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Marlene Harnois - Even at the highest level you have to have fun
NEW episode UP!
Hello taekwondo lovers, I’m very happy to be with you again and to bring you a new interview with a world and Olympic medalist from France.
Marlene Harnois started taekwondo at a very young age.
One of the keys that made her love taekwondo was that her first instructors made taekwondo fun.
She was a competitive and active girl, although she practiced many sports when she had to specialize in one she knew taekwondo was for her.
First she made it to the Canada National Team and started winning competitions like the US Open as a junior.
Marlene had the opportunity of training in France and in order to pursue her dreams she started to compete for France, focusing on international success.
One of the keys to make that change was that she was looking for a more competitive training environment.
Marlene remarks that having teammates that demand your best is one of the most important things an athlete needs to develop.
With France Marlene has been two times European Championships gold, World University gold and World Taekwondo Championships bronze medalist in Gyeongju 2011.
Marlene finished a great Olympic cycle in 2012 with a Bronze medal in London 2012.
Marlene has been decorated with the Knight of the Order Merit and has been very involved in the development of sports in West Africa.
Marlene contributed with the two historical medals Ivory Coast achieved in Rio 2016.
Marlene is a Champion for Peace, she represents the Peace and Sport organisation which works for bringing the values of sport to the heart of communities and individuals in crisis throughout the world.
Marlene talked with us about
Her journey in taekwondo
Moving to live far from your parents to another country at a very young age
Her preparation for London 2012 Olympic Games
Differences in taekwondo in Canada, France and Africa.
You can watch the interview on YouTube and hear it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Taekwondo has to be fun
Marlene started practicing taekwondo at 4. One of the virtues of her first taekwondo school was to make taekwondo fun for children.
Marlene shares that it was one of the reasons that made her stick to taekwondo.
As a very active girl, it would be hard for her to be in a place where she only would be able to practice the same movements over and over.
Marlene was a multisport girl. She practiced and competed also in fencing and handball but as she grew older the moment came when she had to decide for one sport.
And she decided to go for taekwondo.
It seems it was the right decision as she had a very successful taekwondo career which later helped her to work in other sides of sports and to help people all over the world.
Outside parents home at 16
The journey of course was not easy.
Is not so common to leave your home country without your parents at 16.
Marlene made the decision of leaving Canada to train and live in France because she wanted to train better and in a more competitive environment.
In France she started to train with olympic and world medalists. And soon she noticed changes in her performance.
She had an amazing cycle towards London 2012, medaling in the most important events. World Championships, European Championships, Universiade.
Before the London Olympics Marlene had not the preparation anyone could imagine, she was sent to train in a military camp in the jungle in the French Guiana.
The training was not precisely focused on taekwondo, she even broke a foot there but in a certain way she thinks it helped her to strengthen her mind.
The last weeks she was in France alone while her team was in Great Britain in the last stage training for the event.
Anyway, I think we can all learn from this. Because as we’ve seen in past interviews ideal conditions don't exist.
Marlene still managed to do her best in London, maybe the last part of her process was not ideal but she had all her past hard work with her.
And she achieved the bronze medal in London.
Which is an amazing result because due to the magnitude of the Olympics anything can happen there.
Helping to develop the sport
When Marlene decided to retire from competition, she was close to high level African athletes like Anthony Obame and Balla Dieye
The first time she went to Africa was with Balla Dieye and with him they started to promote taekwondo, going to schools and also making seminars with the national team.
Around that time some of Marlene’s friends from Ivory Coast called her as she was very close to the country.
She went to Abidjan to the club where Ruth Gbagbi and Cheick Sallah Cissé trained.
Marlene was stunned by the amount of talent of the athletes there, she had trained all over the world and had never seen so many talented people training together.
She was also amazed by the focus and the spirit of their training.
Together with the talent also was a very modest environment. They didn’t have mats or targets, no protections.
She connected with them immediately as they shared the same passion. So she got involved with the project.
With Cheick and Ruth they were involved in promoting taekwondo, education and social action.
They created a foundation through which they were able to bring the electronic protector system for Ivory Coast and as Cheick Cisse was sponsored by Daedo they also provided equipment to build a facility for the development of younger athletes.
Peace and Sports
Marlene continues her labour helping people through sports now working as an ambassador for Peace and Sports.
Peace and Sports is an organization that works in areas across the world with the objective of bringing the structuring values of sport to the heart of communities and individuals in crisis throughout the world.
