Does this Fighter have to be angry with the people she fights? Does she have any medals? And how did she end up doing such a wild job?!
In this episode we will learn what an MMA Fighter and Personal Trainer really does, and what she thinks of Gwen's emoji pineapple.
You can find out more about Sophie and her work on her Personal Training website, or by visiting her instagram @slisabeth_
We will also be sharing some photos and video on our instagram this week so check it out! @gwengetstowork
Visit our website for past episodes and to find out what's coming soon: https://gwengetstowork.com/
Produced by Enigma Records: https://enigmarecords.co.uk/
Does this Fighter have to be angry with the people she fights? Does she have any medals? And how did she end up doing such a wild job?!
In this episode we will learn what an MMA Fighter and Personal Trainer really does, and what she thinks of Gwen's emoji pineapple.
You can find out more about Sophie and her work on her Personal Training website, or by visiting her instagram @slisabeth_
We will also be sharing some photos and video on our instagram this week so check it out! @gwengetstowork
Visit our website for past episodes and to find out what's coming soon: https://gwengetstowork.com/
Produced by Enigma Records: https://enigmarecords.co.uk/
Have you ever been asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Gwen's Mum :Gwen Gets To Work
Gwen :I talking to people to people, and they like talking back to me. At least that's what I think. One day I asked my mum, how do I know what I want to be when I grow up? My mum said, if I interview people about like their jobs and things like that, I will find out and, like, the view or the people who are listening, um, you will find out too if you don't know. Let's get to work! I have been super excited for this episode to come out because I spoke to an MMA fighter called Sophie. She is not famous but she's really cool. So I hope you enjoy it too. Hi Sophie!
Sophie :Hi Gwen!
Gwen :I have never talked to a fighter before. My step-dad does boxing but sometimes, I definitely have never talked to a girl who does fighting and stuff for a job.
Sophie :Okay, that's exciting. So, so does your usages. Sarah does boxing. Yeah, yeah. So I mean more Thai which is like Thai boxing. So it's boxing but with kicking and kicking, punching and you use your knees and your elbows as well.
Gwen :Ooo
Sophie :Yeah, so that's what I'm that I do that, and I'm a personal trainer. So I help people, I teach people about exercise and about getting fit and healthy and I help them if they have pain or they want to lose weight. That's my job as well.
Gwen :When you a child, what did you think you wanted to be when you were grown up?
Sophie :Well, there's a few things actually. So, um, I, when I was very small, I thought that I would quite like to be a teacher and and then when I got to school and realise that it was really difficult...
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Sophie :...and loads of kids are really naughty I thought I don't think I want to do this anymore. And, and the other the other thing I wanted to be was a writer, so I wanted to write books. I wanted to write stories and I do do a little bit of that now. And the other thing I wanted to be was, I don't think you're old enough to remember a TV show called Top of the Pops. It was like a music programme...
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Sophie :...and it was on once a week and they would have people singing their pop hits and they would do the charts on there and they would have background dancers and I really wanted to be a dancer on Top of the Pops. So that was the three things that I wanted to do.
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Gwen :I want to be a dancer.
Sophie :Do you? What kind of dancing do you want to do?
Gwen :Uh, probably, I don't know.
Sophie :What's your favourite? Do you do lots now?
Gwen :Uh yeah.
Sophie :I used to do ballet when I was little, and I did, um, I think I did tap as well for a little bit, but I don't really remember it because I think I was quite small.
Gwen :When I was about three I did ballet too. Did you? Yeah. At school I have a club called Musical Theatre, it's basically like Drama.
Sophie :Okay, that's cool. Um, what do you, so you don't know what you want to be, that's why you're asking everybody, aren't you?
Gwen :Yeah.
Sophie :Have you got, have you found anybody whose job you like the sound of now?
Gwen :Um, not really yet. Well, Alanna. I really like the sound of Alanna's job [Episode 1 - Arts Lecturer].
Sophie :Yeah, Alanna's job sounds like fun, doesn't it?
Gwen :So how did you end up doing what you do now?
