- [Sam] Hello, and welcome to this Deakin
University Alumni Webinar presented by a
Deakin alumnus Richy Bennett.
Sam Johnson here from the Deakin
Alumni Relations team.
It's great to have you with us.
I'd like to start by acknowledging the
traditional owners of the land from which
we're broadcasting today,
the Wadawurrung people of the
Kulin nations, and to pay our respects to
their elders, past, present, and emerging.
To watch past webinar and seminar
recordings, visit the Webinar and
Resources page on the
Deakin Alumni website.
For those who've just joined the session,
welcome to the Deakin Alumni Webinar
with presenter Richy Bennett,
titled "From Big Wave Riders
to AFL Umpires: 20 Years of High
Performance Psychology."
After beginning his career in community
and indigenous mental health,
Deakin alumnus Richy Bennett combined his
passions for surfing and psychology
to become the first psychologist to
consult globally on the World Surf League.
From pioneering the field of surf
psychology, and authoring his first book,
The Surfer's Mind, Richy continued to
ride his waves of passion with several
senior performance psychology roles in
Australian Olympic, Paralympic,
and Commonwealth Games teams.
Richy is currently the AFL umpires'
performance psychologist,
and from his private practice
in Jan Juc,
he consults locally and globally with
entry level to elite performers in sport,
extreme adventure, and artistic pursuits,
military emergency, healthcare, education,
and corporate settings.
Thank you so much for
joining us today, Richy.
Over to you.
- [Richy] Thanks, Sam, and thanks,
Deakin alumni for creating the space
to share with everyone today.
And welcome.
Thanks for tuning in.
Just going to share a little about myself
and my evolution, I guess, in psychology,
particularly in performance psychology.
And, you know, something that I understand
about all performers is that we're a human
first who happens to perform.
So I'm going to share a little bit
about myself as well and, you know,
who you are as a person always comes
through as what you do and deliver as a
professional, whether that's
in elite sport, or in your career,
or other settings.
So sometimes it's helpful to gain some
insights about self,
and how that actually unfolds in your
professional life and
your performance life.
So, I guess we'll start from the start,
too, a little bit of background
on psychology and the origins of
psychology.
I feel it's always important to
understand our lineage.
And, you know, the lineage from a language
perspective, the word "psyche" actually
means breath, or the principle of life,
the spirit, or the soul,
and "logy," that means speech, or word,
or reason, actually, and study.
So, psychology, for me,
and in its origin, is very much about the
study of life, the study of self,
and along with the mind encompasses the
whole being of the soul, the spirit,
and the body as well, really.
The body has its own language
and intelligence.
And as we have here, you know,
a beautiful picture of a portal, the mind,
for me, is really like a portal to our
world, the world around and the
world within, and it can be
our jail or joy.
So sometimes that portal can feel like
it's got some bars across it, you know,
when we're attached to beliefs or other
things that are holding us back,
but other times like this beautiful photo,
you know, it's the dawn of a new day,
and we welcome that with joy. Our
natural state's freedom, of course, too.
So it's ideal that our portal,
our mind is one that's free,
and that's such a central element of both
high performance as well as personal
enrichment throughout our lives as well as
the enrichments and joy we
share with others.
A lot of the enrichment and joy that we
share is through our passions, and,
for me, I've always been a water person,
definitely a water baby there,
very fortunate to have a loving auntie who
built a beach house
on the Mornington Peninsula.
And so our family spent a lot of time in
the ocean on the bay side,
and then when we got a little bit more
proficient with our swimming and our water
knowledge on the coast side
[inaudible] ports,
and all the beaches around
there and in between.
And so surfing really became a passion for
me in the very early days,
even just floating around in the waves and
feeling my body being lifted, and moved,
and thrashed around by the waves,
just bodysurfing on surf mats,
or boogie boards, and things like that,
was just so much fun and such a thrill
to share with my brother, and sister,
and family.
And so it really opened up this connection
that I still have that's very deep and
intimate with the ocean,
and with the feeling of being held
by the ocean, as well as being thrust
along by some pretty magic waves,
which is always fun.
Another really important part of our
passions that I find is that we all seem
to have our own Everest.
And for me, as a surfer,
my Mount Everest was, you know,
the real love and desire to surf
Waimea Bay.
Waimea Bay is considered the spiritual
home of big wave riding.
That's on the North Shore
of Oahu in Hawaii.
And when I was a little kid,
my bedroom walls were just covered
in posters of big waves,
and I was in awe and wonder of how those
surfers could take on these
life-threatening situations,
particularly after I'd had a pretty heavy
tumble down and kind
of [inaudible] on a relatively
small day.
Another important element of our evolution
as a person as well as a performer is,
you know, welcoming and seeking divine
guidance in our life.
And for me, that's come from birth through
to now a lot through nature,
and I've been very fortunate to have some
beautiful dogs, beautiful Labradors
in my life.
When I was born, we had a Golden Lab who
was about 5 when I was born,
and the depth of love and connection that
I experienced in that relationship
was just profound.
And it's one of those experiences that
touches you for your whole life,
and it's also one of those experiences
that when it ends can be…you know,
it's your first great pain, really.
And for me, that was my first great pain,
my whole being, my whole psyche,
if you like, when he passed on.
And, you know, through that passing,
of course, you start to understand the
realities of life and death,
of growth and decay, of some of, you know,
the actual movements and
experiences that we have in life.
But it's very important.
It's kind of not what happens to the
human, it's more how we're
supported through it.
And I gained a lot of support from my
second little Lab there.
He came along when I was 10,
and was with me until I was 24.
So from about grade five at school, right
through to…he was with me when I started
my first days as a psychologist,
so my whole entire life.
So you can imagine how much space he held
for someone who's pre-teen, pre-puberty,
right through to growing into an adult.
