22 // Tijana Sharp // Prescriptive considerations and outcomes of High-Intensity Multimodal Training

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I was also able to work as a practitioner at
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the time too. So I had like all of the three
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worlds of practice, teaching and research kind
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of happening at the same time. And I think that
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was a really key and important time for my development.
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That was the voice of Tiana Sharp, the guest
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on this episode of The Knowledge Mill. I'm your
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host, Greg Yochum. Tiana Sharp is an associate
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lecturer in sport and exercise science. She is
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a UTS sport and exercise program alumna, having
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completed the B Sport and Exercise Science and
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B Sport and Exercise Science honors, and is currently
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completing her PhD. Her current research focuses
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on the health and fitness outcomes of combined
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high -intensity aerobic and resistance training.
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Tiana practices as an accredited exercise scientist
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at an exercise physiology and Pilates clinic,
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where she has worked with a team of allied health
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professionals to develop and implement a range
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of rehabilitation programs for various pathologies
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and concerns. She also has a strong passion for
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professional development for allied health professionals
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and is a co -founder of the Active Education
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Program, which offers educative courses specific
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to Pilates -based exercise interventions. This
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episode is a fun milestone for the podcast as
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it marks the first time I've spoken to a former
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student of mine. Tiana and I first met when she
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undertook the subject Sport and Society in the
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first year of her undergraduate studies at UTS.
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As I've just outlined, she's kept herself busy
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in the time since. It's always a great pleasure
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for me to see my students succeed, and getting
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up to speed on Tiana's work was certainly no
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exception. This episode of the Knowledge Mill
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was recorded at the Moorpark campus of UTS on
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July 17, 2025. Show notes, including links to
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more information on some of the topics that Tiana
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and I discuss, can be found at thenowledgemill
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.com slash episode 22. That's episode in the
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numerals 2 and 2. Hi, Tiana. Welcome to the program.
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Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely.
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It's a great pleasure. This is actually the first
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time that I'm interviewing a former student.
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Very cool. I'm very excited to be here. We first
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encountered each other. We just worked out before
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we started recording that we encountered each
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other seven years ago. Yeah, crazy. And now I
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was doing my PhD at the time, teaching a subject
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called Sport and Society, and now you're doing
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your PhD. And we may as well just get right into
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how did you find yourself doing this PhD? Yeah,
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sounds good. I guess my kind of journey into
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the PhD probably did start seven years ago, back
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as an undergrad, like throughout high school,
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like I liked biology, I liked PDHPE, I knew that
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I liked sport and exercise as a concept. But
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at that age, like you don't really know where
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you see yourself in five, 10 years. And yeah,
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Careers Advisor, I guess, suggested UTS as an
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option. They had a new -ish sport and exercise
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science bachelor's degree. And that kind of ticked
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all of my boxes at that time. I liked the idea
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of physio. I liked injuries. I grew up as a dancer.
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So I had always been, I guess, active and very
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injured myself as well. So that kind of sparked,
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I guess, the interest. of the human body, sport,
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exercise, science. Grew up with a family that
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was very sporty as well, but I never got into
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the team sport stuff. Dancing was always my thing.
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And then, yeah, enrolled in that in 2018. And
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I feel like all of the pieces after that just
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tended to fall into place. Looking back, it's,
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I guess, strange in a way that I feel like I
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didn't. really decide anything at the time it
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was just like oh this popped up that popped up
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so it was just take everything as it kind of
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came um there was probably like two main paths
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i guess to finding myself in a phd one was like
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the enjoyment of research, but then also the
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fact that I started some sort of like teaching
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role as well fairly early. So in my second year
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of undergrad, I started as a U -pass leader for
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anatomy here in this building, basically. So
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that's like a student kind of mentor, essentially,
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like as a second year student, you run these
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additional support sessions for first years.
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So that was, yeah, like my little casual gig
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at the time. time kind of got my foot in the
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door to teaching gave me a little bit of a taste
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about what that might look like and at the time
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too like I was I was teaching dance I was you
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know a student teacher doing all those things
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and I like was a tutor throughout high school
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as well so I kind of always had that I guess
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passion for helping others learn kind of thing
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yeah did that for a couple of years and then
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We got to like the September of the final year
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and that's always like, okay, what's next? What's
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happening? Had a lot of different questions from
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a lot of like mentors and supervisors here as
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well at UTS. And yeah, it was a bit of a strange
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year because that was actually 2020. So we had
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a massive lockdown that year, right? So I guess
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my... My placement, my exposure to all of those
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more practical kind of subjects was very different
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to what the students here now get. didn't have
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face -to -face classes for that first semester
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at all like I feel like we came to we came to
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one class and then we got that university -wide
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email everyone would have got it was like go
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home there's no more classes running um so yeah
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it was a very different I guess final year experience
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yeah to what I had expected um I was however
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lucky enough to still get a placement in that
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final year as well so I was able to you know
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tick all the boxes blah blah blah blah And that
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then started my like, I guess, practical aspect
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of my career, which I guess we can come back
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to a little bit later. But yeah, after lockdown,
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after finishing placement, there was kind of
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that moment of like, oh, okay, what actually
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is next? Like, what do we do? And Dr. Lee Wallace,
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who was the subject coordinator for the anatomy
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classes I was teaching U -Path for, basically...
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came to me and was like have you thought about
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honors and my response was what is honors like
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I legitimately had no idea at the time what it
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was but um yeah we sat down we had that conversation
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there was a subject in the second semester of
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third year that actually had like a mini research
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literature review project as an assignment so
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we were like why don't we use that as a potential
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you know taste see if you like that style of
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you know meta research it was a systematic review
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so a big synthesis basically of all of the research
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papers that exist um in a specific topic and
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i did like it um and then yeah it kind of started
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i guess my pathway into honors um that topic
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or like my um i guess project was on high intensity
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multimodal training so It's a bit of a, I guess,
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technical term, but if we think about any type
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of high intensity activity that combines cardio
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and weights. into a single session, that's what
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HEMT is. So high intensity multimodal training,
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H -I -M -T or HEMT. That's probably what I'll
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refer to it as for the rest of today. But yeah,
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the reason that we chose that is because I guess
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it's so popular in the community right now. Like
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it's F45, it's CrossFit, it's High Rocks, it's
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any type of like hybrid group fitness bootcampy
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training basically. And yeah, I guess we... saw
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that there was a bit of a need for more of an
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understanding of what it actually is and what
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it does. So my honours was basically looking
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at what are the effects of that type of training
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in the general healthy adult population? So what
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is it good for and does it work? And that first
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part of the honours was a systematic review,
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basically. So a bit of a continuation of that
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assignment that I did originally. And we found
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that it was pretty solid for aerobic fitness.
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gets you fitter essentially and it was a little
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bit mixed in terms of like our muscular fitness
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gains so we get a little bit strong maybe a little
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bit more endurance maybe some power but not all
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studies were saying the same thing um body composition
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was already really well established so basically
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it got people um like to build muscle mass and
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help them lose fat. But then something else that
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was interesting that we found in that initial
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review was that people were enjoying it. So there
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was like a positive, I guess, perceptual response
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to that type of training. And then... The next
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part of the honours was like, okay, well, why?
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Why are people enjoying it? And given that we
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had a second lockdown in 2021, I was very limited
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in terms of what data collection I could do as
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part of the honours. So we pivoted and we went
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to an online survey. I sent it out to as many
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people as I could, anyone who participated. in
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him and just ask them do you enjoy it why do
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you enjoy it basically so that was um yeah that
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wrapped up my honors um the biggest findings
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i guess there were that people enjoyed the variety
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of it because like every session is different
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and um for anyone listening like if you've done
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an f45 class you know that right like every single
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time you show up it's different um people also
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enjoyed like the group training aspects um which
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we know is a pretty solid um like indicator of
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adherence and like long -term enjoyment And then
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people also enjoyed the fact that it got them
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fit. So some pretty cool takeaways from that
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initial project. And I think we probably got
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to about halfway, three quarters of the way through.
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And I was like, I'm really liking this. Like,
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I know that I want to keep going. The lifestyle
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that research was giving me was also awesome.
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I started casual teaching in anatomy. So the
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same subjects that I'd done New Pass for. And
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yeah, it just kind of flowed. into the next thing
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basically and then phd started in may of 2022
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so i had a bit of a late start which was kind
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of nice um like held off on starting the scholarship
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because i was lucky enough to get a stipend um
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but yeah it just took like a few months teaching
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settling into i guess like the new chapter and
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starting to think about what a four -year phd
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might look like for me and I just, yeah, like
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I feel like I've blinked and now we're in 2025.
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That's it. It happens like that. Yeah, absolutely.
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It's just interesting how all of that has just
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flowed one thing right into the next. It's not
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everybody can, some people try to set it up that
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way on purpose and they can't do it. So it's.
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It's nice that you were enjoying it along the
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way, A, but B, that it took you, when you make
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your decisions for your own happiness kind of
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one at a time, sometimes you can look up and
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be like, wait, how did I get here? So it's nice
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that you ended up somewhere you wanted to be.
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It's very much been like that. It's like, oh,
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okay, we're here. We're nearly at the end kind
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of thing. But yeah, like the first probably two
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years of the PhD just kind of felt. like we were
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doing the same thing well like obviously we're
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making progress but it was teaching it was research
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had the flexibility of university holidays which
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was excellent and yeah i guess i was also able
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to work um as a practitioner at the time too
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so i had like all of the three worlds of practice
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teaching and research kind of happening at the
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same time and i think that was a really key and
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important time for my development as a person,
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right? Like I wasn't locked into one specific
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thing. So yeah, wouldn't change a single thing.