Marlene is part of The Champions for Peace, who are high level international athletes who want to support the most disadvantaged communities through sport.
The Champions for Peace are athletes like Lionel Messi, Didier Drogba, Pascal Gentil and Novak Djokovic.
Peace and Sports recently developed an app that would help sport trainers to bring structured training methodology to the communities they work.
Marlene is a passionate professional. I hope you will enjoy the interview with her.
Please let us know what you have learn from her journey on the comment section. -
To succeed at an elite level in sports requires a high level of specialization. Small details are determinant.
Being successful in one sport and moving to another can be very risky. You can go from being the best to just be one more.
Our today’s guest has experienced great success in two different martial arts.
He has been twice Kickboxing world champion and has been twice world medalist in Taekwondo. Silver in Chelyabinsk 2015 and Bronze in Muju 2017
I’m talking about Damon Sansum.
Damon was recruited to the GB Taekwondo team as part of the Fighting Chance program, which scout athletes from other martial arts to compete at taekwondo.
He had the skill and mindset necessary to adapt to a new style of competition.
He kindly talked with us about how he made it, how he had dedicated his life to martial arts and how he after his retirement is still contributing to the martial arts world adding high level technology to it.
Damon works with Kick.ai, a Finish company that is incorporating data driven technology to martial arts training. Damon shared with us all the exciting things he is doing with this martial arts startup.
I highly recommend this interview. Damon has a great passion for martial arts, technology and self improvement.
Please enjoy.
How to win confidence if you are scared of competitions?
Damon started to train martial arts with his father, a martial arts expert who for many years was a bodyguard of Mohamed Al Fayed's family.
He started to compete in small competitions of KickBoxing and Karate point fighting.
You could think that being Damon Sansum, he always had the confidence to fight and win.
But it wasn’t always this way. When he was around 15 he was scared of competitions and not performing as good as he did in the Club. Sometimes he even got sick before tournaments.
His father even suggested that he take a break and to come back when he really wanted to compete.
After that pause he started to compete again, in certain particular fight where he again didn’t perform as good as he wanted he remembered thinking:
“You know what, is not gonna kill you, is not the end of the world, you gonna have to fight anyway so go and fight and give it your all”.
Two or three hours later he fought again and won all his fights that day and beat everyone who used to beat him. Later became a senior European KickBoxing champion at 16.
That was when he started to be serious at training and competing.
Fighting chance
After a very successful career in Kickboxing including being twice World Champion he was thinking of retirement because of a shoulder injury.
He was not able to perform as good as he wanted. By that time the Fighting Chance program was launched.
And he discussed with his father the idea of giving a try to Olympic Taekwondo as it was more focused on kicks than punches. So he could continue training and competing at a world class level.
He applied for the tests. Participated in a 5 days camp fighting against all kinds of martial artists but with taekwondo rules.
Damon proved he had the necessary talent to succeed in taekwondo, first in the camp and after it in competitions.
Of course it was not easy. He had moments of doubt when he asked himself “What am i doing here?” but his efforts were compensated and soon he started to medal in important competitions.
Martial arts, technology and Kick.ai
On October 2019, Damon decided to retire from taekwondo competition.
Damon shared with us that he knew that he was very interested in martial arts and technology as he knows is how the world works now.
We are like part robots having our phones all the time in our hands. After his retirement Damon wanted to do something that could mix technology and martial arts.
The day after his retirement he had a message from Jan-Eric Wargelin from Kick.ai. A Finish Tech start up developing data driven technology for the world of taekwondo and martial arts.
Damon flew to Finland, met the Kick.ai team, tested the technology and realized how good and accurate it was.
Now he works with Kick.ai contributing with his experience and knowledge of martial arts and taekwondo to the development of Kick.ai Technology.
By the way, Kick.ai is launching the new Club Pro and is offering a 1 on 1 demo to selected martial arts club owners. If you want to know how Kick.ai can help you with engagement and retention please contact Damon or me to arrange it.
Please enjoy the interview with this amazing guy. He also shared with us some stories he has accumulated through his martial arts journey. -
Jan-Eric is a Finnish taekwondo black belt and founder of Kick.ai, a martial arts wearable that allows gathering data from your kicks.
Using Kick.ai you can see the effect your training has on your speed, stamina, and reaction speed.
With the app you can track your kicks and enhance your reaction, speed and stamina.