And, you know, he really was that being in
my life that held space,
that listened with love and
reflected in behavior.
So sometimes just the listening and
holding space is really the liberation.
And then it was quite an interesting
experience when, of course,
he passed on when I was about 24,
that there was a real freedom
to that as well.
And at the time, my career was really just
starting, and it was shortly after that
that I did, you know,
12 years of global travel,
which wouldn't have been possible with a
little guy like that my life.
And then, today, you know,
about 12 months ago,
I brought a new little being into my life,
or, you know, how I like to say it is I
was very grateful to be accepted as the
student of Mana.
Mana is my black Lab at the moment.
And it's quite interesting to not have a
puppy or a dog for 20 years,
and then when you consider bringing one
into your world, you know,
I was really intentional about, you know,
what's the nature of the relationship I'd
like to have with this puppy?
What's the process and approach that I'm
going to take to his training,
and welcome him to my world, but also,
you know, guiding him on how he and I can
be in harmony?
And for me, this is where values can be
really powerful, both in our personal
movements and our performance.
And for me, I just kept it pretty simple.
The mind works best when
we keep things simple.
And kindness really is the value that
resonated for me.
So, throughout his whole life with me so
far, it's always very gentle,
all different behaviors that he has I
approach with curiosity and kindness.
So, yes, of course, he chews a lot,
but isn't that natural for a puppy?
And it's just that positive reinforcement,
and redirection, and guidance towards
what's good to chew and what might not be.
And I think he knows I love surfing
because he's never chewed a wetsuit or
a bootie, which is pretty amazing.
What he does like to chew is sticks and
bones because he's very much
an indoor-outdoor dog,
he knows that sticks and
bones are outside.
And so when he's got a stick, it's out,
when he's got a bone, it's out.
And this is his little solution that he's
come up with.
And here's a couple pics of Mana,
chewing his stick with his entire body
inside the home, but the stick just
outside the door, chewing his bone
with his entire body inside the home,
but his bone just outside.
And for me, it's a really good example of
how when you create a space of freedom and
kindness for others,
you really open the space for that
birth of creativity.
And he's been incredibly creative with
that rule in our home.
And, you know, for me,
in terms of defining quality of the
world's greatest performers in all
domains, sport, arts, business, you know,
they're the people that
are being creatives.
They're creating something from nothing,
or they're listening and learning to what
the realities are and coming up with a new
way to actually perform at their
full potential, at their highest
peak in that reality.
So, obviously, Mother Nature has been a
huge part of my love, and connection,
and evolution as a person,
and guidance in terms of my inner world
as well as what I love to do with the
world around. But also, human nature,
I find, you know, this might have
been the beginnings of my interest and
passion in psychology.
We've all been touched by music,
and there's actually lots of studies
out there that shows how deeply music
touches the whole psyche, our whole being.
And for me, when I was very young,
a couple of artists,
Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd,
really had a major impact, and still do.
I still play them over and over.
They're just wonderful.
You know, Jimi was such a wild,
creative being, such an imaginative being.
And I'll never forget the first time I saw
him play, obviously, it was just
on the telly.
But I'd switched on the telly one morning,
and here's this guy just playing guitar
with his teeth, playing it behind his
head, then he put it on the ground and lit
the thing on fire, and it was still making
these amazing sounds, you know.
The other thing that was really beautiful
about Jimi Hendrix, and what I really
appreciate about him as a musician and,
you know, as a human is he is a
wonderful poet, and, you know,
he could really capture some
of the essences, and he really did capture
some of the essences of life through his
poetry or his lyrics in his songs.
One that really comes to mind is…it's
called "Castles Made of Sand."
And there's a line in there that goes,
♪ And so castles made of sand melt into
the sea, eventually. ♪
Apologize for my singing quality there,
but it's such a beautiful way to capture
the universal law of impermanence.
And it's such a divine teaching because
whatever will arise will fall away.
And, again, it's very important in high
performance because errors will arise and
they will fall away.
It's more about how you, you know,
manage that moment or choose
to manage that moment.
And Pink Floyd, The Wall you know,
it's just such a wonderful album and
wonderful story about, you know,
the human condition,
and when we have adversity,
we've got some options here.
And, of course, in The Wall, you know,
the whole reason I think it's called
The Wall is part of the lyric that comes
out of the song "Mother" is, "Mother,
should I build the wall?"
You know, this young kid's had some really
heavy life adversities,
lost his dad to the war,
hasn't got along with his mom's
many partners, and, you know,
thrust into a pretty high temptation,
high seduction world as a musician,
and taking the path of drugs
and other things.
So, you know, he's built a psychological
defense around himself.
And it really resonated for me just
because you could see how there was this
momentary relief, but then there was this
dramatic ongoing of adversities in the
person's life because they
had built the wall.
And, of course, when they smash the wall
there, they're able to find their
freedom again, you know.
Along with Mother Nature and human nature,
of course, education through our formal
systems has also been a wonderful
enrichment through my career
as a psychologist. And I was very
fortunate to be offered a place at Deakin
Waurn Ponds in the '90s there when it was
still a few prefab boxes
around the main structure.
And I enrolled in an arts degree.
Back then, as now, it's still six years of
training to become
a registered psychologist.
However, you know, in the '90s,
I think up until about 2013,
you could do a process they called the
four plus two, which was,
you could do four years of university,
so do your undergrad with a major
in psychology, honors degree,
fourth year in psychology.
And then you could either do a 2-year
master's, that's 6 years,
or you could go and do 2 years full-time
practice under supervision, do 100 hours,
so an hour a week with a
supervisor across 2 years.
And I chose the four plus two.
I did do a sports psychology
topic in my honors thesis.
I looked at the mental strategies, that
endurance athletes use to cope with pain
while they're racing,
particularly triathletes,
and really loved that.
