S1E87 · Tessa Bottomley: Having a crack

Hey superstars, welcome to another week of the Virtus Performance podcast. We've just finished recording episode 87. We have the wonderful Tessa Bottomley, former gymnast, former gymnastics coach, former horrible netball player. That's a direct quote from her. Tessa is one of our younger coaches at Virtus Performance. She's someone who spent three months with us last year doing our mentorship program. She spent a year or so before that. As a client, she's someone that's been steadily rising through the ranks and she's probably about 18 to 24 months away from taking my job. And she's still sitting in front of me so I have to be nice.

Today's conversation was a lot of fun. We dove into her experiences through high school through that phase that we all go through of figuring out what the hell you want to do with your life, but we're all still going through. We talked a little bit about uni, a little bit about sport and being a coach, about what she has learned from all those experiences and how she wants to utilize all of those learnings to make herself and everyone around her a better person. Tessa's about to dive into her first year of her physiotherapy degree so

we had a little bit of a chat about the excitement and nerves and fears and stuff around what's coming up with that and how she wants to grow and transcend who she currently is as a person. So without further ado, here's Tessa. My personal and business goal is to be just a little bit better every day. I believe everyone, especially normal people, have a story to tell. The Virtus podcast exists to help us all find small ways of consistent improvement by discussing the journey and experiences of each of our guests. Tessa, Tessa, Tessa, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. You've finally managed to sneak your eye on, you've been badgering me for ages. Yeah, it's only been like six months. Yeah, it's been interesting six months. Yeah. It's been long but short, like really quick but gone really, really slow. Here's how I like to describe that, all right? It's gone quick, but lots of stuff's happened. Yeah. It doesn't feel like that. It feels like that, but it also feels like nothing's happened. Like yeah, I don't know, it's weird. The past year just doesn't feel like it happened, but it did. I don't feel like I achieved much, but I did.

The cool way to start. To actually look back and go, "12 months ago, Tessa, you've been mind-blown by what you've been able to achieve." Yeah, I think that I get into like, "Oh, I didn't do anything, I didn't achieve anything last year," and then I actually am like, "Hang on a second, I did a lot," and compared to where I was the year before, I changed a lot and overcame a lot, so. So if you keep going in that trajectory, you'll be like, way better than everyone pretty soon. Not quite. Not quite. All right, first question for you.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? My legs. Just a little bit of backstory, I told Tessa that we had that question coming up and she said, "My alarm," and I said, "About 12 people have said that," so she thought, "I'm going to come up with an answer that no one said yet," so why your legs? Because if I didn't have them, actually, this is going to contradict myself, I was going to say if I didn't have them, I wouldn't get out of bed, but there's people without legs that get out of bed, so, um, oh no.

You've been too smart for your own good. Yes, um, because they're the first things that hit the ground, and they're what I used to get out of bed. Once you're out of bed, why do you do what you do? Um, this is going to get a little bit deeper now, um, I, I don't know. Growing up, I loved what I was doing. I loved sport and the impact all my creatures had on me, and figured if I can have a little bit of impact like them, that'd be pretty cool. What sports did you do to participate in growing up?

I did everything. I was pretty crap at most of them, but I did, gymnastics was one I did for longest, um, I did that for 13, 14 years. I also did dancing, swimming, netball, athletics, pole vault, aerobics, um. I think that's about all of them. Lots of stuff. Yeah. I like to just try everything and then realize I wasn't good at it, and so, not do it anymore. And then try something else. Pretty much. And then you stuck with gymnastics, because we do some gymnastics. Yeah. Good. Why, why all the sports? Was it just something you loved to do, or is it a sporty family?

Um, a bit of both. I, I don't do much if I have lots of time on my hands. I'm very unproductive, if that's a word. Um, like, I would sit at home on the couch for 12 hours of the day if I could. And so, if I fill up my days with lots, I don't sit on the couch for 12 hours a day. And you do stuff? Yeah. And so like, during primary school, if I wasn't doing something after school, I wasn't doing something. And so I figured, well, I may as well just do lots. Is that something you've carried into your very short so far in your life?

I think it's helped me realise what works in my life and what doesn't. And last year, I think when I look back on last year, the reason I sometimes think I didn't achieve much is because I didn't do much with my days. And so, to me personally, because I had lots of free time, I felt like I didn't really do anything. And but, I needed that after I finished year 12, because I did lots in year 12 and then needed a break. Yeah. And the cool thing, like one of the things I was talking about

before is like, the thing I love about this podcast is I can have someone on that's 60, 70, been through an incredible amount of life experiences. We can have someone that's like in the midst of like, a quarter life crisis, and then we can have someone like you and last week Jazz who is in quotation marks 12 with so much ahead of you. But I think we don't, like I'm 27 now, we don't give you enough credit, like how much life experience you guys can fit into such a short period of time. Talk me through and it's been, you ready?

