Latest / The You Project / #1593 The Toughest Athlete I've Trained - Tammy Van Wisse (PT 2)

Transcript

#1593 The Toughest Athlete I've Trained - Tammy Van Wisse (PT 2) · The You Project

0:00
Speaker 1: Good a team. Welcome to another installment the You project.
0:02
Speaker 1: Yesterday had the amazing Tammy van Wissa, who regaled us
0:06
Speaker 1: with stories of swimming all over the world and ducking
0:09
Speaker 1: fucking logs and snakes and having ongoing battles with infections
0:15
Speaker 1: in the Murray River and swimming the English Channel multiple times,
0:21
Speaker 1: and it was a great chat. We're back now. We're
0:23
Speaker 1: just finishing the conversation, So welcome back, Tam.
0:27
Speaker 2: Oh so good to see you again. Into be Beck.
0:29
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
0:30
Speaker 1: Oh it's like it's like we only stopped chatting minutes ago.
0:33
Speaker 2: Really, I know, it really does feel like that.
0:36
Speaker 1: Oh my god. All right, so let's continue the chat.
0:42
Speaker 1: So we got all the swimming stuff. What do you
0:45
Speaker 1: do now? Like, what does life look like? By the way,
0:49
Speaker 1: happy birthday? So what is So your birthday is the
0:53
Speaker 1: twenty third as we're recording this, of course it's still
0:56
Speaker 1: at twenty second. I was being silly everyone, but this
0:59
Speaker 1: is part two. And can I be really rude and
1:03
Speaker 1: say that you're fifty five tomorrow?
1:05
Speaker 3: Is that right?
1:06
Speaker 2: No? Fifty six fifty six?
1:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. I don't even think about the numbers anymore.
1:11
Speaker 3: I actually have to do check, Oh what year was like?
1:13
Speaker 3: What an't others at sixty eight?
1:14
Speaker 2: Yes? Okay, yes, I'll be fifty six tomorrow.
1:16
Speaker 1: Yes, apart from your incredibly different hair, I'm not even
1:21
Speaker 1: saying this to make you feel good. You look about
1:24
Speaker 1: five years older than when we used to hang out
1:27
Speaker 1: together and train together and work together. You look so different,
1:31
Speaker 1: so similar, I should say, like, you don't like I
1:34
Speaker 1: look at me compared to them. I look my grand
1:37
Speaker 1: like my granddad do not? I do?
1:40
Speaker 2: So you you don't, No, you don't. Don't be silly.
1:43
Speaker 3: I think we're all we're all super critical of ourselves,
1:46
Speaker 3: aren't we Like it's just that's normal. But I think
1:49
Speaker 3: the same of me. I look at myself and go,
1:51
Speaker 3: oh gosh, holy is.
1:53
Speaker 1: But you've got no fucking wringles anyway. So what do
1:55
Speaker 1: you do now? What's the what's the story? How do
1:57
Speaker 1: you feel in your days? Now?
1:59
Speaker 2: Okay?
1:59
Speaker 3: So I have just been through a very, very challenging
2:03
Speaker 3: couple of years. So I'm in a rebuild phase at
2:05
Speaker 3: the moment, so to put you in the picture. So
2:09
Speaker 3: rewinding the clock back to twenty twenty two and the
2:14
Speaker 3: way that that unfolded, My mother passed away very early
2:18
Speaker 3: on in twenty twenty two. She'd had dementia Alzheimer's for
2:23
Speaker 3: seven years, and so I'd actually been caring for her
2:25
Speaker 3: and it got to a point where she was in
2:27
Speaker 3: an age care facility and so it was very very
2:30
Speaker 3: difficult look a blessing in disguise because she didn't know
2:33
Speaker 3: who I was for the last couple of years.
2:34
Speaker 2: So that was a very tricky situation.
2:37
Speaker 3: So that happened, and then six months later I was
2:40
Speaker 3: diagnosed with breast cancer. So that sort of really was
2:45
Speaker 3: a big shock for me, like there was a bit
2:46
Speaker 3: of the universe throwing me a bit of a curve
2:48
Speaker 3: ball that I never saw coming.
2:50
Speaker 2: And it's funny the way things happened.
2:52
Speaker 3: But i'd actually been to like this really awesome conference
2:57
Speaker 3: where there was a number of speakers and there was
2:59
Speaker 3: a woman who spoke and name's Kate Gail, and she
3:02
Speaker 3: spoke about her breast cancer journey, and you know, basically
3:07
Speaker 3: it was a really great wake up call because she
3:09
Speaker 3: called us all to action and said, don't forget do
3:11
Speaker 3: your checks, get your mammograms.
3:13
Speaker 2: And of course we just come out of COVID.