And so I did have a sense that I'd like to
go into sport performance psychology.
But, as you can imagine,
and the situation might even be similar
now where, certainly in the late '90s,
with just an honors degree,
and no full registration,
and no experience, it's not likely that
you're going to get a job anywhere in
sport performance psychology.
So I looked around, see what was out
there, and was incredibly fortunate
to discover Warrnambool Base Hospital,
which is now South West Healthcare,
and the whole system that they have
delivering mental health care to the
community in the whole South West region.
So I worked at Julia Place,
which was Portland Community
Psychiatric Service,
and I had three wonderful
years at Portland.
The "plus two," my supervisor was
Dr. Carol Hulbert, just a
wonderful human and an incredibly…just
an amazing psychologist.
She had a speciality, of course,
in clinical psychology,
and particularly in personality disorders
and borderline personality disorder.
And she just had a really beautiful way in
our sessions of listening,
and reflecting back the insights that,
I guess, at the time,
my child's mind as a professional in
psychology, was coming
up with with my observations.
And, you know, it was very
much a deep-end experience.
So my very first callout on my first day
was a failed suicide attempt.
And we go into Portland Base Hospital, and
see a young man there.
You know, it was charcoal dripping out of
his mouth, he just had his stomach pumped,
he'd tried to overdose,
he's [inaudible] in the corner,
in tears, of course.
And it was a very extreme
human experience.
It's the first time in my life that I'd
observed anything like that.
I've been very fortunate that, you know,
mental health suicide,
those experiences haven't really been
something that's hit my family.
So it was really quite an
extreme experience.
So I was there with a colleague.
That was another amazing
experience at Portland.
The community psychiatric nurses,
there was 4 there,
and they're all 10-plus years experience
in community settings plus inpatient
settings, and their experience and wisdom
was such a great support for me
and helped guide my skills.
So, Andrew Robinson was a psych nurse
that day, that I was with,
and he took the lead on the situation.
And it was just so impressive how he could
really have empathy and compassion
with this young man and his fiancée.
And at the same time, you know,
be clear about the realities of what's
happened, and make the assessment that
it was, you know, perhaps a silly decision
rather than impacted by failed insight,
you know, potential for misadventure,
and these other lessons that all came out.
And I think when you're thrown into the
deep end, these things really resonate
for you throughout your career.
And that experience,
that first day resonated.
My confidence was really sound to deal
with those critical incidences
from that day forward.
A lot due to, you know, Andrew Robinson's
response on the day.
And then my first client, well,
he was a surfer, so it was pretty
obvious the reason that, you know,
the guys in our team decided to allocate
me as his case manager.
My first long-term client,
he had a very chronic
experience with schizophrenia,
as well as being treatment-resistant
to the medication.
So he was having a lot of challenges for
about five or six years
before I came along.
And by the time I came along, he was
spending twenty-three and a half hours a
day in his bedroom, entertained by
symptoms, sleeping, really poor nutrition,
grossly overweight, hardly doing any
physical activity.
He'd only come out of his room
for food and toileting.
So this is where I really understood the
chronic side of extreme human experience,
which is, you know, that's a very heavy
life to be living, very hard life
to be living.
And my experience with him was, you know,
two to four times a week,
we would walk and talk,
I'd take him to Fitzroy River in
[inaudible] just, you know,
all the beaches that he used to surf.
And it was a good six,
nine months before he even spoke to me,
but just being present, just moving and
holding space for this young man.
It was just such a learning for
me that translated so well into later on,
you know, the Olympic and Paralympic
campaigns I've done that go for four, six,
eight years, to just having that patience,
to just be nurturing the strengths and the
movements that you see, and the ideal
direction, and having that real kindness,
again, around the areas that the person's
still struggling with.
Truth, of course, but being kind with the
truth through that.
And after three years,
this young gentleman moved into his
own independent living.
I'll never forget the first meal he cooked
for me when I went around there one day.
He reconnected with friends.
He enrolled in a [inaudible] course,
and he started surfing again,
and I still feel quite touched now
recalling the experience.
As a psychologist and as a
human being, you know,
just to see someone move that far,
it's actually quite interesting when
I relate it to my work in high
performance where, you know,
I've worked with teams that won a silver
medal at one games, and the next games
they won a gold, and I know there's a lot
that goes into that.
From the outside looking in,
silver to gold doesn't seem like too much
of a movement, but to go from, you know,
basically a vegetative state back
to living your life was just, you know,
an incredible experience for me to have
as a professional.
Actually, and at the time,
when I very first arrived at Portland,
I was having my own
pretty heavy experience.
I had a physical injury,
and I hadn't actually surfed
for almost a year.
And traditional pathways like, you know,
medical and physio, and things like that,
it was getting me to a point,
but it wasn't a complete healing.
And so, in Portland,
and this is really where I started to seek
alternative ways to heal myself,
and I discovered yoga,
and I discovered really self-study...the
process of self-study.
And it was really my awakening as a
person, and it was an incredible
enrichment to my psychological
practice as well.
So I practiced yoga and meditation daily
for the whole three years
I was there.
My yoga teacher was also a climber,
and he would drag me along as his belay
buddy as he went up incredible pitches in
the Grampians and Arapiles.
And, you know, I'd second and bring all
the gear up and the rope, and off we'd go.
And we'd call that climb asana.
So, an asana in yoga is the physical
posture, and the movement of the asana
begins with the heart and grows out
through the body.
And so we would apply the same approach to
our movement up these pitches in the
Grampians and Arapiles, we do climb asana.
And, you know, taking responsibility for
self, taking responsibility
for co-creating and manifesting our own
reality, you know, that was the pathway
for very rapid healing in
the injury that I had.
I was back surfing within a month,
and then surfing as much as I wanted
within three months,
and rock climbing and everything.
