Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast with Stacia Kirk - A deep dive into Masters Swimming Excellence

Discover the secrets of masters swimming success with Stacia Kirk, as we celebrate her incredible haul of two gold and two silver medals from the Masters World Champs in Doha and Japan, on this episode of Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast  Hear about Stacia's inspiring journey through preparation, competition, and the camaraderie found in the pool. Training alongside a younger squad, she shares the dynamic of her coaching relationships and the strategies that brought her to the podium. Her experiences sheds light on not just the triumphs of competitive swimming, but also the dedication required to excel in the sport.

Navigating the waters of motivation can be as challenging as the races themselves, especially in the realm of Masters swimming. Stacia balances training with life's other demands and offers a glimpse into her routine, highlighting the importance of injury prevention. Fine-tuning race skills can make or break a swimmer's performance, and we chat about the critical edge that mastering starts, turns, and underwater work can give master swimmers. 

Tune in to immerse yourself in a wave of Stacia's wisdom, laughter, and an undying passion for the art of masters swimming.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Hello swimmers, and welcome to another episode of Torpedo Swim Talk podcast. I'm your host, danielle Sperling, and each week we chat to a master swimmer from around the world about their swimming journey about their swimming journey. On today's episode, we catch up with Stacia Kirk, who's fresh from racing at the Masters World Champs in Doha. She gives us a wonderful perspective about competing at Worlds and what it takes to have success when you're away from home competing. Let's hear from Stacia now. Hi Stacia, welcome to the podcast and thanks for joining us. Hi Danielle, thank you, thanks for having me. Yeah, you're really welcome. So you're fresh home from the Masters World Champs in Doha, where you got two gold and two silver. Share with us what it was like to compete at those World Masters and how you mentally and physically prepared.

Speaker 2: 1:04

For Doha. It was like to compete at those world masters and how you mentally and physically prepared For Doha. It was a little bit different to normal worlds. This was my fifth or sixth time traveling over to world masters championships. Originally I was a little bit hesitant. Being Doha I'd never traveled to the Middle East. I didn't know what to expect. Doha was very surprising in that way, in terms of training, I'd just come off the back of Japan as well, so I'd just been over in Fukuoka six months earlier. We made the decision to continue for another six months after that. I wasn't particularly sure that I was going to, but we did it and I'm glad that I did.

Speaker 2: 1:42

I've been enjoying a month off since then. It's been quite nice to be a normal human again for a month. Yeah, so managed to train with a kid squad for the last 18 months for both Fukuoka and Doha, and it definitely keeps your ego in check.

Speaker 1: 1:59

I bet it does. You did as you mentioned. You came off the back of Japan, which was only six months and usually when before COVID, it was a two-year sort of gap between worlds. So how did you find that sort of, you know, psychologically getting yourself up again, because it takes a lot to get yourself up to, to race at that level? How did you go it?

Speaker 2: 2:20

was actually difficult, and it was more difficult than I thought it would be. I thought originally that I'd come back. I'd be really motivated after Japan and after you know the swims that I'd done there. I got home and I had a month off. I wasn't planning to, but I decided to just take it easy for a little bit and a week turned into a month. So then getting back in for Doha was a little bit trickier than I'd planned. I'm lucky I have a very good coach who's good at tough love, so he managed to get me back in the water and we had a bit of a rescue effort. I did open state championships as well just to get a bit of race practice and to get that motivation back a little bit. That was back in December and then had the two months before Doha.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Yeah, and you mentioned you, you were training with an age group squad. So what? What's the closest person or kid in age to you?

Speaker 2: 3:15

Uh, so it's mainly myself, and she's now just turned 15. Um, the two of us training together and she's the best kid in the world. She's so responsible and she's tougher than me. She just she does these sets and I don't know how she does it, because I'm next to her, absolutely dying, and she's just powering along, um, so, yeah, um, I'm quite close in age to my coach, um, but then we've got um Naomi, who's 15, and there's a couple more kids that have come up now, but they're all around that 14 15 age group right and is she training for the same sort of stroke and distance that you are?

Speaker 1: 3:58

is that why you're working together?

Speaker 2: 3:59

yeah, so she's age nationalsals and she's kind of she's a born 400 IM swimmer. I try and stick to the shorter IM, but yeah, she's same kind of events it's. Yeah, it's good to be training with her. We have the same kind of training structure. Makes it easier on Chris.