It's been 12 years since I did year 12. Wow, you're old. No, 12 years, 10 years, not even 12 years, 10 years, I don't know why I said 12. How old are you? It's been 10 years. It's been 10 years since I did year 12. Memories going up at old age. Yeah, I got caught up in the numbers. And I remember it as being for some of us, like me who didn't really care too much about the result. I remember it being pretty cruisy, but my guess is that you weren't one of those students. Your guess is wrong.

Well, it's hard because through high school I really applied myself and I really, really studied and then, and same in year 11. And then when I got to year 12, I kind of didn't study nearly as much as what I had in the previous year. So to me, it felt really relaxed and like I didn't do much, but yeah, and I still, like I did everything I had to and studied when I needed to and everything, but it wasn't nearly the amount that I put in previously. Like I knew that I could have put in a lot harder, but didn't really want to.

Do you think that there's too much pressure on that one year? Absolutely. As someone who's like freshly out. Yeah. I had so many friends who stressed and worried and used to get so upset and didn't do very well. Like because they just always stressed, always worried about it and never actually did much. And then we're so disappointed at the end and so upset. And then there was me who didn't really do that much and did quite well and just applied myself when I needed to sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. So you managed your resources. Yeah. Kind of.

Yeah. It's a cool way to look at it because I think you can go put everything into it and stress yourself to the point of no return and not get the return you want. And are those friends that you kind of like have in your head, are they where they want to be now? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I remember they were so upset and then as soon as courses came out, everyone got into what they wanted. No one was upset. Like everyone was happy and was like, oh, well, that was- That was much to do about nothing.

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a really cool learning piece for anyone that's either going to go through it or anyone that has kids that are going to go through it or anyone that's like brother, sister, friend of someone that's going to go through it. It's really easy to say that, hey, it's not that big a deal. But until you actually go through it, you don't realise that. Yeah. And I think like there are lots of things wrong with VC and year 12 and I could go on about them, but everyone takes away something from it.

Like I took away that I probably should have applied myself a little bit more and I needed to learn how to not burn out by the end of it and manage myself a little bit better. And then I had friends who took out of it that they really should have applied theirself more and that they did nothing and things like that. And so no matter what your score, you're going to take something out of it. Yeah. If you're aware enough to actually look back and kind of go, I think I look at year 12 and like you go to high school in general or uni in general as like a microcosm for life.

Like it's a really intense period where you can either go all in, apply yourself, be smart about it, be tactical and give yourself time to like rest, reconnect to optimise what you're doing. Or you can just throw everything at it and, you know, see what happens, I'm crying every night and see what happens. Or you can just like, yeah, I'm just going to do fuck all. And like thinking about that in society where there's a whole spectrum of people, how does it change how you're about to approach your first year of uni? I know that

I'm a lot more aware of the fact that I can burn out and that I can't put 100% effort into everything all the time because it is not sustainable, which has helped me structure my time, make sure that I'm giving myself enough time off and to not feel guilty about it when I am giving myself time off. I forgot what the question was now. Yeah, so you're going to be a little bit smarter about resting and rejuvenating. Yeah. And knowing that it's allowed and needed. Yeah. That overwhelm isn't really going to help you in this situation.

No, definitely not. And stress will just make it worse and so putting extra stress on myself is not going to help. 100%. When you were in high school, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up? No, definitely not. I went through like everything, I wanted to be a police officer and I wanted to do hairdressing and then I wanted to do law and be a lawyer. And then when I actually finished year 12 and got my score, I was like, "Holy shit, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I have this score and thousands and thousands of choices and none of them really clicked with me."

And so then I just kept coaching and doing what I liked and then eventually that opened up more doors for me. It's funny how life works that way. Yeah, it is. It's crazy. Was there a moment, and this is like a two-part question, first part. Do you now know what you want to do when you grow up? I think so. When I was at uni on Monday, one of the lecturers said that there's like a 50% chance that what you have set in your head at the moment is not where you're going to be in four years when I finish my degree.

And so I think I know where I want to be, but I'm not saying that's where I'm going to be. Just kind of open to new things, and if something changes it, then that's okay. Tell me what that looks like. Ideally I want to be one of the main physios for gymnastics as a sport and aerobics, cheer, those sorts of sports. I kind of want to be the go-to person. If someone's injured, then everyone just goes, "Oh, you have to see Tessa, she's awesome," sort of thing. And then I also do want to be coaching kids still and working with them in their sport.

Awesome. Yeah. That's pretty clear. Pretty clear. Yeah. Yeah. And you obviously started with the "I like sports" bit, but like third year uni, I was still like, "I like sports." I was like, "Hey, what are you going to do when you grow up? I like sports." Yeah. Football. Yeah. Ooh. Was there a moment or a period of time between finishing year 12 and getting your score and obviously Monday at uni where you went, "This is what I want to do"? I think during my mentorship at Burtis was a massive thing because I got to see Greg and see what he does and-- Shout out to the phys.

