Ruby's journey through weightlifting is nothing short of inspiring. From the electrifying moments of lifting at the state titles to the nerve-wracking preparation for the national stage, Ruby shares her story with authenticity and grit. Despite facing unexpected challenges with her snatches, she achieved a personal best in her clean and jerks, demonstrating unwavering determination. We lighten the mood with a hilarious story involving Ruby’s car and her loyal dog, Bo, who is always cheering her on. And scratching the door...
Today's show is packed with helpful insights from the athlete's mind:
Learn what power all your senses have on performance
Learn how the stories you make in your head affect your performance
Learn about Ruby's biggest hurdles on route to her biggest opportunity yet
Ruby also delves into the emotional and mental aspects of competing, discussing how family support fuels her drive and the crucial lesson of separating self-worth from performance. At just 22, her maturity shines as she reflects on overcoming setbacks and building mental resilience. As Ruby gears up to represent Queensland at the junior nationals, she offers insights into maintaining a focused mindset, the thrill of competing on home ground, and the power of self-belief. Join us for an episode packed with heartfelt reflections, motivational insights, and a few laughs along the way. Check out Ruby on Instagram at @ruby_carwardine
Ruby's journey through weightlifting is nothing short of inspiring. From the electrifying moments of lifting at the state titles to the nerve-wracking preparation for the national stage, Ruby shares her story with authenticity and grit. Despite facing unexpected challenges with her snatches, she achieved a personal best in her clean and jerks, demonstrating unwavering determination. We lighten the mood with a hilarious story involving Ruby’s car and her loyal dog, Bo, who is always cheering her on. And scratching the door...
Today's show is packed with helpful insights from the athlete's mind:
Learn what power all your senses have on performance
Learn how the stories you make in your head affect your performance
Learn about Ruby's biggest hurdles on route to her biggest opportunity yet
Ruby also delves into the emotional and mental aspects of competing, discussing how family support fuels her drive and the crucial lesson of separating self-worth from performance. At just 22, her maturity shines as she reflects on overcoming setbacks and building mental resilience. As Ruby gears up to represent Queensland at the junior nationals, she offers insights into maintaining a focused mindset, the thrill of competing on home ground, and the power of self-belief. Join us for an episode packed with heartfelt reflections, motivational insights, and a few laughs along the way. Check out Ruby on Instagram at @ruby_carwardine
Welcome to Uplift you, creating strong bodies and mind. Get ready to power up your day with practical strength training tools, inspiring stories and build resilience of body and mind. It's time to Uplift you, together with your host, leanne Knox.
Speaker 2:
All right, welcome back to Uplift you and I have another special episode today, following up from the Focus Bitch from a few weeks ago. If you recall, we had Ruby on before her state titles and today I'm excited to say that I've got Ruby on again because we're going to follow up from that competition just to see how Ruby went, and we have two and a half weeks until national titles now. So I thought this is a perfect time to recap and look forward to what's coming up. So welcome back to the show, ruby. Thank you, thank you. I have one question for you just before we start about weightlifting Is your wheel still on your car? It sure is so.
Speaker 1:
Steve didn't get to you, he was only bluffing because he did service my car and it still goes. I haven't died yet.
Speaker 2:
So that's fantastic because if you haven't heard any of the other episodes, ruby was actually my first official guest on Uplift you and my husband, steve, was quite put out because he thought he was going to be the first guest. My husband Steve was quite put out because he thought he was going to be the first guest and Steve is a mechanic, so he thought the best way to retaliate would be to leave Ruby's left front wheel loose. And that hasn't happened, so lucky or I wouldn't be here. I'd probably be in jail with Steve.
Speaker 2:
So there is a funny story about the barking that you can hear right now. That is actually a new dog, because I know you've heard my dogs many times on this podcast and normally it's either Boy the red cattle dog, or it's Tilly the blue cattle dog. And then we have Mickey, the Maltese Shih Tzu, that chimes in every now and then, and the one you can hear right now is Bo the cattle dog. And the one you can hear right now is Bo the cattle dog. So every time you hear that bark, that's Bo. He is actually barking. He's barracking for his mum because Bo is Ruby's little dog and he's scratching the door down. Yeah, he's trying to get into us. So we'll just ignore that and we'll move right along. So, going back to state titlesy, um remember, um going into that, what were your goals and how do you think you?
