Speaker 1: Hi, Welcome back to Bounce Forward with me, Tip Haul.
Speaker 1: I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: in which I'm recording this podcast. There were andre people
Speaker 1: of the Cooler Nation. I pay my respects for elders
Speaker 1: past and present. Welcome to part two of my chat.
Speaker 1: We're going to pick up right where we left off.
Speaker 1: Did you celebrate with anything naughty after like you you won?
Speaker 1: Like did you were you craving something in particular?
Speaker 2: Like after?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I really wanted pizza and beer. But that
Speaker 3: was my main thing. And you know, it's often that
Speaker 3: thing when you can't have something you want. It's like,
Speaker 3: you know, or going to the supermarket when you're hungry,
Speaker 3: and then you just buy all this stuff that then
Speaker 3: you don't really want it anyway when you've had something good. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: I wanted pizza and beer. And I had friends that
Speaker 3: were living in Sydney, and I had a whole lot
Speaker 3: of friends that had come to watch. And so after
Speaker 3: the fight, I went and I did Roy and HD
Speaker 3: the Dream Yes, which was hilarious. They were fantastic, And
Speaker 3: then they were like, oh, we couldn't find a good
Speaker 3: pizza place open, so we went to the supermarket and
Speaker 3: we got you pizza ingredients and they had pizza. They
Speaker 3: made it for me, and I actually couldn't really eat
Speaker 3: much of it. So after all that wanting it, and I
Speaker 3: had a piece of pizza, I didn't really have. I
Speaker 3: had a little bit of champagne, I think, but I
Speaker 3: had so many bruises, Like I was really really injured afterwards,
Speaker 3: and I didn't want all the you know, alcohol really helped,
Speaker 3: like the makes the bruising come out. So yeah, I
Speaker 3: had a really bad hit to the groin that was
Speaker 3: just so bad, like really really really bad and actually
Speaker 3: it was your dad. I went back to the village
Speaker 3: and this is a bit too graphic. You might want
Speaker 3: to cut it out, but tell me the sportsmantheson doctor
Speaker 3: said we're going to have to drain it. This is
Speaker 3: like because it was like a hematoma that had come
Speaker 3: up from this kick. And so Martin and said, yeah,
Speaker 3: you can't go out like you just you have to
Speaker 3: do what the doctor said, you know they want to.
Speaker 3: And I was like, give me one night, give me
Speaker 3: one night where I'm not gonna like you can't. I
Speaker 3: just want a freaking Olympic gold medal. You can't put
Speaker 3: a needle, you know, in my vagina, And so I said,
Speaker 3: and so then I had all this arnica. So I
Speaker 3: had like anaab like I'm just like anything helped them bruising,
Speaker 3: and so it went down overnight and they said, no,
Speaker 3: you don't have to drain it, and I was, thank goodness.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Lauren, You've had so many injuries over
Speaker 1: your time, like And one of the questions I get
Speaker 1: asked the most is about from like members who are fit,
Speaker 1: you know, they get setbacks, They get setbacks with injuries
Speaker 1: and how do they overcome that? And you know myself
Speaker 1: from taekwondos wrists, knees, Oh my god, yeah.
Speaker 2: Man, it's you know, the knees.
Speaker 1: It's like you do taekwondo if you haven't done your
Speaker 1: A C L Like I don't know. So how how
Speaker 1: do you bounce back from having injuries?
Speaker 2: How do you overcome those setbacks in life? Lauren? Like
Speaker 2: you found you leading up even to the games, didn't you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've had a lot, but I think I've had
Speaker 3: about twelve operations since the games, patching everything up. I
Speaker 3: don't know how many leading into the games, but I
Speaker 3: think even now this is something that I just you know,
Speaker 3: hold true always is you just show up and you
Speaker 3: do the work. So, you know, that was sort of
Speaker 3: drilled into me as an athlete, like if you can't
Speaker 3: you know, when you can't go, you can't kick, so
Speaker 3: you go to training and you just sit on the
Speaker 3: bike and you do what you can and you can't,
Speaker 3: you know, so then you're involved. You're not removing yourself
Speaker 3: away from the situation. I've had a really bad shoulder well,
Speaker 3: I had a shoulder reco and all sorts of things
Speaker 3: shoulder injury that does play up occasionally and if I
Speaker 3: do something now even it'll flare up. So I still
Speaker 3: go to the gym, I do the you know, recovery.