Sophie :Well, when I was working with Alanna, um I wanted, because we were working a lot of night shifts, and it was really hard work and we were shifting heavy things around. I didn't feel very healthy. I felt like everything was really difficult and I didn't feel very strong. So I thought what i'd do is join a gym and try and improve that a little bit. And then once I got my confidence up at the gym, I found very close to me, a gym where they taught Muay Thai and Kickboxing, and I thought I'd quite like to give that a go. And that was about five years ago. And I immediately fell in love with it. And the gym that I started going to then is where I work now. And yeah, that's that's how I found it. I just decided I really liked it when I started doing it and I just wanted to do it all the time. So I do, we have, when we're open because obviously at the moment, we're not open. But when we're open, we have classes for Muay Thai and we have classes for Brazilian Jujitsu, which is like a wrestling sport. And we also have weightlifting and classes for strong women and all kinds of things and I just jumped in and did everything and fell in love with all of it and then decided that that's what I'd like to do.
Gwen :I have seen some of your videos on Instagram.
Sophie :Yeah?
Gwen :Can we share them?
Sophie :Of course, yeah, of course you can.
Gwen :Do you really like fighting?
Sophie :I like fighting in a ring with another person who's agreed to fight with me. I don't go out, i'm not a fan of going out into the street and starting arguments with people. But yeah, I do like fighting. And because it gives me something to focus on and training for it is really good fun. And it's really exciting when you're there. And I really enjoy it. And it's lovely to be in the ring with someone who you know feels exactly the same way about it. And I know a lot of people get a bit down if they lose or if they feel like they didn't do very well but I just love doing it so much. I have so much fun and even when I think the other person did better than me. I still know that I had a good time and I did my best and that always makes me feel really good.
Gwen :And do you have to be angry with someone to fight them?
Sophie :No, you don't have to be but I get it. I'm not really a very angry person, but I know there are other people who have to sort of, you know, rev themselves up so they decide that they don't like the other person and it makes it a lot easier for them to train to fight them. It is obviously harder to fight somebody if you think you might want to be friends with them. But I don't, yeah, you don't have to be angry but I imagine for some people that helps them
Gwen :Do you have any medals?
Sophie :I do. I have, I think I have six medals now. And they're all hanging up in my bedroom. So they're hanging up above my where I keep my trainers...
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Sophie :...so that when I get ready to go to the gym, it's like a nice thing to look at and it reminds me of what I'm doing and how much I enjoy it.
Gwen :What is your normal day like?
Sophie :Well, obviously we're all stuck in our houses at the moment behaving ourselves, but when everything is normal, a normal day for me; they're all different really, I have what are called clients. So I have people that come to me for help with exercise. So depending on who's booked in that day, it just depends what my day looks like, when I was at the gym before I had someone probably every other day, and then usually I train myself in the evening. So my training starts about 6pm and will go on for a couple of hours usually, two or three days a week. And then on a Saturday, I'm there all morning. So I started about 10 and I finish about 1. And then I have some days where it's all for me and I don't really need to go into the gym, but sometimes I'll do some of my own training. I just see how I feel. It's a lot of, being active is hard all the time. So sometimes you have to be kind to yourself and just say I'm not going to do anything today, I'm just gonna read a book or watch television or do something else. But if I've got the energy then I'll go and do it because I do enjoy it and I like doing it.
Gwen :What is the hardest or scariest thing you've done?
Sophie :Hardest or scariest thing? I think probably when I had my first fight, that was probably the one of the hardest things I've done. I was really scared.
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Sophie :And I didn't have a lot of time to get ready because I expected that they would ask me to do it a few months in advance, but i'd never done it before so I didn't really know how it works. And they said, 'Oh, we've got someone who'd like to fight you. Can you be ready in three weeks?' And I said yes and then immediately panicked and didn't know if I would be ready. And but I'd already said yes. So I just thought it's fine, i'll do it. And I got really nervous just before and then as soon as I was in there, I had so much fun and when it was finished, I couldn't believe that it had been 10 minutes I thought, I couldn't believe it had been that amount of time and it was finished already, and I just wanted to do it again straight away.
