CHAMPION SERIES
Introducing… Mischka is a 2 x Miss Pole Dance Australia winner 2019 and 2023, Australian Pole Champion 2023, Exo Gen flow winner 2022, and Pole Icon runner up 2023. She has been teaching since 2012, and pole dancing since 2010. She teaches both online to students across the world, and at Pole Divas Moonee Ponds in Melbourne.
Since this interview, she has also won Pole Icon 2024 with the most amazing performance. Congratulations!
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Interview
Fiona Caffin – Pole Dance Directory
Welcome to the interview, Mishka. Very exciting to have you here, and looking forward to hearing about you and your back story.
So if we kick off with our first question, its basically, when?!
When did you start? And why did you start pole?
The Backstory – when & why pole dancing?
Mischka
So I started pole dancing in 2010 and the why was actually just my best friend. She had started Pole dancing before me, and she was like “you should do this”. And I was like, I don’t have time. And I’m busy. And and I was like, I was working a lot of jobs. And I was at university and doing the hustle of uni and working all my jobs.
So I didn’t start. And then I saw her dancing in an advanced showcase, and I was like, Oh, this is pretty cool. So then I started myself, which is a little bit spooky because I didn’t have that pole dancer confidence. You know how most pole dancers just have that confidence because we walk around in essentially underpants, I guess, all day. So I didn’t have that. And I also almost quit because of a a move that we call kitten kicks. You literally just mount the pole, you rock backwards and you kick your legs.
But my thighs were like NO! Absolutely not so.
I almost walked out of that class and thought:
this is not for me.
This is too painful.
So very glad I kept going
Fiona Caffin – Pole Dance Directory
Yeah, it’s it is painful in those early days, isn’t it? On the on the skin generally. I remember that.
Mischka
I remember that. Well, yeah, I mean like it. It still can be cant it, like it absolutely can be. But it’s different to that first shocking moment where you’re like, What is this
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Yeah. And does your friend still pole?
Mischka
She poled for the longest time. She quit a couple of years ago, and she’s actually taken up lyra (hoop) now. So she is back in the aerial world again, but she’s quite enjoying lyra. She loves it. Yeah.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
And what else did you done like physically before you started pole? Had you done dance or gymnastics? Were you a cheerleader.
Mischka
No, I was a triathlete.
I was a Triathlete
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Oh! Pretty strong?
Mischka
Yes and no. I was strong, I had good cardio. I had good swimmers shoulders, I guess. But I guess, coming from coming from Junior triathlon like competitive, elite triathlon. I had a lot of just body image issues and and food issues.

I was very little, like I wouldn’t have said that I was particularly healthy. So yeah, I was a lot smaller back then, I guess.
Didn’t have the ol’ pole shoulders that I do now. But yeah, like I guess, still strong in a way, absolutely had that base to be able to get up and over in an invert which a lot of people at the start of their pole journey an invert is borderline impossible at the start, right.
I remember my best friend actually doing a dodgy and teaching me how to do an invert in practice time. And I was like, Oh, yeah, it’s so easy. So I did a lot of them. And the next day I was like, Oh, it hurts to breathe.
It was like I could do it, and I was strong, but, all those little muscles between the ribs were just not ready. Not ready for that.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Yeah. Oh, it’s a very different sort of movement, I imagine. So you suddenly engaging things that don’t get a lot of action otherwise.
Mischka
Yes, absolutely so.
Yeah, I always say, I wish my mom had enrolled me in gymnastics or something, but but also, you know, I think not having a dance background, has allowed me to sort of be a bit freer in finding ways that I enjoy moving.
Because, I think gymnastics is quite a rigid way to train, so is ballet, you know, so I as much as I’m like Oh, I wish I could just flip like that; I wish it was so easy for me, because flips were very scary for me when I started flipping, I’m also like man, you know, I’m pretty happy where I am at the moment.
flips were very scary for me when I started flipping
Competing
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
So you’ve obviously got a background in in competing cause. You said you competed in in triathlons, did that? Is it just in your nature? So it was kind of inevitable that you’d compete in pole?
Mischka
I think, yes, because as soon as I started pole dancing when it was like, Oh, there’s a student competition coming up. I was like, Yeah, let’s go. So I didn’t really question why I wanted to compete, because I had just always come from I am training for triathlons, and you trained to compete. Yeah.
So you you don’t generally train for triathlons just because… you’re going to compete in a triathlon. So I guess for quite a few years I didn’t really stop and go, Why am I wanting to do this show?
