Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to Bounce Forward with me, Tip Hall.
Speaker 1: I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: on which I'm recording this podcast, So we're rendering people
Speaker 1: of the Kola Nation. I pay my respects for elders
Speaker 1: past and present. Today on Bounce Forward, I have my friend,
Speaker 1: doctor Lauren Burns. Now Lauren has been in my life,
Speaker 1: my whole life. She is a taekwondo athlete who trained
Speaker 1: with my dad. He was one of her Olympic coaches
Speaker 1: in the two thousand Sydney Games. So I grew up
Speaker 1: watching Lauren train and achieve her dreams. Now, doctor Lauren
Speaker 1: Burns holds a PhD in Athlete Lifestyle and Mindset and
Speaker 1: collaborates with the Australian Institute of Sport regularly. She's been
Speaker 1: given the Order of Australian Medal and in twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Plus.
Speaker 1: At the Sydney two thousand Olympics, she took out the
Speaker 1: Olympic gold medal in taekwondo for Australia, doing it for
Speaker 1: the girls. Lauren, Welcome to Bounce Forward. Lauren welcome to
Speaker 1: Bounce Forward. I'm so excited to have you on and
Speaker 1: to nerd out a little bit over taekwondo, because there's
Speaker 1: not many people you can talk about taekwondo with who
Speaker 1: really get it and love it and are obsessed with
Speaker 1: it like we are, and it's really in our blood.
Speaker 1: And I want to start with the year two thousand,
Speaker 1: of course, and the Sydney Olympic Games twenty four years ago.
Speaker 1: Now amazing, and this is kind of where we're connected
Speaker 1: through taekwondo, and you won a gold medal and Olympic
Speaker 1: gold medal, the first in our sport for our country
Speaker 1: in taekwondo. Just such a spectacular moment.
Speaker 2: I was there.
Speaker 1: Can you take us back to that moment and like,
Speaker 1: talk me through it? How are you feeling?
Speaker 2: Oh, it was such an incredible time. And yeah, like
Speaker 2: I was just at the Nationals on the weekend, and
Speaker 2: like you said, twenty four years ago, I'm chatting to
Speaker 2: all that kids and you know, they weren't even born
Speaker 2: the city and so, like Miley has been a long time,
Speaker 2: but it was so it was such an amazing event.
Speaker 2: I mean really, for me, there was a really strong
Speaker 2: part of my preparation that was about doing the ordinary
Speaker 2: things in extraordinary circumstances. So that was something that I'd
Speaker 2: honed with my sports psychologist. But also, you know, it
Speaker 2: was at the State Sports Center, So although it had
Speaker 2: all this kind of Olympic branding that sort of came
Speaker 2: along and packaged it really nicely, it was still a
Speaker 2: stadium that I knew well, I'd competed in. It was
Speaker 2: like I felt like it was my home turf. I'd
Speaker 2: been there the year before and I'd stood in that
Speaker 2: same stadium, and I kind of felt like I put
Speaker 2: my energy into the corners of that room. You know,
Speaker 2: this enormous stadium, and I stood there and I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to come back in a year and I'm
Speaker 2: going to win a gold medal, and I sort of
Speaker 2: really owned that space, you know. So when we were
Speaker 2: there at the games, it was you know, I probably
Speaker 2: didn't really understand the enormity of it until afterwards because
Speaker 2: we had this real focus, you know, obviously with my
Speaker 2: sports site, but also my whole support team. It was
Speaker 2: about creating that element of normality. Normality, you know, it
Speaker 2: was like this is what I do, this is what
Speaker 2: I know, this is what I've trained for all my
Speaker 2: you know, professional taekwondo life, I've traveled the world, I've
Speaker 2: competed against these girls, I've you know, had these international referees.
Speaker 2: I know my coaches in my corner, i know my
Speaker 2: support team. So it was all about bringing it back
Speaker 2: to the normal, because it's very easy to get swept
Speaker 2: up in a big event like that, any event where
Speaker 2: it's World Championships, world Cup, where you know it's just
Speaker 2: and you and the nerves come in and you feel
Speaker 2: differently than you might at you know, another tournament. So
Speaker 2: there was this element of it of really kind of
Speaker 2: bringing the normal and the mundane and doing what you
Speaker 2: know and focus on, you know, on the basics and
Speaker 2: coming back to the simple things, doing the simple things
Speaker 2: with that excellence. And then even in the fights, it
Speaker 2: was around that creating, you know, like being present, being
Speaker 2: in the moment, scoring you know, points, holding points. So
Speaker 2: it's very much about being in that strategy, not thinking
Speaker 2: about standing on the days at the end. And then
Speaker 2: when it happened, it felt very much in the moment
Speaker 2: that I actually won, it was like yes, you know
Speaker 2: it was I was very cool, calm and collected, ticked
Speaker 2: off that box, and then it wasn't until sort of
Speaker 2: later on when I went out to the to the
Speaker 2: back and the drug testing woman was reading my rights.
