COACH'D
Join us on COACH’D, a podcast where the some of the world's top athletes, coaches, and performance experts come together to share their stories, insights and secrets to what has made them successful in their own right.
Think of it as a "locker room" chat — unfiltered, raw, and real. We dive deep into all things athletic performance, wellness, science and culture.
COACH'D
Melissa Wu - "x5 Olympic Diver. Athlete To Coach: Building HrdKAW Gym From Garage To Community & Her Blueprint For Empowering Tomorrow's Athletes"
Learn how Mel and her siblings turned a garage gym into a community cornerstone, paying tribute to their late sister, Kirsten, along the way.
Dive into the challenges and triumphs of navigating family dynamics in business, as Melissa shares the secret sauce of balancing professional roles and personal relationships within a family-run gym. From managing startup hurdles to building a sense of community, this episode is a masterclass in turning familial bonds into entrepreneurial success.
Melissa opens up about her athletic journey, from the thrilling heights of the Olympics and Commonwealth Games to the grueling grind of injury management. Discover how her experiences as an elite athlete have shaped her unique coaching philosophy, emphasising the importance of work ethic, mental resilience, and strategic recovery.
As she transitions from competitor to coach, Melissa shares insights on mentoring young athletes, nurturing their potential while preparing them for the pressures of high-performance sports. This episode is packed with wisdom for anyone passionate about sports or looking to make their mark in the world of fitness.
Uncover the valuable lessons Melissa has learned from her transition from athlete to coach and how she plans to inspire the next generation. With a focus on building genuine connections and fostering growth, this episode offers a fresh perspective on the delicate balance between athletic dreams and business ambitions.
You can follow Mel & hrdKAW Strength here on:
Instagram: melissapagewu
Instagram: hrdkawstrength
Thank-you to our sponsors Iron Edge and VALD Performance.
Iron Edge are Australia’s leading equipment supplier for all your coaching needs.
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For all enquires please email:
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https://open.spotify.com/show/1YJMztpYSgnPusEXB3fWcc?si=FJsWITv7QdSCSgCt3lkElw
Join us on Coached, a podcast where some of the world's top athletes, coaches and performance experts come together to share their stories, insights and secrets to what has made them successful in their own right. Think of this as a locker room chat unfiltered, raw and real. We dive deep into all things athletic performance, wellness, science and sporting culture and sporting culture. Hear from those who have played, coached and built their way to the top with athletes from the field, coaches and medical in the performance setting, or owners, managers and brands in the front office, while also getting an insider's view on my own personal experiences in this high-performance world. If you're passionate about sports, curious about the minds of champion athletes or looking for information and inspiration on your own journey, coach is the place for you. Melissa Wu, welcome to Coached.
Melissa Wu:Thanks for having me.
Jordi Taylor:I'm very excited to chat to you today, obviously, but secondly, I'm very honoured to be here at Hardcore in this new facility, which I think is absolutely amazing. I met your brother Josh, before. Great guy Looked after me straight away. Obviously this is a very special place for you, very special community. What does it actually mean to you to have a facility like this?
Melissa Wu:It's pretty amazing to have this facility. It's been something that my family and I have worked really hard at for quite a few years now. So, obviously, working with my brother, josh, and also my sister, maddie, we started hardcore probably in 2019. And we actually started just in our garage gym. So we kind of at that point, we didn't really know exactly what it was going to turn out to be. Josh obviously he's got a background in weightlifting, as does Maddie, but then also, over the years, a bit more work in the strength conditioning space as well. So in the beginning we started it as a wafting club predominantly.
Melissa Wu:I didn't have too much to do with like being in the business necessarily. It was more just kind of starting it and setting the gym up in our garage. And then Josh and Matt grew it really quickly. We had like no space in the garage. It was just people everywhere, uh, and we extended it out the back. Actually, probably that was a bit after covid. Um, yeah, we had to extend it out the back and overran a whole like house basically, uh, but that was good, that was like the og kind of days and, um, we knew that we were getting some traction there. And then, probably about two years ago we made the decision to jump from the garage to like a proper industrial space and I think for us that was a bit of a scary jump, just having overheads and I guess, taking that plunge, being like, okay, this is real. Now we've got to kind of throw everything into it. And that was pretty much the point when I decided to come into the business and coach as well.
Melissa Wu:Before that I'd done a bit of I was doing some diving coaching Before that I'd done a bit of I was doing some diving coaching before that, and I'd also done like a little bit of like I had all my weightlifting qualifications as well, but, yeah, pretty much came in not to coach weightlifting, though, but work with the weightlifters initially, more from the strength and conditioning side of things, but then I actually started my own program as well, and started working with the Western Sydney Academy of Sport, which was really cool.
Melissa Wu:So it kind of just grew from there and then we were in that space for two years and our goal in that time was basically to outgrow it. It was a good space for like a first proper gym. We knew it was probably going to be a bit hard to work with in terms of the setup of the space. It had, like, the office above it, but then, because of that, it had these poles in the middle of the space, so it made it a little bit hard to kind of get around and we basically split it down the middle. So it was Olympic lifting down one side and then strength and conditioning down the other, which is pretty much what we've done here. That seemed to work really well for us. But down the other, which is pretty much what we've done here, that seemed to work really well for us.
Melissa Wu:Uh, but yeah, it's, it's been an amazing journey so far. Um, and we moved into this space a couple of. It's been a couple months now, a few months ago, right before um, before I went to Paris actually for the Olympics this year, um, and yeah, basically, so that's, that's our business and when we, when we started it. Um, the name hardcore basically came about because our sister Kirsten, who passed away 10 years ago.
Melissa Wu:Her initials, or her name's Kirsten Amelia Wu, so her initials are K-A-W, and she actually came up with the name Hardcore. But she loved baking and doing things like that, so she actually would always say that she wanted to have a bakery called Hardcore Cakes or something like that. So we actually stole the name from her, but we thought it was really fitting for a gym and it's our way, I guess, of just keeping her, as, I guess, part of our business and we're a very family-oriented business and it's amazing being out of work with my brother and sister and we basically think of our gym as a bit of like a family as well all our members and we have that amazing mural up the back as well which kind of encompasses that whole family or our family values pretty much.
Jordi Taylor:Yeah, it's pretty much the main back story of it no unreal and there's a lot to unpack there. But to start off with, a lot of people say don't go into business with family for a variety of reasons. Obviously, when money gets involved, things can get a little bit crazy, I guess even for you guys. Like there's levels of media attention and things like that. Like how do you navigate the family dynamics of being in business together and what would you say to others that are maybe sitting on the edge going do I do it? Do I not do it? Where do you sort of sit?
Melissa Wu:Yeah, look, it's funny because when I, when we first started the business business, I would listen to a lot of podcasts, actually a lot of podcasts on business or specifically gyms and that sort of thing who had started out and there were so many of them that would say don't go into business with your family and honestly doing since doing it, I couldn't disagree more with that, I think, if anything.
