S4E02 · Dakota Watson

All right beautiful people, welcome back to the Virtus performance podcast. We're at season four which we love. Looked at some stats the other day and we've done like over 200 episodes over the last eight years or whenever I started the first one. Wow. Pretty hectic. How long ago? Like 80,000 downloads. Wow. Yeah, just massaging like ear holes for almost a decade. Put that on t-shirt. So season four, episode two, we just dealt with the uh with the hurricane that is Jack Jack and now we have her partner in crime, Dac Dac. What's going on? Shout out Jack Jack, you're my inspo.

Queen. Yeah, actually. Dakota Watson. Yeah. Welcome. Hey, how are you? I'm well. What do you know? I hate that question. I hate when you ask me that question. Did you have a good sleep last night? Yeah, I actually did because Billy's concert started at eight. Well, Billy who? Eilish. Oh, nice. Yeah, she started at eight and said so she finished at 10 so we were driving away at like 10 30. That's actually a vogue. No, it actually is nice. Normally I don't get home until like 12 30. I'm more of an afternoon concert guy these days.

Same. The same especially because like normally I would come here like six o'clock and like train or something that I had to sleep in until eight to get my eight hours of sleep. Yeah, well it was nice but then like my whole day is gone because I got to go to sleep. It is. My whole day is ruined. Ruined. Yeah. Give us a quick synopsis of the of the show. How was it? It was it was really good. We were like two seats. We were in the second row on the side and a stage was in the middle which had like a B stage.

Can you envision what the B stands for? It's the shape of the stage. I was like like as in the animal a B or? No, as in the letter. Okay cool. So it's like kind of more like an eight to be honest. Okay. Than a B because I guess a B would be rounded. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, it's like an eight so we were like on the side in the middle. So it was a vibe? Yeah, it was a vibe. I looked at like halfway through the concert I looked at my friend Jess and she was crying.

Aw. I looked and I was like oh my god. Emotional. Deep breaths queen. Favorite song? Favorite song? Oh that she performed yesterday. Oh my goodness that is a great question. Thanks. I got what you say I ask for questions. Right there's actually there's quite a few that were really good. If you're listening at home and just pondering on whether we'll actually talk about anything real. Yeah. Just think about your favorite Billie song. Yeah I think about your favorite Billie song. My favorite Billie song is either Bury a Friend which was good when she performed it or Chihiro or Wildflower.

All of those were good. My favorite performance was probably the extended version of Lamore which was over now and that side that eight. Was it extended because you get Lamore of it? How much do you hate that? I don't even know what to say to you right now. All right let's get talking about the real stuff. I don't know but you can show me later. Yeah okay. Uh first question for you which we love. I'll get you out of bed in the morning. You should have seen the face she gave me when I said this is going to be my opening question.

And then he told me not to say my alarm. What gets me out of bed in the morning? Yeah. Why do you do what you do? Here in general. I just want to have fun and be happy. That's all I want. Wholesome. Yeah wholesome. Have you always just that's been the thing? I want to be fun and have happy. Yeah with those. Essentially. I want to have fun and wait. Because I think you you perpetuate that in this place. Yeah I'd hope so. Is that intentional? Is that like do you wake up in the morning and go all right I've got to be fun and happy today or is it just something that you're naturally more energetic?

Yeah I think some days I'm like. Did you get angry sometimes? But apart from that there's pretty good vibes in the show. Yes it's true. I have had like maybe like from like the last year of me being here I've had like three maybe three or four shifts where like I've come into the shift like with super low energy and I'm like okay I've got to try and like hype myself up right now. But other than that I feel like it comes pretty naturally. Do you just put Lamour on in the car on the way here and it just gets you up and about?

Yeah or like at the moment Tate McRae's album. Naturally. That gets me more like the start of it's pretty slow. Yeah I feel like you'll get you'll get the vibe when I when I play it to you. Yeah so music's a big part of Dax hype train. Yeah but just just the pop girlies. Well Billie's not. Billie's a pop girlie. She's not pop pop girlie. Hey she's away. More like alternative or what? I don't know. Okay I mean we need to figure out where on the spectrum she lies. Yeah back into you. Yeah. Why so you've been coaching here almost a year?

Yeah. You've been here a little over a year? Yeah. That's true. How's it been? I've really enjoyed it. It's probably like I'm not trying to hype you up or anything. Go on. But it's probably like if I was going to describe it as something probably like the best thing ever. No but actually I kind of rave about it to everyone. Because you had so for those playing at home Dak did the internship where we kicked off what Jan or Feb last year? It started at the end of Jan I think it was like last week of Jan.

So end of Feb 2024 started February sorry I'm clearly not listening and had absolutely no intention of getting a job here wasn't on the cards wasn't on like. To be fair didn't know I could. Didn't know you could? No I feel like. Why wouldn't you be able to? Because I wasn't finished my degree. I think that's what was throwing me I was like. After. I've got still got a year left so I didn't realise. And then we were chatting as a team and we were talking about needing a new coach and I was like I'm hiring Dak what do you think?