I didn’t put a lot of thought into my shows, either. I would just submit an application to a show, but not even know what song I was going to be doing, or anything like that, because I guess that’s what you do with with triathlons.
So it took me a little while to be like, Maybe I should sit down and think about my comp here and think about why I wanna do this show, and what kind of show I want to do. And if I don’t have a good idea, maybe you just don’t enter because, yeah, it was just normal, you are training to compete, for me, I guess.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Yeah, I understand that mindset. It’s hard to get out of the competitive mindset sometimes.
Amazing List of Competition Titles
But you certainly got an amazing, incredible, awesome list of titles. I’m not gonna ask you to repeat them all here.
But what are your top ones? That you are the most proud of?
Titles List
2024 – 1st Pole Icon
2023 – 1st Miss Pole Dance Australia
2023 – 1st Australian Pole Championships
2023 – Runner Up Pole Icon
2023 – 2nd Runner Up Miss Pole Dance Australia
2022 – 1st Exotic Generation Exotic Flow
2020 – 1st place Miss Pole Dance Australia
2019 – ‘Best Trickster’ award Australian Pole Championships
2019 – 1st Runner Up Miss Pole Dance Victoria
2018 – Sponsors Choice award Australian Pole Championships
2018 – 2nd Runner Up Victorian Pole Championships
2018 – 2nd Runner Up Pole Championship Series
2017 – 1st Runner Up Miss Pole Dance Victoria
2017 – Finalist Miss Pole Dance Australia
2017 – 1st Runner Up Vortex Melbourne
2016 – Finalist Miss Pole Dance Australia
Mischka
I’m very proud of both of my Miss Pole Dance Australia wins.
The second one absolutely as well. But the first one was more of a shock, and probably felt more, not more exciting they’re both very exciting, but I had come from a back injury.
The year before I had to pull out of Miss Pole Dance Australia, because I’d stuffed my back pretty badly, and I had to go through all this rehab and and strengthen my body and make myself very strong. So the next year, when I was competing. I was like, I’m so happy to be here. This is just like, I’m just genuinely happy to be competing again. There’s no pressure.
So when I won that one lots of tears and shock because I was like what? So that one is like a nice special memory for me, I guess.
But yeah, definitely the recent Miss Pole as well and and Exogen Flow in 2022, because I really; I love all my routines; but that routine felt really nice. I just I really love that routine and again came in being like, I just wanna flow. There’s no expectation.

It’s nice when there’s no expectation. It feels nice, though. So if you come out successful from it, it’s a nicer memory.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Yeah, it certainly can be hard going into competing with those expectations. Both your own expectations, as well as what you perceive the external expectations are. I mean now that you’ve got a little bit of a little bit of a name for yourself, a big name for yourself.
That must be something, you know mentally that you have to deal with going into competitions – how you see or perceive others perceived expectations. If that makes sense.
Mischka
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. It is tricky, and it takes work. And some days you don’t have a handle on it. And you’re like, Oh, I’m just gonna be shit and blah blah blah. And all these negative thoughts happen. And all these people have expectations. And it’s stressing me out. So of course, I’m gonna be shit. And I’m gonna stuff it up because of all the pressure.
But most days, like most things, you just need to just continuously work at controlling that because they’re just shit thoughts, you know, like they’re not helpful.
And it does get away for you; like it got away from me, in 2022 because I was coming back from, I think I won Miss Pole in 2019, and then we were in lockdown. And I thought the next time Miss Pole was on again, which was 2022, and there was just a lot of pressure.
And people were like, Are you stressed? You must be so stressed. And I was like, well, now I am. Thank you.
So yeah, I let it get away from me a little bit there.
But also it’s just all opportunities to learn, I guess, like even even times where I’ve had a shit experience at a competition. It is for me, you know the next couple of days I feel really shit, but it’s an opportunity to learn and to grow from.
What does Mischka Struggle With?
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
So other than that kind of expectations. Is there something else that you find the most difficult about competing? What do you struggle with it?
Mischka
I struggle with… I mean, like, competing is hard. Yeah.
But I also what while I have the normal nerves and everything; I will be side of stage and I’II say to myself, it’s not even about you. You’re you’re going out there, and you’re gonna make your students proud, and you’re just gonna you’re here to entertain the people, not about you, not about you. Alright. That calms me down. But the thing. So that’s not as big a factor for me anymore. I still feel nerves, but that will calm me down a lot.