Speaker 1: 4:22

And what pool do you base yourself out of in Perth?

Speaker 2: 4:25

So I'm out of Aquinas. It's a private school here in Perth. My coach has been there for a couple of years, yeah, so it's still kind of building. We're in the process of starting up a new club and things like that. So, 50 metre pool it's a little bit older. Every now and again the heater breaks and I refuse to get in the pool. It's good Winter it's nice and warm. The only bad bit is obviously getting into the pool.

Speaker 1: 4:54

And looking at your events that you medalled in in Doha, you got two gold for the relays. Talk us through the two silver that you got in your individuals. What were they for and how did those races go?

Speaker 2: 5:05

Okay. So the two silvers were the 50 breaststroke, which was a little bit of a surprise my breaststroke's come good in the last six months. We're not sure what's happened there, but we're going with it and the other one was my 200 IM, which is my little baby. I was pretty happy with both of the swims. The 50 breaststroke was only 0.06 outside of what I did at Open States in December, so that was pretty much right on my PB. I was happy with that. The 200 IM was slightly slow, but I was really happy with how it played out and the way that my splits were. My backstroke was two seconds quicker than it usually is, so I'm happy with that.

Speaker 1: 5:47

How do you approach a 200? I am, is it like flat flat out four sprints from the start, or do you build into it?

Speaker 2: 5:53

uh, I tend to try and build into it. I have a background as an age grouper, as a butterfly, so I try and ease into the fly, start working in the backstroke and then get really stuck into the breaststroke and just bring the freestyle home. That's always been the way that I've kind of approached it and it seems to be something that works for me. I know it doesn't work for everyone, it depends on what your stroke is, but for me, luckily, I've got that background with butterfly.

Speaker 1: 6:19

Yeah for sure, and I know you swim the 200 fly as well at times, don't you?

Speaker 2: 6:30

I have in the past. My shoulder won't let me do it anymore, thankfully. I tend to try and just stick to the 100 fly these days. But yeah, I have done the 200 fly in the past at Worlds.

Speaker 1: 6:37

And also the 400 IM. So what's the difference in strategy that you would change from the 200 IM to the 400?

Speaker 2: 6:47

difference in strategy that you would change from the 200 IM to the 400?

Speaker 1: 6:50

400 IM you have to go out a lot easier.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Otherwise you just end up in a world of hurt by the end of it. I did the 400 IM in Montreal at Worlds and that one. I've been doing a lot of work on my fly just to make sure that that first hundred could still be relatively quick and not take that much energy out of me. Again with the 400, I still try and build through it, but just not quite as intense.

Speaker 1: 7:14

So what were the other races that you competed in?

Speaker 2: 7:17

So I did the 100, 200 and 400 freestyle. I had the 400 freestyle and 50 breaststroke on the same day. So I raced the 400 freestyle at about 11 o'clock in the morning and freestyle and 50 breaststroke on the same day. So I raced the 400 freestyle at about 11 o'clock in the morning and then my 50 breaststroke wasn't until about five o'clock at night. So it was really similar to doing heats and finals. So I'm very glad that I did open states to get used to. That Definitely prepared me well.

Speaker 1: 7:41

Did you stay around at the pool or did you go back for a bit of a rest?

Speaker 2: 7:45

I stayed at the pool. It was easy enough to move around in Doha, but I decided it was probably just the best to stay at the pool. So I found a dark little corner and actually had a nap on the seats. Nice, there was a lot of little. The place was like a rabbit warren, so it was lots of little hidey holes that you could go and kind of find your way around into and just hide when you needed a bit of peace and quiet. It was a lot louder than other worlds. There was a lot more music, a lot more kind of atmosphere than there has been previously.

Speaker 1: 8:17

Yeah, look, they seem to sort of hold over a lot from the elite world champs to the masters Masters, like they did in Kazan.

Speaker 2: 8:27

Yeah, they did.

Speaker 1: 8:28

I saw they had the same sort of dais that you were getting presented your medals on and whatnot.

Speaker 2: 8:33

Yeah, the dais was nice. They were rushing us through a little bit, but I guess you get that when there's so many age groups and things like that. It was nice being able to just go and see the pool, like that. They had the screens going, things like that. They had a commentator who was getting very excited at times fantastic and dance music going. It had a lot more atmosphere than it has in the past no, that's really good.