And everyone's like who? Okay everyone was super super about it. But like yours was probably the easiest hire I've ever had. Really? Yeah. That's actually nice. Sometimes I'm like because I think what you did I think when you we went to common folk and you kept asking me like what I want to do after the internship I was like I don't know like the same thing I always do. I was just like so oblivious I was like I don't know like what are you talking about? And then you were like there's a job for you

at the end of the internship and I was like in my head to not say this to you yeah if I want it and I was like why? As in why would I want you? Yeah. Why do you think I like that we saw that in you? I feel like at the start it was definitely like I was like I don't want to say a personality hire but like it was more like a community thing at the time because I hadn't really I feel like at that point I hadn't really done any like that much coaching.

No no so like my the things like I hire personality first right like because I need we need at Virtus we need people who can connect with our members and be in their corner and support them and love them and give them a kick up the ass when they need and give them a cuddle when they need and all of that kind of stuff. The coaching stuff is like technical skills most of it is technical skills so how have you gone or how have you found like coming into an environment like this where there's been

elements of self-doubt where you're like I don't know enough it's like I'm talking to you um or like I don't I'm not experienced coaching enough right like so how's how have you gone working on overcoming that over the last 10 11 months of you being a coach? I don't know I feel like it's hard because there was not really an external reason why I should have felt that way like no one was giving me any indication that they didn't think I belonged here. You suffer more in our imagination than reality. Yeah and it's like but

there's like a reasonable part of me I'd say like 80 percent of me is reasonable and 20 percent of me is crazy and like the reasonable part of me is like stop being so annoying yeah like you obviously belong here and then the other part of me is like oh my god I'm such an idiot. So if anyone doesn't think Dak belongs here just shoot her a text and let her know. Yeah just send me a message and I'll just like spiral and you probably won't see me for a while sorry my friend. Business calls? Yeah just Greg sending me a slay emoji like yeah a slay.

Yeah good I like that. Yeah but yeah there was like no reason but then inside I'm just like stop being so annoying yeah and the rest of me is like but like we've got imposter syndrome over here. Yeah how did you work through that because I think I think it's a super cool lesson because every I would I would imagine that everyone who's interacted with you over the last 12 months would be like Dak's that's wonderful Dak's great Dak knows what she's doing switched on she coaches she gives a shit yeah yeah so how did

you work through those doubts because everyone goes through imposter syndrome I think I haven't felt it for a little while but I think you're older so I'm just kidding but I think everyone goes through it so like how did you work through that? I don't like admitting you're right about things so I just need you to take this. Oh forget it. Yeah thank you just like coaching often and then also remembering when like someone says to me like thank you for that you did a good job and then I'll feel better but then even then

I still like I haven't fully fully overcome it like I kind of go through like waves like sometimes I'm like wow I am the best ever and then other days I'm like oh no not good but it's like less frequent now yeah but you've got now you've got a year's worth of proof that you can do it so I think it's true like part of it from my perspective part of that growth has been you just doing reps yeah and seeing that you can actually make a difference yeah and not going I'm not doing anything

yeah and then like like obviously like that content by the way I'm pretty pretty sure like it's like talking it does not sound the same at all that's crazy um back to what I was gonna say like watching you and Tyler and Jackie and also Renee when she was here yeah um like sometimes I'll like like if Tyler are you around you'll say something to someone I'll be like I'm taking that yeah I'm gonna use that next time but this but this is coaching right it's just like you've got a heap of life experience that

we all don't have you don't have a lot of coaching experience yeah we've got a year of it now but like it's just coaching is just helping people get from where they are to where they want to be so all you need to do is layer on all of that experience to create your persona or principles as a coach yeah could you articulate I should have asked just to tell you think about this beforehand could you articulate your like your like who I am as a coach who decoder is as a coach what your principles

are now that you're a year in I actually did think about this beforehand because I know I knew you were going to ask me this but I I still don't have like a way to articulate it right now yeah um I only just went over values with Gemma so I only just figured out had a word values I couldn't articulate it at the moment like I know that there's someone asked you what type of coach would you are like how what would you say it doesn't have to be polished just give us a give us

the elevated pitch I would say that I care more about how the exercise makes the person feel rather than the actual performance of it if that makes sense yeah good I think that's all I've got I like it what about outside of like the sets and the reps what do you mean so like your what what do you think is important from a coaching sense that has nothing to do with how someone does an RDL or how someone does a broad jump because you you express this in different ways throughout your roles here Virtus the

only thing you need to you don't need to know and be able to articulate it because you live it can you ask you're you're very like you're a very person first coach you're not you're not athlete first you're not like yeah what can you do for your like person first so you're like I feel as though you care way more about the person as an individual rather than like what they're capable of as an athlete or yeah well I guess I started strength training because I wanted to go back to netball so it was like

I did it so I could do other stuff that I wanted to do so it's never been about means to an end yeah it's never been about like being the best at strength training or being the best at this it's always just about being able to do the things I wanted to do outside of it yeah awesome were you like talk me through your process into for for that first of all but second of all like school what what were you gonna do when you when you grew up into exercise science like what was the

process like for you to get from say 10 year old ducky yeah to now um I honestly like never really thought about it until when I was six 16 and I tore my ACL and I'd never done a lick of strength training like the only exercise I'd ever done was like netball yeah you wouldn't catch me running like recreationally I literally only played netball and that was the only thing I did and then I tore my ACL and I was like having an identity crisis because it was literally all I did but then we went

