
Or whatever that I do the best that I can do I don’t think that I contribute by spreading a horrific picture because someone will see it yes it might just get anxiety or whatever and they’ve probably already heard about it especially certain issues there is so much media coverage I think reposting it
The 100 times is not going to help I guess yes yes yes yes I agree with everything you say you know don’t blame people for not becoming a a news agency you want them to be right like a news news that reports the things that you want them to report and opinions that
You want that person to share because if that person shares like an alternate perspective you’re not going to like it right so you want them to share what you think is yeah I think you know social media is great for so many things but I think it definitely has given many
People an Avenue to be really mean and really angry and say things to people that they would normally never say face to face you know who who has the guts see that face to face right I mean I want to see that person I’m I’m 5’11
Tell it to my face I don’t think you will D to do this I’m 5’11 and I train six days a week A Day to my face I love that no it’s so true you know I think I get so much hate for like the most random stuff too like you know
You know I post a lot of stuff about resuscitating chivalry and sometimes I’ll get like so much hate for it I’ll get a lot of love for it too but I have never met anyone on the street um who was mean to me every single person who’s
Ever come up to me and to tell me that they follow me they’re always like oh my God I follow you like I love your channel you know let’s take a picture something like that yeah I’m like you would never say that to my face but there’s like that screen that allows you
To just without consequences they don’t even have to show their picture they don’t even have to show their face right it’s just yeah yeah so but I think the more we I guess try to create reasonableness at least again maybe that’s also me being a little optimistic
But the more we try to create reasonableness and spread good words and spread good things in the world I think the more you spread it the better it will get that’s at least what I have to believe otherwise you know I think what’s the point right yeah yeah I think
We’re still learning we’re all still learning how to use these platforms and how to how to be also honest and kind and and and good so you know it’s it’s these these all these channels haven’t been around for such a long time yet and um Generations like you and me um we didn’t
Grow up with them right so I think it’s also up to the generation that is now in Middle School to figure out a healthy way how to deal with something that can very easily become just an alternate universe because you don’t walk around with always perfect hair and always you know
In High Spirits and always happy so um I think but I think they’ll they’ll figure it out yeah I think we are more the ones who are confused than than the ones yeah probably hey like I always think think of like my grandma or you know every generation reaches a level where you’re
Like wow this generation this next generation is scude like we had a good but like the generation crew and I’m like do we is it just like every generation thinks that way but it’s funny you know you said we’re figuring it out still and I always think about
Like my grandparents who lived under Stalin’s Russia and I was I was I was thinking or on a stall in in X USSR yeah and I always thought to myself like if my grandmother would have learned that there are people making millions of dollars on TiK ToK by lip syncing and
Doing dances yes what happened she would be like what on Earth is going on you know yeah yeah it’s it’s so funny you gotta you got to find humor in it because I mean it is kind of funny right if you think about it Alexandra this was an absolute
Pleasure uh it’s so lovely to connect with you uh for our audience how can they find you how can they follow you uh maybe watch your competitions even if that’s a possibility yeah so first of all thanks for having me I had a really good time I always love chatting to
Another Eastern European sister and um yeah I mean I have I have Instagram even though we spent the last 10 minutes talking about all the things that also go wrong all the dangers of social media subscribe to my Instagram I swear I’ll make you laugh or happy no um
So I have Instagram um LinkedIn I still have Twitter or now we call it X um I’m not right so active on X at the moment but I wanted to come back and see how I can use that platform to to just you know be nice and kind and and talk about
Fencing um I miss anyone no I think those those were the and I have that Tik Tok account that might be activated soon let’s see um yeah and every every we’ll see we’ll see exactly all of these channels are just under my name full name Alexandra Doo that’s where you can
Find me watch my road actually to the Olympics next summer in Paris there will be the Olympics and um I’m on a really good way to qualifying for them oh congratulations that’s amazing I’m GNA definitely be praying and cheering for you and I think everybody else listening to this oh sorry that cut
Out um I’m definitely goingon to be praying and cheering for you and I think our audience will do the same thing because that’s so exciting that’s amazing that’s huge so when do you find out uh end of March yeah so the qualification is still going on end of March I
Will hopefully say that I’m qualified but it looks it looks really good I just I always say I just have to do my homework now stay on course and then on the 20 7th of July I will have my big day in Paris at the Olympics amazing yay that’s awesome well
I’ll include all of the links to your socials and stuff like that in the captions for our listeners to follow that and thank you again for your time thank you so much for tuning into this episode I will see you next Week