I've never looked back.
That injury has never returned.
So it was an amazing experience to see how
when I became attuned with my psyche,
the healing in my body just unfolded,
because the body is brilliant,
it knows how to heal, anyway.
It's often the mind that's getting in its
way, and that was my experience
at that time.
So that was really quite profound as well.
And, so mindfully evolving self,
our true nature in our inner potential,
a lot of that was also, for me,
happening in surfing.
I was very interested in my connections.
While I was at Portland,
I did lots of consulting work with the
local indigenous people,
Winda-Mara and Gunditjmara
around Portland, Heywood area,
and really understood from the elders
there the value of connectedness,
you know, connecting to country,
culture and community.
And these connections really ran deep for
me in surfing, but they weren't something
that I really explored.
So, going a little deeper with my surfing,
you know, surfing's a little more
than just riding a wave, you know,
football's a little more than just kicking
a goal, and, you know,
empowering's a little more than just
making a decision.
So there's a wonderful opportunity to
really go deeper with self when you're
conscious about your
activities of passion.
And for me, that was surfing.
This little poem, actually,
it's a sentiment that arose out of a
meditation that I did a couple of years
ago when I was doing a fundraiser
for Beyond Blue.
I call it "A Hundred Dawns."
I'd go to the beach and meditate for a
hundred dawns in a row.
I'll just share it with you.
"Connection Momentum A joyful ride
in flow Intention Reflection
A deeper self to know"
And for me, the deeper self to know at the
time in Portland was to really face some
fears that were arising, and for me,
those fears were all about that big dream
to surf Waimea Bay.
You know, I'd been surfing for over 15 or
so years at this time now, or, well,
over a decade at this time,
and I had a few pretty big sessions
at Bells, and Winki,
and places like that around Torquay,
and a few places around Port Campbell and
others were down the coast, but, you know,
my heart was really set on
having a go at Waimea.
And there's some big waves and very
crowded waves, and perhaps some big fish
or animals in the water around Portland,
and not many people around.
So I have my own fears to face,
but I really wanted this,
and I feel that's another element of
evolving potential and achieving
high performance, is, you know,
when you do that through an activity
of passion, you're really prepared to go
through both the outer obstacles and the
inner adversities or inner obstacles.
And so what I did, I was working day in,
day out with people experiencing fear,
whether it was panic disorder,
or anxiety disorder, other fears.
So I became my first client
in performance psychology.
I started practicing when I was… You know,
the understandings and skills I was
sharing with people day in,
day out at Portland,
and manage their fears in their setting to
my fears in my setting to surf the bigger
waves around Portland and Port Campbell.
And it just worked really, really well.
And this path of experiential learning,
which I feel kind of evolved
serendipitously once I, you know, rolled
out the yoga mat in that first class.
You know, experiential learning,
moving through a process mindfully,
heartfully, and actually feeling your
way through it.
So, you know, I might not be the gun rock
climber that's taking
life-threatening risks, or I might not be,
you know, that Formula 1 race driver
that's taking life-threatening risk,
but I do know what it's like to face my
mortality in the ocean.
So having that understanding of the psyche
in those experiences,
from an experiential perspective,
I've found just profoundly beneficial
in my practice as a psychologist.
What it also did was begin to manifest
surf psychology.
You know, I combined my passions for
surfing and psychology, and, you know,
that started in terms of
sharing that with the world.
That started with a round of articles in
Tracks surfing magazine in Australia.
My first article is up there now,
you know, "How to Manage Your Fear"
while big wave surfing.
It's all mind games.
I don't think I come up with that title.
The editors might have had a little bit of
liberty there, but it was a article that
was all about what I was experiencing
myself in the big waves, and what I
was doing, you know,
how I actually managed my fear.
And it led to another few articles,
you know, mind surfing,
how to use mental imagery to improve your
surfing, the [inaudible] ride,
the peak performance, flow
in surfing, you know.
And I looked at the cultural elements,
the localism and, you know, the harsh,
and also the helpful elements of localism.
And that just unfolded or opened the door
to working on to the then ASP World Tour,
the Association of Surfing Professionals
World Tour, which I did for a bit
over three years, that's now the
World Surf League.
And I did a number of research projects
with actually one of my early lecturers,
Peter Kramer from Deakin,
who was my mentor and co-researcher
through my time on the surf tour.
PK and I did, you know, the three
projects, one on peak performance, you
know, what's the ideal preparation and
mindset for peak performance to win heats?
And, you know, what's actually happening
on tour in terms of the stress.
We looked at the surf tour stress,
and interestingly the most challenging
stressor for the surfers was mental
demands, such as recovering from a loss,
managing long-distance relationships,
you know, what's going to happen
with their sponsor negotiations?
Things like that.
And then, of course,
we looked at the psychology
of big wave riding.
And my first year on the tour, 2000,
I went to Hawaii early because it
was…you know, along this path,
I was feeling very ready to have my go
at Waimea Bay.
And I was very fortunate that when I got
to Waimea, or I got to Hawaii that
first season, it was a real bumper season.
There was lots of, you know,
medium to solid Waimea days,
and then eventually the really
big Waimea day came.
And really felt like I had harmony of
heart and mind on that day.
You know, that's actually the essence of
the aloha spirit, is that, you know,
when mind and heart are in harmony,
when this beautiful tool that we have
crafted the mind to manifest the love,
the truth, the passion in our hearts.
So for me and my Mount Everest,
when that's attuned,
it actually felt really dreamy
surfing that day.
And there was a little trepidation on the
beach, but once I got in the water,
it's still one of the most blissful days
I've had in some of the largest surf
I've been in.
So I guess my simple advice here is,
you know, find your fear,
respond with love, and that's
a path to transcend.
That really opened the door to my, well,
I guess the last decade or so of what I've
been doing in performance psychology.