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It's good to have that variety because if you
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get a little burned out with one of them, you
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can just sort of shift your focus a little bit.
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Exactly. Yeah. And just keep circling around.
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Yeah, pretty much. Yep. Well, it's so incredible
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that it's worked out that way for you. Can you
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tell us a little bit about... the PhD itself
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and how it's been going for you? Yeah, sure.
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So I'm still looking at the same topic, HEMT,
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and we took, I guess, a zoom out essentially
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for the PhD. Like honours was... as an honours
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project is, right? Like it's a little bit more
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niche, a little bit more closed. You've only
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got nine months of chaos to finish it. But a
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PhD is, yeah, like that whole, that four -year
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kind of, I guess, commitment. And yeah, you really
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got to know that you're enjoying what you're
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doing for that amount of time. So yeah, I guess
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the planning stage was... nice and long as it
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should be. And yeah, we went with the overarching
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research question for the thesis to be, what
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are the prescriptive considerations of HEMT?
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So what are all of the pieces of the puzzle that
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we can put together when designing a session
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essentially? And how does that impact our acute
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training response? So what happens in the session
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and then our longer term training adaptations?
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So if we think about prescriptive considerations.
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things like how many sets we're doing how much
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time we're working for how intense are we doing
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something what exercises are we doing in something
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like him which might be like a circuit it might
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be a pyramid scheme it might be blocks of weight
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training and blocks of aerobic training there
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were just like endless amounts of combinations
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that were possible so to i guess start unpacking
00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:22.600
that, the first big part of it was another literature
00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:25.299
review that looked at every single study that
00:13:25.299 --> 00:13:28.519
exists and said what has been done. basically,
00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:30.480
and what outcomes have been assessed as well.
00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:33.740
So that paper was a lot bigger than we thought
00:13:33.740 --> 00:13:35.860
it was going to be. That probably took 18 months
00:13:35.860 --> 00:13:39.379
of work just working on that. So for context,
00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:42.779
there was 221 included papers in the systematic
00:13:42.779 --> 00:13:45.159
review. And that is, yeah, very large. So that
00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:48.200
took up a big chunk of that first part. And because
00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:51.559
I wasn't, I guess, collecting data at that time,
00:13:51.659 --> 00:13:55.799
it felt, I don't want to say easy, but PhD life
00:13:55.799 --> 00:13:58.120
felt very manageable. In that first part, because
00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:00.440
it was just desk work, it was reading, it was
00:14:00.440 --> 00:14:03.700
extracting data and so forth. I hadn't really
00:14:03.700 --> 00:14:07.539
hit the ground absolutely running, but that definitely
00:14:07.539 --> 00:14:13.250
changed. Once we had all of that. I did. I did
00:14:13.250 --> 00:14:16.389
my stage one. That big lit review basically got
00:14:16.389 --> 00:14:20.029
us to that stage. And at that time I was about
00:14:20.029 --> 00:14:22.289
12 months in and I actually had an opportunity
00:14:22.289 --> 00:14:25.210
to go to Paris and present at the European College
00:14:25.210 --> 00:14:28.110
of Sports Science Conference. So PhD life was
00:14:28.110 --> 00:14:31.230
great. University supported travel. All of these
00:14:31.230 --> 00:14:33.429
different opportunities was awesome. I was going
00:14:33.429 --> 00:14:35.710
to other conferences in Australia and it just
00:14:35.710 --> 00:14:38.309
felt really nice. Like was still able to teach,
00:14:38.370 --> 00:14:41.610
was still able to, you know, do my like practitioner
00:14:41.610 --> 00:14:44.710
work. So I worked in an exercise science and
00:14:44.710 --> 00:14:47.350
physiology clinic. So delivering exercise basically
00:14:47.350 --> 00:14:50.690
to healthy pop. And I started kind of teaching
00:14:50.690 --> 00:14:53.210
Pilates as well. That came like a little niche
00:14:53.210 --> 00:14:58.720
of mine. Then we're up to about... the end of
00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:01.879
2023 now um had a little bit of a break in that
00:15:01.879 --> 00:15:05.480
july that summer with the parish trip um and
00:15:05.480 --> 00:15:08.740
i spent six weeks in europe as you do um came
00:15:08.740 --> 00:15:10.820
back and we're like okay now it's kind of crunch
00:15:10.820 --> 00:15:13.889
time what are we doing next yep So the second
00:15:13.889 --> 00:15:17.509
step of the PhD was to do some interviews with
00:15:17.509 --> 00:15:19.789
coaches and practitioners who actually delivered
00:15:19.789 --> 00:15:22.610
hemp in the community. Hadn't been done before.
00:15:22.850 --> 00:15:25.330
Essentially, there was a few little surveys and
00:15:25.330 --> 00:15:28.769
things about like how CrossFit coaches, for example,
00:15:28.769 --> 00:15:30.789
operated. But we really wanted to know a little
00:15:30.789 --> 00:15:36.389
bit more. And yeah, that study. was really eye
00:15:36.389 --> 00:15:38.529
-opening for me. Like I got to actually speak
00:15:38.529 --> 00:15:42.049
and engage with people in practice and I think
00:15:42.049 --> 00:15:45.330
that was like a bit of a growing phase for myself
00:15:45.330 --> 00:15:47.669
as an individual too. Sure. Like getting to hear
00:15:47.669 --> 00:15:49.710
lots of different experiences and because I also
00:15:49.710 --> 00:15:52.509
had that experience as a group fitness instructor,
00:15:52.710 --> 00:15:55.669
like through uni, I could relate to what they
00:15:55.669 --> 00:15:59.750
were saying a little bit better. That study collection
00:15:59.750 --> 00:16:03.309
was about... four weeks in February of 2024.
00:16:04.009 --> 00:16:08.169
And then the, I guess, pressure and the chaos
00:16:08.169 --> 00:16:11.429
of the PhD definitely spiked directly after that
00:16:11.429 --> 00:16:14.230
because then the next step was like, okay, are
00:16:14.230 --> 00:16:16.090
we going to collect data? Like what's happening?
00:16:16.210 --> 00:16:18.190
Are we training people? What is the next step?
00:16:18.409 --> 00:16:22.090
And we ended up developing a randomized control
00:16:22.090 --> 00:16:25.330
trial that was technically a clinical trial to
00:16:25.330 --> 00:16:30.490
be run over a three -month period in 2024. as
00:16:30.490 --> 00:16:32.230
like you might be able to relate to like the
00:16:32.230 --> 00:16:34.509
turnaround with ethics and things like that is
00:16:34.509 --> 00:16:36.909
a little bit of a time crunch. So I had about
00:16:36.909 --> 00:16:39.610
five weeks to write up a protocol and get it
00:16:39.610 --> 00:16:42.669
through ethics and do all of that. So 2024 was
00:16:42.669 --> 00:16:44.610
a little bit of a minefield basically. Sure.
00:16:44.789 --> 00:16:46.850
That's when it definitely felt like PhD life.
00:16:47.370 --> 00:16:49.990
was as people describe it as like this is what
00:16:49.990 --> 00:16:51.850
everyone's always talking about yeah it was like
00:16:51.850 --> 00:16:53.870
a bit of a slap in the face like oh okay this
00:16:53.870 --> 00:16:56.649
this is what people mean um so I definitely lived
00:16:56.649 --> 00:17:00.330
that for sure last year um but at the same time
00:17:00.330 --> 00:17:04.890
like that experience of training 80 people was
00:17:04.890 --> 00:17:08.609
awesome yeah right so it kind of turned into
00:17:08.609 --> 00:17:10.970
like this massive project it wasn't just a training
00:17:10.970 --> 00:17:14.170
study like we had three different locations across
00:17:14.170 --> 00:17:16.910
sydney i had 80 participants across all of them
00:17:16.910 --> 00:17:21.049
i had um third year sports science students doing
00:17:21.049 --> 00:17:23.029
their placement with the project so they could
00:17:23.029 --> 00:17:24.990
like help us run all the training sessions but
00:17:24.990 --> 00:17:28.670
it was just madness so like i felt like i was
00:17:28.670 --> 00:17:31.210
in charge of 100 people essentially for three
00:17:31.210 --> 00:17:34.970
months um and yeah if that doesn't describe the
00:17:34.970 --> 00:17:38.769
chaos of a phd i don't know what does yeah that's
00:17:38.769 --> 00:17:41.190
bananas that's like ceo level kind of management
00:17:41.190 --> 00:17:45.690
skills required yeah it was madness um definitely
00:17:45.690 --> 00:17:48.349
some times of like burnout fatigue and all of
00:17:48.349 --> 00:17:51.250
that but i guess expected right and it was very
00:17:51.250 --> 00:17:53.250
like short term so definitely super manageable
00:17:53.250 --> 00:17:56.789
it was a sprint yep and it's i can see that it's
00:17:56.789 --> 00:17:58.829
like starting to pay off now and probably will
00:17:58.829 --> 00:18:01.329
continue to pay off with the amount of data that
00:18:01.329 --> 00:18:03.549
we've got um that i'm sitting on at the moment
00:18:03.549 --> 00:18:07.930
like For some context, we... We're looking at
00:18:07.930 --> 00:18:10.549
mostly like what are the physical changes that
00:18:10.549 --> 00:18:13.650
take place after seven weeks of training in HEMT.