3:14
Speaker 3: I hadn't had a mammogram, and you know, it wasn't
3:17
Speaker 3: in front of mind by any stretch of the imagination,
3:19
Speaker 3: so that that actually made me do a self check.
3:24
Speaker 3: And so I went to the GP, and sure enough,
3:27
Speaker 3: within the space of a week, I was having biopsies
3:29
Speaker 3: and thrown into this world of hearing all these.
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Speaker 2: New medical terms and.
3:36
Speaker 3: Being told that I'd need surgery and so making decisions
3:40
Speaker 3: about stectomies and implants.
3:43
Speaker 2: And all sorts of things.
3:45
Speaker 3: I am after the shop war off, I guess, you know,
3:48
Speaker 3: I'm kind of pretty lucky because, you know, the mindset
3:52
Speaker 3: that I'd gained from, you know, the years of marathon assuming.
3:56
Speaker 3: I've always tried to keep sort of an optimistic mindset.
3:59
Speaker 3: So I sort of thought to myself when she was
4:00
Speaker 3: explaining the options, I decided to get immediate implants put in,
4:04
Speaker 3: and I just went, this is okay, I'm going to
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Speaker 3: get new boobs. I'm going to be but Kennie ready
4:09
Speaker 3: for a change.
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Speaker 2: So went through all of that, had the operation, and.
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Speaker 1: I I just asked, did you have a double mistectomy
4:20
Speaker 1: or I did? I did?
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Speaker 3: I decided to have a double I only had the
4:25
Speaker 3: lump was found in my left breast. I decided that
4:28
Speaker 3: just you know, for down the tracks returned.
4:31
Speaker 1: Better to be sure than sorry, you've.
4:33
Speaker 2: Taken both off. I don't care.
4:35
Speaker 3: You know, it's fine. I'm not too concerned. So so
4:38
Speaker 3: that's what I went for. And as I said, and
4:39
Speaker 3: I had immediate implants put in, so I just thought, Wow,
4:42
Speaker 3: I'm going to get the brand new boobs. I'm down
4:45
Speaker 3: to my knees anymore. That's that's got to be a
4:47
Speaker 3: good thing.
4:49
Speaker 1: Because there's a visual nobody needs.
4:51
Speaker 3: But exactly exactly so anyhow, but yeah, but look the surgery,
4:56
Speaker 3: you know, it was a big surgery, and yeah, and
5:00
Speaker 3: there was a few complications and things went wrong, and
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Speaker 3: I ended up having to go back in for three
5:06
Speaker 3: more surgeries. I actually got an infection and the skin
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Speaker 3: around the suitures became necrotic and one of the implants
5:16
Speaker 3: had to be taken out. I had set to semia.
5:17
Speaker 3: They literally raced me into theater. My drainage tube turned
5:22
Speaker 3: in a milky white color, so that indicated set to semia.
5:26
Speaker 3: So there was no option but to take one of
5:28
Speaker 3: the implants out.
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Speaker 2: So yeah, so it was just it was.
5:33
Speaker 3: A horrendous, horrendous experience, made worse because my oncologist had
5:39
Speaker 3: said to me that from the very first surgery that
5:43
Speaker 3: I needed to start my chemotherapy regime twelve weeks from
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Speaker 3: the original surgery, because if you don't, it's eighty five
5:50
Speaker 3: percent less effective.
5:53
Speaker 2: So I was on this.
5:54
Speaker 3: I was back, you know, and of course you can't
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Speaker 3: start chemo until your body is fully rid of infection.
6:00
Speaker 2: You have to be healthy.
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Speaker 3: And I was on iv anties antibiotics every eight hours
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Speaker 3: for nearly.
6:07
Speaker 2: A couple of months. It was that bad. Wow.
6:09
Speaker 3: So yeah, so I finally managed to get healthy enough
6:13
Speaker 3: to get out of hospital. It was like a couple
6:14
Speaker 3: of days before Christmas twenty twenty two, and then I
6:18
Speaker 3: started my chemotherapy a couple of weeks later.
6:20
Speaker 2: So that was in twenty last year. January last year.
6:23
Speaker 3: Started chemotherapy D four rounds, so spaced three weeks apart.
6:29
Speaker 2: And yeah, again, you know, just to.
6:33
Speaker 3: Such a foreign, surreal situation to find yourself in, to
6:38
Speaker 3: be going into an oncology ward, and the just so
6:42
Speaker 3: frightening to know that they're about to put this really
6:45
Speaker 3: destructive chemical in your body that's going to get rid
6:48
Speaker 3: of all the bad stuff, but it's also going to
6:49
Speaker 3: get rid of all the good stuff.
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Speaker 2: So I actually had to take steroids like.