The fact that he doesn't work like any of the physios that I'd seen. Growing up, I went to random physios in Frankston who work in offices that are like two meters by two meters and it's just like, "Hi, bye," sort of thing. Get them in and get them out in 15 minutes. Yeah. Growing up, I'd always seen that and was like, "No, I don't want to work in an office." And know that I don't want to work in an office like that. And so seeing Greg and how he operates and the fact that he can

still use all the gym equipment and he still does so much other stuff with his time and gets to travel everywhere and stuff like that really helped me realize that I don't have to be a typical physio that just sits in an office and doesn't really do much. Yeah. I understand. But when you're going to see that light, then you start to realize, and this is something that I probably realized four years after you, but it was just the fact that you can pretty much, and this is the thing they don't tell your school kids, you can pretty much design your own career.

Yeah. You can design exactly how you want to live your life. Yeah. Right? It's the middle of the day and we're sitting here recording a podcast, right? This morning, I went and had some gin. Yeah. You're deciding that. I'm deciding that. Yeah. Yes, I've got a heap of responsibilities, I'm going to have to catch up on that, but it's completely by design. Yeah. It's not an accident and you look at someone like Greg and his life is exactly the same. Yeah. He's able to- It's what he wants to do. Travel and teach and consult and do all these different things because that's what he wants to do.

Yeah. I think we need to have like a, I'll ask you one of the questions I was going to ask you, but if we were to change something about school, it's just like, we need to spend some time with people working on what they actually love to do. Yeah. And working on- Following your passions. Following your passions, purpose, meaning, all the like the moments and words that we use. But if we can do that, and tell kids that, "Hey, you don't have to be a nurse." No, exactly what you want to do. Or, "You don't have to be an accountant.

You don't have to fit into this box of what it looks like. You don't have to be the physio that plays in a two by two box." Figure out what you want to do, figure out how it serves the world, and then people will obey you for it if you're good enough. Yeah. That was the other thing that just reminded me of it. The other thing that helped me realize that I don't have to just be a normal, just physio and that's it, was Anna, another shout out, because she's a paramedic who teaches yoga. I never in my life thought that was possible to do both, but it is and- It works.

Yeah, exactly. And after I saw that, I was like, "Hang on, I can still coach and be a physio and do what I want." And I was like, "That's pretty cool." Teachers are the strength coaches. Yeah. That's just one example, but there's only different things you can do. Yeah. But you've got to actually design that life, you can't just sit down and do a physical course in your life. Wait for it to happen. People are going to pay me to go all over the world to teach. It's almost like you've got to do the thing

first and you've got to do it really well to a point where you're well respected and et cetera, to be able to actually make that decision. Yeah. So let's skip back to school. If you were to wave the magic wand and change three things to help kids be better prepared for the real world, what would you do? One of them was just- So I went to two different high schools. I did year seven to 10 at one and then VC at another. Yeah. I was at Padau and then Frankston. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone went there. Yeah. Everyone.

Padau was awesome because we had builders come and talk to us. We had paramedics. We had every single profession you could think of. Someone came and talked to us about it. And because they offered VCAL and VC lots of different options, it was really good. So everyone kind of got a chance to see what they could and then Frankston, it's like universities and Monash Uni and Deakin Uni and everything's just pointing towards uni. And so a lot of the people I knew, their only option was uni. I was like, "Well, it's not. You can do other things."

You had that experience because of- Yeah. And so definitely making it compulsory that schools have to actually show different options, like not just what is offered there. I need two more things. Yeah. Yeah, you do. What were you thinking just on that? I remember there was never a point in time while I was at school where I didn't think I was going to uni. Yeah. If I was to do it again, I'd probably go the same path, but there was never that, "Do I go to uni? Do I not?" I could do something else. Yeah. I could do something else.

And I was like, "What was it like a parent thing that mom and dad just expected me to go to uni?" And they're like, "I don't remember a time where mom and dad said you have to go to uni." So it was probably just a purely perception thing or expectation thing from me because of my environment. My mom and dad both went to uni and most of our extended family would have and things like that, but it was just always the next step after school. Yeah. But there are so many other options. Yeah. And I definitely think that as well.

Everyone from Frankston was like, "Oh yeah, I'm going and doing this and going doing that." And then I was like, "I'm going to take a gap year and I don't know what I'm going to do." And everyone that I said that wasn't taking a gap year that I said it to was like, "Why don't you just go to uni? Just figure out what you want to do and just go." I was like, "Oh, and just eeny, meeny, miny, moe, a degree, that's a lot of money to do that." So you go to uni and then you go straight from uni to your job and then you work for 40 years and then you retire and then you die.

Yeah. And so many people had that attitude. And then before the census date, the majority of the people that I knew that said that had dropped out of their course because it wasn't what they wanted to do. And so also, actually this is the second thing, making students aware that a gap year is allowed. Because I think a lot of the reason that they don't promote it is they like the statistic that 80% of our cohort got into their course and is studying this year. It's like, "Yes, but how many of them dropped out of their course?"

That's some good awareness from you. Yeah. That is definitely a problem. Yeah. And so I think, yeah, making sure that everyone knows there's so many more options out there than uni and uni is still a good option, like it's not bad or anything. It's just an option. Yeah. And we're definitely moving fast past that need to go to uni as the only option. Yeah. I think it is, but coming out of school, it's also not fast. Because in school, everyone who did VC and got an ATAR was planning on going to uni. Yeah. It'll probably take some time and it's just perception change.