00:18:13.769 --> 00:18:16.390
And then we compared those changes to like our
00:18:16.390 --> 00:18:19.750
separate cardio and weights training. So do we
00:18:19.750 --> 00:18:22.670
see, I guess, like different changes if we combine
00:18:22.670 --> 00:18:24.809
all of our training together or if we separate
00:18:24.809 --> 00:18:27.109
them onto different days? That was the main question.
00:18:27.309 --> 00:18:30.930
So we did maximal strength testing. We did maximal
00:18:30.930 --> 00:18:34.789
aerobic capacity testing. We took blood. We did
00:18:34.789 --> 00:18:37.500
a whole bunch of surveys. we looked at menstrual
00:18:37.500 --> 00:18:41.519
cycle data lots of bits and pieces so my job
00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:44.160
now i guess coming out the other side of that
00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:47.460
is working out what goes into the thesis and
00:18:47.460 --> 00:18:49.259
then what doesn't. Well, because what you've
00:18:49.259 --> 00:18:52.000
just described is about six or seven PhDs. Yes,
00:18:52.019 --> 00:18:54.900
exactly. So that's kind of where I'm at now,
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:57.440
actually. Seven months later, I'm still in the
00:18:57.440 --> 00:18:59.299
same position because it was basically finish
00:18:59.299 --> 00:19:01.980
up in November. I took a holiday. I was like,
00:19:01.980 --> 00:19:05.460
see you later. I need a break. And then came
00:19:05.460 --> 00:19:10.539
back in. January to a full -time job at UTS actually
00:19:10.539 --> 00:19:13.180
so since then it's just kind of been like okay
00:19:13.180 --> 00:19:16.539
what's fitting in where getting um like on my
00:19:16.539 --> 00:19:20.200
feet in the new role as well so again I've blinked
00:19:20.200 --> 00:19:23.400
and we're seven months later yeah it's it's wild
00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:25.099
how especially when you do take on something
00:19:25.099 --> 00:19:29.059
else like a like a paid role uh what exactly
00:19:29.059 --> 00:19:32.319
in what capacity are you working at uts so i'm
00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:35.259
a full -time associate lecturer now um like throughout
00:19:35.259 --> 00:19:37.420
the phd as i mentioned before like i was doing
00:19:37.420 --> 00:19:39.619
some casual teaching bits and pieces like that
00:19:40.349 --> 00:19:42.970
But, you know, as a casual, like you're kind
00:19:42.970 --> 00:19:46.049
of able to just rock up for the semester. That's
00:19:46.049 --> 00:19:47.690
it. You know, you don't see all of the behind
00:19:47.690 --> 00:19:50.089
the scenes, the subject coordination, the assessment,
00:19:50.289 --> 00:19:54.009
organization, blah, blah, blah. I did. I was
00:19:54.009 --> 00:19:56.170
lucky enough actually to be in a subject coordinator
00:19:56.170 --> 00:20:00.309
role in 2024. I did fill a position as like a
00:20:00.309 --> 00:20:03.990
last minute kind of fill in. But yeah, it's definitely
00:20:03.990 --> 00:20:07.420
been very different. being in a full -time capacity
00:20:07.420 --> 00:20:10.000
like you know a little bit of what you have to
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.500
do as a casual but it's totally different so
00:20:12.500 --> 00:20:16.410
that's been yeah very very different and um learning
00:20:16.410 --> 00:20:18.890
all new subjects as well this year. So yeah,
00:20:19.069 --> 00:20:21.170
brought in to teach some different ones that
00:20:21.170 --> 00:20:23.029
I haven't taught before. So it's been really
00:20:23.029 --> 00:20:24.809
fun, actually. What kind of topics are you teaching?
00:20:25.150 --> 00:20:28.650
So last semester, just gone, I had exercise rehabilitation
00:20:28.650 --> 00:20:31.450
and sport and exercise medicine. So they're both
00:20:31.450 --> 00:20:35.190
third year subjects. Very similar to what kind
00:20:35.190 --> 00:20:37.529
of work I would be doing in the clinic, like
00:20:37.529 --> 00:20:39.490
when I worked as a practitioner. So it was really
00:20:39.490 --> 00:20:41.990
nice to, I guess, bring in some of my personal
00:20:41.990 --> 00:20:44.549
anecdotes, like what I've seen and experienced
00:20:44.549 --> 00:20:46.769
with clients. I'm curious, considering the way
00:20:46.769 --> 00:20:48.710
that you've talked about different realms in
00:20:48.710 --> 00:20:51.130
your life coming together, if you had the same
00:20:51.130 --> 00:20:52.910
experience with teaching or are having the same
00:20:52.910 --> 00:20:54.690
experience with teaching that I had when I was
00:20:54.690 --> 00:20:58.250
a casual doing my PhD, which is that for me,
00:20:58.329 --> 00:21:02.329
the teaching, dealing with, not dealing with,
00:21:02.329 --> 00:21:05.210
that's not the right phrase, engaging with undergrads,
00:21:05.269 --> 00:21:10.839
that was for me the mental break. From the work
00:21:10.839 --> 00:21:13.400
on the thesis and because I was teaching in an
00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:16.579
area that I was also researching, I just found
00:21:16.579 --> 00:21:20.539
the different cohorts through the years and the
00:21:20.539 --> 00:21:23.180
things that they were curious about to sort of
00:21:23.180 --> 00:21:28.079
keep me inspired because inevitably we get into.
00:21:28.730 --> 00:21:30.670
thesis mode and we're just focused on that one
00:21:30.670 --> 00:21:32.390
thing and we're looking at the finish line and
00:21:32.390 --> 00:21:33.950
we just got to get it done got to get it done
00:21:33.950 --> 00:21:36.289
maybe we're thinking about next steps like getting
00:21:36.289 --> 00:21:39.730
a job uh but you get very focused on your own
00:21:39.730 --> 00:21:41.630
thing and so it's nice to come out of that bubble
00:21:41.630 --> 00:21:45.450
and encounter kids who are younger and and excited
00:21:45.450 --> 00:21:47.650
to be starting their their uni career if not
00:21:47.650 --> 00:21:51.210
their their actual career uh dude do you find
00:21:51.210 --> 00:21:58.030
it the same um yeah definitely like earlier PhD
00:21:58.030 --> 00:22:00.730
years, like the teaching was definitely like
00:22:00.730 --> 00:22:02.910
a refresher. That's kind of how I would describe
00:22:02.910 --> 00:22:06.269
it. And the classes I was teaching, it was anatomy.
00:22:06.410 --> 00:22:09.609
Like it was fun. It was more often than not first
00:22:09.609 --> 00:22:12.089
year students' favorite subjects in both first
00:22:12.089 --> 00:22:16.289
and second semester. Sorry to say that. So yeah,
00:22:16.349 --> 00:22:17.869
it was really fun. Like of course teaching in
00:22:17.869 --> 00:22:19.509
itself, right, is draining. If you're doing a
00:22:19.509 --> 00:22:22.789
10 hour day, it is what it is. But yeah, the
00:22:22.789 --> 00:22:26.539
engagement was awesome. Last year that definitely
00:22:26.539 --> 00:22:28.740
probably shifted but i think that was just the
00:22:28.740 --> 00:22:31.400
nature of last year running the clinical trial
00:22:31.400 --> 00:22:34.640
like all of my energy was there essentially so
00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:37.720
the the teaching unfortunately just came more
00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:41.079
of like i i need cash type thing like i gotta
00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:46.160
pay the bills um but like i found i guess my
00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:48.440
engagement and my enjoyment through actually
00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:50.700
training the people in the study, because that's
00:22:50.700 --> 00:22:52.579
what I did. I was a coach for those seven weeks.
00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:54.460
Like I was training people four days a week.
00:22:54.539 --> 00:22:57.700
So the tables turned there and then this year
00:22:57.700 --> 00:22:59.900
it's flipped back. So all brand new subjects
00:22:59.900 --> 00:23:03.619
for me, but having third year was totally different.
00:23:03.700 --> 00:23:06.779
I really did not expect to engage with them in
00:23:06.779 --> 00:23:08.799
the way that we did. I don't know if they were
00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:12.480
a unicorn cohort, but honestly it was a really
00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:15.559
amazing 12 weeks. Like so much curiosity, so
00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:19.480
much. investment in themselves as learners um
00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:21.980
and it was really really awesome to work with
00:23:21.980 --> 00:23:24.380
them and yeah it definitely is a big jump from
00:23:24.380 --> 00:23:26.700
first to third year like yeah you obviously have
00:23:26.700 --> 00:23:28.819
that glow up as a student but then being on the
00:23:28.819 --> 00:23:32.220
other side it's crazy to see how far it can actually
00:23:32.220 --> 00:23:35.059
come in those three years um so yeah we flipped
00:23:35.059 --> 00:23:38.650
back again this year and now Because I'm like
00:23:38.650 --> 00:23:41.910
70 % teaching, I actually do spend a lot of time
00:23:41.910 --> 00:23:44.670
in the classroom. So my role is 70 % teaching
00:23:44.670 --> 00:23:47.210
and learning, 20 % research, which for me is
00:23:47.210 --> 00:23:50.569
finish the PhD. I've also started supervising
00:23:50.569 --> 00:23:53.170
an honor student, which is awesome. And then
00:23:53.170 --> 00:23:55.650
10 % is like your service. So that's all of the
00:23:55.650 --> 00:23:58.630
other little bits and pieces of the job. But
00:23:58.630 --> 00:24:01.250
yeah, definitely a lot of time is spent in teaching
00:24:01.250 --> 00:24:04.069
and learning. being able to come back to my thesis
00:24:04.069 --> 00:24:07.250
is also nice and refreshing at times when I do
00:24:07.250 --> 00:24:09.349
get to do that. Yeah, because in the middle of
00:24:09.349 --> 00:24:12.890
a semester, you're pretty locked into student
00:24:12.890 --> 00:24:14.930
engagement in the classroom, the contact hours,
00:24:15.029 --> 00:24:18.089
but also the email, the marking. It's a lot.