The software included has different training simulations designed by martial artists with decades of experience.
It is very useful for high performance athletes, but also for practitioners and club owners.
Through the app you can also win digital trophies and compare and share your progress with other Kick.ai users.
Remote coaching reliable information
Kick.ai also have an amazing feature for dojang owners.
With their dashboard you can coach your students remotely, motivate them and keep control of their performance.
Remote coaching is becoming a reality, and gathering data from your students it will surely improve the quality of the training.
With this option for clubs you can connect many Kick.ai devices to a single dojang screen and use it for different training modes.
Where it all began
Jan-Eric started practicing taekwondo in a son-father class.
He was looking for a way of helping his child to gain more self confidence. But soon he was attracted by the speed and flashy kicks of taekwondo.
When he was solo training for his black belt test the idea of an implement that could allow him to measure his progress.
He surfed the web in search for something like it and didn’t find anything.
He was a digital designer, so if he wanted it so bad he had to create it.
That was how Kick.ai started
What benefits can you get from using Kick.ai?
The main point of the interview was to talk about Kick.ai.
In Jan-Eric words. Is basically a tool to measure your progress.
You train as you would train normally. But using this wearable device you will receive a lot of information.
As I wrote in the first lines of this post, with Kick.ai you can measure your Speed, Reaction Speed and Stamina.
Kick.ai also has simulations of training designed by experts. So, if you don’t have a trainer you can use their app and challenge yourself.
Kick.ai will give you easy to understand reports.
Personally I think that to see the progress in a number can be a great way of motivation.
Also you can compete with other Kick.ai users of your level all over the world.
Today’s role of technology in taekwondo.
Jan-Eric talked with us about the role of technology in modern taekwondo, and how it could evolve in the future.
As a real passionate martial arts lover. He took some time to tell us about some dream like features that technology could give us in the future.
Other topics that we talked about were: Education, Early specialization and his favorite metal bands.
Enjoy the interview! -
Hello taekwondo lovers.
Our guest for the first english episode is Nikita Glasnovic.
Nikita Glasnovic is a swedish born taekwondo fighter. She won a bronze medal in the Muju 2017 World Championships.
She started practicing taekwondo very young. Her father Mario Glasnovic started a taekwondo club in Sweden where he trained his brothers. She was familiar with taekwondo since she was born. Taekwondo was always here environment.
She’s always liked the sparring side of taekwondo. She suffered poomsae because it was hard for her to learn the poomsaes, but with a lot effort she achieved her black belt.
Focus: Nikita’s first taekwondo competition.
Attending her first competition of taekwondo. She remember that the first thing she saw when entered the place of the competition, was a huge trophy and she thought “I want that for me”.
After the day, she won the trophy. And she remember it as a revealing discovery at her young age. If you want something and you really try to get it, of course you can get it.
That discovery helped her forward. For example when she won the world’s bronze. It was not her best day. But she focused in her goals.
Starting competition internationally
After winning her first European Youth Championships she realized she wanted to achieve bigger goals in taekwondo.
Results and the sparring experience are important in memories. But sometimes when you are young the things you remember more are the travel.
She told us about her experience in the World Youth Championships in Tijuana 2010. Arriving to the Los Angeles airport, crossing the border and the welcoming people of Mexico.
Road to the world’s bronze medal.
After not winning a medal in Rio Olympics. She lost support from Sweden Federation. So the road to Muju 2017 World Championships was not easy.
She and her whole family put a big effort in the preparation. Sometimes having to train outdoors because the impossibility to have a gym.
Even with a great preparation for the day of the competition. Things were not going like her wanted.
Sometimes you prepare for something but you don’t feel like your performance is the way normally have.
The competition day in Muju Nikita didn’t feel that she was having her best day. But anyway she managed to reach the medals stage.
That give us an idea of her mental strength.
Origins
Besides taekwondo. Nikita enjoys literature. Reading help her to disconnect from taekwondo. She likes Mario Vargas Llosa.
She is a person who study a lot of different fields, literature, language, rethorics, sports science, sport psychology.
She is not worried about not having a diploma, the important thing for her is to enjoy learning. Personally I agree with her, first you have to enjoy learning.
She is very interested also in ancient ingredients. Like Maíz (corn), Mole, and Mezcal. She was planning a trip to Mexico to discover this kind of flavors.
Full interview on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Enjoy!
Share us your thoughts on the interview in the comments section.