Speaker 1:
how did you feel about that competition? Do you mean at the time of the competition, or how do I feel after the competition?
Speaker 2:
I mean, like reflecting back on that competition, how, how do you feel you went at the competition so? So just take us back to the state titles and give us a really brief overview of what you wanted to achieve out of that competition and how you felt immediately after.
Speaker 1:
Well, my absolute biggest goal for that competition was to clean and jerk 110. I also had the goal of a snatch of 81-ish kilos 82 kilos maybe if I was feeling really good, just so I could at a bigger competition secure a snatch above 80 kilos. But my snatches, honestly, I was quite disappointed with them because my warm-up went to a T perfection. I couldn't have been any better. I made my opener at 76 kilos pretty easily and then I jumped to 79 and when I like locked the snatch out, I don't know, my right arm just gave way and then I thought, no, I can do 80. So I jumped up to 80.
Speaker 1:
Exact same thing happened again with my right stupid arm, something that has literally never happened in my life before and it has not happened since. So I don't know what happened on that day. But my right arm was not playing the game, but my main focus was the clean and jerks at that competition. So I really didn't let the snatches phase me too much and I actually went up a kilo from what I was planning to open on, which was 103, so I opened on 104. And then I went to 107, which is like a current PB.
Speaker 1:
I hadn't done 107 in a really long time. And then I went to 110, which I cleaned and like really narrowly missed the jerk. So even though it was a no lift technically, I was still really happy because I was sort of I sort of counted it in my head as a PB, sort of Well, yeah, I did count it in my head as a PBb so when you, when you actually um dropped that, um, for those of you that haven't seen uh, ruby's lift, you can go onto my lk strength coach instagram and have a look at it um, ruby actually locked out the jerk.
Speaker 2:
So for the people that don't do olympic weightlifting, the main um indicator of getting a good lift is you have to lock your elbows out in one motion and then there's not allowed to be any re-bend of the elbows and you have to bring your feet back side by side, under control, until the referee says down, or the sound or the light goes, you get the signal. When you get the signal, you're allowed to drop the bar. So Ruby actually locked out her elbows, which is the hard part of the jerk. Right, you've done the job. But as she was stepping her feet back together, she lost her balance a little bit and it dropped backwards over her head. So at that very moment, ruby, what went through your mind?
Speaker 1:
A lot of disappointment. To be honest, I was really disappointed because, like, I really thought I had it, like in my as a lifter, you know that moment where you're like, yes, I've got this. And I had that moment like you either have that moment or you don't. And I had that moment like, yes, I've actually done this, but then I dropped it, like again, it was like that a slight bit of sidewards motion happened on the bar and I wasn't willing to try and risk my back to save that. Like I just thought I better drop it. And that was really disappointing because I felt that I had it. But then, when I reflected on it, like a minute after the lift, I'm like, no, really, that's a really solid effort and that's as close to making a lift as you can be without making a lift. So and I hadn't done that with 110 for probably yeah, three and a half years, I would say I clean and jerked 110 I'm once it which was like around October 2020.
Speaker 2:
so, yeah, three and a half years it's been since I've touched that weight so yeah, and going into that competition, what were some of the strategies that you used um to get that 110 kilo cleaner, jerk?
Speaker 1:
Mentally. Mentally, the biggest one is visualization. Like for me that is such a power. Like for anyone that's a powerful tool, but for me in particular, I find myself thinking about competitions and like certain lifts that I want quite frequently, especially if I'm just driving along or I don't know, not really doing anything too like strenuous on the mind, I just find my mind wandering and like I'll literally imagine myself with those that red plate, the blue plate, clips, cleaning it, jerking it, like the exact feeling. Like you know it's not going to be easy. I know that it's not going to be easy, but I just visualize myself doing that over and over again and when you visualize yourself, do you use um, you see yourself doing it.
Speaker 2:
Do you use any of your other senses when you, when you um, when you're in that process, like, can you actually hear the sounds that would go along with that and feel the bar, or do you just see yourself?