Melissa Wu:Your family you know that you can be really strong with your opinions and you can be very passionate about it, but you know who they are. You know that everybody wants the best thing for the business and so anytime that you do have disagreements or you don't always, you know, not everything aligns it's because someone really believes in what they're doing and so you can kind of say what you think and not have to worry about them just turning around and being like that's it, we're done, kind of thing. You know you're kind of like they're always going to be family. So for us, I think that that's been such an advantage for us. We were always very close-knit as it was, and I think, yeah, having those little disagreements just kind of makes us stronger. It makes me because I'm not going to just turn around and be like oh, you know, this is too hard. I know I'm always going to be, you know, related to my brother and sister. I'm always going to have those little disagreements. It makes me sometimes just realise oh okay, I never thought of it that way and I take their opinion into consideration, and that, I think, is massive to be able to have
Melissa Wu:people that you rely on, but that you can also just really say what you think or what you believe. So I've loved it so far and I would say, if you're thinking about it, if you are close with your family and you kind of know that they've got your back, I would say like go for it. Family is amazing to go into business with, because you do have each other's back and you need that in business.
Jordi Taylor:Yeah, 100%, and you're exactly right, like that's why I asked the question, because so many people will say it's the worst thing to do. But then all of a sudden you do get a couple of people that say there wouldn't be another way they would do it. So it's always good to hear the opposite side of the coin, because we always hear you know the other With you, guys like Do you all have a different skill set that you think that really balances the business out? Or do you think that maybe you're way too far one way, which means that, say, the community side of things is so strong, but maybe your business systems lack in some areas? Or have you navigated that as you've grown as well, because things adapt and change?
Melissa Wu:Yeah, I think we've definitely learnt as we've grown that the roles and responsibilities in the business obviously grow as well. So now that we're at the size that we are, obviously there's a lot of different things going on. I think we all Matt, josh and I all have our strengths in terms of what we do, in terms of the services that we offer. So obviously Matt and Josh stick more to the weightlifting coaching. I have the S&C programs, but we also can kind of float between. So we in the last, especially since moving to this space and having more room now, we've really focused on finding a way to not make our services so separate. I guess trying to build on our strengths in that sense, and basically the overarching goal is always this long-term athlete development goal, whether they're doing olympic weightlifting or they're in snc and they're in other sports. But basically, for example, I'll work with the weightlifters, I'll look at how they how they're moving, what they need, and then they'll have designated days where they'll come into the snc program and do strength and conditioning. Or I have kids who I want to do some Olympic weightlifting as part of their SNC program and I might go to Josh and say, hey, can you have a look at their technique. We've been working on this. You know obviously all coaches know that you don't have a lot of time in an SNC session for Olympic lifting. You know you've got to get through a certain amount of work sometimes because we're just hitting it a bit week by week. I know, okay, they need a bit of extra work on technique. If I want to improve this, they need a bit extra. So I'll go to Josh with that.
Melissa Wu:Mad, she's really busy. She works full-time actually outside of the business. So she just basically offers her time for free for us in the business, which we're really grateful for. But she's got a bit. She's good with all the techie stuff, good with finance, all that kind of thing. So she at the moment has taken a little bit more of a backseat in terms of hands-on coaching, but she's very much involved still in all of those things and has other roles in terms of weight, in being in like New South Wales weightlifting on the board, or she's a mentored coach as well.
Melissa Wu:So she quite often will do international trips um as a coach for weightlifting as well um, so we've got a bit of a mix of skills, but I think we're learning over time how to work together a little bit more and blend that together, I think that's actually really important, like a lot of people, um, you know they'll say like you know, your strengths are my weaknesses and inverse if we're in business together.
Jordi Taylor:But there isn't a lot of crossover sometimes and I think you've done a really good job of explaining how that we can. You can be siloed or have their own specialties, but to have a business that runs congruently we need to work together and I think that's actually a really good way of looking at it, because there's no point in and if we were to use a just a pure business example, there's no reason for you to say I don't want to know what happens with the books or anything like that. Yeah, because if you don't, then you're just blissfully ignorant. And it's the same with the performance side of things, like, I think, the awareness for you, you understand what long-term athletic development is as a framework and as a principle and then really like the utensils that you use being the training simulators you're bouncing around between each other. Yeah, and I do want to ask one other question about the business, but I will ask this because it flows really nicely.
Jordi Taylor:Like weightlifting in snc it gets a bit of a bad rap. It's here, it's there, you've got your brother, who's not only an exceptional coach but a very good athlete himself. How do you find that in a small, dense period of a training block? How do you add weightlifting into a youth athletes program, for example, to try to get like maximum adaptation or maximum advantage of actually having access to someone like him?
Melissa Wu:I think it depends on the athlete. I have a lot of especially boys that come in that want to. They see it here every day. I think that's the thing. If they weren't exposed to it it might be different, but they're exposed to it all the time. Some of them, if they start asking about it and they want to do it, they'll start teaching them weightlifting. But and they want to do it I'll start teaching them weightlifting.
Melissa Wu:But you have to be careful too, because boys can be a bit like that they just want to lift heavy or they want to just lift weight and they do have a tendency to want to bypass the important building blocks of just general movement foundations. So it really depends and it will depend on where they're at in their season in their training, and maybe we'll just add it in. Maybe if they're getting a bit close to the comp and we just want a little bit of a power kind of thing and there's something just that they enjoy, we'll do it that way or another actually, way that I like to implement. It is a lot of kids, if they're coming through and they're injured and they can't do a lot of pliers, especially the landing and pliers. Basically, I think, weightlifting. For me, that's probably where I've used it the most.
Melissa Wu:It's been a really good way for me to implement some pliers and make or help athletes feel that they're not injured.
Melissa Wu:They're still able to do all of these weightlifting movements and that's how we basically add in a little bit more force development. But they're learning technique, they're getting stronger at the same time. But really, yeah, it depends on the athlete and obviously we actually run the programs concurrently. So even though Josh is there, he's quite often coaching weightlifting at the same time. So we just have to be mindful of of when. I know you know what's acquired a day. So it might depends on a lot of different factors. Um, but yeah, we've even had some kit, like some athletes who want to try weightlifting and they've decided that they wanted to, um, you know, do their snc session and then like, stay back for weightlifting after and, um, yeah, all sorts of things like that.
Jordi Taylor:Basically and that's the perfect answer to it all. Like the biggest thing is it depends. Like if you have a dogmatic approach to anything, no matter what it is, in training, you're always going to miss the mark. And I think you gave a couple of great examples of how you utilise it with the athletes in different scenarios. And also, like I went through a bit of a weightlifting phase in my coaching career. I think everyone goes through different phases.
Jordi Taylor:I went through powerlifting, weightlifting at CrossFit Trojan with Damon Kelly, spent a lot of time with him and I learnt so much off him. But I as a rugby league player not a very good one, but I was a rugby player nonetheless I would do a weightlifting specific day because I just really enjoyed it. I think that's the other element a lot of people just forget is like it's a great new skill to learn. You're getting into some cool positions, you're challenging yourself, like if you're doing two or three days in the gym with your you know you structured quote-unquote snc with you, but they wanted to stay back. They wanted to come in for an extra session on the weekend to do a dedicated weightlifting class go nuts yeah, like it's, it's all about just time and time and place yeah, and I think that's how a lot of them like start.