6:53
Speaker 3: Leading in so you take the Why god, I know
6:56
Speaker 3: why they're banned now. I was buzzing. I was just
6:59
Speaker 3: bouncing off the walls taking my steroids. It was like
7:02
Speaker 3: a weird experience too. So it's all these new things
7:05
Speaker 3: that are happening. And I tried what they call cold
7:08
Speaker 3: cap therapy, which is you wear this like cold cap
7:13
Speaker 3: prior to starting your chemos It's part of your treatment
7:17
Speaker 3: and apparently it's supposed to help save your hair so
7:21
Speaker 3: you have less like less likely to lose your hair.
7:24
Speaker 3: So I did that and they warned me against it
7:27
Speaker 3: because they said, no, look, a lot of people have
7:29
Speaker 3: trouble coping with it because it's really cold.
7:32
Speaker 2: When you put it on your.
7:32
Speaker 3: Head, you get headaches and you might need some panetiles
7:35
Speaker 3: and stuff. So I'm sitting there in the first session
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Speaker 3: they've got the cap on. It's quite ironic because it's
7:40
Speaker 3: like a swimming cap and they're pumping the cold water
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Speaker 3: through and they're like, how do you feel?
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Speaker 2: Are you okay? And I'm like, does it get any colder?
7:47
Speaker 2: Is this it? Like?
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Speaker 1: It's like did they not know who they were talking?
7:51
Speaker 1: Did you go bitch please? This is a fucking warm, like, yeah,
7:57
Speaker 1: that's hilarious. They have no idea. I had no idea,
8:00
Speaker 1: so that was very funny. But look I tried that
8:02
Speaker 1: and it didn't work. My hair started to fall out
8:05
Speaker 1: after my.
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Speaker 3: Second chemo session, and I have to tell you that
8:09
Speaker 3: I sat like in misery for a couple of days
8:12
Speaker 3: over that because it was like I worke up one
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Speaker 3: morning and I just had I saw all that like
8:18
Speaker 3: clumps on the pillow, and you just start to touch
8:20
Speaker 3: your hair and it just comes out. And it's funny
8:23
Speaker 3: how we get so attached to her hair, well women,
8:25
Speaker 3: we get very attached to her head.
8:27
Speaker 2: So I was cried. I was so upset.
8:29
Speaker 3: And then I finally kind of you know, got myself
8:32
Speaker 3: out of that, you know, really down part. Just I
8:35
Speaker 3: said to my daughter, will you cut my hair? So
8:37
Speaker 3: we got the clippers out and we just shaved it
8:39
Speaker 3: all off, and.
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Speaker 2: It was funny how I felt so much better after.
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Speaker 3: I guess taking back control of the situation barely changed
8:47
Speaker 3: my mindset again.
8:48
Speaker 2: So yeah, then I was a bit like, you know,
8:51
Speaker 2: who cares lost my hair?
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Speaker 3: I'm going to this, but I thought, you know what,
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Speaker 3: I've lost my hair. It means two things, especially the
8:58
Speaker 3: treatments working. Secondly, I'm getting closer.
9:01
Speaker 2: To the finish line of all of these.
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Speaker 1: So yes, and.
9:04
Speaker 2: Throughout I tried to so I tried.
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Speaker 3: To still swim, get down to the pool and exercise
9:09
Speaker 3: and walk and do a few things. It was again,
9:12
Speaker 3: you know, different experiences, because the first time I got
9:15
Speaker 3: down to the pool, I had a goal in min
9:17
Speaker 3: I'm going to sim two k's. I got in and
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Speaker 3: I did two laps and I thought I was going
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Speaker 3: to collapse.
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Speaker 2: I was so exhausted. Yes, but there was the stubborn.
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Speaker 3: Part of me that said, there's no way I'm getting
9:29
Speaker 3: out of this pool until I've done two k's. So
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Speaker 3: I did another couple of laps, rested, another couple of laps, rested,
9:37
Speaker 3: and then sort of came back again and I was
9:39
Speaker 3: able to get a bit of momentum up. So I
9:41
Speaker 3: did my two k's and got out. Yeah, so its just, yeah,
9:44
Speaker 3: it was an interesting experience, and of course, yeah it
9:47
Speaker 3: was good. I didn't have to wear a cap for
9:48
Speaker 3: the first time I life. I was so streamlined.
9:52
Speaker 1: That's funny. Lower drag cow efficient. That's the upside to
9:56
Speaker 1: chemo is a lot less dragged through the water.
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Speaker 3: Absolutely and you know, I got changed so quickly because
10:02
Speaker 3: I didn't have to go in the shower and do
10:04
Speaker 3: the shampoo and the conditioner and the whole thing. So
10:06
Speaker 3: bam ready at a heartbeat. So lots of positive things.