I launched The Surfer's Mind in 2004,
my book, that's a complete practical guide
to surf psychology.
And I thought I'd go back on tour,
but it felt like it was time for me
to evolve as a performance psychologist.
I just really worked with surfing.
It's an individual sport.
There wasn't Olympics involved back then.
There's not even really
coaches on the tour.
So I was very fortunate to be appointed to
a role at New South Wales Institute
of Sport, and moved to
Sydney for six years.
And from '05 to 2011,
that was just a wonderful time where I was
fully opened to obviously lots of other
individual sports, team sports,
and an amazing collection of coaches.
Sports science, sports
medicine professionals, you know,
other colleagues that you could really
bounce off, and learn from,
and learn with, continue to do some
of the research.
And, you know, I connected with
Dr. Sue Jackson when I was
doing my peak performance
work on the surf tour,
and we did a flow and snow project as well
with the Winter Olympic athletes.
So it was a wonderful time where all my
understandings from Portland and the surf
tour were coming together in a space,
and being, you know,
really of value in these Commonwealth
Game, Olympic, Paralympic,
Summer and Winter Olympic campaigns,
and with all these athletes.
And, just like the people down in
Portland, you know, it was so simple
to have that understanding that you're a
human first who happens to perform,
so let's look after the human.
A happy, healthy human is going to be a
happy high performer.
And, you know, that's always been a
wonderful understanding as well
as approach to my practice.
Now, I've shared a range of peak moments
in my personal, and surfing,
and performance psychology career,
so it's only fair now that, I guess,
you know, I share a peak moment in my AFL
career, and share a little bit more
about my umpiring role now.
This is the peak moment of my AFL career,
think I was about 11 years old
in this photo.
It's probably grade six footy team.
I can't remember at all whether we did any
good or not in the local league there.
But I did enjoy footy.
I did enjoy playing at that level,
but it was something that
never really took.
And I think, around about the time,
the ocean really is what took me.
But, you know, I do understand
performance psychology.
And at the beginning of this year,
the AFL Umpires Department were looking
for a performance psychologist to assist
with, you know, clearly the mindset and
the performance demands for the umpires,
along with mental health and well-being,
and the culture, leadership,
and other elements of the group.
And so I was fortunate to be
appointed to that role.
I think they might have been quite
interested to have someone come
along with a fresh view,
that hadn't had much AFL experience.
As I shared earlier,
that child's mind was really a part of my
learning in Portland,
and it's certainly been a part of my
learning with the AFL umpires.
So, a little bit of background.
There's 116 athletes
or umpires that adjudicate or umpire the
senior games in AFL, 34 field,
43 boundary, 27 goal,
and they have 12 rookies this season.
And you might be aware AFL,
there's 23 rounds, and at the end of that,
the top 8 go into the finals
in terms of the teams.
Now, for the umpires,
the top 44 of those 116 go into the pool
of umpires that will umpire the finals,
but really it's about 36 because 8
of those are emergency in the first round
and won't have the opportunity
to run through.
And then in the grand final,
there's 12 umpires.
So there's nine umpires actively on the
ground for every match.
You've got your three field umpires,
four boundary umpires,
and two goal umpires.
But during the 23 rounds,
there's 1 emergency for field,
and 1 for goal, and then in the finals,
there's 1 emergency for all 3 disciplines.
And then backing up the umpires,
there's a wonderful collection of coaches,
sports science, sports
medicine professionals.
They have their match day coaches as well,
and there's a fair bit of technology going
into assisting their adjudication of
matches, too, this year.
AFL just launched the ARC,
AFL Review Centre.
So, what are some of the similarities
between big wave riders and AFL umpires?
Well, like I was sharing before,
our mind is like our portal to the world
around and world within,
and a lot of my portal has been, you know,
some of the filters or the observations
come from surfing understandings.
And for me, you know, the lineup, like,
that big lineup there of Bells Beach is
very similar to the MCG.
It's a massive space that's alive.
And, you know, the ocean is a place where,
to be successful, and to be safe,
and to really explore all its
opportunities and to explore your
full potential, it's really about
developing a very deep and intimate
relationship with this living energy,
and understanding all the subtleties and
all the nuances.
You know, on a big day in particular,
what's the safe entry?
What's the safe exit?
What are the waves that are not ideal to
go for, because they're just not makeable,
or if, you know, the risk reward might be
not in balance?
What are some of the real subtleties?
What's the actual surface of the water
telling you in terms of,
"Is there a set approaching?
Am I in a good position?
Am I in a not-a-good position?
And what are some of the lineups along the
cliff or the beach that I need to be
attuned to so that I can
maintain ideal positioning?"
And I found that, you know,
the lineup in surfing is very much the
same as the field in football because
there's so much information and so much
detail that the umpires need to be attuned
to, again, to be safe and successful and
optimize their performance in their role.
And preparation is huge for this.
You know, total commitment in preparation
is the basis for total commitment
in the moment, and there's many more hours
that goes into readying oneself to ride a
big wave than the few seconds it takes to
ride one usually.
And, you know, after spending the year
with the AFL umpires,
there's so many more hours happening in
the training and the preparation than the
two or so hours that happen on match day.
Some of the elements of preparation
include the management side.
Obviously a lot of umpiring's about
decision making and adjudicating
actual play, but there's also management.
So something I've been really impressed by
is that the umpires know all the players
by first name, and they have a sense of
when the matchups are known, you know,
what matchups might present some
management challenges, if you like,
in the play, or behind the play.
So there's some real subtleties going on
there that are very similar to the
subtleties in the ocean,
when you're wanting to be safe and
successful in big waves.
There's a lot of teamwork that goes on.
You know, this year there was nine new
rules brought into the game,
and one of those was the 6-6-6,
which is the setup for the center
bounce each time.