Melissa Wu:A lot of them like I'll start putting in the basics, because there is like, especially with the younger athletes, when they first come in, uh, they are really well, that's the thing. They first come in and they get really intimidated because they kind of see all these people weightlifting on the other side of the gym and I say don't worry, we're not going to do that. But then what happens most often? I'll start building all their movement foundations and they'll come to me and ask about hey, can I try this? Because they see it being done. So I think that's really cool.
Melissa Wu:When it's driven by them, they're really like, they're excited by it and that's the best. Then kind of flow on, I think, and best way to start learning, and they're more likely to do it like with good technique than not rush it. I think that they see all the work that the other, the weightlifters, are doing literally opposite them. Yeah, are doing literally opposite them. Yeah, they lift heavy weights, but a lot of what they're doing is a lot of technique work as well. So I think it's really good for them.
Melissa Wu:It's good for them to see that, because when I first, like when I was doing gym when I was younger. I never was exposed to weightlifting until my siblings did it, so I wish that I had have done it from a younger age because I think there's so many benefits to it.
Jordi Taylor:Yeah, and derivatives, they do take the jump. It's a little bit easy because they've done something similar, or you. You basically just keep it very pure, if that makes sense, like you're a pure lifting.
Melissa Wu:No, I'll start with things that I guess.
Melissa Wu:For me, the question that I always ask myself is like, what am I trying to get out of this exercise? Some of it, like you said, is just, it's a bit of fun for them, but I won't. And the same thing, I guess, even though pure weightlifting is weightlifting, there's always so much technique work that goes into it. So they are doing a lot of exercises that aren't strictly just snatch or clean and jerk. They're doing a lot of other drills and that kind of thing. So I'm a big fan of incorporating those sorts of things in and that way, like, like you said, it's not such a big jump into doing even a clean, just that bar turnover. If they've already been doing like clean pulls or even like high um sorry, high pulls, anything like that, like they're always, they're already halfway there, like they're used to it, and you've already taught them that bar path, how to create power, how to use the right technique. So then for them to be able to then just turn the bar over and get under, it is a lot more simple for them.
Jordi Taylor:And then it's exciting because they're like, okay, they've learned this skill, but they already had like 80 of the skill, yeah, and and, but you were able to, also, while teaching that, you were able to build their strength, power um technique as well and ultimately, you're seeing the bigger picture, which is the sign of a coach that understands the, the long-term athlete development model, versus the session by session, or you know, we've got it from x to y in a short period of time, which, yeah, which is great to hear. And, um, we haven't even touched on you as the, the athlete, the decorated athlete that you are. But before we do and I think that's important to touch on, you do. You've had an amazing have, an amazing athlete career and I think for a lot of people, um, you started very humbly in a garage with the gym, and I think it would be very easy for you to say well, maybe ego wise or I don't know what it may be to go into a facility like this from day one.
Jordi Taylor:Talk us through. Like it was there a, a reason. You started small and went big. Like is that family values? Is that stuff you learn along the way? Like, what is that process there? Because a lot of people make the mistake of going into something like this. They haven't built the community, they may not have enough cash reserves. All of a sudden they're swimming in red, which is not where you want to be. Maybe a bit of a thought process behind how that's evolved.
Melissa Wu:Yeah, sure. Well, I think a number of factors in the beginning. One, obviously the cost is it's a big outlay. Even to fit out a home gym was still costly Flooring alone. And then even just to get the basics of what we wanted to start with, we actually ended up in the garage. We actually had set it up initially one way that was kind of a bit more general, and we actually had to redo it later and we made like weightlifting specific after that. Um. So in the beginning we weren't like 100 sure, I was originally going to work in the business more than what I did, and then we decided to. I was still diving and traveling, so we scrapped it. We had. We had to go and buy um, like the really thick flooring, like to drop weightlifting.
Melissa Wu:Uh like to keep it quiet for the, for the neighbors, and there there was also cars parked on the street and everything but yeah.
Jordi Taylor:Did you ever run into any problems there? And sorry to interrupt but like I know a lot of people, sometimes their neighbours might be a little bit annoyed or like with the parking and stuff like that, and the council will start getting involved Like did you have any problems or you were pretty lucky.
Melissa Wu:The people most were pretty good. The the people most were pretty good. But the people next to us weren't like super happy with the noise. I didn't think it was like I guess, for like a neighbourhood, it was a bit loud, but it wasn't like it wasn't the worst, I don't think. But, yeah, we did have the council come by and they were like this is amazing, you've got the thick flooring like it's great. They didn't have any problem with it. So, flooring like it's great. Um, they didn't have any problem with it. So, uh, we play on.
Melissa Wu:Basically, yeah, we're just like, and we tried to be as mindful as we could, obviously. So we had like times. We wouldn't start from a particular time, we wouldn't finish, we wouldn't go beyond a certain time to be respectful of the neighbors, um, but yeah, that like the. Basically, in the beginning, though, you don't have a choice, like if you don't have the funds to just jump into a big facility for us, we didn't want to do that, we wanted to just start and and that's the thing because it does have a tendency to not be what you thought it was going to be until you get in and do it it was just safer for us to be able to do that from home, uh, with no overheads, and then and we did end up changing anyway um, but then what was I going to say also? Yeah, actually one.
Melissa Wu:One challenge that I personally had a lot when I started the business was, I think, just coming from a sport and being such a perfectionist as an athlete I would and, as I mentioned, I would listen to all these podcasts, I would do all this research.
Melissa Wu:At that time I wasn't that active in the business as a coach, but, um, very much was in setting it up and that sort of thing, and I always had this, these fears around doing something without being like 110% prepared for it, and I wanted every step to be perfect along the way, and one of the biggest things I learned and that my family helped me with was just like we just sometimes have to just get in and do it. So for us, definitely, it was good having that safety in the beginning, but even that was, you know, hard for me in the beginning. Just everything about being in a business is, you know, an unknown or something that you mess up and you have to correct later, or that you just like you're trying to find information, and that's why you read and you listen to podcasts and you're just like I just have to do it and just see I can't. No one's going to hand me the magic answer and every business is different anyway, so you kind of just have to roll with the punches. But that was one skill that I think is something I still work on now. But I've learned to deal with it better and we've now evolved.
Melissa Wu:A couple of times. It was probably definitely like less scary each time that we did it 100%.
Jordi Taylor:Well, that'd be like using your sport as an example. That'd be like reading about diving, watching videos about diving, listening about diving but never actually jumping in a pool.
Melissa Wu:Yes, exactly.