10:10
Speaker 3: So again, you know, my whole journey was about trying
10:13
Speaker 3: to you know, through look, I'm not going to lie,
10:15
Speaker 3: and so that I was like, you know, miss positive
10:17
Speaker 3: the whole way through. But I was just trying to
10:19
Speaker 3: always look for, you know, that little bit of light,
10:21
Speaker 3: that little bit of fun, something, something that was positive
10:24
Speaker 3: out of a bad situation.
10:25
Speaker 2: So I got through the chemotherapy.
10:29
Speaker 3: I went through a marriage breakdown in the middle of
10:31
Speaker 3: the chemo therapy as well. So that was when when
10:35
Speaker 3: was that That would have been February last year, right, yeah,
10:39
Speaker 3: through March, yeah, very much last year, yeah right.
10:42
Speaker 2: And then of course I finished my.
10:43
Speaker 3: Chemo and then had to decide whether to proceed with
10:48
Speaker 3: radiation because my my cancer was the stage to be
10:51
Speaker 3: they call it, which which meant early early detection, which
10:55
Speaker 3: is really good. So you know, to all the listeners
10:57
Speaker 3: out there, please go on have your checks because the
11:00
Speaker 3: sooner they catch it, the better the prognosisis. At the
11:03
Speaker 3: end of the day, so I was very fortunate there.
11:05
Speaker 3: But so you know, I had to talk to the
11:07
Speaker 3: doctors and the oncologists to see whether it was worth
11:09
Speaker 3: proceeding with radiation, and I decided to do it. You know,
11:13
Speaker 3: I wanted to tick every box, and everybody's different, but
11:15
Speaker 3: I wanted.
11:16
Speaker 2: To tick every box.
11:16
Speaker 3: So then it was another So I had to go
11:18
Speaker 3: through twenty five radiation treatments and that was yeah, every day,
11:23
Speaker 3: five days a week. Yeah, so yeah, it was sort
11:26
Speaker 3: of an interesting experience. And because it was on my
11:29
Speaker 3: left side. So they get you to hold your breath
11:33
Speaker 3: while they shoot the beams three so and it's like
11:36
Speaker 3: a probably goes through about thirty seconds.
11:38
Speaker 2: They do a few different zaps. So of course I.
11:42
Speaker 3: Made the challenge, I've got to hold my breath for
11:44
Speaker 3: the whole thirty seconds, and I did, and they actually
11:47
Speaker 3: said to me at the end of the treatment that
11:48
Speaker 3: I was one of the few people that actually held
11:51
Speaker 3: their breath for the whole time, because.
11:52
Speaker 2: Normally that to stop in the middle of it. So
11:55
Speaker 2: it was interesting.
11:56
Speaker 3: Again the swimming, I just found there were so many benefits,
11:59
Speaker 3: residual benefits from all the crazy long distance. It was
12:02
Speaker 3: that got me through the cancer treatment as well. So
12:06
Speaker 3: you finished like June last year. And so my hair,
12:10
Speaker 3: as you mentioned before, is now growing back dark. I was,
12:15
Speaker 3: you know, I wasn't full blonde. I was light brown
12:17
Speaker 3: and I used to have blonde highlights put through. But
12:20
Speaker 3: now I'm like really dark and I've got super like megacurls.
12:25
Speaker 1: Like like you look like a different I mean other
12:28
Speaker 1: than your face, but your hair. When I knew you,
12:31
Speaker 1: your hair was very light and it was almost like
12:34
Speaker 1: we could see you from one hundred meters away with
12:36
Speaker 1: your hair. Your shock of your shock of blonde ish hair.
12:41
Speaker 1: And now can you've got like you look like a fuckingpooit,
12:46
Speaker 1: like like a spoodle. Can you say golliwog these days?
12:49
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I don't think you're aloud to say that,
12:54
Speaker 1: but you do you look do you know who?
12:55
Speaker 2: You look like?
12:56
Speaker 1: You remind me of Annie, you know, like there's short,
13:01
Speaker 1: curly yes. So okay, So a couple of things. My
13:08
Speaker 1: first question is, like I've known you for a long time.