into a lockdown so no one was playing netball true yeah so we went to a lockdown so I think about those timelines lining up like that yeah I didn't even have family like I was in going into year 11 at the time because year 11 was in like the big first lockdown yeah and I like the only thing I did was do my schoolwork from home and then go to physio because yeah I couldn't get surgery on my knee because you're allowed to go to physio I was like a physio but they weren't doing elective

surgery so then wild the physio was like we can either wait or you can just start doing rehab now which either way I would have like you can start doing stuff anyway and just see how you go and then I was like sick I'm gonna do this for 12 months and then I'm never gonna strength train ever again this is me this is me now and I'm out yeah I was like all right once I'm done then I'll go back to netball and life will be so much fun and normal how'd that work out for

you and then I got cleared to play without my ACL well obviously I have an ACL but it's not doing its thing so and unintentional non-operational yeah like we kind of thought that we come out of lockdown a bit earlier and I'd end up getting the surgery but then we didn't and then 10 months on my legs were symmetrical or however close she wanted them to be at the time and then I played netball for a little bit but I didn't stop strength training because the physio said if you want to keep playing you have

to keep strength training and I was like yeah real okay fine but to be fair in lockdown other than like go to physio and do exercise all I did was school work so then I kind of realized that I liked strength training even though I was just doing stuff from home yeah and then once I started running I was like oh actually this is kind of fun and I felt better and I felt more confident like when I was like in like year seven eight nine like my I had really bad confidence issues so then

like coming into that and being like obviously it got a bit better with netball but then once I started strength training and like running I've definitely felt a lot more confident and then I was like kind of in year 11 told like do I want to do something related to sport yeah but I didn't want to be a sport teacher I feel like this is the conversation that everyone who likes sport has they're like what do I do I don't want to be a teacher this is actually funny like sidebar Jackie said that exact not

not for the sports teacher but she said that exact same sentence when I did her podcast was like I think this is the the conversation everyone that likes sport has with themselves yeah which is right because like you know most people in this industry are in it because they like sport it's a starting point it's a yeah it's the entry level yes and I was like what do I do I was like maybe I do physio like I've been to the physio but it was kind of like I wasn't sure it was just something off

about it I was like I don't know what I wouldn't like but I hadn't seen enough of it sorry physios are weird physios are so strange there's like a physio that works in the office downstairs he's strange he's so strange but um yeah I was like okay maybe I'll try physio and then in year 12 I like tried really hard in vce but I didn't cop the atar I think it was like a 93 and I was like oh what do I do now and so then I applied for a bachelor of science at Monash

yeah I actually did because sports science like wasn't on the table for me at the time even though I was interested because I didn't have a license and I didn't know how I'd get to Deakin yeah and the other courses were just like I don't know like they're right in the city yeah so like I was kind of so you could have got there probably transport there you go yeah so I was like what do I do so I went for science and then as I was enrolling I was looking at the units that were

available to me and I was like I'm gonna be so bored and I'm gonna hate it so I got rid of it and then I booked my driver's test like a week later after that and I was like actually I could probably get my license so I had three weeks at Deakin without a license and the public transport might have been like the worst experience of my life yeah that's a good four hours a day that you're not gonna get back it was actually horrific and like yeah it was so bad but look at your

problem solving I don't have a license I'll just go get one I'll just go get it so then um yes then I started it what was it about those subjects that you're like it's not for me it was so I went into it I was looking at the course map for it before I applied for it yeah and there was heaps of physiology units and that's what I wanted to do but none of them were available to me for some reason like they were first year ones they had no pre-reqs yeah but they were available

in really weird locations yeah okay and I was like all of the ones I had to do were like chemistry which I did chem in year 12 for some reason I did it as a physio pre-req and I didn't get it but um I did chemistry and like I wouldn't say I was awful at it but I wasn't really interested in it yeah so I was like I just don't think I'm gonna enjoy it at all and also what is my bachelor of science gonna get me yeah and then it kind of came became into

what's my bachelor of exercise science gonna get me anyway yeah I was about to bring that up I was like uh you're not really not really owning like handing out what you want to do by doing exercise and then I did an ep placement for my 80-hour placement I had an ep clinic in Langley and I'm not gonna say that I really did much on that placement I was like super not confident at all yeah um but I like really enjoyed watching the eps I think I had two two like supervisors and I really liked

what they did and I liked watching them do that and then you're like ep I was like fine whatever and then um I was like kind of tossing between them because I was like am I going for ep because I'm giving up on physio because it was too hard or am I doing it because I actually want to do it so I was like stuck like am I justifying it to myself like do I actually want to do it so then I sat on it for a bit and then I decided I did want to

do ep sick and now how far are you into uh two days yes so for those that don't know Dax just started her masters it's true ep good yeah well I'm still I've still done more of it than you so whatever but I will do more of it than you that's all that matters if you quit I'll murder you I actually can't I won't actually I really enjoyed my first two days yeah it was actually really tiring like mentally and like the content took me a bit longer than I thought because I did not understand

it what did you learn about um the first lower content I did was for cardiopulmonary disease and it's like the laws of the heart hey wake up I was reading I was like so intimidated when I saw it and also so much more content than my bachelor had and I know people warned me of that yeah I never believe it when people warn me it's the same when I got my surgery for this knee and um like Jackson Alcock and um Lola like told me they were like it's gonna really hurt I know so so