Speaker 1:
doing that. I can feel the bar and I see myself. I wouldn't say I necessarily am thinking about like the sound of it. That's not that big of a thing for me, but I yeah, I can see myself, I can feel what it's going to feel like so well.
Speaker 2:
So that's interesting because when you look into science and visualization, it's a very powerful training tool. And not only is it a training tool, it's a tool that everyone can use for anything that they want in their life. And the scientific evidence actually points to the more senses that you can use so sight, smell, that you can use so sight, smell, touch, sound the more you can. The more of those five senses that you can use, the more effective your visualisation. So next time, for this time coming up, when you think of those red and blue plates, you can feel your hands on the metal bar.
Speaker 2:
But then if you actually think about what sounds are happening because you know there's there's very common sounds at competition. That would be like the bar being loaded, your name being called um. Even as you um walk onto the platform, there's a certain sound of your you know your shoes on the on the wooden platform and then pulling the bar off the floor, there's a very common sound as as a barbell comes off the floor. So if you can incorporate and if the audience, if you've got something that you really want to achieve, if you can incorporate the sound, and the other thing that's really powerful is smell. So, um, there is a certain smell in in a, in a weightlifting um environment, and it's usually chalk. That's a very big smell and I would even say you can smell the rubber of the plates.
Speaker 1:
And like, if there's rubber floor mats, yeah, the rubber floor mats.
Speaker 2:
So if a weightlifter closed their eyes and didn't know where they were going and also had no hearing sense, so take out your sight and your hearing. And if you walked into a weightlifting club with only the only sense that you could use would be your smell and just sniff, do you think you'd know you're in a weightlifting club?
Speaker 2:
probably, especially if I could smell my open gym bag and smell the smell of my knee sleeves and my shoes yeah, so, um, but all jokes aside, if you can use your five senses in your visualization, you do get a more powerful result. And scientists have done so many studies on visualization and they've had control groups and one group would do no training, no physical training. The only training they would do would be powerful visualization for a period of maybe, I think, probably two weeks, I think it was and the other group just did all physical training and no visualization and they found that even the group that did no training still improved their performance. That is how powerful visualization is. So, looking forward, going into this, nationals nationals is actually over in Perth, which is a real, what I believe an advantage for Ruby because that's her hometown. Looking forward to nationals, what strategies will you use for mental strategies, will you use for prepare? Mental strategies will you use for preparing over the next two and a half weeks, or what have you been using so far?
Speaker 1:
definitely visualization, but to be fair, I would say sound somewhat has been included a lot more this time, because I'm envisioning the fact that I'm going to have my family and hopefully a couple of my friends coming along to the competition to watch. So in my, in my mind, I'm also visualizing them in the crowd, hearing them cheer for me. Um, just adds like I don't know. It adds this extra layer of like it makes my heart race thinking about the excitement of it, like how excited I am to be lifting back in WA, because I haven't really had anyone other than Leanne and probably Jasper and Tara come along to my competitions for, yeah, three and a half years. I used to always have like family members, especially my dad, coming along to competitions, so it's been a really long time and I just can't wait.
Speaker 2:
And do you find that support really motivating and empowering and do you think it helps your performance? Yes, definitely. Okay, that's really interesting because you obviously then have quite? A? Um strong connection um with your, with your family, and the fact that they're supporting you, um, and you find that, um, as that's an, an advantage for your performance. That's really interesting because when you talk to some people, they don't like performing in front of people they know, so the more people they know that are in the crowd, the less like the more pressure they feel. However, it's really interesting and nice to see that having people in the crowd that are dear to you, that you're connected with, actually inspires you to lift to the best of your ability, yeah, and decreases, would you say that helps decrease, the pressure that you're feeling.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I wouldn't say it decreases it, but it doesn't change the pressure that I feel. I put a certain amount of pressure, I guess, on myself, being a competitor, being an athlete, but I don't feel like a sense of judgment or anything from my family or friends or anyone. And the absolute worst thing that could happen at this competition is I bomb out or I miss a few lifts, and that doesn't scare me.
Speaker 2:
No, it certainly doesn't, because you've actually and here's the thing, when it doesn't matter whether it's lifting or anything in life, when you think about that statement that you just said, Ruby, what's the worst that could happen? Ruby's actually already experienced the worst that can happen in olympic weightlifting, and that was three years ago it was when I first moved here at junior nationals, and ruby missed all her snatches um. So in the weightlifting world that's called bombing.