And all three disciplines are involved in
assisting that, so, you know,
the goal umpires ensuring that there's a
pair in the square, and the boundary, and
the other field umpires,
so all of your umpires were ensuring that,
you know, you've got your 6-6-6 set up.
So the teamwork is very important,
both among the three disciplines as well
as within the three disciplines.
Quite classically, the field umpires are
running a little bit of a triangular
system out there on the field where you've
got one umpire in the end zone
that's really, you know,
in command of the observation
and response, and really running with the
play, and you've got, you know,
the other two in direct support,
being another pair of eyes to pick up both
a new angle on the play,
and sometimes they can actually make a
decision from the support role,
but also have a pair of eyes on some
of the management challenges
that might be going on.
So it's a little bit like, you know,
when you're surfing really big waves,
sure you want to go out there,
you want to catch the ride of your life,
but a very important element of it is that
you're keeping an eye
out for your buddies,
because things can go wrong very quickly.
And I was actually involved in a rescue of
a professional big wave rider a couple
years ago down the coast in Victoria,
which, you know, if there weren't eyes
on that guy, he certainly
would not have made it.
A lot of emotions go through you as well
when you're out surfing big waves, and
ideally, you want
confidence, things like that.
Sometimes there's a few emotions that can
get a little high and activated,
that might not be ideal for the moment.
And that's been a really important
observation and an impressive element
of the umpiring, too.
You can imagine the intensity of emotion
amongst the players,
particularly in the final series,
but pretty much every game,
they're out there to win every game.
And when an umpire has to adjudicate,
perhaps, or manage some player behavior
that's not within the rules, you know,
the emotional intelligence that I've
observed amongst AFL umpires is very
impressive, because they're staying
mentally composed. They're using first
names, their language is polite.
You know, to maintain that when
the humans around you are
in a very intense emotional space,
we're all aware of how contagious
emotions can be.
You know, it's a really impressive part of
their role that, you know,
is riding there with the big
wave riding experience.
So, when you've prepared yourself to
maintain composure, when your
observations are, "Wow.
This is the wave, and this is a life or
death, but I'm going," you know,
it's very impressive, and it's, you know,
very similar mental state.
Now something that might be pretty
obvious is that, you know,
if you're not in the right position,
you can't even catch your wave,
and that is very true in big waves.
You know, big waves moves a lot quicker
than small waves, there's a lot more
water moving, and, you know,
you're really just this little cork
in the ocean.
So, having the ideal positioning to
actually catch a wave,
and have an entry into a big wave,
some waves, you know, they're catchable,
but only if you're in a certain position,
because one part of the leaf
like this picture here,
is absolutely throwing out into space,
and you don't want to be
trying to take off there.
But then if you're a little too wide,
you won't catch the thing at all.
So it's very subtle to be
in the ideal position.
And for the umpiring, it's the same.
You know, to be able to make an accurate
decision, but also to be able to make a
non-decision that's accurate, too.
In other words, let the play go,
in other words, let the wave go,
you really need to be
in the ideal position.
And that's across all three disciplines,
whether you're adjudicating the run of the
play on the field, whether
you're running the boundary.
And, you know, we all know the AFL ball's
an odd shape, so it has an odd bounce,
and there can be a few players on that
line, and the body can be out but the ball
can be in.
So positioning for the boundary umpire is
really important, and, of course,
all the scoring opportunities,
having ideal positioning for the goal
umpires is paramount.
With good positioning,
that's really going to facilitate good
decision making, you know,
to go or not to go.
And as I just shared, you know,
in big wave riding, you actually end
up letting a lot more waves go than the
ones you catch, because you're really
trying to target being in the right
position so that you're optimizing the
ability to be safe and successful,
and have the ride of your life.
And so, yeah, it's the same
with the umpiring.
You know, you call what you see,
and it's such a great highlight of the
support roles as well,
because you cannot see every
angle every time.
And another interesting thing,
which is probably one of those elements
that's a little different with the
umpiring, particularly field and boundary,
different to big wave riding is,
you know, their motor is running at 80%,
90% physically, anyway,
with all the running they're doing.
A field umpire will average
415 kilometers a match.
A boundary umpire can average 16 to 18
kilometers a match.
A lot of that's sprint work, too,
so sometimes it's backwards sprint work,
and sideways sprint work,
and all sorts of agility work.
And then in between you've got these
skills that you're doing.
So making decisions is highly intuitive,
and it's an interesting thing where you
want in the mind to be so calm and clear
that what you're seeing almost looks
like it's slowed down so
you can see it really well.
And that's where the intuition is such a
powerful part of our mental game for me,
and I understand that to be the highest
quality element of our mental game,
and it's where we can just
observe and respond.
And we're responding to two things,
obviously what we observe in front of us,
the movement of the play,
or the movement of the wave,
but we're also observing and responding to
what's rising within us, that intuition,
that sense of yes or no, go or don't go.
And to do that, composure's a really,
really important part.
The big wave riding project I did with the
surfers in Hawaii, that first season,
identified a mindset, I guess,
the ideal mindset for riding big waves.
I call it three Cs for calm, confident,
and committed.
And particularly with, you know,
this does apply to all the umpires,
but particularly with the goal umpires.
You know, when a big wave is coming in,
the composure to stay in position,
to stay calm when this huge mountain of
the ocean is growing over you, and,
you know, because if you paddle out,
firstly you're going in a different
direction to the wave,
you've got to spin around late,
and that can make it a little more
critical or not possible.
So you really must sit in the spot and
allow this huge wave to just grow up and
grow around you, and then as you paddle
for it, it lifts you up backwards.
And it's not really until you reach,
you know, that point of where gravity
takes over that you really start to drive
into the wave, you know,
take that drop and head down the face,
and start to play around and see if you
can make this wave.