much um they're like it's gonna really hurt and I was like please oh it's not gonna hurt so it's like same thing I thought it'd be fine and then I was so intimidated about it and so I spent a lot of time going through it and at the end I felt really accomplished because I actually understood it but it took me so much time to get to that point so but then once we're in the class it made it so much easier because I felt like I knew what he was talking about when he was

describing things it was fun I like it and then the next day I did musk yeah good that's easy stuff I know we did like a subjective like consultation which felt like I was doing a free intro you're like ah do this all the time easy peasy yeah yeah good sweet so you're like you're pretty dialed in like ep is what you want to do what you want to be that's cool how have you gone with that like maybe ambiguity around knowing that or working through that process over the last few years what do you

mean like through the process of deciding together yeah because you kind of like not fell into exercise science but you kind of did it because it was it seemed like the right path yeah without a clear like outcome to to do yeah I was like I kind of knew I'd do a masters in something either way well to be fair didn't know I was gonna get this job thank you by the way um I'm like I actually when I was going through we did like for the placement unit when I did my internship here they

were talking about like potentially like seeing where you get a job after and I was like oh that sounds really hard I think I'm just like not gonna do it I was like nah it'll be fine and I realize now that if that had have happened to me I would have been severely disadvantaged yeah yeah the fact that you can coach while you're doing all of your musk all of not only my stuff but all of your ep stuff over the next few years yeah massive I think that's making me feel better about doing a

part-time too yeah when I went the other day and everyone was like yeah we're full-time I was like losers yeah I was like haha losers they have to go in four days a week that would ruin me like they would be there today ah suckers this is way more fun losers just talk to me about your knee so you did it first time when you were 16 yeah got back into it fell in love with strength training love my life got jacked I literally like got jacked and then um I think I played like a

season after I came back from my ACL and I was really nervous to get on the court for that first game but then once I started playing I realized I'm jacked I've done all the work I've done everything I was supposed to do and I felt great so then I wasn't worried and then first game of the next season so I made it back I think I got cleared in November of 2020 so I was back in time for the next season which mean I didn't miss any netbooks everyone was in lockdown love it which

was really lucky that's cool I know and then so I came back for a full season and then the first game of this next season it was like a Good Friday game which by the way whoever comes up with that no can we not play a Good Friday it's stupid anyway love that it's just I want to play on Saturday but I had gone to a so what does Jesus want sorry what does Jesus want I don't care sorry sorry I do care what Jesus wants I don't at all I'm so sorry to everyone who

does um and then I went to a concert the night before with a friend I didn't even know who they were I just went with her because she wanted someone to go with and I was like yeah I can't remember actually might have been not important not important um and I went to netball the next morning I was like wow my knee feels really tired today I'll just take it easy I'll take it easy and then we warmed up and I was like yeah I'm fine and then I go up for a ball so my

first ACL I pivoted on my land and that's why I went down but when I hurt myself this day I got shoved so I got pushed on a landing and my knee fell in and it was the exact same movement that it did when I did my ACL but I knew it wasn't my ACL because my ACL wasn't attached yeah so like I fell and I was like something's happened to my knee I'll break it to us this is me something's happened to me and I they were like do you think it was your ACL

and I'm like no it can't have been but it definitely something yeah so then I got a scan and it was a tiny little meniscus tear on my medial meniscus yeah and I think I did rehab for like six six to eight weeks I came back same season yeah and my confidence was a bit lower that season and I didn't realize it until we got to like the semi-final and I probably had my best game all season and I knew it was because I felt more confident in it that day yeah so I was like

it's fine like it just takes a little bit of time anyway then I played I think I played two seasons after that with no injury which we love which was which is excellent and like I actually felt like I was getting better I'm not a great netball player but like I actually felt like I was actually getting like better at playing and then at the start of last year I was doing a lot of running and athlete I know literally it's not good because my watch keeps telling me I'm being unproductive because it's comparing me

to last year but I did a lot of running and I ended up wanting to run throughout the netball season but after a couple rounds I realized that was not sustainable and I was cooking myself really bad because I knew I couldn't give up the strength training because it was in my mind that was the thing well it's important load management conversation that now you're able to have with your athletes right is like yeah hey if you keep adding shit it just doesn't work something's gonna break literally like I was actually gonna do a half

marathon as well and then I ended up not doing it and was like I'll just strength train and then play netball it's fine if I want to add a run in I can and then I was playing netball as well I think it was when I was an intern here my knee felt like it like dislocated but like it felt like it was sitting out of place and I was like it's weird and so I like kicked my leg and it clonked back in and I was like that was so weird I'm just not gonna

do that again whatever I did to cause that I just won't do it again and then I want to say like a month later I was foam rolling my left leg and using my right leg to guide it like my quad and it happened again and I remember rolling over at the gym and holding and being like oh my god it's not sitting like it wasn't painful I could just feel it was sitting off so then I like jammed it straight and I went back in I was like done strong done so we are fixed

and there was no pain so I was like I've just solved my injury so then I was like oh yeah like if anyone at home is like having little niggles with their knee and stuff like that like these are red flags for like if you're wondering these are things that we would maybe go hey it's probably not functioning the way it should go I think I think I was just so used to like having an injury that happened in a spot like you know I landed and something happened to it and because that didn't happen