00:24:18.190 --> 00:24:21.029
Exactly. And if you're 70, I'm also 70 % teaching.
00:24:21.990 --> 00:24:24.670
One semester might be heavier than the other
00:24:24.670 --> 00:24:26.250
one as well, and then you're just locked into
00:24:26.250 --> 00:24:29.730
that. Exactly. I had a similar experience because
00:24:29.730 --> 00:24:34.089
the subject where I... taught you it was a first
00:24:34.089 --> 00:24:36.250
year first semester subject and i would teach
00:24:36.250 --> 00:24:38.250
that one in the autumn and then in the spring
00:24:38.250 --> 00:24:40.650
i would teach one called international at that
00:24:40.650 --> 00:24:42.170
time it was called international sport marketplace
00:24:42.170 --> 00:24:45.349
did you ever take that one no uh and that was
00:24:45.349 --> 00:24:47.670
third year final semester so it was like one
00:24:47.670 --> 00:24:50.150
semester to the next i would have that jump from
00:24:50.150 --> 00:24:53.170
very first year uh and then just right at the
00:24:53.170 --> 00:24:55.529
end thinking ahead to the career and uh there
00:24:55.529 --> 00:24:57.130
was always a bit jarring that way but i would
00:24:57.130 --> 00:24:59.930
very often see you know with that two -year break
00:24:59.930 --> 00:25:02.500
of course some students in sported society and
00:25:02.500 --> 00:25:04.539
then two years later and that was always really
00:25:04.539 --> 00:25:08.319
fun yeah that's cool yeah it's nice to see speaking
00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:11.380
of that evolution of students uh a particular
00:25:11.380 --> 00:25:14.119
student who's gone through that that i love that
00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:16.599
phrase glow up who's gone through that student
00:25:16.599 --> 00:25:20.380
glow up and uh and come out the other side it's
00:25:20.380 --> 00:25:22.059
very cool one of the things that we haven't spoken
00:25:22.059 --> 00:25:24.859
about yet is this incredible facility in which
00:25:24.859 --> 00:25:29.329
we're recording this conversation uh which in
00:25:29.329 --> 00:25:31.750
the context of the UTS campus, is kind of off
00:25:31.750 --> 00:25:33.549
on its own because it's up in an area of Sydney
00:25:33.549 --> 00:25:36.589
called Moore Park, which is right next to Sydney
00:25:36.589 --> 00:25:38.710
Football Stadium and the Sydney Cricket Ground
00:25:38.710 --> 00:25:42.609
and a few of the footy teams train and everything
00:25:42.609 --> 00:25:44.910
up in your, you've got Rugby Australia just on
00:25:44.910 --> 00:25:46.309
the other side of the building as well. Yes,
00:25:46.309 --> 00:25:50.119
we do. We're very well connected up here. Before
00:25:50.119 --> 00:25:51.859
we started recording this conversation, you mentioned
00:25:51.859 --> 00:25:54.539
to me that when you started your undergrad, you
00:25:54.539 --> 00:25:57.019
were in the first cohort to come into this building.
00:25:57.099 --> 00:25:59.660
And so I'd be interested to know kind of... How
00:25:59.660 --> 00:26:01.339
you've engaged with it through the years in terms
00:26:01.339 --> 00:26:04.019
of that undergrad and your PhD and now your job.
00:26:04.140 --> 00:26:06.980
Yeah. To be honest, the location and the newness
00:26:06.980 --> 00:26:09.579
of the facility is kind of what sold me to the
00:26:09.579 --> 00:26:12.279
degree as well. I'm not a city girl. I don't
00:26:12.279 --> 00:26:14.579
really like going to the CBD. So the fact that
00:26:14.579 --> 00:26:17.480
it was a little bit separate was definitely a
00:26:17.480 --> 00:26:21.140
calling point. Yeah, like I was just blown away
00:26:21.140 --> 00:26:23.019
as a first year, right? Like you walk into...
00:26:23.339 --> 00:26:25.539
a uni and you're like well like all of this is
00:26:25.539 --> 00:26:29.200
at my disposal that was absolutely insane and
00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:33.559
it probably wasn't until like late second year
00:26:33.559 --> 00:26:35.799
and then kind of early third year that you go
00:26:35.799 --> 00:26:38.640
oh okay like this is actually what we've got
00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:41.460
you don't realize the magnitude of the equipment
00:26:41.460 --> 00:26:43.539
of the facilities and even of the tutors and
00:26:43.539 --> 00:26:46.160
stuff to be honest like the team that we have
00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:50.299
here is So wise, so much experience, like from
00:26:50.299 --> 00:26:54.339
all walks of sport physiology, like we've got
00:26:54.339 --> 00:26:57.400
staff in the AIS, Australian Institute of Sport,
00:26:57.420 --> 00:27:01.140
that is, NSW, New South Wales Institute of Sport.
00:27:01.299 --> 00:27:06.200
We've got staff in Oklahoma City Thunder. insane
00:27:06.200 --> 00:27:08.680
and you really don't realize that as a fresh
00:27:08.680 --> 00:27:11.660
little first year um it's not until you know
00:27:11.660 --> 00:27:13.700
you gain that confidence to actually have a conversation
00:27:13.700 --> 00:27:15.700
with your tutor and you go oh okay you actually
00:27:15.700 --> 00:27:18.059
have all of this experience that's amazing and
00:27:18.059 --> 00:27:19.859
then you go i'm gonna take advantage of that
00:27:19.859 --> 00:27:23.759
um so yeah being i guess exposed to All of the
00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:26.000
little bits and pieces throughout the degree
00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:29.160
was a nice little taster of what is available.
00:27:29.339 --> 00:27:32.880
Like we've got, for example, in the hallway just
00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:35.460
opposite us here, we've got a golf simulation
00:27:35.460 --> 00:27:38.759
study happening at the moment. So they're trying
00:27:38.759 --> 00:27:42.539
to validate the use of different basically simulators
00:27:42.539 --> 00:27:45.960
against the gold standard, which is 3D motion
00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:48.160
capture. So that room in itself is worth like
00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:51.160
a million bucks. We've also got physiology labs
00:27:51.160 --> 00:27:53.990
on two different levels. We've got two state
00:27:53.990 --> 00:27:56.490
-of -the -art resistance training rooms. It's
00:27:56.490 --> 00:27:59.230
amazing that you get to learn in these spaces
00:27:59.230 --> 00:28:02.630
as an undergrad and then take advantage of them
00:28:02.630 --> 00:28:06.430
as a research student. So for my PhD in the study,
00:28:06.529 --> 00:28:08.910
for example, we had all of our participants come
00:28:08.910 --> 00:28:10.890
through here for their baseline and then their
00:28:10.890 --> 00:28:14.049
follow -up testing. We did a DEXA scan, which
00:28:14.049 --> 00:28:16.490
is basically like a really fancy x -ray machine
00:28:16.490 --> 00:28:18.710
that tells you how much fat and how much muscle
00:28:18.710 --> 00:28:21.069
you have. So they did one of those at the beginning
00:28:21.069 --> 00:28:23.700
and the end. We did maximal strength testing,
00:28:23.839 --> 00:28:25.980
like I mentioned, in our resistance training
00:28:25.980 --> 00:28:29.839
room and some VO2 max testing, which is a really
00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:31.900
fancy test that you do on a bike with a gas mask
00:28:31.900 --> 00:28:34.779
on your face. And it tells you basically how
00:28:34.779 --> 00:28:37.220
good your body is at using oxygen. So the fact
00:28:37.220 --> 00:28:39.619
that we had all of these things here ready to
00:28:39.619 --> 00:28:43.029
go kind of made that study. a lot easier like
00:28:43.029 --> 00:28:46.390
sure we had to partner with a few other partners
00:28:46.390 --> 00:28:49.089
to get it off the ground such as um like a pathology
00:28:49.089 --> 00:28:52.410
lab to analyze all of my blood because we sure
00:28:52.410 --> 00:28:54.450
we've got a fridge and a centrifuge here but
00:28:54.450 --> 00:28:57.329
we didn't actually have i guess the human resources
00:28:57.329 --> 00:29:01.170
to make that happen um and yeah same thing like
00:29:01.170 --> 00:29:04.259
our gym here could facilitate a number of people
00:29:04.259 --> 00:29:06.559
training but we ended up needing another two
00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:09.059
training facilities to get it off the ground
00:29:09.059 --> 00:29:12.019
so we kind of leveraged a few different industry
00:29:12.019 --> 00:29:14.740
relationships we had and yeah we were able to
00:29:14.740 --> 00:29:17.460
run it across three different places but yeah
00:29:17.460 --> 00:29:19.380
this place is very cool and now teaching in the
00:29:19.380 --> 00:29:22.259
facility too is awesome like getting to actually
00:29:22.259 --> 00:29:25.839
use that in my day -to -day job teach students
00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:28.140
how to live properly in the gym teach them how
00:29:28.140 --> 00:29:31.299
to take a lactate measure really awesome yeah
00:29:31.299 --> 00:29:33.180
no absolutely did you find whenever you were
00:29:33.180 --> 00:29:35.680
bringing in the subjects for your study like
00:29:35.680 --> 00:29:38.660
were they blown away by? Oh yeah yeah absolutely
00:29:38.660 --> 00:29:40.920
they were like oh my god we didn't even know
00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:42.759
this was here like they they might have lived
00:29:42.759 --> 00:29:44.599
up the road for example and gone oh that's a
00:29:44.599 --> 00:29:46.779
pretty building but until you step inside you
00:29:46.779 --> 00:29:49.240
don't really know how much is in here. Yeah in