The goal umpires, you know,
classically the same, set shot at goal,
or some of the fast movements at goal,
the ball's often high,
so they've got to be looking up,
but at the same time,
they've got to be knowing their position
on the line, and their position to see
the scoring opportunity.
And then all these players are growing
around them like a big wave.
And, you know, in my observation,
most of the AFL players,
particularly the full forwards,
the fullbacks are a lot bigger
than the goal umpire.
So there's this really intense physical
threat to their safety, but at the same
time, they've got…you know,
like big wave riding,
but at the same time,
they've got a job to do, and they've got,
you know, a commitment.
And to stay calm and committed in that
moment, have that composure,
it's really impressive.
The other important element about the
composure is the energy management.
For me, high performance
is all about managing energy.
And if my mind is not composed,
in other words, if it's agitated, anxious,
frustrated, that's using a lot of energy.
And I understand there's only one fuel
tank for mind and body.
So if your body's got to do a lot of work,
such as the field and boundary umpires,
you want the mind to be in a really fresh,
composed, efficient space.
Firstly, so that you've got good energy
for the whole four corners all the way to
the final siren, but secondly, of course,
because the role they're playing mentally
is just so intense and
so challenging as well.
So the composure is a way to maintain
great efficiency of use of your energy
for mind and body, and so being able to
sustain high-quality performance for the
whole duration, the whole four quarters.
And not just the whole four quarters…you
know, in surfing, as in life and
in umpiring, we also have our wipeouts.
So, obviously the intention is to prepare
and execute to our full potential
to achieve personal best every time,
but the reality is we're not perfect,
and the reality is that, you know,
when we step out of our comfort zone,
when we step into the unknown,
sometimes things don't actually
go as planned.
Sometimes it can be when we are in our
comfort zone, we might drop our guard,
but what I understand about surfing is
that there are really two rides.
There's one above the water,
there's one under the water.
And to be a complete surfer,
and certainly to ride big waves,
you really need to master both.
You need to master how to catch the wave,
how to ride the wave successfully,
the equipment, all the factors that go
into it, the safety, too,
everything above the water
and then under the water.
You need to know how to manage the
wipeout, the adversities
in your performance,
the adversities in life.
And, obviously, for big-wave riding,
your physical preparation is going to be
things like improving your breath hold,
making sure that you've got really good
ocean swimming skills,
because sometimes you don't have a board
or other way to get in when
you pop up from a wipeout.
And you also have to be smart about,
again, your energy management.
So there's lots of big waves in a very
far-off shore, so, you know,
you want to surf until you've got jelly
arms when you're in small fun waves,
but when you're in big waves,
you always want to know that you've got
enough in the tank to get back to the
beach if things go wrong.
And in umpiring, you know,
it's almost like the field is more of a
sanctuary sometimes in what can happen
off-field, because, of course,
you've got the players on field, I guess,
can, every now and then,
give you a little bit of the spray or at
least give their view on whether that was
a correct or incorrect decision.
And, you know, the coaches, the clubs,
there's the media, and, you know,
some of those headlines shots,
it can be a bit of a challenging thing
to be doing your job in front
of 100,000 people, half of them are for
every decision you make,
half of them are against every
decision you make.
If you're a goal umpire,
you've got a huge cheer squad that
for one quarter is…well, depending on,
you know, what the score is, you know,
sometimes for you, sometimes against you
just a couple of meters behind.
So there's a lot of energy around you that
is potentially a mental wipeout because if
we get caught up in that negative energy,
you know, that can really cause anxiety
and doubt. If we start doubting ourselves,
we start hesitating.
And that's where in big waves you're
really going to go down,
and in AFL umpiring,
errors are going to happen,
and so actually create more of
what we're fearing most.
And, you know, sometimes
it's about decisions.
Sometimes, you know,
you can have an absolute legend of the guy
make comments around, well,
the actual philosophy of the umpire and
how they go.
And so some of the commentary that happens
around the umpires can come
from all angles, and sometimes it can come
out of nowhere in terms of the umpire,
match day coach, and the coach is feeling
that was a fantastic performance, but,
you know, there's lots of people watching,
so there's going to be different views
at different times.
So learning how to manage the adversities
is just as important, you know,
for mastery in surfing as it
is mastery in AFL umpiring.
You know, when we can ride the wave above
the water and we can ride the wave
under the water, you know,
we're going to be more confident and more
easily composed in heavy situations.
So, just to give a bit of a brief summary,
you know, I feel like one of the elements
that's important to capture in this
summary is just the value of culture.
You know, when I went to Hawaii and I
learned about the aloha spirit,
and the depth of that,
and the value of that,
and how having mind and heart harmony is
such a beautiful way to not only optimize
performance but to enrich experience and
what we share with people, you know,
how we actually approach that is going to
have a big impact.
And, you know, this quote by Ross Williams
is from my book, The Surfer's Mind, and
he was sharing, you know,
"Growing up in Hawaii had such a positive
impact on my path to becoming
comfortable in big surf.
I was stoked on big waves and by no means
was I pushed into it.
I had a group of friends that showed me
how fun and exciting surfing in
big waves was.
This made me go for it with
the feeling of exploration.
I always approach big surf with a smile.
It is pleasure."
And, you know, when you've got people
around you that are smiling... You know,
that was one of the things that happened
to me at Waimea Bay when I powered
out on that really big day,
I saw two Hawaiians catch a huge one,
and the one on the inside went down,
and the one on the outside made the wave,
but he turned around after he made the
wave to look for his buddy.
And his buddy just had the heaviest
wipeout I had ever seen from the water at
that point in my life.
And this Hawaiian guy just popped up with
the biggest smile on his face,
and they were laughing and joking,
and it was just such a happy feeling.
And it was what actually drew me straight
to the take-off side.
And I thought I'll just paddle
out and watch.