Jordi Taylor:You're only ever going to learn one way you can do all the research and have all the preparation, but until you actually do that or face that moment, dive in and do it. Now on to your sporting career, which I probably should have mentioned at the start, but I do want to shine light on probably what people don't know about you, which is the coaching side, and I think there's a lot of overlap and a lot of intersection here. Now, I believe, you've won over 60 medals.
Melissa Wu:That was the last research. I don't even know.
Jordi Taylor:Five-time Olympics, which is phenomenal, which we'll get to. Five Comm Games, also phenomenal. And multiple medals across those Multiple medals at World Championships and World Cups, ph world cups phenomenal career so far. Um, I think for me, the thing that I still remember, this super, super clear, was the com games. Um, uh, I actually forget the year. Uh was, oh, six. Is that your first one? So I was in grade six at school. So that's why I remember, because I think that was the time where I really like sport and you know there wasn't ko at that time, like it was a bit more traditional, like you had the Olympics and con games were huge, because it was the time of the year where you got televised or extra television, extra coverage, and you were 13 and competing. Like as a 13 year old I don't remember what I was doing at 13. I wasn't competing on TV, I didn't have all that sort of extra attention, like what was that like?
Melissa Wu:It was pretty insane that first year when I was 13.
Melissa Wu:It was pretty insane because that was like you said, that was the time of traditional media. We didn't have social media yet. So it kind of blew up a bit, I think, just because I was so small and I was doing synchro with a girl who's like literally poor thing she's like literally just average height, but she looked like enormous next to me because I was so tiny and it really just blew up everywhere and there was a lot of media and I didn't really have any media training or anything. They just sort of threw me in front of the cameras and just said speak, do your thing. So I just made it up as I went. But yeah, it was really cool that first year year, I think, just not having any pressure on me, just just being thrown onto the international stage. It was just sort of see how you go. So that that first year in particular was like was crazy, but I really enjoyed it as well. It was it was amazing.
Jordi Taylor:Do you think that's like that blissful ignorance, like you don't know? Yes, definitely what you don't know. So for you, at that point in time, you were just out there enjoying it, and I've heard you speak about before. Like you, normally in competitions you don't really get many people to events, you know. But when it comes to com games and the olympics, you get a lot of people to yeah, to spectate and watch.
Jordi Taylor:Was there anything that? Because it was such uh maybe not even without you realizing, but a high pressure environment, like there would have been so many people watching that you wouldn't have even realized at that point in time yeah did? Was there any pressure at all? Or you felt there was.
Melissa Wu:It was just just another dive in the pool uh, yeah, I didn't feel actually pressure, even though there was a lot of media hype. There was a lot of people like I remember, when I even at like in that time because that con games was in Melbourne, so it was a home games I remember having to go out in the street somewhere there and people would like recognize me.
Melissa Wu:It was so, so weird, but I didn't actually feel pressure from any of that sort of thing. I did feel a lot of pressure, though, from basically the training environment that I was in was a very high pressure environment and at that time that was our AIS was in Brisbane and we all trained there together, so so they would sort of felt like they would sort of pit people against each other and everyone wanted to. You know those spots, and so you were constantly fighting for those spots with your teammates and it wasn't the best training environment. But I always felt the pressure to perform, because we'd have regular reviews of performance and they were fine to tell you that you were underperforming. They were fine to keep people out, and this was a lot of like childhood trauma with with that sort of thing. Uh, so for me to make Commonwealth Games even though it was really fun and exciting and there was all this outside stuff, I think like inside I really felt like, okay, I just need to make sure that.
Jordi Taylor:I that, I that I qualify that I do well.
Melissa Wu:My coaches like set these targets for me. If I don't meet them I could be out like all those sort of things are happening underneath the surface. So definitely that pressure was really, really high for me going to comp. But that's. I think that's probably why I enjoyed all the other rest of the stuff, because people telling me how fantastic I was, whereas the other hand I was like make sure you perform so. So it was a bit night and day. That was quite funny.
Jordi Taylor:And now, obviously, with you coaching athletes that are of similar age not that you're comparing where you were at that point in your career to where they're at at their point in their probably not even sporting career, just in their life. What really valuable lessons did or have you passed on to some of the kids that are coming through now from that experience?
Melissa Wu:Yeah, I think probably obviously, like in my job, I love, like I support all of the athletes. I think the ones who I've passed on the most valuable lessons to are the ones who I see a bit of me in and they're operating already like an elite athlete. Maybe they're pre-elite, but you can tell that they're going to be elite, that they already have that mindset. Probably like an example I could think of would be like athletes who have a really good work ethic and I think that that's like essential for any athlete, no matter how talented or not talented you need the work ethic.
Jordi Taylor:And what's your definition of work ethic?
Melissa Wu:So it's just basically coming in and everything that you do, there's an intent behind it, there's a reason behind it. You're not just going through the motions, but you know that, whether you enjoy what you're doing or not, that that is like an essential part of the journey that you're on to get where you want to go to achieve your goals. So, as an example, I have athletes come in who have a good work ethic and they just want to smash themselves in the gym and for them it's like okay, I need to work hard, I know it's a good session because I'm dying, but then they might go to training the next day and that might actually have the opposite effect. It might be detrimental. They can't recover well and something that should have been a really important session for them in their sport actually they've lost time because that they didn't get the most out of that session. So I think for me something an example would be like educating them of knowing like what's important. So I guess it's coming out and having that like kind of macro outlook okay, this is where you're at in your season, this is what's important, this is the comp you're training for. These are your swimming or whatever sport you're in sessions that are important, so your gym has to complement that. You can't come and smash yourself and then you've lost important sessions that are actually going to help your performance. So I think teaching them when to go hard and when to not and part of that is not just for performance but also for, I guess, self-preservation and lessons to learn later.
Melissa Wu:Because I think one thing that I struggle with a lot, especially coming from a high-performance environment, was for me when I was younger. It was always just like more is more, more is better, go harder and that's great. And then you get to a point where you get injured or you burn out or you get older and you just can't recover as quickly. You can't just smash yourself every session. You end up taking one step forward and two steps back.
Melissa Wu:So that's something I guess I wish I learned when I was younger, just knowing that line of because I really struggled then too, when I got older, feeling like I wasn't working hard because I had to pull back or because I wasn't doing what I could do 10 years before that. So yeah, I think that's an example of one of the lessons, or even there's a. There's a lot of different lessons that, um, that I think I've passed on. Sometimes you see them with their pressures, dealing with family or coaches, things like that. I think just having someone in your support network but who's also a kind of external to your like super everyday life in your sport is really helpful for them as well and you feel like you get good behind because they know your story a little bit.
Jordi Taylor:They know that what you achieved at such a young age and continue to achieve. You know probably where a lot of people start to retire. You know mid-20s and diving is probably like the usual yeah yeah.
Jordi Taylor:You know to continue past that and still keep striving to compete at a really high level. Do you feel like you get really good buy-in from the athletes, like you don't have to sell them on the idea too much. It's like, look, I've done this, these are my mistakes. Like I can see you doing some of this stuff. I can see you doing some of this stuff today. Buy-in's that really good.