Speaker 1: 8:58

So obviously that was a difference between um japan and do. What other things did you notice, because they were so close together In?

Speaker 2: 9:07

terms of well competitor numbers were a lot less in Doha, so we were all competing in one pool. That was actually really nice having everyone together instead of split over two pools that are sometimes an hour apart. That was definitely a difference I noticed, and it was something that I actually quite liked. In terms of difference between six months, I'm glad that it was in February in Doha, given that it was winter in Qatar at the time, not 50 degrees in summer, because Fukuoka was anyone who will tell you that was there. It was stinking hot was it yes?

Speaker 2: 9:51

um, like 38 degrees every day, about 80 humid. So it was a nice relief to have a little bit of a different environment in that way.

Speaker 1: 10:00

Yeah, yeah how did you find um, like practical things, like getting food in japan as compared to doha? What were the sort of the good things you found and what did you have trouble with?

Speaker 2: 10:13

so I have celiac um, and japan is a big challenge for me in terms of finding gluten-free food um. I always book places that have cooking facilities just in case I can't find anything. So in both Fukuoka and Dohara I did that. Japan it was very much going to supermarkets cooking my own food, not being able to eat out, whereas in Doha it was completely different. It's still a challenge. Every time you travel internationally with a food allergy or intolerance, you've got to be so aware of it. But I found that it was a lot easier in Doha. They were a lot more aware of gluten-free things like that and definitely no language barrier, so it was so much easier that's really good.

Speaker 1: 11:05

Yeah, yeah, and you were able to, sort of in Doha, get out to a supermarket and get the kind of things you needed.

Speaker 2: 11:10

Yes, yeah, there was a huge supermarket right across from the hotel, so it was probably about a two or three hundred meter walk. Um, just sucked across, grabbed what I needed. It was. The best I can compare it to is Costco.

Speaker 1: 11:24

There was a little bit of everything and it was total chaos, um, but they had everything I needed oh, that's good, that's what you need, because I think people forget that that is part of that international experience. When you go to world masters, you've got to think about all those kind of things. You know, it's not just the swimming part, it's your food you're going to eat, it's the recovery in between, um, and it's the travel to and from the pool.

Speaker 2: 11:47

As you said, in japan one was a lot further away yeah, um, in fukuoka it was an hour in between the two pools. Uh, it was relatively easy to get to the main pool, but the secondary pool was an hour on a subway and then a 15-minute shuttle bus, which in the heat wasn't particularly comfortable, whereas Doha it was $10 in an Uber to get each way to and from the pool which is so much easier, and I know you've been to sort of five or six worlds.

Speaker 1: 12:16

What was the first one that you raced at?

Speaker 2: 12:19

I did a World Masters Games in 2009, which was Sydney. The first World Masters Championships was Montreal in 2014.

Speaker 1: 12:27

And so, out of the ones you've been to, which one was your best experience, would you say?

Speaker 2: 12:31

They've all been different in different ways. I loved Montreal because it was my first one. It's been the most exciting, I didn't know what to expect, and also I got a six week holiday in Canada, so who'd complain? No one. I liked Fukuoka because I love Japan, and it was a wonderful experience to be able to go back for a third time and see a different part of the country. Again, I had a three-week holiday afterwards, so that was good. I joined Doha because it was completely different to what I was expecting. I feel like I've learned a lot from that trip, and there's actually other places I'd like to go back to now in the Middle East, which is I never thought I'd be saying that.

Speaker 1: 13:14

So each one has just been different how do you sort of keep your enthusiasm and motivation up between them to go to?

Speaker 2: 13:21

you know that many uh, I take a break. Um, I'm known to take regular breaks from swimming. Um, as well as that, I find little things in between to motivate me, so little meets or a time that I want to meet, like reach or things like that. There's also the social aspect. Everyone knows Masters is quite social, so I've made some absolutely wonderful friends through Masters swimming and they tend to keep me motivated. I've got one friend at the moment who's keeping me accountable for training, checking in to make sure that I'm making it to training sessions and things like that, and I'm getting tough love when I skip them well, that's good to have someone.

Speaker 1: 14:04

That's sort of keeping you accountable, I suppose yeah, it's really good.

Speaker 2: 14:08

Um, but definitely social aspect keeps me motivated. Um, you know, you end up going to competitions just to see your friends instead of worrying about racing, which is always a good thing.