Speaker 3: I don't love doing the band, but I'm on the
Speaker 3: bands and I just turn up and I do the
Speaker 3: work and it just builds up slowly. And you know,
Speaker 3: even today I was at the gym and I was
Speaker 3: doing the you probably know what it's called, but you
Speaker 3: know when you hang and you do the rings and
Speaker 3: you pull yourseld oh yes, y rings. You know two
Speaker 3: a year ago, there's no way I could have done that.
Speaker 3: But here I was today doing the rings, and you
Speaker 3: know it depends like and so it's just like, show up,
Speaker 3: do the work, do what you can, even if it's
Speaker 3: you know, you go for a walk, or you can
Speaker 3: always modify and do something. And you know, I'm not
Speaker 3: talking about where you push yourself too hard or you
Speaker 3: do things that you shouldn't, or sometimes you need a rest.
Speaker 3: But I never really let an injury hold me back.
Speaker 3: And what I found early on is I had to
Speaker 3: I had both needes operated on at the same time,
Speaker 3: and that was probably the time the only time that
Speaker 3: I really thought about quitting. I just thought, you know,
Speaker 3: I don't have to do this. Why am I doing it?
Speaker 3: I'm not getting paid for it. I'm not like, I
Speaker 3: don't have to do this sport. So then I decided, well,
Speaker 3: if it was asking myself that question, if you want
Speaker 3: to quit, just don't do it. You know, there's lots
Speaker 3: of other things you can do in your life. But
Speaker 3: I had this really strong feeling I didn't want to quit.
Speaker 3: I loved it so much. I wanted to keep going.
Speaker 3: So I thought, well, if that's what you want, then
Speaker 3: don't complain about it. Just do what you need to do.
Speaker 3: So I got together with my strength coach Tony Hewitt,
Speaker 3: and we just rebuilt and I went to he was
Speaker 3: going to the gym every day like different, to the
Speaker 3: high performance center, and I then became stronger than I
Speaker 3: was beforehand. So it's that whole thing of you know,
Speaker 3: like that injury allowed me then to take time off
Speaker 3: the volume of training because you know, as you know,
Speaker 3: the Taekwondos classes are so aerobic, they're so physical, and
Speaker 3: so to just go I'm just going to focus on
Speaker 3: strength training and waits and I rebuilt my body in
Speaker 3: a way that I never would have had the time
Speaker 3: to do that and the load would have been too much.
Speaker 3: So I often reflect on that time about how, you know,
Speaker 3: every injury kind of allowed me an opportunity to get
Speaker 3: stronger in a different way and so and actually that
Speaker 3: was interesting with your dad as well. So afterwards I
Speaker 3: went to the club first, So the nationals were happening,
Speaker 3: and it was selection for the World Championships, and it
Speaker 3: meant that I couldn't compete, and I was so upset,
Speaker 3: like I was devastated. So the first one I'd ever
Speaker 3: missed out on selections and I was really really upset
Speaker 3: about that, and really it's probably the worst I've ever
Speaker 3: felt actually, and so I started back at the club
Speaker 3: to just move around on the mat. It was time
Speaker 3: to sort of you know, built a lot of strength,
Speaker 3: and so I'm moving around and he's like, just do
Speaker 3: some footwork, you know, do some you know, upper body anyway.
Speaker 3: So then I just throw a little kick. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: I can actually do I can do a kick, one
Speaker 3: kick with one leg, round house kick. I could do that, right.
Speaker 3: And I was like, I said, you know, Martin, I reckon,
Speaker 3: I can fight. I can only do one kick. And
Speaker 3: he's like, no way, You're not fighting, Like no, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, give me, give me a week, you know.
Speaker 3: And so every day I came in and I did
Speaker 3: a little bit more and he was like, okay, I'll
Speaker 3: see if I can get you a late application. So
Speaker 3: we put in this application. So when I fought at
Speaker 3: the National, I could still only do one kick an
Speaker 3: ass and that's all I did. So every fight that
Speaker 3: I had, I did that one kick and I loved
Speaker 3: it because it kind of it highlighted what I've always
Speaker 3: known from the Koreans is that there's such a beauty
Speaker 3: in the simple techniques, you know, doing a kick that
Speaker 3: is so well executed is often unbeatable, you know. And
Speaker 3: I felt that before when I'd been at the in
Speaker 3: Korea training with some of these young kids. And you know,
Speaker 3: I remember training with this one boy. It was at
Speaker 3: a high school and he just had this back lag
Speaker 3: roundhouse kick that was so beautiful, and even though I
Speaker 3: knew what he was going to do, I could see
Speaker 3: him coming. I had all these different things that I
Speaker 3: tried to do to get even just move out of
Speaker 3: the way, and he scored on me every time. And
Speaker 3: you know, there's such beauty in that, you know, doing
Speaker 3: something that's just so incredibly elegant. And so that's what
Speaker 3: I felt when I was going through there, you know,
Speaker 3: this competition, and I even had someone say to me,
Speaker 3: you should write to your opponents and say, oh, I'm
Speaker 3: just going to do this one kick. Really it's all
Speaker 3: I had. But I won that nationals and made that
Speaker 3: national team, so that it made me really think about that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the simplicity and beauty of doing the simple thing.