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Sophie :And probably the other hardest thing I've done, is I moved to Australia about 10 years ago and I lived there for a year. And leaving here was quite difficult. And then when I got there because everything's so different and new, and I was kind of a bit of a different person then like I wasn't as confident as I am now. So that was really hard, but I had such a good time and I made wonderful friends and I'm really glad that I did it. But yeah, at the time, it was super difficult.
Gwen :I've seen they have crocodiles.
Sophie :They do. They have all the most dangerous animals, probably I think all the most dangerous animals. They all live in Australia.
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Sophie :There's crocodiles and snakes and sharks but there's some really cool animals as well, like kangaroos which I'm sure you know about, and then my personal favourite which is the wombat. It's a bit like, it looks like a bit like a pig, but it's got like a bear's face. They're really good. If you haven't seen a wombat you should look one up afterwards and have a look because they're my faves. And they have all kinds of things. I used to get up in the morning, because it was so hot, because I was living in Brisbane and it's really hot there. It's like holiday weather all the time. And I used to come down from my bedroom and go into the kitchen and there would be lizards all over the glass on the outside of the kitchen window because it was, because they liked to lie on that because, or stick themselves to that, because it was cool. And so they would stay there and then they would go out into the sun. So lizards and, what else did we see, a lot of when it rained a lot we'd get like a lot of big frogs in the garden.
Gwen :Urg
Sophie :Yeah, I know they were huge, they were great big toads.
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Sophie :Even though they're a little bit gross, they're very interesting and they're very different animals to what we get in England.
Gwen :You have lots of tattoos.
Sophie :I do. Yeah.
Gwen :My auntie said one was an emoji.
Sophie :I have got an emoji. Yeah, I've got, let me see if I can show it. I've got the dolphin emoji on me. Can you see it there? It's quite dark. It's very old, that's probably why you can't really see it, just there. Yeah, I've got an emoji because me and my, one of my good friends actually from Australia, we got the same we got matching. Um, because we when we weren't together, we really missed each other so we got the same tattoo. And that was something we always used to send each other to tell us to cheer up.
Gwen :I really like emojis and i've already drawn like a few ones.
Sophie :Oh wow, look at the pineapple. That's really cool.
Clip :[...]
Sophie :I love the banana as well. I love his little tongue out. He's good. Wow you're really good at that. I'm terrible at drawing. I can't draw anything.
Gwen :Oh. Are you still working in the Coronavirus.
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Sophie :I am still working in the Coronavirus. So ordinarily, obviously, I would have people come and see me at the gym. But because of not being able to leave our house, I'm doing things online with people I'm talking to you now. So people have got their equipment at home, or they've got some bits and pieces that we can, you know, turn into some heavy gym equipment. And then I take them through a training session. And it's really nice, actually, because I don't think, that's one good thing about it, has been that I don't think that if, if this hadn't happened, we probably wouldn't have have pursued that and try to do it. And I've actually got quite a few people now who want to do things with me who don't live anywhere near me. So I've got a few people that live about 100 miles away, and I've got one person in Australia who wants to do things with me. So that's been really nice.
Gwen :Wow. Thanks very much for being my guest.
Sophie :Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you very much for having me. It was lovely to speak to you.
Gwen :Probably the coolest guest actually.
Sophie :Oh wow. That's that's really kind of you to say. I thought the Headmistress was pretty cool.
Gwen :She is.
Sophie :She was good wasn't she. Was that your Headmistress?
Gwen :Yeah.
Sophie :Yeah. She sounds nice. But thank you very much for having me. I'd love to come back anytime.
Gwen :That's okay. I've loved talking to you and also watching some some of your videos and things before. Have a lovely afternoon.
Sophie :You too.
Gwen :Bye.
Sophie :Bye bye. Nice to meet you.
Gwen :In next week's episode, you can hear from real life Actor. She has been in plays and on TV. This week, she's in a brand new TV show called I May Destroy You, on the BBC and HBO, which I'm not allowed to watch. But maybe your parents can. And I really liked talking to her and her daughter too, who is one year older than me. So that was fun. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a five star rating. And, if you're curious about what different things you can do when you grow up, subscribe to the podcast, and tell your friends and family about it too! Thanks for listening! Transcribed by https://otter.ai