Speaker 2: So I kind of started all dawned on me and
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, oh my god, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I did it. You did do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's one of the biggest moments I think
Speaker 1: in my life because you're a woman and you did it,
Speaker 1: and it showed me something about empowering women and that
Speaker 1: women can do hard things. And I was sixteen at
Speaker 1: the time, and I was loving my taekwondo and I
Speaker 1: love my fitness, and my parents were fitness instructors martial
Speaker 1: arts instructors. Sort of wanted to head into fitness but
Speaker 1: didn't really know what I wanted to do. And that
Speaker 1: just inspired me so much, Lauren. It just it just
Speaker 1: was a moment where I was like, I want to
Speaker 1: empower women through fitness through taekwondo. Don't really know what
Speaker 1: that'll be yet, but it was pivotal for me. Now
Speaker 1: we've got a link because my dad was on your
Speaker 1: coaching team, Martin.
Speaker 2: Yes, and you know.
Speaker 1: You've been coached a lot and had a huge focus
Speaker 1: on mindset and winning and throughout your whole life, Like,
Speaker 1: what do you think is the secret to having a
Speaker 1: high performance mindset like that, that winning mindset for anyone
Speaker 1: out there who's looking to, you know, really succeed in
Speaker 1: their sport. Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, your dad, Martin
Speaker 1: Hall was my so my club coach and then also
Speaker 1: my coach at the Olympics. I had two coaches, Jinte
Speaker 1: Joeng and and you know, we can go a little
Speaker 1: bit more into my relationship with him, and we were
Speaker 1: together for such a long time.
Speaker 2: You know, it was a real, it was incredible journey.
Speaker 2: But I think, you know, this element of a growth mindset,
Speaker 2: and you know, we hear about that a lot. It
Speaker 2: can be a bit of a throwaway term, but really
Speaker 2: kind of understanding that we we have the ability to
Speaker 2: always grow and evolve and our skills are not you know,
Speaker 2: stagnant as they are. We can always develop. So I
Speaker 2: think that you know, it's not about we all have
Speaker 2: hard times, we all have challenges, we all have things
Speaker 2: that we all have set back, So it's not that
Speaker 2: you're creating the perfect environment where everything goes right. But
Speaker 2: I think that mindset of being able to succeed and
Speaker 2: do the things that you want to in life and
Speaker 2: succeeding can be all manner of different things, whatever it
Speaker 2: is to the individual, but it's about that that sort
Speaker 2: of flexibility of being able to go I can you know,
Speaker 2: I can my way out of this, I can build
Speaker 2: back up. I can find a way to make that happen.
Speaker 2: And you know, even when things completely change and you
Speaker 2: may not. You know, there's a lot of athletes that
Speaker 2: have life changing injuries and they can't go back to
Speaker 2: that sport. So it's like, how do you then adapt
Speaker 2: and change and sort of being kind to yourself and
Speaker 2: then but also looking at you know, I love the
Speaker 2: work of There's a researcher at Stanford, Ali Crumb, so
Speaker 2: she has this work around the stress is enhancing mindset.
Speaker 2: So even looking at stressful situations or doing hard things
Speaker 2: and having that that outlook where oh this is going
Speaker 2: to help me and how can I do to it?
Speaker 2: You know, what can I use this experience to be
Speaker 2: able to enhance my life in some way? And you
Speaker 2: know that often comes in with injuries. I think it
Speaker 2: can be a time of our biggest growth and where
Speaker 2: we kind of have to really dig in and adapt.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think being kind and being really flexible
Speaker 2: is probably some of the most important elements that's really
Speaker 2: good advice. I mean, when I was an athlete, it
Speaker 2: was much more like winning was everything. So everything I
Speaker 2: did winning in taekwondo, so not I was never really
Speaker 2: competitive in other areas of my life but winning, And
Speaker 2: so it was like, what do I need to do
Speaker 2: to be the best athlete? So that I mean, I
Speaker 2: was ruthless. I often felt like I had a samurura.
Speaker 2: I saw it, and especially close out games, I just
Speaker 2: cut out all the crap, all the shit that I
Speaker 2: you know, it was like channel focus, be really clear. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and so but that was very time dependent. You know,
Speaker 2: a competition is very much like you have to perform
Speaker 2: on that day or that's it. Whereas performing in other
Speaker 2: areas of my life or you know, being a good
Speaker 2: parent or being a good partner or getting a degree
Speaker 2: or whatever, then that's a little bit of a You've
Speaker 2: got a bigger window to allow those sorts of things. So, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's just a little bit bit kind of.
Speaker 1: Talking about cutting out all like the crap, Like you
Speaker 1: had to diet so hard to get under forty nine kilos,
Speaker 1: wasn't it Like And you're a vegetarian, So was that
Speaker 1: really challenging for you? What was that a grueling process
Speaker 1: making weight for the game?