Definitely. We start to realise that, "Oh, you don't need to go to uni to do all the stuff you want to do." Yeah. But this is a part of that conversation that I think, as someone that employs people, I see uni as a, and obviously we have the mentorship and all these other hoops you guys are going to jump through. Yeah. But I see it as, "Okay, you can commit to something for four years, for four years." Yeah. And that's why people that have spent a long time in a sport, it's almost like a precursor

to being really good at a job like this, because it's hard and you've got to be disciplined, you've got to be consistent, you've got to show up and you've got to perform. Yeah. And uni's one of the things, by no means is it a precursor to being a good coach. Or being a good physio or anything. You kind of have to do it for a good physio. Yeah. Or a doctor, if you're just sliding into medicine, it's probably not going to hurt. You can't. But it's a good starting point. Yeah. It doesn't hurt. Definitely. And you start to learn how to think critically.

You're going to learn how to go, "Okay, well, maybe that article that I made on that YouTube video that I watched on Flat Earth wasn't the most peer reviewed piece that I've ever seen." Yeah, definitely. What's the last one? I think schools also need to put a little bit more importance on health. I know mental health is quite a big thing in schools. They usually do kind of good at it and it's promoted quite a lot. But especially in VCE, health and kids' health isn't put into or isn't a priority. And so many people I know stopped everything when they went into year 12.

Stopped all sport and stopped doing everything and just studied all the time. It's not healthy. You shouldn't be sitting down for that long. And I think the fact that sport and health as a subject aren't compulsory in, I mean some of them aren't compulsory in year 9 and 10 is a big issue because half your students might not be learning about something that's so important and will set them up for life. There's a coach coming out, how did you, that influence of health and movement and all that. Well even like I know that if I

sat still for too long and didn't do anything, I just was unproductive, didn't do anything, like just would get agitated and whereas if I went out for a walk and came back 20 minutes later. You'd feel fantastic. Yeah, you'd feel so much better. I had two days at this desk and it's killing me. That's like that movement pace and if you get someone who goes to year 12, starts worrying about their results, worrying about the outcome, starts getting a stress head, worried about everything and getting upset about how they're going and all that kind of stuff and they're not doing all that extracurricular stuff.

Obviously we understand that mental health play and how it affects that but it's almost like every time they start getting stressed in their adult life they'll go oh I just need to shut myself down and not do anything else. Just apply myself to that one thing and that's the secret. It's a quick fire way to drive yourself crazy I think. Yeah, definitely. Talk to me about your gap year and more so, because I do gap year, did you know what you were going to do during your gap year when you decided to have a gap year?

You said gap year a lot. I knew that I loved to coach, like I'd been coaching for four years at that stage. Coaching gymnastics? Gymnastics, yes. I knew that I loved that and so figured I would do my cert 3 and 4 so I'd be qualified to coach more and in a different environment and kind of see where that went but I really didn't have a clue where it was going to take me or if I was actually going to use it or if it was pointless and shouldn't be doing it or anything like that. It's very similar to kind of how I looked at it.

I finished year 12 and I was like oh I'll just apply for exercise science and then prefer and then I was like oh shit what am I going to do with my year and two weeks into Jan I saw a little ad for a cert 3 and 4 and diploma that the government - this is back in 2010 mate. Did you have computers then? This is back in 2010 mate. Was there internet? Yeah there was. We had like wind-up internet where they were like throwing a lot of money at cert 3 and 4 right. It

was like a big boom of personal training and stuff like that so I think the whole course cost me like a couple hundred bucks and it was a 10-month course so 10-month course three days a week I was like cool I'm locked in with you I don't really have to think about it. If it wasn't for me seeing that ad like I don't know if I would have got into like got into coaching like I probably would have done exercise science but... If you would have had the same outcome. Yeah because I was just like oh I'll just focus on footy and I'll do this you know.

I played I think I played Pokemon on my phone for most of the year just because it was like a cert 3 and 4 is still and was pretty basic yeah definitely and you know I grew up playing sports I kind of understood all that kind of stuff yeah was playing footy and working a rebel and I was like that was my life for that year. How did you go like I guess adding coaching to your cert 3 and 4 and then like well all your friends are starting uni how did you go kind of like navigating your way through that 12 months?