Speaker 1:
It's an unfortunate word, yeah it really makes it about it sound like a really bad thing.
Speaker 2:
It makes it sound quite traumatic. Actually, it just means you missed your three snatches right and life goes on after that.
Speaker 1:
It does. Like really, I got so upset after that happened and I cried and I even gave up weightlifting for like six months after that because I was just like no, this is crap. I did crap, I'm crap. This all sucks. I could lift 10 kilos more than this three months ago. This sucks, but now I don't. I'm just a different person mentally, like, honestly, missing my three snatches or missing any lifts at a competition yes, it's a little bit disappointing, but I don't put any of my self-worth into that. Like I'm at the end of the day, I'm going to be back to the gym the following week. I'm going to continue training, continue working towards my next competition. Like nothing changes in my life because I missed a lift at a competition.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and that's. That's really admirable, because Ruby's only 22 22, yeah, um, so that's an old girl, yeah, but that's quite a young, quite quite young to have that mentality. Because I've met a lot of lifters who are in their forties and thirties, forties and fifties, who miss lifts and tie their performance to their self-worth or even their identity. Um, I've seen people who've um've missed lifts or got injured and have left the sport and gone into almost like a fit of depression because they identify themselves as lifters and that's their main role in life, which is really interesting because the last time I looked, no one in Australia except maybe one, our top lifter has ever even been paid to lift. So this is not our vocation. This is, this is our passion, this is something that we chose to do because it's fun and we enjoy doing it, um, so it's. It's really interesting that um, and great that you can separate your performance, your lifting performance, with your identity, who you are and what you're worth, and that's a really powerful way to approach competitions, because then, if you fail, all that failure means is you have something to work on.
Speaker 2:
You did something wrong in the lift. You, the timing was wrong, you weren't strong enough, um, you made a mistake and it just means that you need to practice more. It doesn't mean that you you're a shit person and that you, you know your life failure. Yeah, that's it. You might have to end it all, throw yourself under the bus, type of thing. So that's great. So what are your goals for this? Give us a little bit of set the scene for nationals. Now, this is going to be the first time that Ruby's competed for Queensland in a junior setting, so, as far as I know, at a nationals, because last year Ruby competed at senior nationals. Because last year ruby competed at senior nationals. Yep, and this is actually junior nationals and that's 23 years and under between 17 and 23 bo's very excited, as you can hear he's in the background.
Speaker 1:
I'm scared that he's scratching your fly screen.
Speaker 2:
I probably don't have a door left, but it's okay, we're safe people. So, um, anyway, uh, back to yeah. Back to nationals first time. Ruby has represented queensland as a junior athlete and she is on the queensland team. Um, there is actually only four queenslanders going over to perth, um, and I'm not surprised, because that is a just a direct reflection of the cost of living and the cost of travel and accommodation, but set the scene for how you're feeling about this upcoming nationals I am really, really excited, like really excited, because my training has been going really good, like I would say, at the moment I'm in like maximum fatigue mode.
Speaker 1:
So, if I'm being totally transparent, training has felt really quite crap for about the last week, but that doesn't faze me because I know that that's just what happens before a competition and other than that, my training has been really good. I'm feel I've just got a pb back squat double of 140 kilos, which to me indicates that I am literally the strongest I've ever been. I feel mentally very calm going into this competition, but like I don't. Calm and ready to perform, that's what I would. That's describe my feelings as. And I'm really excited because I've got like more to look forward to than, I guess, just a competition. I get to go over there and spend two weeks with my family and my friends and I get to catch up with people I haven't seen in a long time from WA weightlifting. It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 2:
And also you're on home ground, right, it's like playing in a home field for the, for a football player, for example, and um uh. So how important do you think that the concept of being calm is going into a competition?
Speaker 1:
I think it's really important, like there's like in my mind, there's two types of calm. There's, like you know, calm In my mind. There's two types of calm. There's calm ready to go to sleep but I'm talking about calm and ready to perform. Being calm is really important because if you I don't know spiral in your head in this fit of putting so much pressure on yourself, in my mind at least that's going to lead to disappointment and letting yourself down, whereas I feel really calm, at least that's going to lead to disappointment. And yeah, like letting yourself down whereas I feel really calm, like in my head, I've accepted every possible outcome of this competition and, yeah, I'm ready.