Speaker 1: 14:22

Yeah, look, most of the people I speak to say that the best thing about master swimming is that the friends that you make along the way you know, one of my closest master swimming friends I ended up living with for two years, so it's you know great.

Speaker 1: 14:31

And also when you go to the worlds, like you have, you probably know a lot of those girls that are going up in the age group with you, so you're probably sort of getting to know them along the way as well yeah, there's some that I've known for over 10 years now, um, and we're all born in 1981, so it's we're stuck with each other for life oh gosh. 1981 is when I started year seven. Oh dear.

Speaker 2: 14:59

I always get worried when I realize how young the kids are that I'm training with, because they're 15. They're born in the 2000s. I know, I know it's scary.

Speaker 1: 15:09

I think that the thing with swimming is that it's such a leveler. If you love swimming, you have that common interest. And that's what I suppose is great about masters, because you know we've got people racing like around sort of our ages and then people right up until their 90s and people in their 20s yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:27

I remember at my first worlds in Montreal, I saw a 95 or 96 year old woman do a 200 butterfly. I was just in awe at it.

Speaker 1: 15:35

She was alive at that point when I'm doing a 200 butterfly give us a bit of an insight into a typical training week, like how do you schedule it all in around your work and, um, maybe talk us through a typical training session that you would do uh, in terms of training session, it depends on the week.

Speaker 2: 15:53

Um, some weeks will be heavy aerobic work and a lot of kilometers. Other weeks we do a lot of sprint work. It really does depend on where we are at in the training cycle. A typical training week for me I'm generally doing about five sessions a week at the moment. Before Japan that went up to six or seven. For a few months that was difficult to manage when you're an an adult with you know, grown-up responsibilities.

Speaker 2: 16:21

Uh, in terms of the week, I am really lucky with my work. I work from home four days a week. I'm only in the office one day a week, so it's cut so much time for me being able to work from home and have an employer. That's so encouraging. In that way, I'll generally go to training in the mornings, so I'll train from say, 5.30 to 7.30, get out of the water, drive home, have my breakfast sitting at my desk checking my emails and then work during the day. In the afternoons I'll do my physio, rehab stuff or go for a walk, do kind of active recovery stuff, and then do it all over again the next day.

Speaker 1: 17:04

Do you schedule in some strength work?

Speaker 2: 17:07

I've been a little bit stuck with that lately. My old housemate was a strength and conditioning coach, so she's probably not going to be too happy with me at the moment. But yeah, I plan to. I'm going to nationals in Darwin in a couple of weeks time, so after that I'll start hitting the strength training again. Uh, recently it's been more of the yoga, pilates and physio rehab exercises because my shoulders tend to be a little bit touchy sometimes both shoulders uh, at different times. Yeah, they like to alternate so what?

Speaker 1: 17:38

what's the problem there? Is it bursitis or do you have a tear? What? What's happening? Uh?

Speaker 2: 17:43

I was told a few years ago, back in 2019, that one side definitely had a I think it was grade two bicep tendon tear um, so that took a long time to rehab. It was quite stubborn um and it still flares up every now and again if I don't do my exercises. And the other one, I think, was mainly bursitis and it's just from. I think it compensates for the other one, so it gets a little bit angry about that.

Speaker 1: 18:13

Yeah, I think doing those rehab exercises is the key to protecting those shoulders.

Speaker 2: 18:18

Oh, 100%, and I'm so lucky I've got such a good physio here. She's probably sick of the sight of me by now, because I see her every couple of weeks.

Speaker 1: 18:27

What kind of work do you do with her? Is it sort of like myotherapy type stuff, or is she, you know, adjusting things? What do you do?

Speaker 2: 18:35

she'll do manipulation and dry needling as well as giving me exercises to do. Um, a lot of it comes from. She does a lot of thoracic manipulation as well, because I tend to tighten up like a brick through my thoracic spine. From what I've heard from other swimmers, it's similar for a lot of us, yeah, so she kind of loosens me up every couple of weeks and then I go off and make a mess of myself again. Um and my exercises every afternoon.

Speaker 1: 19:01

I'm glad to hear that you're doing the exercises. That's good.

Speaker 2: 19:04

Oh I turn into a mess if I don't. So she's able to tell immediately if I'm not doing them. And yeah. I'm unable to swim, the amount of times that I've had to do sessions that are five or six kilometers of kick with fins on because my shoulders have given up on me for the day. I, yeah, I don't like thinking about that and I don't like doing it either.