I it's a cool question I did struggle like I had I got it I'll start again I applied for exercise and sports science and then deferred it and then probably two or three days before all my friends were set to start uni I undeferred my offer and then accepted it and then a day later dropped out. What do I do? Well like everyone was going to O week and really excited and I was like oh my god I'm not gonna have any friends I'm not gonna know anyone and I'm just gonna like and I was

doing my course online so I really didn't have yeah I didn't really have anyone else and so it was really scary it was really hard but then I just kept doing what I had been so I just kept coaching gymnastics coaching I kept doing aerobics I kept training at Virtus and I was coming more often and then eventually Mitch was like yeah you should do this mentorship and kind of just forced me into that as hard as he could and here we are yeah pretty much that's all his fault so it's kind of cool it's

like kind of a bit of sliding doors moments like you've got four or five kind of key points in your life where you've made a decision to go one way or the other yeah and you know it's it's gotten to you to the point here is there anything if you go back you change um oh I don't know I don't think so I I would probably try and do a little bit more with my search frame for like I yeah I brushed through that and just wanted to get my qualification like I knew that I

could coach and I knew that I would be able to do everything I probably could have applied myself a lot more to it um and gotten more out of it um whereas I didn't really get much out of it and got more from the mentorship instead um but it's like you're the kind of person that learns by doing yeah definitely I can say glad I said like they're online sit there yeah it was hard there's no um surprise that you just wanted to rush through it yeah and just start coaching yeah 100 talk to me

about how you got stuck in and coaching because obviously you're a gymnast first and then you kind of shifted to doing both yep how'd that happen and when did that happen um I think I was how old 14 just turned 14 I think um and I started just kind of shadowing and helping out at my gymnastics club and just kind of uh watching classes and following around coaches yeah and then I think one of the coaches left or there was a spot that needed to be filled or something and so again kind of just got

pushed into that yeah it's like okay this isn't actually that bad um you just like float down the river like yeah just waiting for people to push me yeah um yeah and so I just did that and liked that and then got to a stage where I wasn't getting that much out of training anymore and I was getting really scared of skills and was thinking about oh my god I'm gonna break my neck and I was like wow this is pointless doing things that I'm gonna break my neck doing and so then stopped training and

just started coaching more and then slowly it started shifting the other way and yeah and just more and more coaching yeah and then eventually I got to the stage with like last year I was like wow I've done gymnastics my entire life I don't know who the hell I am without gymnastics sort of thing and so figured I should probably stop for a little bit so I could figure out that's a good way to get out of your comfort zone yeah and it was really like I've done it since I was five like that was

all I knew and if someone asked for an interesting fact about me I said I creased gymnastics or I did gymnastics for 13 years like it's always something that I was and so it's weird now not being yeah in the sport but it's also good because I definitely needed a break from it yeah and it allows you to open it opens you up to other experiences yeah coaching it like you know like we kind of I can't say about VGT if you coach the same VGT for every week for the year you don't necessarily get

better at VGT yeah what was it like like that whole identity piece with like shifting who you were like being tied to gymnastics to who you are being who I see sitting in front of me it was hard I struggled I think like I kind of knew last year or when I went into last year so started 2018 that I would probably not be coaching for that much longer or at least the same sort of hours and doing my same job yeah um and so I was kind of always preparing myself for it and then

about halfway through the year I just was like nah I've had enough like I can't do it anymore and just I don't know got really stuck and was just butting heads with everyone and really really struggling as a coach and I wasn't motivated or anything and then just the way I was going like I wasn't a good coach I wasn't being a good employee I wasn't helping everyone out and so I was like nah I have to leave and just made that decision as soon as I did everything got so much easier and I started

enjoying it so much more and like so the last six months were actually really good because I knew that I it would only be the six months and I would just be able to leave after that and everything so do you feel like because obviously like internally you knew that like the time was soon to be up yeah before you kind of made that decision was there that like part of you that was just like fighting it definitely well it was more I think it was more the fact that I was in my comfort zone

and I was like I was safe I worked two minutes from my house where I had practically grown up like I worked with my sister like I'd known my boss for 14-15 years and I knew everyone around me I had an awesome group of girls who I'd had for three or four years and we're coaching them and they were great and so everything was familiar and comfortable and so that was the hardest bit was having to leave that yeah it's a big it's a big move yeah can you see like how people get stuck yeah

doing the same thing yeah things because they're like oh it definitely it's comfortable and you were able to get out of it it's a good job yeah thank you I I hung on to like it's a simple one right I hung on to rebel sport yeah two years on and I should have just because it was it was comfortable it was easy also a great employer discount so that's the employee discount but it was yeah I realized like when I finally pulled the pin I was like why did I hang on to that for so

long yeah I didn't need to yeah but like we're creatures of habit we want we want to yeah definitely we want to find that comfort as many times as we can throughout the day you obviously you dug into the mentorship and that was kind of a big 12 weeks of personal pressure professional development for you yeah what advice would you have for the tester at the start of that mentorship if you were able to like sit in front of her now um probably just have confidence myself I like it did take me a really long

time like I knew I could coach and I did know that right at the start but I was still so scared so intimidated by everyone doubting myself all the time um and so I definitely could have gone into it with a lot more confidence like and just not doubted myself nearly as much as what I did it probably took me like a month longer than I probably should have to figure out you could actually coach yeah and that like that's why I mean like it was I just doubted myself all the time like I was