00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:52.319
addition to being exposed to the equipment here
00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:55.480
what did you find with your participants in terms
00:29:55.480 --> 00:29:58.380
of their their comfort level with the the analysis
00:29:58.380 --> 00:30:01.680
you were doing and and kind of the the professional
00:30:02.410 --> 00:30:05.789
level of engagement there yeah to be honest they
00:30:05.789 --> 00:30:09.049
were all troopers like we did unfortunately put
00:30:09.049 --> 00:30:11.450
them through a fair amount of testing and the
00:30:11.450 --> 00:30:14.269
training itself to be honest was um pretty intense
00:30:14.269 --> 00:30:16.910
like it was four days of a high intensity 45
00:30:16.910 --> 00:30:20.509
minute session and um our attendance and adherence
00:30:20.509 --> 00:30:23.630
rates were actually insane um i only had four
00:30:23.630 --> 00:30:26.319
people drop out out of the 80 or whatever that
00:30:26.319 --> 00:30:29.740
was so we were absolutely stoked but I think
00:30:29.740 --> 00:30:32.559
that the way that the participants engaged with
00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:34.420
the program and handled themselves was definitely
00:30:34.420 --> 00:30:37.079
a testament to the team that I had around me
00:30:37.079 --> 00:30:41.299
like my supervisors and all of the other HDR
00:30:41.299 --> 00:30:44.119
students who got involved and helped us run the
00:30:44.119 --> 00:30:47.920
trial we had like at least two coaches in every
00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:50.259
single room and all of the participant feedback
00:30:50.259 --> 00:30:53.259
about the coaches themselves was amazing so I
00:30:53.259 --> 00:30:57.250
can't thank the team enough for that um yeah
00:30:57.250 --> 00:31:00.190
getting getting your blood taken six times in
00:31:00.190 --> 00:31:03.069
one week is a little bit tough so they will absolutely
00:31:03.069 --> 00:31:07.410
smash that but as you have to be running a trial
00:31:07.410 --> 00:31:09.250
like that we were very clear from the beginning
00:31:09.250 --> 00:31:11.529
that you know this is what you are getting into
00:31:11.529 --> 00:31:13.309
these are all the procedures that we do have
00:31:13.309 --> 00:31:15.990
to do um you know we're taking every precaution
00:31:15.990 --> 00:31:19.589
that we can um like in line with the university
00:31:19.589 --> 00:31:22.730
ethics approval and so forth. So they, I think
00:31:22.730 --> 00:31:24.750
we're all really understanding of like why we
00:31:24.750 --> 00:31:26.930
were doing what we were doing and that we weren't
00:31:26.930 --> 00:31:28.730
just collecting data for the sake of it. Right.
00:31:29.109 --> 00:31:31.809
And as part of like getting the project off the
00:31:31.809 --> 00:31:34.329
ground, I created like a lot of resources for
00:31:34.329 --> 00:31:36.589
participants as well. So they had like an FAQ
00:31:36.589 --> 00:31:39.109
sheet that was like, how do I prepare for this?
00:31:39.190 --> 00:31:41.970
What do I need to do? And all of that. So I don't
00:31:41.970 --> 00:31:43.890
know if that kind of helped the situation, help
00:31:43.890 --> 00:31:46.809
them put themselves at ease kind of thing. But
00:31:46.809 --> 00:31:48.619
yeah, Yeah, we were really transparent about
00:31:48.619 --> 00:31:50.599
what we were trying to do, I think, and I think
00:31:50.599 --> 00:31:53.319
that helped. I'd be curious to know, on the back
00:31:53.319 --> 00:31:56.880
of everything you just described, where would
00:31:56.880 --> 00:32:00.700
your participants go from here now that the study's
00:32:00.700 --> 00:32:04.799
done? Yeah, really good question. We had a follow
00:32:04.799 --> 00:32:07.099
-up survey, essentially. We asked them about,
00:32:07.119 --> 00:32:09.480
like, have your physical activity behaviors changed?
00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:13.579
For example, some people I actually know have
00:32:13.579 --> 00:32:17.339
kept training together. which is awesome so like
00:32:17.339 --> 00:32:19.740
i guess we had that group kind of community vibe
00:32:19.740 --> 00:32:22.359
that we created being group training and being
00:32:22.359 --> 00:32:24.140
that participants were training in the same place
00:32:24.140 --> 00:32:26.799
for seven weeks with the same people um so that
00:32:26.799 --> 00:32:28.640
was awesome that was really touching and then
00:32:28.640 --> 00:32:30.559
just like other messages of people saying like
00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:34.099
i'm i'm now confident enough to walk into a gym
00:32:34.509 --> 00:32:37.829
And I've never had that before. So, yeah, some
00:32:37.829 --> 00:32:40.069
people have kept in contact. Some people actually
00:32:40.069 --> 00:32:42.609
continued training with the partners that we
00:32:42.609 --> 00:32:46.450
ran the study through. So overall, some really
00:32:46.450 --> 00:32:49.400
awesome, just like. lifestyle positive changes
00:32:49.400 --> 00:32:51.759
yeah and even if that i mean it's multiple people
00:32:51.759 --> 00:32:53.700
but even if it was just one life that you improved
00:32:53.700 --> 00:32:56.819
how nice is that exactly yeah very touching uh
00:32:56.819 --> 00:32:59.579
so in terms of we spoke about just the sheer
00:32:59.579 --> 00:33:02.619
volume of data that you have and and uh and your
00:33:02.619 --> 00:33:08.200
timeline uh you mentioned before we started recording
00:33:08.200 --> 00:33:10.640
you're doing your thesis by publication so can
00:33:10.640 --> 00:33:12.960
you walk me through kind of the How it's all
00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:14.940
going to unfold, I guess, which, which data sets
00:33:14.940 --> 00:33:16.500
you're going to use, which ones you'll put aside
00:33:16.500 --> 00:33:19.059
for later. Sure. So the systematic mapping review
00:33:19.059 --> 00:33:21.599
is published. So that's going to be, that forms
00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:25.460
both like an introduction and chapter two, I
00:33:25.460 --> 00:33:27.839
guess. Cause a lot of the introduction to the
00:33:27.839 --> 00:33:30.319
training mode itself will fall into that publication
00:33:30.319 --> 00:33:32.839
already. And yeah, we'll probably try and not
00:33:32.839 --> 00:33:35.619
double dip in terms of the pages and the writing.
00:33:35.660 --> 00:33:38.380
Then the next chapter will be the interview study.
00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:41.220
So I'm. I'm kind of working on a lot of things
00:33:41.220 --> 00:33:43.200
at once at the moment. I've got my fingers in
00:33:43.200 --> 00:33:46.259
a lot of pies. Um, so hopefully that will, uh,
00:33:46.460 --> 00:33:49.660
ideally that gets published like before I submit,
00:33:49.700 --> 00:33:52.279
but it, it depends because it's a qualitative
00:33:52.279 --> 00:33:55.240
analysis. Like we need to have two people, uh,
00:33:55.359 --> 00:33:57.539
look at the data essentially. And then we compare
00:33:57.539 --> 00:34:01.319
how we interpret it. Um, so that's where that
00:34:01.319 --> 00:34:05.490
study is at. We're still trying to unpack what
00:34:05.490 --> 00:34:08.409
exactly to do with the randomised control trial.
00:34:08.809 --> 00:34:11.309
There's a lot, right? The key things though that
00:34:11.309 --> 00:34:14.949
I would like to prioritise for the thesis is
00:34:14.949 --> 00:34:17.730
definitely the physical outcomes because that
00:34:17.730 --> 00:34:19.949
was the main question going into it. It was like...
00:34:20.380 --> 00:34:22.480
Do we see a difference in our strength and our
00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:24.679
fitness and our body composition if we train
00:34:24.679 --> 00:34:26.900
in these two different modes? So that definitely
00:34:26.900 --> 00:34:30.000
will be one paper by itself. What are the seven
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:33.320
week changes in strength, fitness and body composition?
00:34:33.940 --> 00:34:38.079
That'll be one. Some other areas we can potentially
00:34:38.079 --> 00:34:41.619
look into is like the overall, I guess, feasibility.
00:34:42.139 --> 00:34:45.119
of a project like that like what are the what
00:34:45.119 --> 00:34:47.420
are the strengths of the way that we ran it what
00:34:47.420 --> 00:34:50.039
were the challenges that we faced with some of
00:34:50.039 --> 00:34:52.239
the data collection methods for example like
00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:56.019
we took heart rate in every single session but
00:34:56.019 --> 00:35:00.039
only like 20 of those files are actually viable
00:35:00.039 --> 00:35:03.920
which is insane right so yeah there's definitely
00:35:03.920 --> 00:35:07.360
i guess more so some recommendations that could
00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:09.690
come out of it yeah right Don't really know what
00:35:09.690 --> 00:35:11.849
that would look like in a published format yet,
00:35:11.949 --> 00:35:14.090
but I think there's a really cool story to tell
00:35:14.090 --> 00:35:17.230
in itself there and, like, our challenges and,
00:35:17.409 --> 00:35:20.030
I guess, recommendations working with industry
00:35:20.030 --> 00:35:22.849
partners as well because I think that type of
00:35:22.849 --> 00:35:24.750
research is really important when we're talking
00:35:24.750 --> 00:35:27.130
about exercise and training because if we want
00:35:27.130 --> 00:35:29.429
to understand what's happening in the community,
00:35:29.630 --> 00:35:32.449
like, we need to be able to balance that, I guess.