I’m really got it like my expectation every week is that I have time to train for me and to create for my online classes, and to just have a fun little dance and to, you know, just do, Combos, that make me happy.
But when I’m training for comps I don’t have the energy to do all of that. And I have to just train for that comp. Because, I mean, I’m 34, but I feel like my body now compared to when I was younger, can do like one good competition run. And then I’m a bit shaky. Like, genuinely like, I’m exhausted. I’m like, Okay, I need to sit down.
And then II try to do a second competition run, and she’s hard, very hard. So then, of course, I’m not gonna then spend an extra hour just doing fun training things, like I’m exhausted!
So I really, I really struggle with feeling like I’m not filling my cup with all the fun things that pole normally is for me when I’m not preparing for a competition. If that makes sense.
Mischka’s performance at Pole Icon 2022
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Absolutely makes total sense. I mean, I’m a little bit older than you read that as in a lot older than you. And yeah, that’s something I struggle with constantly. Finding the time to do the fun things in between the necessity of training that I have to do, the strength, everything. Because I started so late in my life that I got a lot of catching up to do. I will never catch up. But I’m going to keep trying.
Mischka
I mean, like, what? What is there to catch up? Like Pole is, everyone’s experience is is different in pole. And if you’re gonna be a lifetime poler, like we’ve got a whole lives to like catch up, you know.
Yeah, but that’s the thing that I really struggle with, because I do find pole genuinely so fun. It is so fun, and I also think that the combos that I’m doing in my routine are fun, but running your routine in full… I dare say that no one, absolutely no one enjoys doing a full run of a routine.
I dare say that no one, absolutely no one enjoys doing a full run of a routine.
It’s not fun.
It’s going to give me fulfillment because I can put it on stage. And hopefully, it’s the perfect run that I can perform in front of people, and I can watch it back and be really proud of it. But doing the runs when you’re training, it is not fun.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
It’s really good to hear. I gotta say!
I think, people like me imagining people like you training like, you know, I imagine you just like light and air and knocking out runs every other day, and just you know, it’s kind of good to hear the real side.
Mischka
Absolutely not. No, it’s it’s not fun, and it’s hard, and it’s dirty, and it’s messy. And you know I did a run yesterday, of my upcoming Frisk show, and I almost dislocated my thumb. And I was like, Okay, we need to stop now!
It’s a hot mess sometimes.
Performing – & Snoop Dogg
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
So apart from competing, you also perform. And I mean, the notable one that I’m aware of obviously is Snoop Dogg, which was just incredible. How did that come about?
Mischka
Yeah. So that was so cool. So, Nicole (ThePole) had put out a thing on her story on Instagram about Hey? You know any pole dancers in Melbourne? Here’s an application form.
I hadn’t seen it, but some friends were like you should do this, and I was like, Oh, lol, I’ll put in a application. I’ll do a quick audition video. So the requirement was, you had to like dance to one of Snoop’s songs, and so I did that and and put it in, but didn’t really think much of it, because it was a bit last minute. Yeah. Then I got a call from Nicole, and I was like, Oh, my God, it’s happening.
Yeah, that was cool. We we locked it in. And then just rocked up and and it was wild because walking out to that many people, You walk out on stage, and there’s a lot of people in the audience. But that was absolutely absurd.
I like felt like the scream blew my hair backwards. Yeah, that was very cool. I really enjoyed that moment in my life. That was very, very fun. And also, I think, made me do the longest Iron X I’ve ever done in my life. When he said, Stop, I am stopping.

Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Yeah. There was just no quitting on that was there? Not with that many people in the audience.
Mischka
And I just, I wasn’t too tired. I like, yeah, I remember slowly rotating because it was on a stage pole like an X-pole stage. And the rotation was just sort of slowly taking me back and forth. And I like made eye contact with an audience member. He was like, Yeah!! And then I was holding it. He’s like, Yeah!!! He just getting more excited. So it’s like, I guess I’ll just hold it.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Yeah. It’s a wonder you could move afterwards. You were just locked solid, forever in an Iron-X.
Mischka
So I’m very thankful to that guy, cause I think he really hyped me up. I was like, Yeah, I will hold this.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Fantastic! Have you done any other performances? You must of, because you just mentioned your training for Frisk. Is that another show?