I remember I was really quiet in the first few weeks and you said nothing yeah I know you've been training with like with Michi for a couple of years yeah yeah like a year at that stage yeah yeah and that's why I mean like and I did just stick to Mich because I knew him and Cam scared the shit out of me and like it was really hard to then be like hang on like I I can do this and I if I just say what I'm thinking in my head without questioning it yeah nothing

bad's gonna happen and I'm just gonna sometimes you occasionally fuck up and then we fix it yeah exactly yeah people just think oh yeah thanks that's helpful or they'll be like no I don't get that okay cool I won't say that again then yeah yeah and then that's how you learn yeah exactly and you figure you figure that out eventually yeah what are the main takeaways like what are the things that kind of that you that you learned that will kind of stay with you for a long time over that period of time a lot

of it was confidence in myself and um kind of pulling myself up when I'm being stupid and doubting myself they're like there was so many times I remember when I would be like oh no I can't say this correction to them because they're gonna think I'm dumb or they're like gonna look be like who's this 12 year old telling me what to do and stuff like that um and then slowly I started to say things and no one cared that I was 12 years old and that they did respect me and stuff like that and

so I think knowing that it doesn't matter what I'm gonna say like and having that sort of belief in myself like it was a good way of actually showing myself that yeah I mean it's important because you couldn't just tell yourself that no I'm good enough to do this sort of like I need to be confident yeah I actually had to do it yeah and realize that yeah oh these people aren't as scary as what I thought and Cam is actually kind of nice sometimes yeah big teddy bear yeah yeah and for everyone listening at home that those of you that don't know Tessa she's not actually 12.

I am actually 19. We're all good everything is above board I promise um yeah it's really it's really cool you can now look back and see that and then obviously we had how long has it been now since you finished like seven eight months probably yeah what's how's that eight months different to your 12 weeks in the mentorship from going from a mentorship student to a coach and kind of what it was it taught you about the world or yourself um another good question it's taught me that I can coach like I don't have to

do gymnastics and I don't have to be in my comfort zone all the time like if I step out of it and like the mentorship was a big thing for me like it was scary and I was only like 18 at the time 19 and so it was really hard to be working with all these who looked like 50 year old people like to me looked so much older and so much more responsible and wiser and everything and now I'm like they're just people and so it really helped me break that barrier of age and

um like now I feel confident talking to anyone and don't have that doubt that I used to have all the time um I have kind of forgot the question again I forgot where I was going that was like the shift your shift yeah and then like what does it tell you about I guess the world and yeah I think what does it tell me about the world that if I ask for things I get them oh funny yeah um and like the worst thing someone's gonna say is no which really doesn't matter yeah um you

just find another way to get them to say yes yeah you just get mitch to ask yeah um like that really helped like I asked for a job and got it I asked for lots of things and it I think again it came down to confidence and knowing that or telling myself the worst they're gonna say is no and doesn't really matter if they say no sort of thing and just questioning what I was actually thinking and doubting more yeah and for uh for your own records you didn't get a job because you asked for

it you got a job because you were confident enough for me to to know that you'd take care of your clients and you were confident enough to know that or confident enough to know that for me to know that you were going to continue to want to learn and continue to want to grow um and you gave a shit and like yeah that was it and yeah like you kept having a crack yeah um and I think that's like and then secondary to all all that stuff you asked yeah like um there's been there's been

guys in the mentorship program before that haven't asked or haven't asked the right questions or haven't shown interest early enough yeah and even though they're incredibly confident coaches like they'll miss that opportunity yeah because they don't ask or talk about it or at least like say like hey have a conversation like it's just a conversation like yeah I think you asked me pretty early on like Mitch asked me pretty early on um Jazz asked me like week one because you told her to so can we stop that system because otherwise I'm just gonna hire everyone

yeah people were asking me like six months before yeah one of the biggest growth areas I've seen in you is like your ability to not only coach people but your ability to kind of mentor the current current students yeah has that been something that you've intentionally done or it's just been like well I've been through this I can help them I think a bit of both um I think it's really cool speaking to them and I can't remember I was talking to Jess about this or something the other day um and we were just talking

about how like I think someone came up to me and asked me a question that was like literally a question I ask myself every single day during the mentorship yeah and it was really cool to be able to give my input and my perspective on that um because I did go through it and so and to know that I'm not asking that question anymore and I'm not that person anymore like it was cool and like every question like every time one of the guys comes up to me and asks me something like wow I thought

that six months ago I was like that's amazing like I am not that person anymore and so it's really cool like especially with Jazz she so many of the questions she has or like so many of the doubts that she has were ones that I had as well and to know that now I don't have them it shows me how much I have grown and have changed as a person it's pretty cool yeah it is it's a nice like little bit of like reflection for you to do that yeah um and you know like even