Speaker 1: 19:27

You're not a kicker, you're more of a puller.

Speaker 2: 19:29

I've become more of a puller these days Through age group. I was always really good at kick, but it just seems to have dropped off. I work on it but it's, yeah, definitely better at pull these days.

Speaker 1: 19:41

Do you like using all the equipment that goes along with swimming, or do you prefer just to swim without it?

Speaker 2: 19:48

Obviously, training with kids, we use a lot of the equipment. I'm not a fan of snorkels. I know that they're meant to be great, but I just spend the whole time choking. I did get used to it for a while, um, but then I went probably six months without using one, and trying to get back into actually using a snorkel without choking has been a bit of an experience. So we we tend to use pretty much all of the equipment most sessions and I'm interested with it like training.

Speaker 1: 20:16

You're training with an age group program. Do you does the coach structure in um specific sort of dive turn work every week, or is that just part of the set that you do?

Speaker 2: 20:27

uh, a lot of the time it's integrated into what we're doing. Um, the last few weeks we've done a little bit of skills work, I think, because it's been a little bit of downtime, so we've been doing a lot of turns work, a few couple of sessions on dives, things like that. A lot of the time our starts are very much integrated into the session. We'll definitely do starts or dives a few times a week within our sets yeah, that's.

Speaker 1: 20:53

That's good to hear. I think that a lot of master swimmers don't focus on that. I know the squad I train with we we never do dives until it's maybe a week or two before nationals. And you know, I think you need to do that all the time because it's an important part of the race oh, definitely.

Speaker 2: 21:11

Um, their skills and their easy wins as well, their little skills that if you get them right, you're miles ahead of everyone else. So if you get a good start, you're miles ahead of everyone else. So if you get a good start, a good underwater and a good breakout, you set up really well, particularly in the shorter events. And I think, yeah, as masters, we get so focused on the kilometres and working on the distance and things like that that we forget about all these little race skills like nailing a start or a turn or getting your finish right, and they're just the little things that win a race for you.

Speaker 1: 21:44

Absolutely, and I think turns as well. Like you know, I see a lot of people in the squad I train with they. You know sometimes can't be bothered doing a tumble turn, so they'll do a touch turn.

Speaker 2: 21:53

Yeah, and streamlining as well. You see very interesting methods of streamlining sometimes. Sometimes it's a bit of a starfish experience.

Speaker 1: 22:06

Yes, exactly. Well, I mean, look, some of the people, swimming masters are still swimming double arm backstroke with a breaststroke kick for backstroke. I don't know how they do that. I can't do that with my shoulders either, bringing them both over together.

Speaker 2: 22:19

I think that would actually physically hurt me more than doing normal backstroke and then butterfly with breaststroke kick. That's another one I've seen and I've tried it. I can't do it.

Speaker 1: 22:32

I know, I know it's, yeah, but I suppose it's. You know, it's what they learnt when they were younger because that's what it used to be, so it's hard to change. I mean, when I swam when I was a teenager I did one of those backstroke touch like a flip turn. So it wasn't a somersault like we do now, it was sort of like a tabletop turn. Yeah, and I used to love doing that and was good at doing it, and then I had to change.

Speaker 2: 22:59

I had to learn it all again oh, it's similar with the crossover turn in I am. I am struggling with that massively. I am not at the stage where I'm going to start using it in meets yet, because I'm terrified of getting disqualified. I can do it on one side and it it looks like a normal turn and I've been assured that it's legal. I come in on the other side and I flip over the lane rope so I'm going sideways or something's happening, um. So, yeah, I'm working on that, but it's been a big change from I've just been doing the open turn at the moment, not even a bucket turn, um. But that's, yeah, something that's on the list to work on in the next six months or so it's a hard turn to do.

Speaker 1: 23:43

I mean, people at the olympics and world champs were getting disqualified in that turn because they were turning over onto their um stomach too soon yeah, you go slightly too far, you go past that 90 degrees and you, yeah, cactus yeah, and I think they're really watching it too.

Speaker 2: 24:00

Yeah yeah, so I'm. I'm nervous about turns at the best of time, um, so getting used to doing the crossover turn and making sure it's legal is going to be a big thing for me, I think, yeah do you use any video um feedback in your training, or is it all verbal?