Mischka
Yes, I am actually competing in that. I wasn’t going to. And then, yeah, my manager at the studio was like Are you going to do it, and I was like, maybe because I wanted to bring back a show that my partner was in. So I wanted to bring it back in, because I’m also a big believer in like do your shows more than once.
Like we we do it. We prepare for a show, and we do it once for 3 min or 3 and a half minutes, or 4 min, or whatever it is. and then we like, put it in the bin.
No! I spent lots of money on this. I spent money on costumes, and, you know, coaching. I think it’s nice to to get out and and have the opportunity to do a show more than once, and you know gymnasts perform their routines like multiple times. So do it again, you know. So I wanted, I did want to bring it back. It is a competition, though, for me, like it’s it’s not a show. But you know, with my partner on stage. It does feel like we’re just performing.
I have performed for Cabaret du Paris before as well, which is really cool. That was excellent. That was at the Crown. It was again, on an X-pole stage which are not my favorite things in the world. I find them very scary. Very…
I’m a large pole dancer. I’m fairly tall. I feel like a lot of pole dancers are compact size, but I’m quite large. So when I get on an X stage, it feels like I’m just swaying in the wind. So I had to calm the nerves there. But that’s okay.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Have have faith that it would stay up.
Mischka
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. They do.

Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
So you’ve won some amazing titles. You’ve done this incredible stage performance with Snoop Dog. Is there something left in the Mischka bucket to conquer?
Mischka:
ooof, very hard question. Like I would love to, at any time I’m competing these days I want to go in with the goal of trying to be my absolute best on the day. Which can be competitive, you know, without sounding arrogant. If I’m at my best I can be competitive.
So you know I would love to compete hard at Pole Icon. And, you know, take that out one day. That would be amazing.
[PD.d: of course, we all now know that Mischka competed and won Pole Icon 2024 with an amazing performance. Congratulations!]
And anytime I do perform like I’m not going in with the sole purpose of trying to win a thing, but to be my best. So you know, like Frisk, I’ve never competed at Frisk before, like I wanna try to put my absolute best on stage and make people feel things.
So anytime I am competing in the future, like I said, I just used to enter into a competition and just not be prepared – to old for that shit like.
I don’t want to walk off a stage now and feel like I was underprepared, or I didn’t put my best on stage, or I didn’t have enough time to think about the nuance of this storyline or something.
So yeah, I’ve still got a couple of years of competing left in me for sure. I mean, maybe many years. Who knows? But yeah, like, if anything, a bit of competing this year, and then a lot more travel, a lot more interstate travel as well for workshops and focusing on my online stuff.
But I think everyone thought after Miss Pole, I would just focus on that this year. And then somehow, I’ve talked myself into maybe doing 3 or 4 competitions this year. So you know, I don’t know what happened there?
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Sudden rush of blood to the pen…
Mischka
Yeah, I was like, Yes! Sign me up.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
So with all those big goals, obviously you must be doing a lot of training. How much do you train?
Ideal Training Schedule – gym, flex, destressing
In an ideal week what would your training schedule look like across all the different things that you need to do.
Mischka
Yes, so I the last couple of weeks I haven’t done my gym twice a week, but, like the last week I did, this week I will. I will!
So I try to gym twice a week. Because of previous injury, and also I’m very prone to over training. So gym keeps me out of the studio, which is good and and it just means for me it’s training my body, and probably, like not probably, in definitely a more controlled environment.
I love pole. I think it’s excellent. I have control over my body, but I do feel like it is a lot more destructive to the body than a gym session, you know, like twisting and yanking a leg into a position.
Yeah, so I try to go to the gym twice a week to keep my body strong and fit and, you know, capable. And at the moment I’m doing a lot of power movements like with my hip thrusters and things to just make my my fonjis quicker and powerful and smoother, so that will have a really nice crossover into my training without me having to just do a million fonjis when I’m training, you know. Like, let’s let’s not do that.

I would love to be in the studio like 3 times a week, just for me for 2 hours each session. Just training just for me. It does not always happen like that, around like teaching and and private lessons and things like that like it.
Just it doesn’t always happen. And sometimes I’m just getting in like half an hour of of me time. But then, like 45 min of preparing for classes, which is still training for me, and it still brings me joy, but it’s not necessarily the things that will really push me and sort of light up my soul.
Yeah, in a perfect world if I can get like 3 x 2 hour chunks a week for me. That’s like, Oh amazing! But it doesn’t always happen like that. Sometimes it might be couple of hours. And that’s it. Yeah.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Yeah, that’s why I said, an ideal week. I dont know that any of us really hit the ideal week that often. But we have to aim for something.