I didn't realize that like I could have an injury from yeah that's actually that's a fair point because so many people would like oh but you know I'm a hamstring sore but I wasn't sprinting yeah or you know my ankle didn't roll but why is it really sore like literally I didn't realize I could overuse it and so it was just like yeah not a good thing anyway so then I just kept ignoring I had so many signs that something was wrong with it and I just like I just was so oblivious at the time

like I went tree surfing I was like wow my right knee like feels so unstable right now and I just like was like oh it's because I don't have in hindsight you're like oh these are all the times where it's really and I think I went to a mire because my right quad was significantly tighter than my left like she touched my right quad and I felt like crying it was so tight and I didn't pick that up as maybe it's compensating for something or something like why is it so much worse than my other

leg anyway it probably looked about four times over like a 14-week period and I was still playing netball every week and it never happened to netball if I was warmed up I felt strong I actually didn't even feel unstable I actually I felt good every single week yeah we know the answer now don't we something's wrong with it I felt really good on court too like probably the best season I've had like there was like I was like I'm fine playing netball so I must be okay and then one game I think it was round

14 I landed when I caught the ball and it didn't lock but it clicked so I called injury time which now I'm responsible I'm like and then I came off the court sat down for a bit I was like actually it's fine I'm just gonna see if I can get back on the court so I warmed up a bit and as I was changing direction I was like oh not good so but I ended up like my coach ended up putting me back on I as soon as I started running I knew there was something

wrong with it and I was like sub me off because we have rolling subs and I was like stop me off and he was like oh give me one second to change please I'm like stop get me anyway I did one jump and I landed on my left leg because I knew my right wasn't going to hold me so then went to see a physio that I was seeing back then and she was like can you describe to me I was like it clicks because I didn't realize it was locking at the time and then

I was like you can try and do it if you want like give it a little move she moved it it locked I was like it's doing it it's doing it that's it and she's like that's not good sweetie did she actually say no um and she's like you need to get a scan so she sent me to my gp to get a scan can physios give scans uh physios can refer you to to she can refer she can write a referral to a scan but if you go gp it could be bog build yeah

but it'll they'll fuck you around because they'll do they'll go oh we'll do an x-ray first and I'm like oh the x-ray didn't show much let's do it just do an ultrasound and then it takes steps to get to your mri so sometimes it's easier just yeah because she didn't send me for a scan but I thinking back she probably wanted it to be cheaper for me because she sent me to the gp yes but usually then there's this whole process yeah and sometimes and if you're playing local sport and registered to a club you'll

be able to claim it through sport insurance so if you're playing at home or know someone that's injured there's a process where you get all your cash back or at least a lot of it so yeah it's actually lovely you should do it um and then I went to the gp and she was like queen there's nothing wrong with you yeah and I was like and I've seen this doctor before and I really liked her um don't know where she is now she's not at the same clinic but um she was like you know if

you keep strength training and stuff you like your muscles will compensate I'm like I've already had this conversation when I did my ACL like I already know I was like please give me the skin and she's like you know that's normal when you've played so much like it's the hard sport on your knees I'm like show me your knee lock right now because mine's never done this before and I don't feel anyway she spent probably the whole appointment justifying to me that if I keep strength training be fine as if I wasn't already so then

I went home that night and I said love a doctor pump and strength training though but yeah just give me just give me the fucking skin and you know yeah she was actually a really good doctor which is why I went to her but yeah um I sent my friend a video that night and I was like it's gonna be fine like my knee's all good because I was like trying to like believe what she had told that workout for you not good I came in the next day to coach the timeline's really important here

Wednesday I saw the doctor Thursday I came into coach and went no there's something wrong I've been trying to justify to myself but this my knee's not okay and then I spoke to Greg and I was like do you have time next week to see me at all and he was like yeah I'm free on Tuesday and I was like done put me in and then I was like he'll listen to me and then Friday the next day I came in for one hour while you didn't on board do you remember that yeah you're doing

it on board so I came in for the last hour 10 to 11 and I was it was super quiet and I was sitting on the floor with Zev playing with him on the turf and then I went to stand up and as I stood up my knee locked and I was like guys don't even worry this happens all the time I can get it back in and then I was like straining out I was like guys it won't go back in and then that's when the pain started coming because it was never painful but

once it was stuck like that for like a minute I was like oh my god it hurt so bad she was stressed too I don't think I've ever been so stressed in my life and then you're taking it on board I'm crying I'm like I'm sorry she's only like this like twice a week Jess is on the road she's like do you need anything I'm like no I just need my knee to go back in its spot I'm like so upset you're like let me finish this on board I'll take you to the hospital and

I was like but I grilled we had grilled that day do you remember did we yeah we had a meeting and we had grilled and I refused to go to the hospital without eating the grill first so I hopped up the stairs and I cried we're having a meeting I was crying eating my grilled um drama I know and then you took me to the hospital that doctor do you remember ruined my day that no it did you know what the doctor yeah because like obviously I knew the history so we were trying to we're

like near an MRI he's like no I don't think so I don't I think it's gonna be okay like it's probably a bucket handle tear and he told me not to listen to you he looked at me he said see him don't listen to him and I was like hey don't tell me and then sorry after I said that that's what it could be what did he what was it he said he said what was it what was the problem he said it was just swelling but it was that fluid he's like he's like yeah