Speaker 2: 24:20

It's mostly verbal. We actually did some video analysis for the first time a few weeks ago. We're still, I think, we're still working through that at the moment, but I think it'll be really good to actually have the time to sit down and have a look at that. We haven't had a chance yet. I'm sure there's going to be things that my coach is going to find that I've been doing for probably 20, 30 years. He's going to have fun undoing that.

Speaker 1: 24:45

When did you first get started in Masters? I know you said before your first World Masters was 2009. Is that the first year you?

Speaker 2: 24:53

were in. So back in 2003, 2004, I started doing both open swimming and Masters. I was using Masters as a bit of a social outlet and a bit of just practice for starts and turns and things like that. And then I moved to New Zealand in 2006 and had a little break from swimming altogether, Came back to it in 2009 when I moved back to Australia and have been doing it pretty much since then. I think I was in the 18 to 24 age group. So the real yeah, the little baby age group.

Speaker 1: 25:30

Do you see yourself heading to Singapore next year?

Speaker 2: 25:34

I was thinking that I wasn't going to, partly because I'll be top of the age group and I've done two in a row and it just was adding up. But I've got a few friends going and I think I'll be there they're twisting your arm.

Speaker 2: 25:49

Yeah, the very rubber arm. I think I get too much FOMO if I don't go, and it's a five-hour flight from Perth, so I really don't have an excuse not to go. Yeah, and you add into that you know, I've got a very supportive employer. I've got a good swimming environment. At the moment. I'll probably it wouldn't be too difficult to keep going through until then. So yeah, I think I'll be there.

Speaker 1: 26:15

Yes, oh, that's good. Watch out to all those people racing Stacia so that they know that you're on the way. Wait till I nail the crossover turn. Exactly that's gonna. That's gonna take off time. Talk us through your race day so you, you get up and you have your brekkie. What do you have for brekkie on race day?

Speaker 2: 26:37

uh, so I'm a little bit different. I know a lot of people go for carbs and stuff. I have an omelette, I I go for a ham, cheese and tomato omelette with a little bit of toast and have my supplements, things like that. I get quite paranoid about missing my race, so I over allow time. I'll generally try and get to the pool a couple of hours before I'm due to race. I get worried about getting into and out of racing suits as well, so that's always fun. Depending on the race day, I'll either half get into my suit to warm up or I'll go warm up in my training bathers, do my activation, stuff like that, and then I'll find a little corner to chill and put my earbuds in and just kind of pretend I'm not there for a while and then, yeah, head to marshaling and off I go so how typically, how close to swimming, would you warm up?

Speaker 2: 27:33

uh, I try and make it as close as I can. It obviously gets a little bit difficult when you're trying to calculate getting in and out of racing suits as well, um, because sometimes it'll take you 15 minutes. Other times it'll just magically take you half an hour. I try and time it so that I'm about 15 minutes before going to marshalling, that I'm in my suit and ready to go. There's been times where it's been as much as an hour, though, because I've been a little bit worried and the meat's been running behind.

Speaker 1: 28:03

So, yeah, um, I try and cut it as fine as I can without causing any anxiety there's no, yeah, you don't want to have any anxious feelings just before, because you've already got enough butterflies happening in your stomach yeah, um.

Speaker 2: 28:16

And in Fukuoka, before my 103, I got stuck getting into my racing suit. So 48 minutes into it I was still only halfway up my hips and it was too hot to get the talcum powder to work and I was so terrified of missing my 100 freestyle. That was a come straight out of the change room and run to marshalling area situation.

Speaker 1: 28:38

Well, that would have got the heart rate up, so that's a good thing.

Speaker 2: 28:40

Definitely did my first 50 split definitely tells people that.

Speaker 1: 28:46

Yeah, that's always a hard one to bring back, isn't it when you go out too hard? And what do you look like in the marshalling area? Are you someone that likes to talk to other people, or you just like to keep to yourself?

Speaker 2: 28:57

It depends how I'm feeling. Sometimes I'll be quiet. Sometimes I'll take my earbuds down with me and just kind of tune out. If there's people that I know in the marshalling area, I'll tend to be a bit more talkative. I'm a huge introvert so it gets a little bit scary sometimes. If it's say world and I don't know anyone that's there, that'll be earbuds in and just kind of stare at the ground. But if it's say nationals, I'll know most of the people in the marshalling area by the time I get there. So there's no point taking the earbuds. That'll be chatting to people.