13:12
Speaker 1: We haven't caught up a long time, but you and
13:14
Speaker 1: I spent quite a bit of time together, like in
13:16
Speaker 1: the gym, but also training and hanging out a little
13:18
Speaker 1: bit and I'm not saying this because we're on a
13:21
Speaker 1: podcast and it's convenient, but if somebody said to me
13:25
Speaker 1: and I had time to think about it, you know,
13:28
Speaker 1: with all the athletes I've worked with and you know,
13:31
Speaker 1: corporates and the general public, thousands of people, and of
13:35
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of people, and all the trainers that
13:38
Speaker 1: worked for me, and like, you are, without doubt in
13:42
Speaker 1: the top five people that I've ever known for positivity,
13:47
Speaker 1: like and not not in a you know, like you've
13:50
Speaker 1: got your head in the sand and you're pretending there
13:52
Speaker 1: are no problems, but you are genuinely like like a
13:59
Speaker 1: tip positive is that who you are? Is that innate
14:05
Speaker 1: or is that something that you work to be or
14:09
Speaker 1: a bit of both.
14:11
Speaker 2: I think it's a bit of both.
14:12
Speaker 3: I think it really is a bit of both, because
14:14
Speaker 3: you know, as I said, I especially in the last
14:17
Speaker 3: couple of years, you know, is really I've been beaten
14:20
Speaker 3: down a lot, and I've found myself. I've learned again
14:23
Speaker 3: lots of lessons, mostly about how important it is to
14:27
Speaker 3: have a great, a great support network. And it was
14:32
Speaker 3: so and I guess you know, for me, probably the
14:36
Speaker 3: biggest change too, was learning about my own well being
14:40
Speaker 3: and self care and to take time out because you know,
14:42
Speaker 3: when you're an athlete, you feel guilty about not doing things,
14:45
Speaker 3: like you're so driven that you're always like, this is
14:47
Speaker 3: much a do list. I'm going to get why has
14:49
Speaker 3: that done today? So yeah, I'm happy to admit that's
14:52
Speaker 3: one of my faults. I'm, you know, always wanting to
14:54
Speaker 3: achieve a lot. So I really had to take my
14:56
Speaker 3: foot off the pedal. And do you know what if
15:01
Speaker 3: I only get out of bed and have a shower.
15:03
Speaker 2: Today and that's okay, then that's okay if that's on
15:06
Speaker 2: my bike.
15:07
Speaker 3: I had to listen to my body as well, and
15:09
Speaker 3: whilst you know, it's good to push it, like I
15:11
Speaker 3: said in the pool, you know, look, I felt like
15:12
Speaker 3: I could keep going, so I did.
15:14
Speaker 2: I just gave myself that recovery.
15:15
Speaker 3: But you know, I really had to just slow down
15:19
Speaker 3: and I reconnected a lot in nature too. I found
15:22
Speaker 3: going for walks and going to the beach like this
15:26
Speaker 3: was my big recharge. I think, you know, nature's like
15:30
Speaker 3: our battery recharger and we need to just plug in
15:32
Speaker 3: and walking. I went down to lawn, I got away
15:35
Speaker 3: and I had like a week down at lawn and
15:38
Speaker 3: just walked on the beach, swam in the ocean, and
15:40
Speaker 3: I can't tell you how much that just replenished.
15:45
Speaker 2: So I did learn a lot through it. But look,
15:47
Speaker 2: I worked to stay positive. I really do.
15:50
Speaker 3: I honestly, I think probably part of my upbringing because
15:54
Speaker 3: my parents were very positive people. They taught me about gratitude.
15:59
Speaker 3: They helped a lot of people, so you know, they
16:02
Speaker 3: fostered a Vietnamese family. We lived in Springvale, and so
16:06
Speaker 3: you know, they helped the a Vietnamese family, both people that
16:09
Speaker 3: have come out, so they you know that we were
16:12
Speaker 3: forever helping people.
16:13
Speaker 2: They were always help people. And again, you know, hearing my.
16:16
Speaker 3: Dad talk about the war and how he grew up,
16:20
Speaker 3: always used to say to us, if you've got a
16:22
Speaker 3: roof over your head and food on the table, you
16:25
Speaker 3: are super lucky.
16:26
Speaker 2: You are blessed, you know. So I think sometimes we
16:29
Speaker 2: get really.
16:30
Speaker 3: Caught up in the things we have, and so I
16:35
Speaker 3: kind of try and always bring myself back to that, like, yeah, Okay,
16:41
Speaker 3: happiness doesn't have to be about living in a big
16:44
Speaker 3: house and you know, having all the things.
16:46
Speaker 2: It's you know, it's what you make it.
16:47
Speaker 3: It's really your world is in here and so you
16:50
Speaker 3: create what you want. So I think it's you know,
16:53
Speaker 3: it's been a really good I guess I've been lucky.
16:56
Speaker 3: The environment I've grown up in has really helped shape
16:59
Speaker 3: my mindset as well.
17:01
Speaker 2: But I do work on it. I do work.
17:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well it's it's a credit to you
17:06
Speaker 1: and you're like your energy is infectious. A couple of
17:10
Speaker 1: things before we head to all the finish line. So
17:15
Speaker 1: one of the things that I've spoken to a bunch
17:18
Speaker 1: of athletes about over the years is who they are
17:22
Speaker 1: beyond their sport, and this sense of loss that happens
17:25
Speaker 1: when people stop doing the thing that they're good at
17:28
Speaker 1: and known for and held in high regard for, you know.
17:32
Speaker 1: So it's almost like what you do becomes who you are.
17:37
Speaker 1: It becomes your identity, your sense of self, self worth,
17:40
Speaker 1: and all of that for a lot of athletes anyway,
17:43
Speaker 1: and when that stops a lot of athletes kind of
17:47
Speaker 1: don't know who they are because if I'm not doing that,
17:50
Speaker 1: and if I'm not that guy or that girl, if
17:53
Speaker 1: I'm not winning, if I'm not whatever, if I'm not competing,
17:56
Speaker 1: if I'm not breaking records or I'm not playing grand finals,
18:00
Speaker 1: or whatever it is, I don't know who I am.
18:04
Speaker 1: Was there any of that for you?
18:06
Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely absolutely.
18:08
Speaker 3: It is very tricky to make the transition, especially when, yeah,
18:13
Speaker 3: that is your identity, that's how people introduce you, that's
18:15
Speaker 3: help people see you. So breaking away from that and
18:18
Speaker 3: trying to find your value elsewhere it's really really difficult.
18:22
Speaker 3: And as I mentioned before, I think it's done a
18:24
Speaker 3: lot better now because athletes are prepared while they're still
18:27
Speaker 3: in their athletic career. You know, they're transitioned a lot better.
18:32
Speaker 3: But back back in my day was there was nothing,
18:34
Speaker 3: so you kind of discover all of that yourself. So again,
18:38
Speaker 3: you know, I guess I was super lucky. A lot
18:40
Speaker 3: of my steams, like the Maury, was about raising awareness
18:43
Speaker 3: about the water quality. So I did transition into doing
18:47
Speaker 3: quite a bit of environmental work there with the federal government.
18:50
Speaker 3: So I actually met with the Prime Minister after I
18:52
Speaker 3: finished the Murray swim and spoke about, you know, what
18:55
Speaker 3: I'd experienced firsthand. So there was a few things going
18:59
Speaker 3: on that help me transition there that was still related
19:02
Speaker 3: back to my swimming. So but it was I guess,
19:05
Speaker 3: and an easy and easing into it, and also that
19:09
Speaker 3: the speaking, and I did a bit of swim coaching
19:12
Speaker 3: as well, because I have a swim school.
19:13
Speaker 2: So I love I just love helping people.
19:17
Speaker 3: I just you know, I love being able to pass
19:19
Speaker 3: on what I've learned, the knowledge that I've garnered, and
19:22
Speaker 3: you know, whether that be about mindset or the physical
19:24
Speaker 3: part about swimming, is really lovely to help people. I think,
19:28
Speaker 3: you know that really that really fills my bucket. So yeah,
19:31
Speaker 3: so that's made it easier. But yeah, look, it is.
19:33
Speaker 3: It is a tricky thing to do, and I think
19:35
Speaker 3: because it's just it's your whole life, for say, man,
19:38
Speaker 3: like that's all you're doing in your training, that's all
19:40
Speaker 3: you are.
19:41
Speaker 2: So yeah, you.
19:43
Speaker 1: Do you still have a swim school now?
19:45
Speaker 2: I do. Yes, Paul's had a swim land in Mary Warren.
19:47
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, cool, what about this kind of like that
19:55
Speaker 1: like right now more than ever understandably, you know, we
19:59
Speaker 1: try to protect to our kids, make sure they're safe mentally, emotionally,
20:03
Speaker 1: physically safe of course, but I guess sometimes you know,
20:10
Speaker 1: like I always say, life doesn't give a fuck about
20:13
Speaker 1: your feelings right now. If you're ten or twenty or
20:16
Speaker 1: thirty or forty, life still doesn't care about your feelings.
20:18
Speaker 1: Mum and Dad might, but life doesn't. Right, So we
20:22
Speaker 1: know that bad things happen to good, good people, and
20:25
Speaker 1: what's that balanced tend between looking after them but letting
20:29
Speaker 1: them experience a level of discomfort slash pain because you know,
20:35
Speaker 1: becoming an elite swimmer is painful, Like it is not
20:38
Speaker 1: fun like the training, the competition. It is physically painful.
20:44
Speaker 1: How do you I mean, do you ever think about that?