it's just because there's fluid in there I was like why is there fluid in there literally I was like where where did it come from where did it come from why is it there and then it literally was because you and Greg was like yeah Greg was like bucket handle tear you were like bucket handle tear doctor was like all your bones are in line I was like has nothing to do with it I know my bones are in line but I think it's because I was saying it feels like it's out of place yeah

so those words were making him be like she thinks it's dislocated or something shows me the x-ray and I'm like okay like whatever and then I get that we're adding a burden to the public health system by getting scans but isn't it helpful just to know what's going on and I get like we don't want to like over scan like I understand but I'm hysterical at this point um and like you're telling me there's just swelling I had some quiet time to read my book in the hospital that was nice that's true and you also

were just texting Greg through my phone it was pretty fun it's like you're like give me the phone and then you'd say something Greg would be like say something like give me the phone and then you'd respond okay anyway so then all of that happened spoke to Greg Greg gave me a scan referral yeah got got the went for the scan the radiographer is that what they what is it radiologist radiologist I was gonna say I'm like throwing random words out was like girl he didn't say girl but he did he said girl it's very

swollen I think there's something very wrong I don't know if he's supposed to say that to me before but he was a king and then got the scan back bucket handle tear yeah obviously it said there was no ACL actually I think it said that they like there might have been like an attachment but it wasn't really there um and so then I went on the public waitlist for surgery got surgery and now she's she's fixed and now six months post-op six months post-op what's that rehab process been like actually what's the lesson from all

of that um don't play back-to-back netball seasons how come I was ending a netball season and then playing spring comp straight away seriously um listen to your body listen to your body that's the lesson yeah that's the biggest that's the lesson if something doesn't feel right it's probably not right yeah and yeah it helps to know things yeah and you can make informed dumb decisions rather than uninformed dumb decisions yeah so if your knee feels like it's locking there's something wrong with it and you should not disregard it just because you've played 14 games of

netball and you've been getting cut off okay oh shit so you got the surgery obviously did a little bit of prehab with with the fizzle what was that six months what's the last six months been like relative to your first non-operative non-operative rehab yeah um it's definitely been so much harder like mentally and physically obviously when I did it without the surgery I was walking like there was no period where I wasn't able to walk yeah so I was walking the whole time I was basically getting strong like from the start but then I got

a quad tendon graft and my quad was just it was so annoyed not annoyed you're doing a good job quad I'm just gonna let you know you're doing a really good job but like really weak and like scared to do anything like trying to get quad activation in the first couple weeks I didn't even bother I was in so much pain for the first two I was in the middle of a uni trimester and I like was literally better you had a whole month off work I forgot about that yeah but to be fair four

weeks isn't that bad longest four weeks of my life yeah I know same so I remember having so much FOMO I was like oh I want to go back to work um it was really painful and the endo made me so sick to the point like it was just like I'd eat something and then I'd be asleep for ages so like people you'd see like people doing like all their quad activation the exercises and I did nothing for the first week because I physically could not make myself do it so then second week I started

doing it and then all of a sudden I was able to take a step and I was like wait progress so then started walking and then from there it started getting a bit better but not being able to walk around myself was definitely the worst part of it and like I was able to drive at one point but I was still on crutches because I could walk but I couldn't really go very far yeah and I went out for dinner with my friends um once and I as I was walking back to the car on

my own I realized that I if some not that someone's gonna come and chase after me and try and kidnap me but if they did I wouldn't be able to run away because I was on crutches and that was a jarring that was a giant this is me driving home the way home because I was like so incapable of defending myself I was like this is awful anyway um and then once I was able to come back to work and then I was able to walk and kind of start strength training even though it was

like very repetitive at the start and I was very a bit bored with it I kind of felt like everything kind of went back to normal because no one was playing netball I hurt I got the surgery in the like the last game of the season so no one was like you're missing yeah now it feels like I'm kind of missing out on things but that's okay but it's been good I feel like I've progressed quite well physically um but like mentally I still feel like I'm not quite not quite pushing through I'm just like

sometimes I just walk and I'm like what if my knee just locked right now yeah we know but like it's again this is the psychological readiness will come with proof that yeah you're okay it's true my running has actually been a lot better I used to like every time I run I'd be like what if my knee just gave way right now and then I've ruined the repair that he did because he did the surgeon did say to me that like he stitched together but it doesn't look like there's a lot of blood flow so

actually might not heal he said it might just be the stitches holding together one day it might just fail and then we'll scrape it out and call it a day and I'm like okay I'm like I'd like to keep that bit of cartilage I should have thought about that beforehand but yeah anyway um because I did the they fixed the meniscus and the ACL yeah they did the quad tendon graft for my ACL and then they they repaired the meniscus but they didn't know if they'd be able to but they did yeah yeah and then

the other thing that I found out like six weeks after the surgery is that I have like tiny little fishes in my lateral meniscus too oh I love that I know I'm like please leave me alone what's what's the that your experience through rehab taught you and how does it inform your coaching um you've just got to do it like some days I'm like oh I can't I really can't be bothered to say or it might be like a harder session or something like that but I know that if I don't do it I'm just

pushing myself behind so let's just do it unless obviously I'm sick or I'm cooked you could love it now we've talked about a lot about coaching a lot about sport talk to me about Dakota outside of those things that's wholesome yeah I didn't realize you cared I don't but people people do apparently people do apparently um I feel like there wasn't really much I be trying to think about how I'm going to say this I feel like only recently have I realized what my life is like without sport and without exercise and without things in

that realm and I think not being able to do it and realizing that all of my hobbies were like movement-based was like not bad but like if I had free time then I was I wasn't resting like I was always moving and so then I think I started reading like two years ago and that was my effort in making a hobby that wasn't movement-based that's cool it's cool to be able to like to talk be aware of that and go I need something that's not stressing my body yeah what can I do and you go