Speaker 1: 29:29

Do you have? Are you a swimmer that has a superstition before you sort of race, Because a lot of swimmers do.

Speaker 2: 29:35

Not so much anymore. I used to be really fussy with what cap or what goggles I needed to wear, but it's yeah, I've gotten a little bit less fussy with that these days because I've got my club cap and things like that that I race in, and then I had the unfortunate experience of my goggles breaking on the blocks in Japan.

Speaker 1: 29:56

Oh yes, that's right, tell us what happened. 400 freestyle no.

Speaker 2: 30:02

I had no inkling at all that my goggles were going to break.

Speaker 2: 30:07

I got up on the blocks and I was pushing my goggles in just to check to make sure that they weren't going to fall off. After I dived in, the nose bridge snapped right on the plastic bit, like right here, um, and they just came falling away. At first I thought that maybe the little nose clip had come out, so I very quickly kind of stood up and tried to put that back in. And when that, when I had a look at the worst sinking feeling in the world like it's every swimmer's worst nightmare to have something malfunction like that on the blocks um, I turned around to the official, just held my goggles up and they were just dangling in two parts and thankfully they called everyone down off the blocks and next thing, you know, I hear stace from the grandstand and these two pairs of goggles my spare pairs just come like looping over. So thankfully I didn't have to race a 400 with no goggles on thankfully, yeah, yeah, that's good and it's taught me to take my spare pair to the marshalling area with me.

Speaker 2: 31:04

Yes, yes, you forget these things as a master swimmer.

Speaker 1: 31:08

Yes, you do, and I always think I start off the day taking them down, Like we just had states a few weeks ago and I took them down and then by the end of the last race I thought I really don't need that little bag that I take down and then that's when you need it.

Speaker 2: 31:22

Yeah, you get blasé. And then, as soon as you get blasé about it, that's when the problems happen.

Speaker 1: 31:27

Yeah, I think it's always good to have that spare pair of goggles.

Speaker 2: 31:30

Definitely, and I always make sure I've got a spare suit with me as well. I've always got the spare suit in the bag because you never know when there's going to be mishaps with that as well. I've had that many friends like split suits and things like that.

Speaker 1: 31:45

it's just yeah anxiety inducing have you ever used one of those um little skirts they're like a little silk skirt to get your suit on?

Speaker 2: 31:54

yes, I've got a suit skirt now. Um, I got that after Japan, after my experience before the 100 freestyle. Uh, it value so valuable. Um, definitely recommend anyone get them. Um, I cut down my time from about half an hour down to about 20 minutes in the first try of using it. Yep, um, so I just I get the suit skirt, I get the powder out and yeah, just go to town with it well, I'm glad it's working and it's successful for you yeah, it's definitely working do you um over sort of in Doha.

Speaker 1: 32:31

Did you race with the same suit each day or did you have a fresh one?

Speaker 2: 32:35

I changed between two suits. Uh, I've got two tier suits at the moment. Uh, they're both the same kind of suit, um, just one I bought for Fukuoka and it was a little bit older, and one I got for Doha. So on the days where I had events where I didn't necessarily have to be in the suit for quite so long, I wore the new suit because it was very tight, um, and then relay day, things like that I wore the older suit because it's got a little bit more give in it and it's, yeah, not going to cut off circulation tell us about the relay day and how exciting that was winning two gold medals oh, it's that one was really, really special.

Speaker 2: 33:15

So we had the same four ladies travel to Fukuoka as we did to Doha, uh, and we got gold medals in both the freestyle and medley relay, in both Fukuoka and Doha. So we were, we managed to repeat our um, yeah, achievements, I guess, or results, um, in Doha. So we all never dreamed that that would happen. Um, so we were all so excited. We even managed to go slightly quicker in Doha, which everyone's pretty happy about, yeah, oh, well done.

Speaker 1: 33:45

What? What age group was that? The 200 to 239?

Speaker 2: 33:49

uh, we snuck into the 240. Oh, so, I was the token younger person in the age group, um, but the other, yeah, the other ladies are all absolutely amazing swimmers, um, and yeah, it's such a good experience to swim with them, not only once, but to be able to do it at two worlds in a row.

Speaker 1: 34:07

I mean just talking about it. I have so much FOMO because I wanted to go to both of those and circumstances beyond my control I missed out on both. But I'm so determined to be in Singapore next year.