Mischka
Exactly. I often think back to when I was just a little bit less busy, and I just come in and be like, I’ve got 3 hours to play. I don’t think I could play 3 hours anymore. Too tired. But I used to. Yeah, who was I?
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Do you do any specific flexibility training or Yoga, or know, meditation, any other sort of things that are part of training that might not be quite so directly physical.
Mischka
Yeah, look it is still very, very physical.
I train with Eley May from Flexersize, she’s phenomenal. She is the most amazing flexibility coach. So I have one day a week where we do an hour of of her, kicking my butt into, at the moment it’s back bends, because I don’t like to do that by myself. I will split by myself. I don’t want to back bend myself. Someone needs to tell me to do that back bend. So I do that, but it’s not easy work.
I am not a good meditator at all, so I don’t meditate, I don’t yoga, if I had a bath in this house… I moved into my partner’s house a few years ago, and I really miss a bath.
If there was a bathtub in this house… What I used to do is just like after a long week, is just like soak and read a book. I love reading, but yeah, not much time lately, and no bathtub to read in.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Yeah, I’m with you on the bathtub and the book. I’ve got to say, that’s one of my my favorite kind of unwind de-stress kind of ways, maybe (with) a candle
Mischka
Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, otherwise, to unwind de-stress, I guess, my partner’s my best mate. So we’ll just couch it, chill, Netflix, have a drink, and hang out with our animals because I’ve got them. My child is my cat, my stepchildren are the 2 Chihuahua crosses. So we hang out with the kids.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Yeah the furbabies.
How to Choose Music for a Pole Competition
So one thing I really wanted to ask you about, cause I’ve done a little bit of competing, and the thing that I struggle the most with is coming up with the music choice, and you touched on that earlier when you said you know, you’d sign up for competitions when you didn’t even know what song you’re gonna do.
I’ve spoken to other other champions and they’ve also said choosing the music is a real struggle, pain point, because it’s such an important part of the performance, as it sets the whole mood and intention.
How do you approach choosing music? Do you have a bank of music ideas? What’s your go to process?
Mischka
Yeah. like, I said, obviously at the start of my competing journey it’d just be, oh, I like this song, let’s just do this.
But I did have a bank of songs that I enjoyed. They weren’t necessarily always like the right choice for a competition because, yeah, I think there is a right and a wrong choice for a song.
If there’s a song that’s quite, monotone and doesn’t really go anywhere. Then you, as a performer, need to need to be the high and low, which is hard. Music does help to to take you on that high and low journey and tell your story.
But nowadays I’m not entering into something unless I’ve really thought ahead about what I want. Like what song I would love to dance to, and normally I don’t generally go theme first, and then song.
Normally it’s like, I hear a song and I’m like Hmm! What does this sound like? What does this sound like to me? And I create like a storyline in my head. Because to me this song sounds like XYZ. And this is me doing this in this journey.
For me, now, I have all these songs that I’ve banked and put into a folder, and know one day, maybe, I’ll be able to dance to this. I just gotta wait for the right kind of competition or the right story line in my head.
Which then, obviously, gets assisted for me by my coach. So I train with Lisa D. She’s also bloody amazing, if you ever get a chance to to be coached by her, do it!
So for Miss Pole last year I had this ridiculously silly song, and I love it. And yeah, I kind of said it sounds to me like I’m this little wily piece of sh*t-gangster that’s just stealing money and I’m running away, and I’m trying to get away with the money, but I keep getting found by the thugs, and then I die in the end.
And so then the nitty gritty of the storyline; that was my broad feeling of this song; but then the nitty gritty of it was assisted by Lisa being like, Oh, why don’t you do this here? And what about this here?
So I think talking it out with people is really really important as well, because someone might just say the most simple thing of like, ha! This sounds like this here. Why don’t you do this? And you’re like Oh!
So try to have conversations with people about if you found a song and you have a theme that goes with it. Maybe you don’t think the theme is strong enough.
Talk it out with people so that they can be like, yeah, that makes sense to me, How about also this? Or maybe they go I don’t see it, and that doesn’t mean it’s dead in the water, ask other people as well. But yeah, it is really hard. I find that quite stressful.
If I’m entering into a competition which again, I say, I don’t really do that anymore without knowing what my song is, I’m like oh, my God, there’s so much pressure. You want to come through with the goods, you know.