20:47
Speaker 1: Because it you know, even with me, I have to
20:49
Speaker 1: really be careful about what I say because some people like, oh,
20:54
Speaker 1: you're fucking brutal. I'm like, you think I'm brutal, Wait
20:57
Speaker 1: till life kicks you in the dick, right, yeah, wait
20:59
Speaker 1: till you guess breast cancer? Like, tell me then if
21:02
Speaker 1: I'm brutal, I'm not brutal compared to cancer. I'm just
21:05
Speaker 1: fucking trying to pull back the curtain on what's probably
21:09
Speaker 1: going to happen. How do you navigate that? Or it's
21:13
Speaker 1: not something you think about?
21:15
Speaker 2: So I actually do think about it. But this is
21:20
Speaker 2: going to sound really weird.
21:21
Speaker 3: But the pain and the hard work was like I
21:24
Speaker 3: loved that, Like I actually really enjoyed that. I thrived
21:30
Speaker 3: in that, Like that's something that I miss, to be
21:32
Speaker 3: honest with you, like being able to push yourself to
21:36
Speaker 3: that level. And I think it was because of I
21:41
Speaker 3: was in a squad.
21:42
Speaker 2: Environment and I think with really good people.
21:44
Speaker 3: Again just made me understand what a great team we
21:48
Speaker 3: had at that time and the people that I had
21:51
Speaker 3: around me, because I think in our last journey with everything,
21:54
Speaker 3: you know, it's partially about your environment.
21:57
Speaker 2: So it's the you know, it's your support people.
22:00
Speaker 3: What they say that you're the sum of your five
22:03
Speaker 3: closest friends, you know, and that's that's so true looking back,
22:07
Speaker 3: Like my best friends are still from those days, like
22:10
Speaker 3: from squat days, because we went through hell together, but
22:13
Speaker 3: we would push each other and we would laugh about
22:16
Speaker 3: it afterwards.
22:17
Speaker 2: And so yeah, so I think.
22:19
Speaker 3: That that's sadly missing today because we have become you know,
22:23
Speaker 3: this wrapping cotton wool society.
22:26
Speaker 2: And I even think.
22:29
Speaker 3: About my parents, like, you know, when I first got
22:31
Speaker 3: my driver's license, you know, you know, I'd be off
22:34
Speaker 3: driving around and didn't have mobile phones.
22:37
Speaker 2: They couldn't keep track of us.
22:38
Speaker 3: And now you know, keeping tabs on, doing tracking devices
22:42
Speaker 3: and everything. It's such a different mindset. It really has changed.
22:46
Speaker 3: So I think life's always about a balance. There are
22:48
Speaker 3: lots of good things about technology, but you know, getting
22:51
Speaker 3: back to that old learning that you've got a lot
22:55
Speaker 3: learn to love pain and discomfort.
22:57
Speaker 2: You've just got to.
22:58
Speaker 3: Learn to find that place where you sit with it
23:00
Speaker 3: and no that that's where the growth happens and that's
23:04
Speaker 3: where you get your greatest satisfaction, because honestly, it's not
23:07
Speaker 3: about when I look back on all my assumes, it's
23:09
Speaker 3: not about getting to the finish line that's super important
23:12
Speaker 3: to me. It's about all the things I had to
23:14
Speaker 3: do to get to the finish line, the kind of
23:16
Speaker 3: person that I had to become to get to the
23:19
Speaker 3: finish line, what I had to push through, you know,
23:21
Speaker 3: and the help that I received from my team that
23:24
Speaker 3: got me that little bit further as well, that helped
23:26
Speaker 3: me get that mindset to push through. So that's where
23:29
Speaker 3: the value is. Honestly, there's value in that, and I
23:32
Speaker 3: think that's something that's missing.
23:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do too. I mean it's I get it.
23:36
Speaker 1: But at the same time, when we've got kids who
23:39
Speaker 1: are playing sport, but oh we're not scoring because we
23:42
Speaker 1: don't want anyone to feel like a loser, I'm like,
23:44
Speaker 1: are you fucking kidding me. What's going to happen when
23:47
Speaker 1: your kid gets out of this little synthetic bubble and
23:50
Speaker 1: they step out into the world where there are winners
23:53
Speaker 1: and losers every day, and there is pain and there
23:55
Speaker 1: is pleasure, and there are peaks and drafts, and there
23:57
Speaker 1: are people who want to undermine you, sabotage you, fuck
24:01
Speaker 1: you over. You know that's not going away. So let's
24:05
Speaker 1: let's not put them in, you know, the bubble wrap
24:08
Speaker 1: until they're thirty. Let's not. Let's let's expose them to
24:12
Speaker 1: a bit of reality so that they might develop some
24:16
Speaker 1: resilience and some awareness and some you know, let's not
24:19
Speaker 1: throw them under the bus. But at the same time,
24:22
Speaker 1: let them score the fucking football match for God's sake.