Speaker 2: 34:20

Oh, you have to. It's such a good experience going to Worlds and, yeah, I definitely recommend going to Worlds, like even for people who even just qualify Like. I've got a lot of friends that went to Fukuoka and they were there for the experience of being at Worlds and they all said that they had the time of their lives as well.

Speaker 1: 34:40

So, yeah, yeah, because I think people often feel a little bit intimidated by those swimmers that are going to get the medals and be on the podium.

Speaker 2: 34:50

But you can still have a wonderful experience, you know, going and just racing yourself oh, definitely, yeah, of course, um and it, you know, swimming it's about pbs and times and challenging yourself, not necessarily the medals and things like that. Um and masters, it's about social things as well, so you can see your friends and, yeah, have a good experience. You go to new countries. You, you know, have those kind of experience that go with travel. Um, yeah, and I've now been to places that I didn't think I'd ever go, so it's really good.

Speaker 1: 35:26

Now everyone that comes on the podcast. I love to finish off by asking you a deep dive five, which is sort of your favourite things about swimming. So just give me your first answer that pops into your head. What's the if someone was visiting WA, which would be a good pool to swim in for them?

Speaker 2: 35:45

I like Beatty Park. It's always busy, but at the same time it's got a bit of an atmosphere to it.

Speaker 1: 35:52

And I know you had a broken pair of goggles, but what goggles do you normally use? Which brand?

Speaker 2: 35:57

I've actually still got my Amanzi ones. I've had them for years and I'm just, I'm used to them. They fit perfectly. They never fall off.

Speaker 1: 36:06

Apart from that malfunction, they've been pretty good, you should write to them and ask for some new nose pieces for them.

Speaker 2: 36:13

I was tempted to send the goggles to them, but I didn't.

Speaker 1: 36:17

How about your favorite training drill?

Speaker 2: 36:20

I quite like my double kick breaststroke. I I find that that actually two kick, one pull. I know it's a really old drill and it's a fallback, but it helps my breaststroke.

Speaker 1: 36:32

And what about your favorite training set?

Speaker 2: 36:34

I'm really hoping my coach never hears this, because it's one that I can complain about, but I always feel like I've achieved something. Feel like I've achieved something. Basically, we do eight 100s freestyle on two on 130, yeah, two on 130, four on 125, two on 120. And then we go into eight 50s IM order, fly back breast free on 50, 55, 60 and 45. Then we do 100 fin kick recovery and we do it twice through. That kills me usually, but I tend to just make it and it actually makes me feel like I've achieved something at the end of the session.

Speaker 1: 37:15

Yeah, that's a spicy set. Yeah, and if you were going to be a selector for this coming Paris Olympics and you're putting together your fantasy women's medley relay, who would you have on it and what stroke would they do?

Speaker 2: 37:30

Okay, so backstroke, obviously we've got Kylie McKeown.

Speaker 1: 37:36

Breaststroke. I think our last two have been Chelsea Hodges and Jenna Strauss.

Speaker 2: 37:43

Okay, I'd probably go with Jenna Butterfly, possibly Emma McKeon, and then Freestyle. We've got so many Freestylers.

Speaker 1: 37:56

I know that race at Olympic Trials is going to be faster than the Olympic final.

Speaker 2: 38:02

I'd possibly go with Shana Jack on that one. Yeah, I think I'd go with those four.

Speaker 1: 38:07

Yeah, no good relay. I agree with you. I'd probably I may go for Molly doing the freestyle, but yeah, it's hard to choose between those two. I think they'll end up racing it.

Speaker 2: 38:19

I think it's going to be so close.

Speaker 1: 38:21

Yeah, it'll be such a great try. I know it'll be great to watch absolutely.

Speaker 2: 38:25

Good to watch.

Speaker 1: 38:26

Well, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been lovely talking to you and hearing about all your experiences in Doha and in Japan last year. Thank you, thanks for having me on, yeah, and wishing you a nice resting time and then getting back into it. Thanks, okay, take care, okay. Thanks Okay, take care, okay, thanks, okay, bye, bye, take care, bye. Thanks for listening in to today's episode with Stacia. I'm going to give her training set a go and if you do too, drop us a line and let us know how you went with it. It really sounds like a hard one. Till next time, happy swimming and bye for now.