00:35:32.650 --> 00:35:37.300
So that's an idea. And I think... Well, I would
00:35:37.300 --> 00:35:40.000
like to think that that's a thesis, but some
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.280
supervisors may disagree. I don't know. But other
00:35:44.280 --> 00:35:47.039
areas to go down are like all of the blood hormones.
00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:50.360
So that will be a paper down the track, I guess.
00:35:50.380 --> 00:35:53.500
What is the acute response in our blood hormones
00:35:53.500 --> 00:35:56.960
to the different types of training? We could
00:35:56.960 --> 00:35:58.659
also look at all of the different perceptual
00:35:58.659 --> 00:36:01.119
data that I gathered. So I asked people if they
00:36:01.119 --> 00:36:04.820
enjoyed the training. I asked them how recovered
00:36:04.820 --> 00:36:08.139
they felt before, what their soreness was like,
00:36:08.380 --> 00:36:10.900
their overall rating of the session in terms
00:36:10.900 --> 00:36:14.780
of exertion, so RPE. And we also looked at training
00:36:14.780 --> 00:36:18.219
quality as well. So like spreadsheets and spreadsheets
00:36:18.219 --> 00:36:21.059
at the moment. And it's very much just like fitting
00:36:21.059 --> 00:36:23.699
a puzzle together. But I guess that will keep
00:36:23.699 --> 00:36:26.639
me going. Yeah, that's right. Anything you don't
00:36:26.639 --> 00:36:29.159
use, you'll hit the ground running in the new
00:36:29.159 --> 00:36:33.400
role. Exactly. That's amazing. It seems to me
00:36:33.400 --> 00:36:36.539
that just based on the way that you've described
00:36:36.539 --> 00:36:38.400
it and you've gone into the literature, you've
00:36:38.400 --> 00:36:39.940
done the reviews, you know what work has been
00:36:39.940 --> 00:36:42.480
done. It seems like it's not altogether common
00:36:42.480 --> 00:36:46.280
to have the qualitative angle on something like
00:36:46.280 --> 00:36:47.880
this where you're trying to understand how things
00:36:47.880 --> 00:36:49.940
fit into people's lifestyles and communities.
00:36:50.539 --> 00:36:54.980
What motivated you to look at all that? i think
00:36:54.980 --> 00:36:56.980
something that we really wanted to understand
00:36:56.980 --> 00:36:59.619
was like where where coaches in the space are
00:36:59.619 --> 00:37:02.079
getting their information from um like having
00:37:02.079 --> 00:37:05.159
gone down that route myself right as a coach
00:37:05.159 --> 00:37:08.940
like i i knew how i was educated to get there
00:37:08.940 --> 00:37:11.920
but i guess everyone comes from a different background
00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:15.179
and the style of training that i've looked at
00:37:15.179 --> 00:37:18.280
for example it's not it's not focused on i guess
00:37:18.280 --> 00:37:20.900
as a priority in a university setting like we're
00:37:20.900 --> 00:37:22.900
more so traditional strength and conditioning
00:37:22.900 --> 00:37:26.139
principles and bits and pieces of that do fit
00:37:26.139 --> 00:37:29.199
into him but it's very different and like i kind
00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:30.960
of said at the beginning there's a lot of pieces
00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:33.579
of the puzzle and coaches can fit that together
00:37:33.579 --> 00:37:37.139
in a lot of different ways so that's why we wanted
00:37:37.139 --> 00:37:40.719
to um yeah, actually speak to coaches and have
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:43.760
that qualitative interview. And then from a participant
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:45.800
point of view as well, like from my honours,
00:37:45.800 --> 00:37:48.320
having known that people did express enjoyment
00:37:48.320 --> 00:37:51.179
and positive perceptual responses to it, we definitely
00:37:51.179 --> 00:37:52.820
wanted to make sure that we were collecting that
00:37:52.820 --> 00:37:55.239
aspect through the clinical trial as well. Yeah,
00:37:55.280 --> 00:37:58.559
absolutely. It occurs to me that these kind of
00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:03.519
stories are fit for science communication, SciComm,
00:38:03.639 --> 00:38:07.590
outside of what you might call traditional. Like
00:38:07.590 --> 00:38:09.510
you were saying before, you didn't know what
00:38:09.510 --> 00:38:12.170
shape putting together this model might look
00:38:12.170 --> 00:38:14.929
like in terms of publications. But I think we're
00:38:14.929 --> 00:38:19.070
headed in, we in academia, the big we, are headed
00:38:19.070 --> 00:38:22.369
toward kind of more acceptance of these alternative
00:38:22.369 --> 00:38:25.469
avenues like, for example, not to be super meta,
00:38:25.530 --> 00:38:27.909
but doing a podcast and sharing stories that
00:38:27.909 --> 00:38:31.739
way. This doesn't do anything for... My H index.
00:38:32.139 --> 00:38:35.119
But I get to hear a lot of interesting stories,
00:38:35.159 --> 00:38:38.519
and I'm across more. Even just speaking with
00:38:38.519 --> 00:38:40.619
yourself, it's very nice to catch up with a former
00:38:40.619 --> 00:38:42.320
student and also hear about what's happening
00:38:42.320 --> 00:38:46.519
up here whenever I am able to speak to UTS students.
00:38:47.039 --> 00:38:49.019
But that might be something to consider as well
00:38:49.019 --> 00:38:51.500
in the future. Maybe what you're doing, of course,
00:38:51.539 --> 00:38:55.380
is putting together a model that could be replicated
00:38:55.380 --> 00:38:57.980
in other contexts and settings, and maybe it
00:38:57.980 --> 00:39:00.829
becomes about... packaging that somehow putting
00:39:00.829 --> 00:39:03.030
it on a website or doing a video series something
00:39:03.030 --> 00:39:05.070
like that yeah i know that's really cool and
00:39:05.070 --> 00:39:07.670
funny you said that um part of what i want to
00:39:07.670 --> 00:39:10.110
do like wrapping up or towards the end of the
00:39:10.110 --> 00:39:11.989
thesis whether that's before or after publication
00:39:11.989 --> 00:39:15.530
is actually put on some type of um like networking
00:39:15.530 --> 00:39:19.349
event for all of the practitioners who were involved
00:39:19.949 --> 00:39:22.489
in the interview research and kind of use that
00:39:22.489 --> 00:39:25.170
as a way of going hey this is what I found in
00:39:25.170 --> 00:39:28.110
my thesis this is how I think you might be able
00:39:28.110 --> 00:39:32.510
to take that on board kind of thing and the industry
00:39:32.510 --> 00:39:35.650
partners who we had involved with actually running
00:39:35.650 --> 00:39:38.809
the trial like the idea is that they will collaborate
00:39:38.809 --> 00:39:41.929
with me to put together the resources so that
00:39:41.929 --> 00:39:44.289
it is in like a practitioner friendly format
00:39:44.289 --> 00:39:47.130
because sure like I do have that experience as
00:39:47.130 --> 00:39:50.039
a practitioner but I would say like I'm probably
00:39:50.039 --> 00:39:53.900
deeper in the research kind of headspace at the
00:39:53.900 --> 00:39:56.440
moment. So having them to kind of build that
00:39:56.440 --> 00:39:58.360
up, whether that's like an infographic, whether
00:39:58.360 --> 00:40:00.840
it's some slides, something like that, that then
00:40:00.840 --> 00:40:04.500
those practitioners can then disseminate again
00:40:04.500 --> 00:40:06.820
to their networks and their colleagues and, yeah,
00:40:06.860 --> 00:40:09.659
I guess spread the message in a more user -friendly
00:40:09.659 --> 00:40:12.119
way. Yeah, yeah, that's right. And then I think
00:40:12.119 --> 00:40:14.400
there would be as well, you'd be surprised to
00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:18.739
find who picks that up. Because you think, you
00:40:18.739 --> 00:40:21.659
know, someone somewhere is going to find it and
00:40:21.659 --> 00:40:24.320
maybe even tweak it and apply it in a different
00:40:24.320 --> 00:40:27.280
way. And then your your work takes on a new life.