24:26
Speaker 3: Absolutely, absolutely, no, that's just ridiculous.
24:29
Speaker 2: I agree with you. It is.
24:31
Speaker 3: It is about gradually exposing them. You know, I do
24:34
Speaker 3: understand the other side of the coin. But you know,
24:37
Speaker 3: there's ways that you can expose them gradually to things
24:39
Speaker 3: and let them fail and let them experience that, because
24:42
Speaker 3: they are life lessons and it's only going to get
24:44
Speaker 3: harder down the tracks. As you said, you know, if
24:47
Speaker 3: life hasn't knocked you down yet, don't worry. It's coming,
24:50
Speaker 3: you know for all of us, somewhere along the truck.
24:52
Speaker 3: You know, there's you're going to lose someone. You know,
24:55
Speaker 3: you're probably going to go through a health crisis. There
24:57
Speaker 3: are things that are going to happen in your life
24:59
Speaker 3: that are going to knock you for six And whether
25:02
Speaker 3: you've got the tools to deal with that, well, you
25:04
Speaker 3: know that all depends on how much resilience you have
25:07
Speaker 3: and how much you've been exposed to it.
25:09
Speaker 2: And if you can start by being exposed.
25:11
Speaker 3: It's exactly like training, you know, it's about exposing you
25:15
Speaker 3: in small doses.
25:16
Speaker 2: You know, push the.
25:17
Speaker 3: Envelope a little bit today, will push it a little
25:19
Speaker 3: bit more tomorrow, and a little bit more the next day.
25:21
Speaker 2: That's how you build up the resilience. That's how you
25:23
Speaker 2: build muscle.
25:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, how do you get strong? You work again though resistance.
25:27
Speaker 1: How do you build skill competence? How do you perform
25:30
Speaker 1: under pressure? Well, you perform under pressure in training. And
25:33
Speaker 1: then when the game comes, all the race comes. How
25:35
Speaker 1: you just quickly our last one? How are you now?
25:38
Speaker 1: How's your body? How's your health? How's your energy?
25:40
Speaker 2: My body's good, My energy is good.
25:43
Speaker 3: I mean, it's not I wouldn't say it's at one
25:45
Speaker 3: hundred percent. But again I'm I'm learning about how to
25:49
Speaker 3: manage my body differently now post surgery because I've still
25:52
Speaker 3: got a health wise, cancer wise, I'm good. I actually
25:56
Speaker 3: have to have a blood test in the next couple
25:57
Speaker 3: of days. I have six monthly checkups. But I'm in mission,
26:00
Speaker 3: so that's a good thing. Long term, there's a few
26:03
Speaker 3: small hurdles to overcome, just you know, as a result
26:06
Speaker 3: of the surgery. So I'm still working on strengthening up
26:10
Speaker 3: different chest muscles and trying to explore whether I can
26:14
Speaker 3: swim properly again. So I can swim, but it's just different,
26:18
Speaker 3: changing movement. Yeah, So I'm working on that. So that's
26:21
Speaker 3: my next adventure is getting back in that order.
26:24
Speaker 2: And seeing what I can do.
26:27
Speaker 3: Got a few different limitations, but you know, I'm working
26:29
Speaker 3: at how to work around those and get myself back
26:32
Speaker 3: to that good place again and be fully functioning.
26:35
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Tam You're awesome. You're an inspiration. I love
26:40
Speaker 1: that I have you in my life. Although we don't
26:42
Speaker 1: catch up, I appreciate you sharing some of you with
26:46
Speaker 1: my audience. And let's go and have a coffee, shall we?
26:51
Speaker 2: I love that. That'd be amazing. Let's do it.
26:54
Speaker 1: Let's do that, Tammy van Wissa. How do you want
26:57
Speaker 1: to point anyone towards anything like your web site or
27:00
Speaker 1: books or speaking. How do people connect with you? Follow you?
27:05
Speaker 1: How do they do that?
27:06
Speaker 3: Well, they can do that on this amazing technology called Instagram.
27:11
Speaker 3: And I do actually have the very it's dinosaur now
27:14
Speaker 3: the website I've got Tammy Vanwisa dot com, So that's
27:18
Speaker 3: probably the best place to go and land if you
27:20
Speaker 3: want to learn more about my speaking or get in
27:22
Speaker 3: contact with me.
27:22
Speaker 2: So that would be fantastic.
27:24
Speaker 1: Thank you for that pleasure. If you want to get
27:26
Speaker 1: your team pumped and inspired and focused from the best,
27:30
Speaker 1: just hit her up. Hit her up. I'm the second best,
27:34
Speaker 1: but she's the best. She's the goat.
27:37
Speaker 2: Thanks Tammy, Thanks Grego