I've found sometimes like been doing this for a long time now but you'd ask a question and you fuse it like you already answered it before you really think about it and then you go oh oh yeah I kind of know what I'm saying yeah like I'm not a complete idiot yeah I'm like a mostly idiot yeah I like yeah having that I mean when I first started when I first started coaching at Virtus I was quite intimidated by some of the guys that were coming up through the mentorship because I was like they're at

uni they know so much more than me like they're gonna ask me a question I'm not gonna know and then they would ask me something and I would be like oh I can answer that question and they would want to keep asking me questions I was like wait they want to learn from me like that's insane and then when you don't know and when you they ask something you don't know you're like I don't know like it's let's figure it out like let's try and find an answer let's ask someone else or yeah or google

it or figure out like what we actually need to do to find that answer and like I find find it with like you guys even straight out of school or like we've got master students we've got physios we've had like long time strength coaches do it like there's it shows you where your edges are yeah as a coach because you start to go oh like when someone asks you a simple technical question like okay what's your best cue to stop an elbow bend in a you know overhead carry it's like oh what is my best

cue yeah it just makes you really like do I actually know what I'm talking about if you don't like figure it out okay figure it out yeah what advice would you have for anyone either going through it currently or anyone who might want to do some sort of program like that it doesn't have to be here there's plenty of internships out there just to like commit to it and just to put in as much as you can into it because if you do everyone around you will give just as much back um and just to

have a go like you're there to learn so people aren't going to care if you make a mistake because you are there because you don't know everything because you're wanting to learn more and so no absolutely not but so I think just don't be scared to make mistakes because no one's going to care if you do that's great advice thank you same thing goes down like now that you're a coach yeah nothing changes yeah exactly title changes the way you live your day changes a little bit but you know whether you're like ceo or like

an intern it's exactly the same about any business everyone's just doing their best with their current capacity yeah they're doing it they're trying to I guess extend or transcend that who they are yeah and that's it yeah what what does actually another question actually what are your current holes as a coach and this can kind of move to a bigger question like what are your current like holes or growth areas as a person definitely my like and it's been it for the past yeah like and i've known since i moved away from gymnastics it's my

i think more my knowledge like my technical knowledge i know that's not near where it should be or near where i want it to be sort of thing um and it's been something that i've worked on and going into physio something that i know will get stronger like all my anatomy i'm gonna have so much more time to work on it and actually have a exam on it and everything like that and so that side of my coaching definitely isn't yeah you're in the what you're in the it's it's definitely up to par but it's

just it's not up to your lofty standards which yeah which is a good thing because yeah like yeah neither is neither is greg's neither his calves like there's so always going to be like room to go but you're in the wonderful position of being able to coach in the morning and apply stuff and then go to uni for a couple hours learn it learn more and apply more apply more and go oh that's how that works yeah you know here's what doesn't work and it's going to be i don't know i'm pretty excited to see

you develop both sides of the yeah the skill set this year yeah what are you most excited for around the just diving into uni obviously you've we spoke about having a year off kind of figuring it all out while your friends are at uni and now like you're about to dive into uni and you're what three days into o week yeah um i think probably the fact that i can see myself doing it excites me the most like the fact that in like we're on monday one of our lecturers was going through what we're doing

next week and like we start doing massage next week in our first prac class and we start doing um like we're learning about cases and going to be role-playing different scenarios and stuff like that for if people come to me with those issues and the fact that i actually get to do it and get an environment that i can do it safely um is really exciting yeah because like there's so many times when i feel like i want to be able to help someone with an injury i want to be able to give them more

advice or something like that um and the fact that i'm actually going to be allowed to and going to like know what i should be doing and what i shouldn't be doing and stuff like that is really cool so it's exciting yeah that's awesome how outside of outside of the physio stuff and the test technical aspects of it um how do you want to develop over the next like six 12 months as a person as a coach i think it's the same question um you were you were part of the crew that went up to

sydney a couple weeks ago and like that was kind of a big um i thought it was sort of like a big kind of mindset shift changer kind of yeah um in terms of what we're actually doing yeah um how did that conversation affect you and how does it like affect the next however long um there's like 20 questions in there yeah i do i tend to do that um how does it affect me i think over the next few especially the next few months and yeah i want to make sure i keep improving everything

not just like i know i'm going to be putting lots into uni to be a better physio but i also know that my end career isn't just doing physio and so i want to make sure i keep doing little courses or doing little trips to sydney and like doing lots of things that are still going to help my coaching and help or even just benefit me in my life like savings and different mindset stuff and um i call it learning how to be an adult yeah all that sort of stuff making sure i do that

too don't be shit series i'm currently going through the don't be shit with money like a little little task taskbook and it's working wow three days in it's amazing like a book works yeah i know do what i thought it's like it's one of those things you start to realize how much the stuff you learn in uni and you know i can i know you're already learning this stuff and how much uni will help your coaching and how much coaching will help your life and how much life will help your relationships yeah it's all just

this melting pot of skills that you learn that yeah helps everything yeah i think it's really important for anyone that's like diving into something and like all that time coaching gymnastics and all that time doing gymnastics and you know i'm sure you can look back at all the times where you someone threw a ball at you at netball and you probably dropped it or let it hit your face yes or you did athletics and or pole vault all those times that all of that is just little ways of getting better and adding context to what

you're actually doing yeah you're actually headed yeah it's pretty exciting yeah it is i got three questions for you to finish off okay actually no i've got four questions for you tell me about world challenge because you explained it you explained a little bit about it before um what is it why did you do it and what did you learn from it um world challenge is like i mean it's a program run in most schools lots of schools that takes a group of kids or high school students overseas um for usually mine was four weeks