00:40:27.380 --> 00:40:29.579
It's always kind of fascinating to to see how
00:40:29.579 --> 00:40:31.840
that happens. And it's nice when it happens in
00:40:31.840 --> 00:40:33.739
a in a good way, which is not, you know, someone
00:40:33.739 --> 00:40:36.820
someone citing you and misinterpreting. Because
00:40:36.820 --> 00:40:40.940
that happens, too. But yeah, that's that might
00:40:40.940 --> 00:40:43.989
be something to. especially because you do already
00:40:43.989 --> 00:40:46.769
have that job lined up. And that's that nice
00:40:46.769 --> 00:40:49.329
crossover as well with the teaching side of things
00:40:49.329 --> 00:40:51.369
where you're very skilled and experienced and
00:40:51.369 --> 00:40:54.170
you can bring that into really making a positive
00:40:54.170 --> 00:40:56.769
impact in people's lives. I hope so. That's the
00:40:56.769 --> 00:41:00.789
plan. You mentioned before that you find yourself
00:41:00.789 --> 00:41:04.710
supervising an honors student. And that's something
00:41:04.710 --> 00:41:06.889
that I haven't had the pleasure of doing myself
00:41:06.889 --> 00:41:09.750
going from being supervised to supervising a
00:41:09.750 --> 00:41:12.610
student. How are you finding that? Interesting,
00:41:12.610 --> 00:41:15.489
but also very fun at the same time. This student
00:41:15.489 --> 00:41:19.190
in particular actually did her placement with
00:41:19.190 --> 00:41:22.909
the project last year and then has ended up using
00:41:22.909 --> 00:41:25.730
some of that data to formulate. the honors project
00:41:25.730 --> 00:41:28.230
so it feels like we've been working together
00:41:28.230 --> 00:41:30.449
for a lot longer than just this year which has
00:41:30.449 --> 00:41:33.070
been really nice um but yeah it's definitely
00:41:33.070 --> 00:41:35.050
been i guess a shift and like good reflective
00:41:35.050 --> 00:41:38.670
practice for me in a way to go oh i'm like i'm
00:41:38.670 --> 00:41:40.710
at a level now where i like i know these things
00:41:40.710 --> 00:41:42.929
and i can answer the questions and the roles
00:41:42.929 --> 00:41:45.630
are flipped and yeah it's just been really strange
00:41:45.630 --> 00:41:48.309
um like definitely there's times where i don't
00:41:48.489 --> 00:41:50.989
know the things right and I'm a co -supervisor
00:41:50.989 --> 00:41:53.329
so ultimately we have another two supervisors
00:41:53.329 --> 00:41:56.889
on the team and the primary of course but it's
00:41:56.889 --> 00:42:00.070
been yeah really interesting finding out like
00:42:00.070 --> 00:42:03.940
how we all fit. in a team and working out like
00:42:03.940 --> 00:42:07.159
which supervisor can support which aspects of
00:42:07.159 --> 00:42:10.199
the project and the research as well. So I think
00:42:10.199 --> 00:42:12.099
for, yeah, for my development, it's been excellent,
00:42:12.179 --> 00:42:15.719
but I think we were doing a good job. She, she
00:42:15.719 --> 00:42:18.519
seems to be going really well and is on track.
00:42:18.679 --> 00:42:21.539
So yeah, it's been, been nice. Really good. Has
00:42:21.539 --> 00:42:23.519
it been teaching you, like, has it been instructive
00:42:23.519 --> 00:42:28.460
for your, your PhD? Yes, actually. Cause as we're
00:42:28.460 --> 00:42:30.780
like working on her project, some of the methods,
00:42:30.820 --> 00:42:33.420
for example, feed into mine and i guess we're
00:42:33.420 --> 00:42:36.480
looking at the same data effectively like the
00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:39.940
same the same participants so it's um i guess
00:42:39.940 --> 00:42:43.179
being good in helping me figure out how to manage
00:42:43.179 --> 00:42:46.099
the data as well and just like communication
00:42:46.099 --> 00:42:48.840
how to how to translate things how to teach how
00:42:48.840 --> 00:42:51.860
to support how to mentor and yeah it's kind of
00:42:51.860 --> 00:42:54.480
like a symbiotic type relationship yeah it sounds
00:42:54.480 --> 00:42:58.260
like it yeah uh you're uh she's she's doing some
00:42:58.260 --> 00:43:00.940
work that maybe you wouldn't do until until later
00:43:00.940 --> 00:43:02.940
but so she gets to bring you the notes and you're
00:43:02.940 --> 00:43:06.880
like yeah nice yeah that sounds good yeah uh
00:43:06.880 --> 00:43:09.059
nice one the thing that's really coming through
00:43:09.059 --> 00:43:11.699
here is is just what a fantastic uh apparatus
00:43:11.699 --> 00:43:14.300
you have here at the the uh because you're in
00:43:14.300 --> 00:43:16.079
the health faculty now aren't you the sport and
00:43:16.079 --> 00:43:19.289
exercise science school uh it's just so well
00:43:19.289 --> 00:43:21.030
set up and it's such a, you were speaking to
00:43:21.030 --> 00:43:23.050
the quality of the team and I've only just kind
00:43:23.050 --> 00:43:25.130
of been introduced to everybody within the past
00:43:25.130 --> 00:43:28.710
month or two. But what strikes me in the capacity
00:43:28.710 --> 00:43:31.210
that I've worked with them is how supportive
00:43:31.210 --> 00:43:34.210
everybody is of each other. You mentioned everyone's
00:43:34.210 --> 00:43:37.110
different specialties, but as well that people
00:43:37.110 --> 00:43:39.510
were very much happy to like, that's your thing.
00:43:39.570 --> 00:43:41.789
So you run with it and then let me know if I
00:43:41.789 --> 00:43:45.250
can support you. And it just seems like it's
00:43:45.250 --> 00:43:47.130
just been so fantastic hearing your story because.
00:43:48.199 --> 00:43:50.679
What a great situation to be in. Yeah, we're
00:43:50.679 --> 00:43:54.139
incredibly lucky here. And it's been even cooler
00:43:54.139 --> 00:43:56.579
from my perspective, right, to see that from
00:43:56.579 --> 00:43:59.519
an undergraduate now all the way to staff. And
00:43:59.519 --> 00:44:02.440
like, I guess even watching the other academics
00:44:02.440 --> 00:44:04.920
evolve themselves, because like seven years is
00:44:04.920 --> 00:44:07.639
a pretty long time. So yeah, being part of the
00:44:07.639 --> 00:44:09.980
furniture, I guess, for that long, like I have
00:44:09.980 --> 00:44:12.000
seen a lot of different changes. And it's made
00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:16.320
my transition from HDR to staff like all the
00:44:16.320 --> 00:44:19.369
more easier. Yeah. Yeah. Has it been, have you
00:44:19.369 --> 00:44:22.610
found it interesting to go from like these professors
00:44:22.610 --> 00:44:24.670
taught you in your undergrad to now your co -workers?
00:44:24.889 --> 00:44:27.889
Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, sometimes it's still a
00:44:27.889 --> 00:44:29.949
little bit like, oh, that's a bit strange, bit
00:44:29.949 --> 00:44:32.650
weird. But I think because everyone is just so
00:44:32.650 --> 00:44:35.590
friendly and so approachable, like it was not
00:44:35.590 --> 00:44:37.849
an issue for very long. Yeah. That's nice because
00:44:37.849 --> 00:44:39.269
it doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes
00:44:39.269 --> 00:44:42.710
the power shift goes the other way. And you sort
00:44:42.710 --> 00:44:45.829
of feel like you're a PhD student forever. No,
00:44:45.849 --> 00:44:49.909
it's been very easy. Yeah, nice one. As we kind
00:44:49.909 --> 00:44:51.789
of come to the end of our conversation, I'd be
00:44:51.789 --> 00:44:53.690
interested to know, because you have had this
00:44:53.690 --> 00:44:56.230
experience of kind of seven years through all
00:44:56.230 --> 00:44:58.449
levels of the study, now you are part of the
00:44:58.449 --> 00:45:01.130
faculty as well. When you look back on the journey
00:45:01.130 --> 00:45:05.570
that you've described today, what are you thinking?
00:45:05.769 --> 00:45:07.710
Is there anything you would do differently? What
00:45:07.710 --> 00:45:10.010
were some highs? Maybe what were some challenges?
00:45:12.320 --> 00:45:14.760
I don't know if I would want to change anything.
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:17.340
Like I don't necessarily love the idea of like,
00:45:17.420 --> 00:45:22.199
oh, I regret X, Y, Z. But probably just to like
00:45:22.199 --> 00:45:26.079
take myself less seriously at times. Like I've
00:45:26.079 --> 00:45:29.739
always been, you know, all for school, all for
00:45:29.739 --> 00:45:33.079
study. Like I'm that type of person. So there's
00:45:33.079 --> 00:45:35.139
probably times where I could have gone, okay,
00:45:35.199 --> 00:45:38.300
like this isn't the end of the world type thing.
00:45:39.079 --> 00:45:42.400
And I might have like over -created. some stressors
00:45:42.400 --> 00:45:47.599
and things like that but the even though like
00:45:47.599 --> 00:45:51.679
2024 in itself was absolutely insane in the amount
00:45:51.679 --> 00:45:54.960
of work like i can definitely see that it was
00:45:54.960 --> 00:45:58.639
so worth it in that same sense like we changed
00:45:58.639 --> 00:46:01.380
the lives of like 80 different people I was able
00:46:01.380 --> 00:46:03.760
to give like a bunch of students a whole new
00:46:03.760 --> 00:46:07.079
experience um in research and in practice and
00:46:07.079 --> 00:46:09.800
we also like built up the skill set of basically
00:46:09.800 --> 00:46:12.360
every single person who was involved in that
00:46:12.360 --> 00:46:15.420
like we had HDRs who volunteered their time and
00:46:15.420 --> 00:46:20.199
just I think everyone benefited from it um So
00:46:20.199 --> 00:46:21.719
I don't think I would change anything about that.