Speaker 1: Like Bruce Lee says, fear not the man that practiced
Speaker 1: ten thousand different kicks once. Fear the man that practices
Speaker 1: the one kick ten thousand times.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you're not just Lauren Burns, your doctor, Lauren Burns.
Speaker 1: You are. You went on to do your PhD that
Speaker 1: focused on athlete lifestyle and mindset. Can you talk to
Speaker 1: me about your PhD and what you studied and all
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, I mean it started out as something different.
Speaker 3: The research Jenny is always a bit turbulent, so I
Speaker 3: guess Sport prepared me for that. But yeah, basically I
Speaker 3: did my PhD was in athlete lifestyle and mindset. And
Speaker 3: the first study we did, I interviewed ten World Olympic
Speaker 3: and Paralympic champion athletes, so really amazing athletes like Kathy Freeman,
Speaker 3: Ian Thorpe, Layne Beachley, Kerry Potthast, Paralympians Don Elgin, Tim Matthews,
Speaker 3: and so it was really fascinating because I was trying
Speaker 3: to get an idea about, you know, lifestyle. But really
Speaker 3: what came out of it was psychological skills and attributes
Speaker 3: are key, so you know, mindset is just so important.
Speaker 3: And some of the elements that came out about that
Speaker 3: are things like realistic optimism, being a knowledge seeker, having
Speaker 3: a really clear sense of self regulation, self confidence, and dominance,
Speaker 3: mental toughness, having a strong work ethic. So those elements
Speaker 3: were all really really key across all athletes and all
Speaker 3: different sports, and I purposely sampled them so i'd had
Speaker 3: athletes from small sports, you know, as in like individual sports,
Speaker 3: small teams, big teams, combat sports, you know, so I
Speaker 3: kind of wanted a really interesting cross section and athletes who, yeah,
Speaker 3: they had to have won a gold, Olympic gold medal,
Speaker 3: World championship medal, Paralympic gold or world cham Paralympic, world
Speaker 3: championship medal. So but then also what came out of
Speaker 3: it that I probably didn't expect is the importance of
Speaker 3: interpersonal relationships and connection. So that theme really sort of
Speaker 3: came out of the data, and I then delved really
Speaker 3: deeply into that work and wrote a piece for the
Speaker 3: British Journal of Sports Medicine about strengthening into personal relationships
Speaker 3: in sports. So that's kind of where I've really been
Speaker 3: focused a lot of my attention these days. I had
Speaker 3: some work commissioned by the Australian Institute of Sport and
Speaker 3: we did gold medal winning athletes and gold medal winning
Speaker 3: coaches to sort of look at characteristics of gold medal
Speaker 3: winning teams. Yeah, so it's been really interesting.
Speaker 1: So is that like about the people you surround yourself with.
Speaker 1: And because like I've been thinking about Ned Brockman and
Speaker 1: how he's accomplished amazing feats and mental toughness and all
Speaker 1: of that. I'd love your take on something like Ned Brockman,
Speaker 1: like how.
Speaker 2: Has he done that?
Speaker 1: Like what would you say with his support network? And
Speaker 1: you know it plays a big part.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I don't know a lot about him
Speaker 3: per personally, but I mean I know what he's done,
Speaker 3: but you know, it was very It's really about who's
Speaker 3: on your team and that that's not prescriptive. So you know,
Speaker 3: for some people it's their parents. Some people don't want
Speaker 3: their parents anywhere near them.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: And so like Jackie Cooper, for example, would say, like
Speaker 3: I didn't want my mom near me when I was
Speaker 3: competing because you know, she's an aerial scheer, so you know,
Speaker 3: she'd always worry that I was going to crash, So
Speaker 3: you know, she didn't want her mom there, whereas other
Speaker 3: athletes were like I just had you know, I needed
Speaker 3: my mom and dad there or my parents you know,
Speaker 3: you know, would bring me meals or their support was
Speaker 3: so important. Some people it was a coach, some people
Speaker 3: it was a friend, some people it was a sibling,
Speaker 3: And so it's about creating that connection. And when I
Speaker 3: sort of delved into the research, there's a lot around
Speaker 3: how quality relationships attenuate our stress response, and you know,
Speaker 3: I really felt so, you know, when I did more
Speaker 3: work with AIS around this characteristics of gold medal winning teams,
Speaker 3: there's a lot around you know, trust and yeah, like
Speaker 3: that emotional management, and there was some work that I
Speaker 3: was looking at around just being near someone that you
Speaker 3: have a quality relationship that actually attenuates our cortisol levels
Speaker 3: and helps us to you know, to have like it's
Speaker 3: like our self red and our ability to cope with stress.