Melissa Wu:Or is it still no matter what whether you're Melissa Wu or you're Melissa Y down the street connection? Or do you feel like because you have a little bit of that experience, you get better buy-in? To be honest, I think, like most of them, most of the athletes I work with are a little bit younger, in that they're probably like teenage age as opposed to adults. So I think at that age they know what I've done, they know my achievements in diving, but the Mel Woo that they see and deal with every day is just like it's just me. So I think that most of their buy-in doesn't necessarily occur from who I am or what I've done. It's actually more to do with, um, the connection that you make with them day-to-day in the gym and they it's um, they come in here and they feel comfortable with you, um, and, yeah, they know.
Melissa Wu:They know that you've been through it when you're younger. But I think that's the thing ultimately, too, is that, um, you could be whoever and have done any achievement, but if you can't relate to athletes or you can't get them to open up, then it doesn't matter what you've done. So I think that's always one thing that I try and really focus on is just trying to build the connections with them and let them feel like they're able to chat to me if they need to. But most of that, I think, happens more from just the trust that you build rather than anything that you've done in your own career. So they know that whatever you say, it's coming from a place of experience.
Melissa Wu:But I think the actual buy-in happens because they trust you as a person, not because you're, you know, so and so.
Jordi Taylor:Five-time champion I think that's really the reason I wanted to touch on. That was that's where I thought you were going to say but you never know. But I think for another coach listening to this that haven't hasn't had um massive success in sport, it goes to show that it doesn't matter, you don't necessarily need to have that. It's a nice to have, it's not a a need to have, like it certainly may help. But also, at the end of the day, it comes back to exactly what you were saying around building genuine connections, having the trust and buying. You know the typical things we hear around developing with our athletes to have that, I guess, lasting impact, for them to actually listen to what you want to say, or that side of things. I think that's really important. That's why I wanted to touch on that there. Great way of answering it.
Jordi Taylor:Okay, five olympics is phenomenal. I don't care what anyone would say. I think it's just ridiculous to be able to do that for so long and compete at such a high level. Olympics one versus olympics five? Um, can you sort of explain the difference between, I guess, where you're at your career, both physically, but also like mentally as well? Like being 16, I believe, was your first olymp 31 for?
Melissa Wu:your last one. Is that right? 31? No, I think. How am I? No 32.
Jordi Taylor:32 for your last one. So 16 years, yeah, 16 years. That's quick, Matt 16 years of competing at such a high level, at the right time as well, you know, to make the Olympics. Do you want to sort of just go through, like just because we could talk about that all day, but just that first year to last year, some of those big differences that you noticed?
Melissa Wu:yeah, yeah, I think it's in terms of like. If you're going to cover it from like physically and mentally, it would almost be like a completely inverse relationship from the first to the last. So, for example, physically at my first one you know the best, also the best that um that I was performing in my career, probably at that age because you're really good when you're young and diving um the least injured, the um you know, least amount of time under stress. So everything felt really easy physically at that point but mentally really really hard to compete under pressure, especially individually. I had a lot of synchro success when I was younger, so typically with someone next to me, an individual.
Melissa Wu:I would just cave under pressure every time but then other end of the spectrum, paris, a lot older, a lot of injuries, a lot of, I guess, training history.
Melissa Wu:So long time in the sport, just yeah, a lot of wear and tear, but on the other hand, mentally, a lot of experience, a lot of hard work on my mental fortitude and being able to perform under pressure. So, even though diving-wise, it gets harder the older I get, basically mentally you kind of just build this toolbox of stuff that you can use and you learn over time and it's something that you never feel like you really master, but you get a lot better at doing it. And definitely towards the back end of my career I didn't have to think about it as much, whereas in the middle, trying to work on me as a person and perform better was like something that was really really hard and to work really hard at, but yeah, and better, it was like something that was really really hard to work really hard at, uh, but yeah, even though I had stuff to work at it. Now I think definitely it all kind of comes together. So, yeah, it's pretty much the main difference opposite basically to how it started.
Jordi Taylor:If you had to pick one of those two, um, where would you rather be in your career? Like which? Which experience would you rather have now, knowing all of it? Would you rather rather be the young, you know? The younger person that can basically do anything with not even thinking about it? Or the older person that has all the experience, doesn't have to think. They just go out there and do it? Like which one would you rather be if you had to pick?
Melissa Wu:Oh, it's so hard. If you had to pick, I think, like I think it's like you can't I'd obviously say this like I am where I am right now in life at like the second one, so I'd pick that. But I also think that you can't be where I was at that point without having the first one as well. So I think, like I really need to go through all those experiences to get to where I am now. But obviously I'd probably at this point pick this one because it's the current me, that journey of going through that mental stuff that's not just for diving, that's for life and it transfers to all aspects of my life. So I'll have to go with that one, probably at the moment.
Jordi Taylor:It was a good nothing answer to bring it back into a something answer and I'm probably going to pronounce his name wrong, so I apologise and you can correct me when I say it properly, but Chava Sombrino.
Melissa Wu:Yeah, Chava Sombrino.
Jordi Taylor:That's pretty close. That's good. In a few articles and a few other podcasts I've heard you credit him for a lot of your success and working together for such a long period of time, and I think it's quite fitting now where you're at in your I guess post-professional career if that makes sense working in this sort of space. Over 14 years you work with him, I believe. Uh, what, what were like the big lessons that you learned from him? You know at any point in your career that have just stuck with you. You know that one or two things that, no matter what, you always remember yeah, that um so many Chava's been amazing.
Melissa Wu:He's been my coach for a really long time, but more than that he's been a massive mentor to me as a person and I think all a lot of the growth I've achieved like as a person has been not just with him supporting me, but I've always seen him as a really big role model. I think one of the things that has really stuck with me the most that he's not necessarily taught me but just I just see him do it every day is just the way that he's not necessarily taught me, but I just see him do it every day is just the way that he deals with people and the connections that he builds with people. It's always really genuine and he's been, you know, as the head coach of NSW for years and years, long before I even dived with him.
Jordi Taylor:But he talks to everybody, he connects with everybody at the top, at the lowest level.
Melissa Wu:He's just amazing like that. And it um, I think, for me, knowing as an athlete, how he makes me feel, makes me really appreciate the work that he does with all these people. And knowing like, okay, if you're in a role like that, where you, you have some sort of influence over people, you can, um, yeah, not that you make them feel bad on purpose, but you can make people feel really good, you can spur them on to achieve massive things, you can have such an impact on people. So I think for me, that's one of the things I always aspire to be. Now that I'm in coaching roles as well, having someone like that, I think it's just amazing.
Jordi Taylor:Yeah, unreal. I think that probably ties back into your answer before as well. Around you know who you are as a person and how you coach. You quite often, without even realising, subconsciously, take on some of the values and morals that your coaches have had or passed on to you throughout your sporting career, either at your level or at a junior level or whatever else. Even for myself, I remember some of the coaches that I had, and some were awesome, some not so awesome, but you still learn either way.