00:46:21.719 --> 00:46:24.360
Yeah, more just, I guess, my personal approach
00:46:24.360 --> 00:46:27.039
to it and be like, just chill. Like, it's all
00:46:27.039 --> 00:46:29.900
good. It's going to be fine. Because zooming
00:46:29.900 --> 00:46:33.460
out now, it was so fine. And all of like the
00:46:33.460 --> 00:46:35.679
little intricacies of the things that I was freaking
00:46:35.679 --> 00:46:39.340
out about literally don't matter now in the grand
00:46:39.340 --> 00:46:41.659
scheme of things. The stakes always seem high
00:46:41.659 --> 00:46:44.480
in the moment. Exactly. Yeah. And I guess the
00:46:44.480 --> 00:46:47.210
biggest highs were definitely, you know. actually
00:46:47.210 --> 00:46:50.190
getting back into a gym and training people because
00:46:50.190 --> 00:46:52.269
I had kind of missed out on that a little bit
00:46:52.269 --> 00:46:54.130
like you know you get that engagement when you're
00:46:54.130 --> 00:46:56.889
teaching but I don't know there's something about
00:46:56.889 --> 00:47:00.590
teaching someone to move and like be physically
00:47:00.590 --> 00:47:03.969
active that I didn't realize I was that passionate
00:47:03.969 --> 00:47:07.719
about until I had to train people again and moving
00:47:07.719 --> 00:47:10.079
into different subjects now this year like that's
00:47:10.079 --> 00:47:12.440
also reignited that like i get to teach students
00:47:12.440 --> 00:47:15.679
how to prescribe exercise and why physical activity
00:47:15.679 --> 00:47:18.000
across the lifespan is important and it's just
00:47:18.000 --> 00:47:21.179
making me go like oh okay that's why i picked
00:47:21.179 --> 00:47:24.239
this degree because i'm so passionate about exercise
00:47:24.239 --> 00:47:27.900
exercise is medicine and all of that and it just
00:47:27.900 --> 00:47:30.659
has all come together for you yeah yeah no that's
00:47:30.659 --> 00:47:33.969
brilliant very lucky That's a nice segue, I think,
00:47:33.989 --> 00:47:35.989
to the last couple of questions that I like to
00:47:35.989 --> 00:47:38.949
ask everybody. The first one is just when you,
00:47:39.010 --> 00:47:41.150
we just looked to the past, now we can look to
00:47:41.150 --> 00:47:44.530
the future. What's on the horizon for you? Oh,
00:47:44.550 --> 00:47:46.929
finishing this PhD, shutting that chapter for
00:47:46.929 --> 00:47:50.389
sure. It's like, it is getting to that point
00:47:50.389 --> 00:47:52.849
where it's like, I know what I have to do. So
00:47:52.849 --> 00:47:56.309
let's just do it. Head down, bum up type of thing.
00:47:57.429 --> 00:48:04.960
I would love to be submitted. By June next year,
00:48:05.079 --> 00:48:09.559
I think that's achievable. Being a part -time
00:48:09.559 --> 00:48:12.219
student now with the full -time job obviously
00:48:12.219 --> 00:48:15.800
has given me more time to do it, but I think
00:48:15.800 --> 00:48:18.099
the longer I drag it out, it's just, you know,
00:48:18.119 --> 00:48:20.820
just want it done kind of thing because then
00:48:20.820 --> 00:48:23.199
that opens up a whole bunch of other opportunities.
00:48:23.699 --> 00:48:26.199
So I guess plans are to continue working through
00:48:26.199 --> 00:48:31.039
all of the data that I do have. I think that...
00:48:31.199 --> 00:48:33.659
my honours student wants to continue into a PhD.
00:48:33.820 --> 00:48:36.099
So hopefully continue working with her as well.
00:48:36.840 --> 00:48:39.380
And there's always projects popping up around
00:48:39.380 --> 00:48:42.719
here, right? So I guess having that availability
00:48:42.719 --> 00:48:45.519
and capacity to put my hand up and say, yeah,
00:48:45.559 --> 00:48:46.940
like I would love to learn a little bit more
00:48:46.940 --> 00:48:49.280
about that because I think that's probably pretty
00:48:49.280 --> 00:48:52.260
important as an early career researcher or an
00:48:52.260 --> 00:48:55.929
ECR to kind of, yeah, find your feet. I don't
00:48:55.929 --> 00:48:57.929
know. I can kind of see myself having a little
00:48:57.929 --> 00:49:01.769
bit of an identity crisis after the PhD is finished.
00:49:01.909 --> 00:49:04.190
I feel like some people mentioned that. We had
00:49:04.190 --> 00:49:07.050
a visiting academic from the UK, actually, and
00:49:07.050 --> 00:49:09.230
she was like, I had a really big moment of I
00:49:09.230 --> 00:49:11.449
don't know who I am without my research project.
00:49:11.809 --> 00:49:15.849
So I don't know if I will have that. But I guess
00:49:15.849 --> 00:49:18.690
the plan to avoid that would just be to say yes
00:49:18.690 --> 00:49:21.989
to things because right now it's becoming I kind
00:49:21.989 --> 00:49:24.710
of need to say no to make sure that I can finish
00:49:24.710 --> 00:49:27.559
it. But at least you do have that job that you
00:49:27.559 --> 00:49:29.679
know will be there at the end and you can just
00:49:29.679 --> 00:49:32.000
throw yourself fully into that. Definitely some
00:49:32.000 --> 00:49:36.719
security for sure. Because I can relate to, you
00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:39.059
know, getting the PhD. Once again, this is one
00:49:39.059 --> 00:49:40.440
of the motivators for starting this podcast.
00:49:40.639 --> 00:49:44.079
The PhD was probably the most magical time of
00:49:44.079 --> 00:49:47.559
my life because really we never get another opportunity
00:49:47.559 --> 00:49:50.670
to just research whatever we want. In the way
00:49:50.670 --> 00:49:53.389
we want to tell the story we want to tell and
00:49:53.389 --> 00:49:56.889
get paid to do it. So that's a very rare opportunity
00:49:56.889 --> 00:50:00.250
and unique to the Australian context as well
00:50:00.250 --> 00:50:04.869
that that's even possible. But I think the way
00:50:04.869 --> 00:50:07.050
that you've described your career unfolding so
00:50:07.050 --> 00:50:10.650
far, I think you could just distract yourself
00:50:10.650 --> 00:50:14.309
to avoid that problem. Probably, yeah. Something
00:50:14.309 --> 00:50:16.449
will pop up. Like I feel like I haven't had to,
00:50:16.469 --> 00:50:19.110
I've been lucky enough, I guess, to not actively.
00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:23.480
seek an opportunity right like it's just well
00:50:23.480 --> 00:50:25.219
that's how i perceive it right other people tell
00:50:25.219 --> 00:50:28.340
me no don't be silly but that i just feel like
00:50:28.340 --> 00:50:30.360
i've fallen into things because i've been in
00:50:30.360 --> 00:50:32.360
the right place at the right time and apparently
00:50:32.360 --> 00:50:35.659
the right place is uts so well there you go yeah
00:50:35.659 --> 00:50:38.260
yeah that's worked out for me too so i can i
00:50:38.260 --> 00:50:40.559
can also relate to that part of the story uh
00:50:40.559 --> 00:50:43.480
the very last question that i ask everybody it's
00:50:43.480 --> 00:50:46.670
a bit of a hard pivot but something about Something
00:50:46.670 --> 00:50:48.469
at the moment that you're excited about. It's
00:50:48.469 --> 00:50:50.409
getting you out of bed, but it's not related
00:50:50.409 --> 00:50:53.289
to the PhD. Yeah, cool. I'm going to South Africa
00:50:53.289 --> 00:50:56.110
at the end of the year. So very excited about
00:50:56.110 --> 00:51:01.130
that. Planning some game drives, safaris, visiting
00:51:01.130 --> 00:51:04.570
Victoria Falls, Cape Town, all of those things.
00:51:04.690 --> 00:51:07.250
Brilliant. Very excited. How long will you be
00:51:07.250 --> 00:51:09.750
there? Three weeks. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah,
00:51:09.789 --> 00:51:11.829
that'll be what are laid at the end of the tunnel.
00:51:11.949 --> 00:51:15.909
Yes. Well, the game plan was to be closer to
00:51:15.909 --> 00:51:18.610
finishing this year, but I don't know. We'll
00:51:18.610 --> 00:51:20.449
see. We'll see how we go. You'll still go and
00:51:20.449 --> 00:51:22.869
enjoy it. Exactly. And then there'll be Europe
00:51:22.869 --> 00:51:25.320
next July. That's another thing to look forward
00:51:25.320 --> 00:51:27.460
to. Yeah, absolutely. Is that another holiday
00:51:27.460 --> 00:51:29.559
or are you going to a conference? I would like
00:51:29.559 --> 00:51:32.539
to tie it in with a conference, hoping that,
00:51:32.599 --> 00:51:35.000
yeah, most of the thesis is done. It would be
00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:37.340
really cool to present some of that, probably
00:51:37.340 --> 00:51:40.860
ECSS again. It'll be in Switzerland next year.
00:51:40.980 --> 00:51:43.059
So haven't been there yet. It would be very cool
00:51:43.059 --> 00:51:45.769
to go. Yeah, brilliant. Thank you very much for
00:51:45.769 --> 00:51:48.170
sitting down with me and sharing your story.
00:51:48.269 --> 00:51:51.150
I found it really fascinating. I said at the
00:51:51.150 --> 00:51:52.469
beginning that it's the first time I've spoken
00:51:52.469 --> 00:51:54.090
to a former student, but it's also the first
00:51:54.090 --> 00:51:57.309
time that I've spoken to a STEM researcher. And
00:51:57.309 --> 00:51:59.010
you had the qualitative element, which made it
00:51:59.010 --> 00:52:02.349
easy for me to kind of find my way through everything.
00:52:03.610 --> 00:52:06.269
But, yeah, thank you very much for sharing your
00:52:06.269 --> 00:52:07.809
story. No worries. Thank you so much for having
00:52:07.809 --> 00:52:08.349
me. It's been fun.