Tiny Axe Thrower Interview: Mighty Mouse

I had a chance to speak with Mighty Mouse during the Urban Open this year. She, much like me, is the totally correct height of under 5'3", which made it important to me that we got a chance to chat. In this tiny axe thower interview, we discussed goals, welcome, and just enjoying skills tourneys for gub's sake.

The Axe Badger: How long have you been throwing, and what's your home venue?

Mighty Mouse: Two and a half years, out of Urban Baltimore.

TAB: Hell yeah. How do you feel like you did this weekend?

MM: I think I threw my best for the open. This is my third open, and I think I did really good. I looked at my stats for today and I'm proud of myself.

What's your favorite part of the Open

Skills? It's fun.There's no pressure.

People - okay, me, are often nervous about doing skills for the first time. What would you say to them/me?

Be open to getting drafted and just don't set at high expectations. My group, Anxious Bisexuals, got negative 300 and Yahtzee yesterday. We beat our negative score from Lady Blades earlier this year, and that was the best for us. We didn't go in wanting to win, we just want to have fun. So have fun. Be open to joining a group you've never thrown with, because you're probably going to have the most fun and don't take it too seriously.

Speaking of empowering people to engage in the sport - how do you think we can do it better?

I'm going to speak from the perspective of the black woman. There's not many of us. So finding inclusive environments and being better as a community. For instance: if you're frustrated, make sure it's clear you're frustrated with yourself and not your opponent - because you're going against yourself. Your opponent is there, but I truly believe you are trying to beat yourself in your head.

And so when you get upset, and we've all seen it, right? When you get upset, sportsmanship can kind of dip. I'm not saying it's game-destroying bad, it can dip, which isn't fair to your opponent or yourself. So remind yourself to take a step back and be like, "I don't want to make this person feel like this had anything to do with them."

And then when it comes to black women throwers, you got me, you got Stormy and you got Star Girl and Mac that I know of, right? But the bad sportsmanship can be horrible, and it can make you feel like "don't want to do this anymore."

As a woman, it can make me feel like I don't want to do this. If someone's going to be angry, I beat them. Yeah, that's a big deal.

Listen, we already have enough. Can we have this as an escape? We have enough.

Another way to bring more people into the sport is to invite your friends or go to a different venue or say something if people are being unwelcoming. Speak up, and if nobody does something, speak up again more. It's hard. I know it's hard. I'm also a black woman in tech, and it is hard there, too. Invite your friends and be the change you want to see, right?

Do you have goals for the rest of this year?

Oh, to just not drop. That's it. That's it. Stick the board. Don't drop. I don't need to win anything. If I win, great. If I don't, okay. But I just don't want to drop and I want to do better than I've done. That's really it.

Anybody you want to shout out or anything you want to add?

Oh, there's so many people. Definitely Anxious Bisexuals. They keep me going. They remind me that this is just a game.

I've had some incredible ax coaches. Axe James, Stormy, for sure, has taken me under her wing to help me better myself, especially in body mechanics. I think that's something that we a lot of times forget. It's not just your hatchet. It's not just step up, step back or you feeling your body as you go to throw. Because I used to push and I was also messing up my shoulder. Most people don't know or know that I have a four inch blade.

So with my four inch blade, I can't just push because I mess up my shoulder. So think about your body and how it feels. It's a lot of that. It's not just what you're doing, where you're standing. Be in tune with your body. Especially as women, we mess up a lot of stuff, not paying attention to what we're doing.

I also wanna shout out my husband, always my biggest cheerleader. And tells me "you did amazing" even when I lose. He points out my wins. He doesn't point out my losses. Thanks so much to Mighty Mouse for this tiny axe thrower interview, and for demanding we take a picture together rather than a standard portrait for this interview. Made me feel cute.