I'm gonna pick this thing up try it and now yeah read pretty regularly right to be fair shout out to that EV clinic that I did my placement at I definitely wasn't a great student there so sorry about that but I'm better now sorry about that I wasn't bad I was just super intimidated and like couldn't really do much so I was like but um one of the supervisors there she was like one day like I was doing like some a task that I was given and she was doing like a client notes or like

a letter to a JP or something like that and she looked at me she's like do you read and I was like oh I've read before but like not really I'm just like too busy for it just everyone's excuse for not reading too busy scrolling the talk yeah I'm just well it was musically back then just kidding I don't think it was I think it was it was what musically the fact that you don't know what that is is so funny is it like myspace it's I don't know what that is um she's like I

was like no I don't read and then she's like well if you think about reading like you should read this book and she showed me this book and I was like what's it about and she told me what it was about and I was like cringe I'm not I didn't tell her that but I was like cringe I'm not reading that and then probably like four months later is when I had this realization that I needed to find something to do that wasn't that um and so I was like fine I'll try the book and

unfortunately it was brilliant so she was right so then I kept reading the series and then went on to other things um so now I like to read amazing um and then other than that it's literally uni here those are good things um training and then also my family and my friends just like social life sort of of it good what else is there to me I don't know you tell me I'm trying to think there's lots of things there's lots of layers that I reckon most of the British fam wouldn't know or wouldn't be

aware of yeah probably but I can't really think of any literally like especially because right now I'm at uni again it's all I can think about is like you go to uni go to work train eat food go to sleep which I think is like isn't the worst headspace to be in right to be like what do I need to do next to help build the capacity for later yeah yeah here's a question for you what are you most proud of what am I most proud of wow I think that I am actually proud of

a lot of things but I'm not going to list them all no I can't think of them all right now sir um sorry for calling you sir two seconds ago jarring jarring great word great use of jarring um um I think I'm proud of my resilience go on I feel like I just told you that at this EP placement I was horrifically nervous and like shy and stuff and then I remember requesting my placement here for my second one which by the way you were really bad answering my emails during that time yeah that's why

I hired you so you could do it for me you know I don't have to do it but um I like did that and I was like this placement I'm not going to be a little can I swear yeah a little bitch wow rude I know I was like I'm not gonna be a little bit this time I think I was kind of still a little bitch at some points you're fine thanks I'm gonna find those I find those initial emails what I have to go I'm gonna wake up here it's so real can I

come hang out with me um and then what were you talking about uh you're proud of yourself resilience um I feel like I'm pretty good at like getting up when I've been shoved down but it depends and also sometimes it takes varying lengths of time sometimes it takes longer to longer to figure it out but that's like home life and also here yeah and also uni but uni kind of became a thing that I was so familiar with it that it was it kind of became easy and that's why I got kind of intimidated going

into this mask so I was like I actually don't know what to expect now yeah I just don't like not knowing what's gonna happen that's exciting it's exciting not knowing what's gonna happen I don't know if you just heard me it's not I heard you yeah what else am I proud of yeah go on we want more because you celebrate everyone else's wins in here so we want to we want you to I do struggle to celebrate my own wins I'm a bit of a hypocrite aren't I a little bit I'm like guys growth area

literally I'm like here's a pump up for someone else I'm like not gonna share what I did this week yeah did I share that I graduated uh yeah I think so did I I think I sent a photo of me and Renee I put a picture of you where I was like this yeah and then what else did I do recently that I was gonna message this week yeah I started my masters and I was like no you should have why wouldn't you because I was so proud of Geordie for his food you can have

both I know but I I was like no one cares but they do I'm just being a bit dramatic yeah I'm proud for starting my masters that's what I'm proud of I'm proud for doing all the shit that I need to do for my knee yeah and it's easy to not do it and then just live your life without yeah functioning especially when I was like at the start I was like do I go back to netball do I not and obviously I would have done everything I'm supposed to do if I wasn't gonna go

back to netball maybe maybe but it's like less there's like less motivation behind it it's nice to have that carrot yeah so I was like yeah so proud of what I've done for my knee um I'm proud of myself for getting better with my own time management and like making time to read to do things that I want to do like I'm turning into an adult it's honestly like not it like I have to replace my tires this week like actually it's a nightmare grant told me do you adult better than most people adults do

you reckon yeah I think I think I'm pretty good but just yeah yeah like Grant told me to get my go see someone about my tires weeks ago and I was like yeah right I will didn't I tell you to go talk to Grant about ties yeah then I was like why would I do that and then I spoke to Grant I was like makes sense that's actually very helpful and then he's very tiring I actually called him the other day and he didn't answer I wonder if you knew it was me um but then

the other day someone always crashed into my car jarring yeah had to call someone to debrief actually it was so close she was like flying around this u-turn and didn't see me and like almost hit the front of my car and I screamed and like slammed the brakes my car did strong trauma yeah traumatizing but my car did but everything's okay and yeah I know but then that made me realize should my car have skidded just then maybe fresh tires will do yeah so that's a Friday job mark my words um but also that lady

just sped off on me I'm just trying to say friends look at me I'm just a little girl I'm scared of everyone you're an adult now it's true you actually think I look kind of good yeah thanks that's nice I think you are kind of good thanks I see okay KP KP KP keeps me on track good what would you do without it struggle she's iconic yeah get around her yeah get her on KP big fan what are we talking about yeah give me one more thing yeah I'm trying to think of one more thing