Jordi Taylor:And then some of those really good qualities, subconsciously you realise like, oh, I did that because of this person or that person. So I think it's always great to give credit to the people that have helped us get to where we are, especially in what we do, because it sometimes can feel very isolating at times or feel like you don't know what you're doing. And I'm sure that every coach at that point in time, whether you're in the NBA, nfl, nrl probably feel like they don't know what they're doing at some point in the time. But you've got that grounding values that you sort of come back to or the people that influence you and you could reach out to them and I'm sure if you ever had any problems. Now you'd be able to reach out to him and he'll get back to you straight away.
Jordi Taylor:You started to have a few niggles and a few injuries, which probably altered your training loads in the way that you had to approach training and I think high performance sport isn't healthy for starters, like if you want to be one of the best athletes in the world, especially your chosen sport like it's not healthy.
Jordi Taylor:You can't be healthy all the time and health and performance sit on like a bit of a bandwidth at times, going to be more healthy and have a better performance at times. You may may not, but ultimately at the end of the day, as long as you perform at the moment in time, that's really what matters. So it's kind of like a bit of a sliding scale, if that makes sense to try to picture it. Yeah, for sure, some of the injuries you sort of had during the back end of your career probably because they're most recent, they're probably easy to talk to and talk through how the way that you went about training and then ultimately like how did that affect the way that you then prepared for training? Because a lot of athletes or a lot of coaches listening will go through something similar at different points and it's really nice to be able to anchor back to you know examples or scenarios that they've heard or experienced themselves, to be able to pass on advice or whatever it may be so sort of for you. How did that look?
Melissa Wu:Yeah, so back end of my career had I had a few injuries um the my back was always sort of niggly here and there um predominantly after going on SAS and I had a boat land on me um, so that was all sort of kind of back, but it was like um SI joint, which was a bit yeah, a bit of not like, not a new.
Jordi Taylor:I remember you talking about this, but I and I think I saw the video, but I can't remember exactly. But you essentially just fell back holding on to it, right or?
Melissa Wu:so, yeah, they didn't actually show it on tv, but basically we were it was a beasting um like on the parade square and we had um, they had filled the boats with ice and we were kind of diving into them and then we had to empty it and put it over our head, uh.
Melissa Wu:And then as we were putting the boat back down I think there was only three of us on the boat and I was like a fair bit shorter than the other two. I was trying to get out the side and it just kind of fell on top of me because they're quite I think they're close to 100 kilos.
Melissa Wu:Yeah, right they're kind of floppy though. But yeah, I sort of just got pancaked under it. But I didn't realise at the time. But I asked them for the footage later because I was like I'm trying to sort this injury out.
Jordi Taylor:Yeah.
Melissa Wu:And I just like I have this like memory of it. But you know, in the time you have adrenaline, it was literally midnight or something at night and I was like I need to just see what happens so I can take it to the physios because I was, you know, on Google. You know what's wrong with me, I'm trying to find what's going on.
Melissa Wu:Um, yeah, I think actually, as I fell and like got pancaged, my one leg got stuck like underneath, and that hip then was the one that, when it came down on top of me, yeah, had problems with like kind of like my lower back, my hip then for so long, um, and I think like part of the problem was that I kept diving on it. Um, I then went to like Commonwealth Games the next year and we had to because it was still sort of COVID we ended up having to just travel most of the year so we didn't have to come back um, so that was a big one that just got worse.
Melissa Wu:Plane trips, diving on it, competitions yeah, it wasn't good um. And then, yeah, on and off, like a bit of, I had um some like some neck issues as well um disc bodges in my neck, and then this year was a like a like a knee issue. That was a bit more off and on but um flared up pretty bad this year. So they were like probably the three main ones over the last few years.
Melissa Wu:Uh, and yeah, I guess it was just um learning how to manage it, learning, like I said before, that uh line of like what's what's enough, that I'm doing enough and I'm training to get ready for comp, but I'm not going over the line then, and that I'm losing training sessions because I'm too injured to train um. So finding that line is like really difficult. But then also just working with support teams, so being lucky enough to have a lot of people in my support team um at NSWIS PB physio um trying to get me right, so, uh, that's been a combination of physios, my coach Chava, strength conditioning coaches as well, so I'm pretty lucky that they, they kind of all talk together and they kind of get on board with a plan each time but also I'm a bit, I'm a bit impatient as well.
Melissa Wu:So I I really like to, I guess, formalize like the plan or know like where I'm going. It's probably like one thing I had to do this year leading into.
Jordi Taylor:Olympic trials in Paris my knee flared up really bad, um, and I couldn't even straighten it.
Melissa Wu:I remember, like trying to put a weight away for one of the athletes in the gym and I literally get. I nearly ended up on my back on the gym floor because it I was like there's no, I'm gonna be ready for trials in like three weeks time, uh. So yeah, that was a combination of everyone kind of getting together. Actually, spencer Goggin was really helpful for that as well. We kind of made a plan of like this is where we want to be, and we basically had like the gym plan, which then, aligned with like I made a plan in the pool of how am I going to get there?
Melissa Wu:This is when I have to have this dive by, when, in order to like compete at trials, and so I think for me, that was like one thing that really helped and that I always I try and do as a coach, because it helped me a lot as an athlete was always just to be really clear on like the plan going forward, and it doesn't mean that it won't change. It inevitably will always change, probably, but as long as you know and you can like where you need to be and you can work backwards, it just gives you a lot of clarity in your mind and it helps you when you're already nervous that you're not going to be ready for comp or that you're not going to be able to overcome this injury.
Jordi Taylor:That just helps build, like something, a framework around you that makes you feel a little bit more confident in what you're doing basically and I think that's fantastic to to visually see as well, yeah, and for as the athlete, especially as you got older and more experienced, how well in tune were you with your body.
Jordi Taylor:So, because, like strength and conditioning, coaches are phenomenal, but I'm making assumptions here probably have never dove into the pool, especially how you have, like it'd be very hard to experience and feel the way that you feel. How do you, I guess, piece that together with the coach saying, like the coach might come to you and say, hey, this is the plan that we've got here. We'd love to get your thoughts on it, and you maybe don't agree with some of it, or you go hang on, but you know, I know my body really well. How do you deal with if there is any conflict you had as an athlete to a coach, not so conflict being a bad thing, like conflict being, like trying to come up at the end of the day, it's the best scenario or the best case for you, which is being able to compete at a really high level. How did you navigate some of that sort of, yeah, challenges along the way there?
Melissa Wu:Yeah, well, I think the thing is like once you get to a certain age. It wasn't that the coaches would come to me and say this is a plan that I would then like agree or disagree with. It was very much done together as a joint effort. So whether that was my diving coach or was like Spence in the gym, for example, trying to get to Charles with the knee, it was basically Spence and I sitting down and me saying I cannot perform this dive without this level of function of movement in my knee.