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Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Seems to be a common issue for all of us. And yeah, there’s no quick fix from the sound of it. It’s just you need to obviously listen to a lot of music.
Mischka
Yeah. And it’s a bit scary. Because, you kind of think Oh, my God! What if whatever is in my imagination? What if the audience doesn’t get it? What if they think it’s stupid?
I remember doing that before, Miss Pole last year, I was like, Oh, God! This storyline is so silly! They’re all gonna laugh at me. I think they laughed in a different way. They laughed with me.
But it is stressful to put out your brain thoughts onto a stage and hope that the audience gets it. So I think there’s a lot of stress from many factors ’cause
- need to find a song.
- Oh, my God, the time’s running out.
- You need to find a theme.
- Need to help the audience get it and enjoy it
That’s that’s a lot of stress.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
And then you gotta get a costume to match all of that as well. There’s more to it than just knocking out the routine isn’t there. It’s a lot.
Managing stress and Mental Toughness
In terms of managing all of those different things, how much of a role do you think mental toughness has played in your success. You probably learnt a fair bit, perhaps back in the triathlete days?
Mischka
Yup. Mental toughness – it’s good, it’s bad. Because I think that’s why I’m very prone to over training, and I know when I’m over training now. It’s so silly. I know if I’m over training, I know if I’m exhausted, if I’ve taught like an 8 hour day, but I’ve also done 2 h of training, and I come home, and maybe the training was wasn’t so good. So my head is Well then, you need to go in tomorrow because you did shit today.
That’s what my head will do to me. And then I’m Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe I can get up super early, and I’ll train before I teach again, and send me another 8 hour day of teaching. Ha, ha!
So now I will speak to my partner and say Babe, I just need to tell you my day, and then I need you to tell me if I should train tomorrow. And he’s always, No. You shouldn’t. That’s very silly.
And I’m Okay, thank you. That’s all I needed to hear.
So mental toughness. Yeah. Good. For me, mental toughness in triathlons made me overtrain, because, you just gotta push through; push through everything; so not great in that respect.
Great in the respect of, sometimes you do need to push through.
I was speaking to someone at a podcast the other day. About I would be on a bike riding my 120 K bike rides that weekend. Terrible because 16, why am I doing this? And we ride somewhere out into the sticks, stop at a bakery fuel up, have some food. Anytime I get back onto a bike after I’ve had a 20 min break my legs are dead, they take so long to catch up and nobody else seems to have this problem.
They just off they go.
So I’m 16 riding, by myself because the group has left, because my legs just can’t keep up because they’re they’re deceased. And I’m on this bike in the country, thinking b*stards left me; kind of crying, because I wanted more for myself, I wanted to better. I wanted to be able to keep up with the pack of adult people training triathlon when I’m 16.

So I think an element of knowing that you have 60 K’s to get home; you are riding by yourself, crying on the road. What are you gonna do? You just gotta ride home, bitch.
So, my answer there, I guess, is mental toughness is good. It has pushed me through a lot of things. It will make me do things that I think some people are like Oh, that’s a bit too hard basket. But also sometimes it’s not great, because I will over train and do silly things. Thank God I can vocalize to my partner now and be like is this stupid?
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
He’s like the voice of reason?
Mischka
I know it is, but I should do it anyway. So he’s excellent for that.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
You’ve mentioned you’ve had injuries in the past and obviously had to do lots of rehab. I can relate to that. I think my life is just one long rehab.
How do you handle those sorts of setbacks or losses. Do you have specific strategies that you use to bounce back or go-to’s?
Mischka
So injury wise, I come from a background of university. I got my Masters in exercise rehabilitation. So I know how to manage my body, but on top of that you now know that I will also over train. So it doesn’t matter if I know how to manage my body, my head can say Train, you will be better.
I see Simone from The Pole Physio, we work quite closely together.
So if I’m ever injured to a point; if it’s those injuries where I’m a bit over trained and overloaded, and this is a niggle, I know how to manage it. And I’m going to do these exercises, and that’s gonna help to offload.
Like if my lower back is playing up, I know 99% of the time I need to work my thoracic mobility because my thoracic is turned into a stiff nugget and my lower back is overcompensating. So I can manage somethings, but it just means like de loading a little bit and putting in extra time to do the pre-habby stuff.
Because I can’t stop unless it’s quite a serious injury. This is my job – I gotta go to work. But yeah, if it is quite a serious injury, I’ve learnt it’s better to not push through.