to just go overseas and do different things and i the way world challenge structures is you do a week on a project so helping out something you do a week trek a week of relaxation start time and you have a week kind of travel and everything like that and so i went to malaysia um and the idea of world challenge is that it's a student-run expedition so like our first night of accommodation was booked and that was it and our teachers we had two teachers with us and one world challenge leader and they didn't have

much input and we had to budget like we got given his 10 000 baht now do what you want for next month with it pretty much and like so we had to budget and we had to book our accommodation we had to pay for our food and we had to figure everything out that's pretty well so there yeah and for like 16 year old tessa it was a challenge what was the the main like culture shocks for 16 year old tessa um it was like by that time i had been i'd been to america i've

been to singapore i went to fiji when i was four which i don't remember much of and so like i've been most places in australia but i'd never really been somewhere third world yeah um like singapore was a little bit but it's quite it's pretty affluent part of asia yeah it's quite a wealthy country and so going to malaysia and seeing the fact that as soon as you're out of the airport everything is falling apart like the sidewalks were terrible there was people everywhere living on the streets and like it was really different to see

i think the biggest cultural shock was the fact that kwalumpa like actually as a main city was not great still like i was expecting it to be like melbourne and then as you go further away it gets worse and worse but yeah it's the whole country um pretty much that was crazy you're made grateful for what we have here yes definitely yeah for sure um like our one of our projects was at a boarding school for kids whose families um like live in the jungles and so like we went and visited one of the family's

tribes and they literally lived in huts and didn't have clothes and didn't have technology and didn't have anything and so it was crazy to think like i can't remember it was like 2016 or something else like oh yeah the world's like modern everyone's got houses and has a job and to see that there's people that literally just live in the jungle and hunt for food and cook that food and like it was insane like it was really crazy yeah it shows you how wide and varied the world is yeah and how many different ways people

live and even though like where the world is you know three years later the world is probably a little bit getting more modernized and technology's getting bigger and bigger but there's still going to be pockets of that yeah you know probably forever yeah it's um yeah it's really cool do you have i guess big travel ambitions like in the future or is that something that's like kind of a back burner at the moment definitely on the back burner at the moment it's something that i would love to do and with uni like they're talking about

all the different opportunities like we get to we can work overseas yeah and there's so many different trips and stuff and they're definitely stuff that i'm going to look into and would love to do because i know how much i got out of those like that trip and so many other trips that i've been on um so it's definitely something that i want to keep doing forever it's pretty cool yeah yeah oh he's trying to swear all right so there are three questions for you to finish off okay what are you most proud of oh

i didn't think about these um what i'm most proud of myself as if you didn't know that was coming as a follow-up question yeah i know i i don't know i like to think i'm pretty um i mean one of what i think is my best quality is that i'm pretty open to people's or not like switched on to people's emotions and stuff like that and so i i'm pretty proud of myself that i can understand what people are going through and i think it's gonna make me sound like i have a big head um

i am proud of myself the fact that i can do that because i know it's not something that i've always been able to do like i very much used to be in my own bubble and didn't really care what anyone else thought and then now i can see i like to put myself in other people's shoes i can see that they're how much their struggles and yeah and so i think that ability to be able to do that from when i was like 16 and didn't care about anything from being a coach from seeing other

people struggle from travel from not being an angsty teenager what do you think it's come from um i think a bit of everything yeah um yeah i think going through things as well and having people who can do the same sort of thing um like when my mum went had a motorbike accident and having people that could put themselves in my shoes helped me so much and having people that could empathize and sympathize with me really did help me get through it and so um i think that really helped me like seeing how much it

helped me helped me yeah help others yeah awesome that's cool what are you most confident about i sound confident um i don't know what am i most comfortable about my sass tessa's getting sassy so if uh if anyone can help tessa be less sassy that'd be great she's getting a bit big for her britches just a little um i think it's probably going to contradict what i'm saying right now but a lot i think i've kind of forgotten now wait i think i'm most confident about the fact that i'm confident what i know if that

makes sense it's like i i know that i can coach and i know that i can write programs and i know that i can help people through mental blocks and stuff like that and i'm really confident in all of those abilities that i do have you know you can just keep building on that yeah yeah rather than feeling like you have to go back to the start of the time yeah which is definitely definitely common last question for you what are you most excited for um what am i most excited for this year it's gonna

be gone yeah it's it's gonna be a challenge like and i know that and i know i'm really gonna struggle through uni with everything um but i'm excited for that challenge i'm excited to push myself and to learn and to grow and to be better good answer i guess you got so many people that are here to support you and like and help you through it so you can be fine thank good job thanks thanks coming up i'm only sweating a lot that happens it's not even that warm in here this knows i am last

one for you tell me a joke no you said you weren't gonna ask this question what do you got for me i don't have what do you got for the people at home i don't have jokes i'm not a funny person um i'm literally not going to be able to think of one and on that note be good see you guys