Melissa Wu:I can't straighten it or bend it at the moment. Let's get to that. If we can make a plan with you here, then what I can do is I can make a plan myself or with my coach in the pool. Once I have knee extension, I can do this. Once I can bend my knee, I can do this. Once I can jump off it, then I can do this Once I can land and then jump. That's where I need to be.
Melissa Wu:So, basically, there's a certain technique in diving and even though someone like Spencer has never dived, there's basically in order for me to execute execute that particular technique. These are like the fundamental movement patterns I need to be able to do, and that's kind of for me in my head how I like related that together and I was like, okay, if I can just make a plan in the gym and with physios of how I'm gonna, you know, get these movements back, then I know I can do my bit in the pool and um and plan that accordingly. So that's how I kind of just tied it all together in my head.
Jordi Taylor:Yeah, I think it's great you, you consider the bigger pitch number one because you've experienced it for such a long period of time.
Jordi Taylor:I think the asset that you have in that scenario there is you also understand it from a coach's perspective as well, so you can break things down into you said it before like a framework model approach. A lot of athletes maybe I know a lot of athletes, especially in the sports that I am familiar with don't have very good communication skills, so they might be able to verbalize that or break that down into different segments that they're smart enough to not say smart enough, but can communicate that in a way that makes sense, and I know that can lead to a lot of frustration. So I think the way that you explain that's really good. And then if a coach is listening to this and they have an athlete that maybe struggles to communicate that like just keep asking those questions until they break it down, because athletes are really smart, they're really, really, really smart. You've got to ask them the right questions. I'll be answering in a certain way yeah, it's so true.
Melissa Wu:Yeah, I think too, even just I think that, to be honest, my coaching experience probably was the biggest thing that gave me those skills to be able to do something like that. I think, um, athletes are smart but, like I said before, I'm kind of impatient as well, and it's really hard for athletes when you especially if you're under a time limit and you know you've got to be ready by here and this is what previous me would have done would have been like, okay, let's say, I've got like four weeks and I've got to be ready. What I would want to do is like jump up as quick as I could to be near Camp Red East and then have that much time like for four weeks. But sometimes it's just like not possible. You have to slowly ramp and you might only just get there physically by the day before comp. But if you're there the day before comp, that's better than ramping too early and then then having these constant setbacks and then coming day before comp and not being ready.
Melissa Wu:And that was a skill like I definitely didn't have before to be able to do that um. So I think that like one thing that I wish I was better at when I was younger was just being able to formulate a plan. But know that like it was, like you can't jump from zero to 100, you have to like take every step, and I think so. I used to just doing stuff, especially if you started when you're young you would do all these things without thinking about it max effort, you know, max weight, anything.
Jordi Taylor:But then when you get older you realize, okay, no, like there's steps along the way that I have to do and and a training session's not bad maybe I didn't do everything 100, but like that doesn't make it bad if I can do 60 today that's great, as long as it's 61, 62 tomorrow, and it and it goes up, rather than having these constant fluctuations and it's really interesting the way you explain that, because I'm having a lot of conversations at the moment with older athletes because, for a variety of reasons, athletes having long careers which is fantastic but they quite often refer back to when they were rookie year or when they were younger and they'd do this and do that. But at the end of the day, you did a really good job of explaining it. You're at a very different point in your career, both physically. You've accumulated a lot of load and a lot of skills in the past that you don't need to have to go max effort every day.
Jordi Taylor:You know a 60 effort at 30 could be very similar to 100 effort at 18, because it's an accumulation of skills over a long period of time. But the training has to be slightly different and slightly tailored. So for you as you got older, where did you put more emphasis on? Was it in your prep and in your warm-up? Was it in your you know, let's call it like your homework, but like things that you're doing away from training like where did you put more emphasis on and where did you maybe take a little bit off?
Melissa Wu:uh, I put a lot more emphasis on so. For example, I was very specialized for diving from a young age and, like you said before, like being, you know, super, like being an elite athlete is not you know the best way to do things. And then I think, diving more so, um, because you specialize at such a young age. You miss out on all of these foundational movements um like, for example, I could, I was at the Olympics, done. However many Olympics I'd done, couldn't do a full depth bodyweight squat definitely couldn't do an overhead squat.
Melissa Wu:Definitely had like knee bugs that was ridiculously bad, like until I was like 22 years old, all these things that, like they should be, you should be able to do those movements with your eyes closed and yeah, I had like no ankle dorsiflexion, because everything's just pointed toes all this stuff um and I think for me. When I got to a point, I realized that those things were hindering me and potentially like causing more injuries that's when I started to focus a lot more on gym but in building those capacities.
Melissa Wu:Um so it started with just like basic movements, squats, that sort of thing. Uh, I didn't. Also didn't have like, had barely any muscle mass, way too skinny, getting injured from that. Um so started off with strength, basic movements, and then that's kind of where I actually then started like olympic weightlifting and just I just did it for fun, or it went then was part of my gym program, but yeah, until I actually start.
Melissa Wu:I did that myself first, like with josh. He was teaching me. I had never done it with any strength coach when I was younger.
Jordi Taylor:Is that because it's not common in diving at that point like in time? I?
Melissa Wu:think at that point in time not common. I do see it more, not just in Australia but around the world.
Jordi Taylor:A lot of other athletes seem to be incorporating it into their S&C programs as well, but it just wasn't done.
Melissa Wu:Especially diving is a bit of a kind of backward sport like that where it's like, this is what you must do to be a good diver, and nobody ever goes outside of that box of like this is what they did in the 80s, so this is what's we've done now, um. So I think it's changing a bit. Now, though, there's a lot um more different training approaches, a bit more individualization with training approaches um as well, which I think is really good.
Jordi Taylor:And in the past when I worked with some really high-level swimmers. Sport requires a lot of training. You're in the pool, you know, in the morning, in the evening, very similar. We're joking. Today you said you did eight sessions instead of ten and that was like you dropped heaps of training.
Jordi Taylor:You know we put a lot of emphasis on okay, well, you've got. Sometimes I had 14 sessions a week, or doubles seven days a week in in certain periods of time to get into the gym, maybe, you know, twice a week. Maybe not the best best thing to do for you, if we can get, maybe one. But then we can micro dose our prep on the deck, our dry land training before and after training or before certain sessions. That was a really big help for them because all of a sudden we accumulate, you know, maybe three sessions' worth of time and load maybe not load necessarily, but at least time and movement across a week. Yeah, and they felt better going into the pool, which is a win-win. Is that something you put any emphasis on? Was your dry land training like before going into the pool? Yeah, definitely.
Melissa Wu:Yeah, and I think what I've said, that's a great way to do it and that's something that I did and it's kind of like killing two birds with one stone. You're warming up and you're prepping your body, which is what you need to do, but it might not look like a traditional walk when you were younger.
Melissa Wu:It might then incorporate more of like your physio, your prep exercises, which again it was like a really easy way for me to get in like physio exercises or something that I knew I wanted to kind of like tick off every day, but I didn't want to just so just tack it into my gym program. I could do it on a full day, so that was something that I did and, like you asked before, did I like pull back on things, so that was probably something I did as well.