Or, if you can, you just teach verbally and and do as little as you can. And I’ll work with my Physio, Simone, to to fix the problem.
So yeah, but I feel like a lot of my injuries lately (touch wood) have been from You are loaded and you need to deload.
It’s not like I fell off a pole and this happened.
Probably the most recent one was I was pushing through a different transition into my Bird of Paradise last year for VPC. I just come back from Europe. I only had 5 weeks to prepare for it, so I did something to my rib and oblique. And that was pretty sh*t, it hurt, ribs hurt cos they move when you breathe.
So that was probably the last thing that I had to go to the Physio for. All the other things have been stuff that I can kind of manage because I know my body at this point.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
So it sounds like the key, the way you handle those sorts of setbacks is your deloading process. And then going back to some of the basics that you know well. The prehab exercises with a little bit more focus. Is that a fair summary?
Mischka
Yes, Absolutely. It’s the prehab stuff that realistically, I should do it every week. But we don’t have time, do we?
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Again, time! We’ve all got only so many hours of energy.
Well, it’s been amazing talking to you last questions.
I love to ask people what’s your favorite move or move.
And what’s been your pole nemesis move?
Mischka’s performance at Exotic Generation Australia 2022
Mischka’s Favorite Pole Move
Mischka
It’s so much hard. Because, you know, I like all the things.
I know this is so boring, but I love a brass hook because of all things that can come from it, and all the transitions and the rotations and things that can come from it.
I know that sounds really boring, it’s like a brass hook?
But because of all the transitions that it can take you to as well as anything where I’m flying through the air on static. That’s always very fun.
when I when I read that question before, I was oh, I don’t know.
My favorite is I love them all equally.
Sorry, that’s a bit of a boring one. Brass – I love a brass hook because of the things that can take me, too.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
I love that. I love that idea that it opens the door to everything. That’s that’s really great.
Mischka’s Nemesis Pole Move (does she even have one?)
Mischka
Nemesis was also tricky. I was Oh, what do I hate? Cause I don’t, I can’t even say like a gumby thing, because I don’t mind it or mysterious side things.
I don’t mind a gumby trick anymore, like training a Gumby trick. It’s quite exciting because new body movements and new body sensations.
But there’s one transition where you end up trapped, and you need to swish your bum to the other side. I don’t even know the the name of it, to be honest, but I always feel if I don’t give it enough energy my ass gets stuck and then I get sad. That’s it. Really.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
It sounds like a Nemesis getting stuck.
Mischka
getting stuck on that booty. It’s a problem.
Advice to Baby Poler’s
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
So what advice would you give to the baby poler’s out there who might aspire to reach your level of success, or any level of success. What’s your advice for the baby polers out there?
Mischka
Enjoy the journey!
Probably the thing I see the most at the moment with some of my students is that need to be getting better; it’s only about improvement. It’s always upward improvement. And that’s what pole is! But it’s really not.
And if you feel like you plateau, which is absolutely going to happen, get excited about different ways to do that same trick that you already know. Different ways to transition into it, different ways to stylize it.

Enjoy the journey!
Pole is shouldn’t be addressed any differently to how you address like a gym program. What are you going to do in the gym? You go in, and you do the same sh*t all the time. And while pole is a bit more exciting, there’s an element of that, where you need to go in, and sometimes you need to do the sh*t work if you want to see that improvement.
I call it the shit work – You know the stuff that doesn’t give you that instant gratification.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
Like repetitions of just lots of inverts and doing them properly and beautifully.
Mischka
So in order to stop feeling stale like go back to those same tricks that you know very well, and that you probably feel are very boring, but stylize them differently. Start flowing into things differently. Take the time to refine your movement, which I wish I’d done sooner. Because now I just really love refining movement.
Yep, that!
And don’t put too much pressure on yourself, and don’t be afraid to step away a little bit sometimes from a trick that is biting you in the ass and just isn’t coming through. Step away from it. Leave it, come back to it later. Because you’ll probably fixate and stress less about it. And then the next time you do it, you’re gonna go Oh, I’m doing the thing
And train smart. Don’t overtrain like me.
And train smart.
Don’t overtrain like me.
Fiona – Pole Dance Directory
That’s really a brilliant note to finish on. So thank you so much. And this is Fiona from the Pole Dance Directory, signing out.
* All images courtesy of Mischka and © to Mischka.