Speaker 3: So you know, that's something like you know when for
Speaker 3: me standing you know, at the court side about to
Speaker 3: go into an Olympic final or whatever, and if you've
Speaker 3: got someone next to you who's you know, you feel
Speaker 3: comfortable with, you're going to be able to self regulate
Speaker 3: a lot more than if you're more fraught. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: or just knowing, you know, knowing where people are in
Speaker 3: the stands that you've got you know, you've got that support.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's so it's incredibly powerful. And then you know,
Speaker 3: now we know so much more about loneliness and how
Speaker 3: it's like a social determinant of health and there's just
Speaker 3: so many elements around relationships and connection.
Speaker 2: Wow, that is so interesting, so interesting.
Speaker 1: So your mum as well, and I really want to
Speaker 1: instill good habits in my children and keep them active
Speaker 1: and interested in sports. Do you have any tips for
Speaker 1: you know, moms out there to you know, keep your
Speaker 1: kids motivated, I don't know, get them active?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you do this so well to if
Speaker 3: I've seen all of your things, you know, exercising in
Speaker 3: your land room with little kids around you and everything.
Speaker 3: You know, I think firstly, you know, we play the
Speaker 3: long game, and you know that's what I mean. I'm
Speaker 3: always talking with you know, my clients I work with
Speaker 3: about life plans and looking at the big picture twenty
Speaker 3: and it kind of puts everything in perspective. So part
Speaker 3: of it is, you know, one of the things we
Speaker 3: saw with the athlete research is when I was looking
Speaker 3: into all of that is unstructured play and early diversification
Speaker 3: is so important. So you know, it's not always you know,
Speaker 3: keeping them in this one sport that you've chosen but
Speaker 3: you know, giving them options, helping them to play, move
Speaker 3: their bodies, you know, and kind of that. It's like
Speaker 3: lifelong learning and lifelong movement and then also modeling it
Speaker 3: so you know, they they see that. So, you know,
Speaker 3: I've had my like my son is sixteen and fifteen,
Speaker 3: and he's been at the gym with me and I
Speaker 3: just it's so awesome. And you know, he would come along.
Speaker 3: We've been training together for a few years. He's now
Speaker 3: just moved on where, but at least he came with
Speaker 3: me and we've you know, I've got a great coach
Speaker 3: that I work with now, and it was about you know,
Speaker 3: so firstly he used to come along and what you know,
Speaker 3: and he just sit around. Well, I did my session,
Speaker 3: and then it started playing around on some equipment and
Speaker 3: then you know, my coach took a real interest in
Speaker 3: him and he created a plan for him that was
Speaker 3: around you know, like his basketball and putting on a
Speaker 3: weightfest and jumping and elastics and you know, so it
Speaker 3: was creative and it was specific, but it also then
Speaker 3: again built this trust and allowed him to learn how
Speaker 3: to use weights and his body more so then you know,
Speaker 3: and when you've got like my coaches quite buff. So
Speaker 3: you know, when you've got a big, strong guy going okay,
Speaker 3: let's lower that weight so that you can get better
Speaker 3: biceps or whatever, is you know better than your mum
Speaker 3: saying that's too y.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the problem I have when I try and
Speaker 2: train my kids. They just don't.
Speaker 3: But now he's got this, He's got some really good foundations.
Speaker 3: I know he's got He goes to the gym with
Speaker 3: a friend and you know, I trust that he knows
Speaker 3: how to lift better. So I think, yeah, there's a
Speaker 3: couple of things. One is that unstructured play, early diversification,
Speaker 3: get them trying different things. Obviously keeping them in the
Speaker 3: sport that they're in as much as you can. You know,
Speaker 3: like when they don't want to go to class, you know,
Speaker 3: just okay, let's go along, or let's just try for
Speaker 3: the first bit and then you know, once they get there,
Speaker 3: they're happy and they go along. So and yeah, really
Speaker 3: sort of modeling, I think, you know, healthy habits and
Speaker 3: doing and doing hard things, and doing things when you
Speaker 3: don't want to do them. So often I'll say that
Speaker 3: like I really can't be stuff going to the gym,
Speaker 3: or I don't want to go and I go, and
Speaker 3: I just showing that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's really showing up.