Jordi Taylor:Then, in terms of my prep before the pool, I pulled back on a lot of like we something I did as well, then, in terms of my prep before the pool I pulled back on a lot of like we used to do, a lot of like kind of dry land somersaults, land somersaults, um, to practice our takeoffs.
Melissa Wu:I pulled back a lot of that stuff and just swapped it for um, better, um, more age appropriate I guess now I'm joking um like warm-up exercises. So, um, yeah, like the rehab corner type exercises. But to be honest, um, I think like we then had a growing group of athletes and you know they weren't all old. Just you know, as athletes got, more injured. There was a few of us doing more of that type of thing, and so you don't feel as bad too even if you're doing individualized stuff.
Jordi Taylor:You're all kind of there doing it together and yeah it makes you feel good.
Melissa Wu:You're like hey, we're on the right track, You're doing the right thing. It doesn't mean that you're doing less of it. You just find a different way to put it into your training.
Jordi Taylor:Yeah, 100%, Circling right back to almost the very start of the conversation. What's next for you, what's coming up and what's got you really excited about?
Melissa Wu:I guess, the next chapter of your career, life, whatever you want to call it, is going, yeah, yeah. So at the moment just yeah in terms of training, just doing a bit of my own thing really. Yeah, stepped away from the pool. So not in the pool at the moment but basically doing a bit of that, but then predominantly focused for me right now is on coaching, so continuing to build our programs here.
Jordi Taylor:For me definitely like I, even though I work with weightlifting probably the snc side of things is what I do, so trying to grow our programs there. Uh, I think for us in the business.
Melissa Wu:We've had a big focus, like I mentioned, on how we're implementing long-term athlete development across all our programs. So I think for me looking at bringing in some potential classes for younger kids who aren't necessarily athletes but just streamlines the entry into our programs a little bit better. So if they did want to start weightlifting and they're really young or they're a bit too- young for like an individualized S&C program.
Melissa Wu:They can start with more like a group program that's just going to build all of their physical capacities, movement foundations um, so that's probably like the next step for me that I'm excited about I ran like a holiday program um in the last school holidays, and that was really positive, so hoping to do that and yeah, I guess always hoping to maybe do yeah.
Jordi Taylor:I did also run some diving workshops as well.
Melissa Wu:So a bit more focus for them, on the strength and other, I guess dry land elements that are important for diving. Just yeah, I think that's a bit of fun as well something a bit different that they're not used to.
Jordi Taylor:So I guess just yeah, putting ideas out there and that sort of thing.
Melissa Wu:And then that's the beauty of having your own business you can trial things, see what works and doesn't work. But uh, yeah, I think folks will pretty much be that, especially next year.
Jordi Taylor:Do you want to niche in, like the, I guess, tumbling rolling spatial awareness side of sports? Is that an area you would like to niche in eventually?
Melissa Wu:or you you really are open to, I guess, all sports um, I think at this point open to all sports, I think, like obviously my history in diving and also um gymnastics, and those types of sports are very similar um, obviously I have, I'm equipped to be a little bit more niche in the way I deliver that coaching. But in saying that, I think I really enjoy working with athletes in all sports and I think one reason I'm really passionate about it is because it's really hard for athletes when they're under 18 to be able to go to a gym and do anything.
Melissa Wu:Or a lot of the athletes that come in here said that they were just going with their parents for a bit but they were just sort of doing whatever. They just were teaching themselves movements, not like horrible technique, just lifting weight, just just because to go to the gym.
Melissa Wu:They knew they kind of needed it there at that point where they wanted to do it, but it was just haphazard aimless sort of gym going uh whereas I think, yeah, the effect that um can have on athletes who don't have the opportunities that I had, like they're not in an elite program like NSW, where they they get access to it not only a gym but a strength conditioning coach.
Melissa Wu:Um, I think just bridging that gap and then helping the next generation to come through so that's why I love working with all sports, but I see the difference that it makes to them at that age and I think it's really positive for them, not just for their sport, but just for lifelong uh, you know um lifelong involvement in sport or um reducing injuries and that sort of thing as well, I love it.
Jordi Taylor:I forgot to mention the start too. Um, this is on melissa way, that's got to be a bit of an omen, surely? The street? Where the gym is yeah, melissa place, sorry, not melissa way, that has to be a bit of a like a nice little omen, surely?
Melissa Wu:it was funny because?
Jordi Taylor:um funny because we were looking for a specific like when we were looking for this gym, there wasn't a lot around.
Melissa Wu:We knew we wanted to move out from the other one.
Jordi Taylor:And where are you based, just so people understand.
Melissa Wu:We're in Kings Park at the moment.
Jordi Taylor:Before we were in Arndell Park, but, as I mentioned, before we didn't want to have the poles. Which is hard to come by. Yeah, it is. Have the poles and the, which is hard to come by.
Melissa Wu:We wanted yeah, it's hard to come by we wanted just the open floor. So, um, we were, we there were only really like two that were, you know, like any good at the time. Um, and yeah, this one came up and and we're like, yeah, this is the one kind of thing. And then josh went around and telling everyone that we only chose it because it was on the surprise list. I would only have been surprised. I think some of them believed it. But yeah, no, it's funny, we thought it was a good omen.
Melissa Wu:Yeah, we thought probably Kirsten flipping down on us from above and sending something good our way.
Jordi Taylor:But yeah, we're lucky. All the stars aligned for this place and we're loving it.
Melissa Wu:Good location and, yeah, really nice big gym we're very happy with it.
Jordi Taylor:No awesome um, people that want to maybe learn a little bit more about what you do, especially here now at the facility and now that's probably going to be a big, big piece of what you do best places for them to you know, follow up, learn a bit more. And then, obviously, about you know you and what you do as well yeah, awesome, so um, probably obviously instagram's a really good place to see a bunch of content from us, so we're hardcore strength on instagram hrdkaw strength um.
Melissa Wu:We also have a website if you want to go to that, it's uh, hardcorestrengthcomau, uh and yeah, basically all our contact details are on there if anyone wants to reach out um yeah, me personally I'm also. You can just look me up on instagram, melissa page. I've got my diving stuff on Perfect.
Jordi Taylor:Thank you so much. I think, as I said to you before coming on here, your athletic career is so phenomenal and it probably gets all the attention as it should. I think, hopefully this conversation just maybe opened some people up to a different side of you or a different version of you that maybe they're not so familiar with yet and probably will continue to, to emerge and grow. So hopefully we're getting nice and early um. But yeah, just to sort of show a different side of you, your experiences not only as an athlete but now as a coach, and how they merge together, I think is really important, and there's a lot of athletes that turn into coaches. But I think you've done it at a really interesting point in your career. You did it sort of during um, which I think is another unique aspect to sort of the way that you're doing it. So I think, yeah, phenomenal insights today and I'm really excited to uh share that with other people. Thank you. Thanks, jordy, appreciate it, thank you.