Speaker 2:
Well, that's very exciting. So, ruby, there's two girls from Queensland in your weight class, ruby's competing in the 71 kilo weight class. Two girls from Queensland in your weight class. Ruby's competing in the 71 kilo weight class and for those of you that want to watch, she is on. Ruby competes on Saturday, june the 8th. Now it's 3 o'clock Perth time, which makes it 5 o'clock Queensland time. So if you're in Queensland, you can watch Ruby at 5 o'clock.
Speaker 2:
I'll be over there coaching Ruby, which I'm very excited about, because these days we're allowed to go as personal coaches onto a Queensland team, which is new in Australia. It's only been in for a year. It used to be you could only go with the Queensland coaches, whoever had been appointed. So that's an exciting experience for us both, because I don't think I've ever coached the junior nationals as a personal coach yet. So there you go, we're both entering into something new.
Speaker 2:
And before we sign off, ruby, if you could give anyone like a bit of advice on taking risks, because I do believe you're a great risk taker you really are. I've never actually met a lifter like Ruby who can get out there and miss a lift and be 100% convinced that even though she missed that lift. She can put another three or four or five kilos on the bar, she knows, and with absolute, 100% confidence. And so that's actually a skill and it's a great competitive skill to have, because there is no self-doubt. So people that are out there in life even and it doesn't have to be lifting, it could be in anything what piece of advice do you have for them to be able to take that you know what, to back themselves, to take a risk and back themselves. How do you do that?
Speaker 1:
Well, to me I would say I often just think you know what is the worst thing that will happen if I do this, and if I can accept in my mind the worst thing that's possibly going to happen if I do this, then I'm happy to do it.
Speaker 2:
And what do you think the worst thing is? That often happens to most people. Okay, so if you're, you know, starting a new job or you want to ask someone out, you know you're you're keen on a you know boyfriend, girlfriend, or you'll ask someone out on a date, or you know you want to go and sing on stage, whatever there's a whole heap of things that are like scary to do, that you need to be brave in. And if you think back to what is the worst that can happen, the worst thing that can happen often comes from who? Who do you believe that actually comes from that story? Yourself, exactly.
Speaker 2:
So the only person, the person that where the worst thing's happening is that the whole story is coming from you. So you can change that narrative anytime you like, because you can change the story of what the actual worst thing is and instead you could change it to what is the best thing that could happen. So you could, you could go out to, you could go to nationals and you could. You could bomb your three snatches and what's the best thing that could happen? So you could, you could go out to, you could go to nationals and you could. You could bomb your three snatches, and what's the best thing that could happen out of that, do you think?
Speaker 1:
That I get to keep training and keep working on whatever I you know, whatever my mistake was on the day. I'll take that on board and I'll probably go out and have a really fun night after that. And then I get to go back to the gym the following week and keep working on my weaknesses.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So the best thing that happened out of that was that you became more determined to improve your technique, or improve your timing or improve your mindset, wherever it is where you may have fallen down. So the same can be said for all of you people out there who are thinking of trying something new, putting yourself out of your comfort zone. Think, like Ruby, what's the worst that can happen? Change the word worst to the best, and I can guarantee you'll find something good that comes out of any situation. So keep your eye out on my Instagram for how Ruby goes. Coming up june the 7th, and we wish you the 8th. Oh, my goodness, I've got the. I've got the dates wrong again.
Speaker 2:
The funny thing is I'm going camping. I'm a great coach. I'm going camping like a week and a half before ruby even competes, so I'm um but. But I have full trust that Ruby's ready, and I know that we've done the hard work, we've put in the hard work, and now it's just a matter of stepping on the platform and showing them what you're made of. Yep, all right. So have a great time, ruby, over the next week and a half. You, too, I'll be thinking of you as I'm sitting around the campfire. And yeah, until next time we'll have a follow-up of Ruby's Nationals. Thanks for being here and stay strong. Woo-hoo, woo-hoo, woo-hoo, woo-hoo, woo-hoo, bye.