Speaker 3: Do what you can.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I try and teach my son, Arnold that he's
Speaker 1: seven and he does taekwondo at Hall's. But oh, I
Speaker 1: doesn't want to go after school. He's tired, and he
Speaker 1: doesn't want to go. He just wants to, you know,
Speaker 1: watch TV or do something. I say, no, we're going out,
Speaker 1: put on my dough box and we go and I,
Speaker 1: you know, I assist in the class with him, and
Speaker 1: he just loves it.
Speaker 2: So once you get there, it's okay.
Speaker 3: Once you get there, yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: But despite your move, you have to keep moving. Lauren,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for owning me today. I all
Speaker 1: loved seeing you and catching up like it's I.
Speaker 3: Feel like we've barely touched the surface. I mean, I
Speaker 3: remember you. I just have to say I remember when,
Speaker 3: you know, because I was with Martin for so long
Speaker 3: and one of the things, like I talk about this
Speaker 3: relationships and you know, trust and you know, one of
Speaker 3: the things about your dad is that he I always
Speaker 3: felt like he had my best interest at heart. So
Speaker 3: no matter how hard he pushed me or what he
Speaker 3: challenged me to try, and you know, stretch myself and
Speaker 3: you know, develop and grow my mindset that he wanted
Speaker 3: the best for me. But then, you know, you were
Speaker 3: so you and Bridget were so young sometimes and you know,
Speaker 3: your mom would be picking you up and taking it
Speaker 3: at different things. And I just sort of think of
Speaker 3: it in a different way because he would drop anything
Speaker 3: for any of his athletes, you know, like you know,
Speaker 3: I'd bring him and say, can you meet me at
Speaker 3: five am at the club for you know, I just
Speaker 3: want to work on this one kick or something. Yea, yeah,
Speaker 3: sure of course. He loved all that stuff. And after
Speaker 3: he had a young family and you know he has.
Speaker 1: Balance was as well. Like I know, he was always
Speaker 1: so dedicated to his fighters. But you know, we were there,
Speaker 1: we were at the club. We were we were exposed
Speaker 1: to elite athletes and Olympians and you know, like we
Speaker 1: got to witness that elite level of sport and it
Speaker 1: was so good for me the role modeling, to see
Speaker 1: you training, and like I grew up in it, like
Speaker 1: women weren't really doing the sport when I was, like
Speaker 1: when I was really young, like mum was one of
Speaker 1: the first women to earn a black belt in Australia,
Speaker 1: Like it was just it was just awesome to see
Speaker 1: you on the mats, Like I can't tell you.
Speaker 2: It's just shaped so much of what I've.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean it from your family.
Speaker 1: I just yeah, I just I love taekwondo and it's
Speaker 1: just been so good to talk to you and like
Speaker 1: be able to chat about it, because yeah, I bring
Speaker 1: taekwondo with me wherever I go, but not everyone gets.
Speaker 2: It, gets the view of.
Speaker 1: The mindset and the body connection, which I think is so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, martial arts is I think so important and it
Speaker 3: translates to so many different areas of life. And you know,
Speaker 3: I think it really depends on their instructor, but it
Speaker 3: doesn't depend on the martial arts. So you know, whether
Speaker 3: it's judo or karate or whatever it is, if you've
Speaker 3: got a good instructor, and then the the discipline of
Speaker 3: martial arts is just you know, it's really powerful.
Speaker 1: It's so powerful for your studies and everything you do.
Speaker 1: It's just it's helped me in life, and you know,
Speaker 1: I just love it. So if you're out there and
Speaker 1: you're interested in secial arts, go do some taekwondo.
Speaker 2: Yes, martial arts. It's so Thank you so.
Speaker 3: Much, Lauren, awesome, Thanks TIV.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to Bounce Forward.
Speaker 1: I love having your company, So please DM me on
Speaker 1: Instagram at tip Haul, Underscore Exo and let me know
Speaker 1: what topics you'd love me to cover. Don't forget to
Speaker 1: rate and review me on your podcast app, Speak soon,
Speaker 1: Happy days,