Speaker 2: Yes, it was, but it was also part because I
Speaker 2: always had to cut for a weight division. It was
Speaker 2: part of my preparation, and so it was sort of
Speaker 2: like a as I went into that phase, into that mode,
Speaker 2: it was a lot. It was generally ab be three
Speaker 2: months I'd sort of start to really streamline what I was,
Speaker 2: you know, getting that weight down safely, and so that
Speaker 2: kind of cut out a lot of you know, it
Speaker 2: was like, wasn't socializing as much going out for you
Speaker 2: as doing anything like that, So it was kind of
Speaker 2: a mental refinement as well. But yeah, so for your listeners,
Speaker 2: there's normally eight weight divisions in taekwondo, and for the
Speaker 2: Olympics they only had four. So the normal weight division
Speaker 2: i'd drop into was fifty one, So I just dropped
Speaker 2: a couple of kilos, you know, and I'd sort of
Speaker 2: sit at a training weight of fifty three, but around
Speaker 2: fifty five natural weight drop in always challenging. It was
Speaker 2: at the lower end of my weight, but it was
Speaker 2: pretty safe. For the Olympics, they only had four weight
Speaker 2: division and ten kilo increments between them, so either had
Speaker 2: to go under forty nine or under fifty seven. So
Speaker 2: the fifty seven girls are like sixty something and they're
Speaker 2: dropping in, They're really tall. It's like a completely different game. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I had Dexa scans, I went to the
Speaker 2: BIS or the Dietitians. You know, I had my natural
Speaker 2: path coaches. We all decide decided forty nine was going
Speaker 2: to be the best weight division. So they actually said
Speaker 2: it's unsafe to ever really sit at forty nine, so
Speaker 2: just to drop down slowly and hit it on the day.
Speaker 2: So I did weigh in at forty eight point nine
Speaker 2: to eight wow, twenty kilos. But that was very you know,
Speaker 2: I'd acticed, I'd done it poorly before. I did a
Speaker 2: tournament overseas where I fought at the Belgium Open and
Speaker 2: I beat this girl by about I was like eleven
Speaker 2: points or something. I just absolutely it was. It was
Speaker 2: a really good win. Then then two weeks later I
Speaker 2: fought her at the same girl in Italy and I
Speaker 2: had to drop down to forty nine and I just
Speaker 2: couldn't get it off and I ended up saunering it off,
Speaker 2: which I hate doing. Yes, and I lost to her
Speaker 2: by light three points, So you know, it can make
Speaker 2: such a huge difference if you do it. If you
Speaker 2: sweat it off because you don't have, you become you're dehydrated.
Speaker 2: You just can't recover that, and that's really you know,
Speaker 2: it's so important with taekwondo to have that decision making
Speaker 2: time and you know, the critical analysis, especially if you're
Speaker 2: down and it's in a final and you've had four
Speaker 2: fights that day or eight fights that day, you just
Speaker 2: can't compromise that. So I used to do it really well.
Speaker 2: It was really adamant not to sauner it run it off.
Speaker 2: You know, also you have often a beautiful taper. You know,
Speaker 2: you have this periodization that you set with your strength coach,
Speaker 2: and then if you overweight and you're running it off
Speaker 2: or skipping it off in a car park, then you're
Speaker 2: just undoing all of that beautiful work for explosiveness. So
Speaker 2: I did it really carefully. And yeah, I was vegetarian,
Speaker 2: so everyone at that point used to tell me I
Speaker 2: couldn't be a vegetarian athlete. So I had dietitian at
Speaker 2: the vis, had a natch path and nutritionist, so I
Speaker 2: had a lot of different and then I would kind
Speaker 2: of you know, curate my own plan a little bit
Speaker 2: as well. So I was very organized. I used to
Speaker 2: have my main meal in the middle of the day
Speaker 2: with lots of protein, lots of different colors, eating the
Speaker 2: rainbow because I wanted to have you know, it was
Speaker 2: all about eating for power and strength and reaction time,
Speaker 2: and so yeah, it was I always looked at that
Speaker 2: positive as well, because you know, otherwise it just feels
Speaker 2: like there's that deprivation.
Speaker 1: And I can't have this, and I yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: really important.
Speaker 2: That. So even though I was forty nine kilos and
Speaker 2: what and like at the lightest that my body should
Speaker 2: ever be or shouldn't be, I felt six feet tall.
Speaker 2: I felt like this huge warrior woman. I just felt
Speaker 2: so strong and so powerful. And then I look back
Speaker 2: at the photos and I'm like, oh my god, you're
Speaker 2: so tiny. Yeah, but you felt that. That's awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I did, and all the strength work, you know, like
Speaker 2: my legs were just so strong. I cut a lot
Speaker 2: from my upper body. So it was very strategic. You know,
Speaker 2: I didn't do it. I wasn't just left to my
Speaker 2: own devices. No, it was you know, we're really in
Speaker 2: collaboration with my team.
Speaker 1: I'm going to leave that chat right there and come
Speaker 1: back with part two very soon. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: listening to Bounce Forward. I love having your company, So
Speaker 1: please DM me on Instagram at tip Hall underscore so
Speaker 1: and let me know what questions you'd love me to cover.
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Speaker 1: Speak soon, Happy days,