I'm proud of myself for my own personality actually I'm a vibe I'm like the best nah sometimes I'm like was I talking too much then I reckon it does happen sometimes uh yeah but I don't think it's a bad thing yeah I think this I've had this conversation with Jackie I think you just hire the same people in different fonts genuinely same people in different fonts that's great now you guys are all so different yeah no definitely very different like there's there's an intentionality like I said before hive personality but there's intentionality around the fact

that all you are all of you are very different yeah like we just get clones of me we'll fucking go mad yeah and deal with that yeah real love Jackie's my idol how do we get back onto Jackie I just can't help but talk about it um second follow-up question to the what are you proud of actually quickly you mentioned that you're a little bitch your first into internship and then here you're sort of shit out enough for me to give you a job yeah I think I started my shit out like stop but how

does that does that impact how you talk to and look after and help lead the interns yeah but I think I think that sometimes it can be a bit detrimental like sometimes I think I might be a bit too easy like not too easy but like be like I'm just gonna let that one go but even I wouldn't have done that on my first does that make sense yeah like well you've got you've got you know you've you're uh you're level now right yeah I'm definitely much better now it's just like having a bunch of

little friends that come to hang out with me on my shift pretty much it's like a bit wholesome good humans yeah good humans all learning stuff does that answer your question or did it did um take a lot of information what are you excited for no that's the whole point we can follow whatever thread you want mate okay um people are zoning out they can go do something else is there like a video along with this or is it just listen video along with it it's like yeah we'll put on it'll be on youtube and

spotify on youtube yeah but if i'm telling people that they already know it probably yeah okay anyway what am i most excited for yeah what are you most excited for you have to answer it what am i most excited for decided to go to lucy's teddy bear picnic this afternoon i heard about that yeah billy would have told you yep she's making fairy bread i've been invited amazing are you coming she said are you coaching tonight and i was like i was like those two genuinely just like have you on have you on like a

piece of string you're like i know i'm wrapped around their finger yeah they say something i'm like all right like when i went to billy's swimming lesson yeah you come to my swimming you're like all right i got what else to do i guess dude you know you don't have to come she's like well i've told billy i would so dude which we love i can't say i'm gonna be there's a three-year-old and five-year-old so yeah i'm excited i'm trying to be excited for the things of like here and now yeah and and presence yeah

it's so exciting oh that's another thing billy said what if someone else comes and coaches for you she knows how it works yeah um say love that i'm excited to get super brainy from this course good not that i'm not already like probably i'd say like top three brainiest people in the world in the world yeah that's fair checks out yeah i'm excited to be brainy and i'm excited to use the stuff i learned here there that's the best part of coaching while you're studying is you just like trial things see how it works yeah

yeah i like that it's good all right to finish off great question did you see it i did all right okay you have two weeks all expenses paid vacation no cost is too high whatever it costs doesn't matter you go solo can't bring any money home you can't buy any assets you can buy it by experiences throughout your two weeks of vacation time where do you go what do you do okay here's the thing just throw the phone um i'm not the kind of person who would go on a holiday and wants to do something

like every single day read your book on a beach and i know that i have all this money and in my mind i'm like i should make the most of that but then i wouldn't really enjoy the holiday and i also don't know where i'd go i think there's value there on knowing knowing who you are and what you want and what's important to you yeah i definitely want to do some things what i don't know there's too many options two weeks this is giving me when i program what do i what do i give

this so many options um two weeks like where could i go somewhere warm yeah that's all i care about i sit on a beach somewhere go like far north of queensland yeah to the hurricane well if i've got if i've got all this money i might as well go international but yeah yeah sure yeah that's fair oh for those playing at home think about it it's a good question i like it yeah where would i go i don't know just somewhere warm and i wouldn't want to do that much which sorry greg this is anti-climactic

answer to your question but i'm not going to do that much like when we went to thailand like when justin and i went to thailand with his family i i think we did like two tours and they was they were so fun and then for the rest of us like all right it's time to feed up and yeah i'm really tired now so i don't really know you don't need to know i'd like to go somewhere in europe but yeah looks really busy it's fair that's fair yeah what about you uh two weeks that's a

great question i would love to go back to vietnam and do a i'd love to do a motorbike top to bottom or bottom stop that'd be pretty fun it'd be cool to do with kp and maybe go back to uh japan a lot of there are a lot of places i'd want to go back to yeah um back to japan maybe kp and i still need to go on a honeymoon but maybe like a two-week uh two-week cruise like not like a cruise big cruise ship cruise yeah but like a cool like little boat cruise

around japan two weeks that'd be what that's wholesome that's a good answer my stomach's before yeah before we finish up any anything you'd like to say to the people anything to add no love you guys subscribe to my youtube channel phenomenal be amazing love your work bye no no i didn't change it i didn't change it have a good day