If it looks too heavy, I'll paddle in.
But to see how happy, and how calm, and
relaxed they were in the ocean, you know,
the ocean is part of their ohana,
their family, it's kind of like the mother
of the ohana in Hawaiian culture.
So to be held by your mother, you know,
it's a joyful experience.
And the culture in the AFL umpiring
department is something that's been very
impressive to see.
You know, there's not many accolades out
there for AFL umpiring,
and as I was just sharing with the
wipeouts, sometimes they can be very
heavily grilled, whether it's by players,
by coaches, by teams, by the media,
and by fans.
So, to have a close group around you that
have that depth of understanding of what
it is you actually do,
how incredibly hard it is,
how incredibly impressive it is,
and then actually, you know, do the runs,
do the skill drills, do the successions,
do all the preparation and work with you.
And if you can do that with the joy,
if you can do that with the pleasure,
then the pressure is something that,
you know, you can really keep at bay.
And, in fact, it becomes pleasure because
you've let go of that perspective or
that possibility mentally.
Yeah, so, just to briefly summarize,
gone through in terms of high performance,
and enrichment, which I feel is just such
an important part of performance as well
as daily life.
You know, the value of our passions,
the value of our gurus, and of course,
our professional study,
along with self-study.
And, you know, as I shared,
there's a lot more to surfing
than riding a wave.
You know, the opportunities for self-study
and our activities of passion are
just abundant, and they're so fruitful
when we're conscious about what
we're doing, and we're honest with self
and the process of how we're
evolving both, you know,
our successes and our non-successes.
So that's mastering that ride above and
below, and, you know,
being connected to a culture,
and being involved in teamwork.
You know, everything's a co-creation.
From the moment we arrive,
we take a breath, and that's a co-creation
with nature, and that gives us life,
and in high performance, we have a team.
And even if it's an individual sport,
like surfing, or even if it's just one
goal umpire at one end of the ground
that's got to make this decision,
the other goal umpire can't help from
that far away. There's still, you know,
you feel confident, you feel assured,
you can maintain composure because you
know you've got that really sound group,
that connection to culture and
community around you.
And I think what's shared amongst that is
the higher purpose.
The higher purpose in big wave riding
really is that we all get home safely so
we can have a good chat about how big
those waves were, how heavy the
wipeouts were, and we can share that with
our loved ones.
And the higher purpose in AFL umpiring is
really to deliver the quality and
integrity of umpiring to the highest level
for the game.
And that's what I'm most impressed by with
the AFL umpiring department,
is their connection, their consciousness,
and their efforts to maintain the quality,
integrity of their performance for the
higher purpose.
So, thanks, everyone.
I really appreciate everyone that's tuned
in today for the webinar.
And, also, I'd like to say a
few of my own thank-yous.
There's been quite a few
photos in this slideshow.
I've actually taken most of them,
but obviously, you know,
me wiping out or riding waves has been
taken by other people, Ian Atkins,
and Rick Saree, and Ed Sloane,
some great photographers around Torquay.
And, you know, thanks very much to the AFL
for supplying the images of the umpires.
And, again, thanks very much to Deakin
alumni for creating the space to share
with everyone today.
Thank you.
- Okay. Thanks so much, Richy for such an
insightful presentation.
It's been fantastic to hear from you.
And now's the time for our audience
members to send any questions they have,
and we'll get to as many as we can.
So just write them into the question box
on your screen and hit Submit,
and we'll get to them soon.
Thanks, again, Richy.
- Thank you.
- While we wait for those questions to
come in, might start off, as you suggest,
with maybe a question about some of your
recommendations or the ways for us to be
more maybe present in the day-to-day life
and to refocus that intuneness
with reality, that you were talking about?
- Yeah.
The ideal place to start is to utilize the
tools and the gifts we have every moment.
So, three things that are available to us
in every moment is our breath,
is our body, and is our mind.
And when we attune to our breath,
that brings the focus back into the
present moment, because we're breathing in
the present moment.
The other beauty is particularly when it's
intentional breathing to either activate
oneself to do something very powerful or
to really calm and compose oneself.
There's a real clarity of
mind that comes in.
So it assists us, and there's, you know,
on a nervous system level,
we start to shift and play around
with our nervous system, too.
So, from the inside out,
we're actually shifting ourselves.
The body is just a profound
guru for the mind.
And, you know, talking about fear before,
fear can be really uncomfortable,
but so can pain.
So, if you're running and you twist your
ankle, if there was no pain signal at all,
then you would keep running,
and your ankle injury will become worse,
and worse, and worse,
therefore the recovery process would
be longer, and longer,
and longer and more difficult.
We have the pain, and pain is that message
to say, "Hey, something needs a
look at here."
So we stop, we seek deeper understanding,
we feel out the ankle.
And when we have that understanding,
we make a more informed choice about what
to do, "Oh, I think I'll let go of
the rung," or, "Well, that's okay.
I'm pretty fortunate it's just a little
bit of a strain, I'm going to be fine."
So, with fear, that's the same thing, too.
When that arises, it can be quite
uncomfortable, but when we take a breath,
when we compose the body,
adjust the posture, even soften the face,
and just observe, "Oh, what is the fear?
How does is it feel?
Where has it come from?
And what might be my ideal response?"
Then I'm able to move from that moment to
a better feeling next moment and process.
The mind side, that's something that we
can play around with in terms of a
perspective or approach we take into an
experience, such as,
"I'd love to have fun out here in this
surf, or my intention is to be really
quite activated and active in this surf,
or this umpiring."
Or like I was sharing with, you know,
bigger picture with my relationship and
guidance of mindness training is my
intention, and my mind, my approach
is about kindness.
And then how that unfolds is quite
intuitive, because kindness is always the
reference point in my mind with any
behavior that I see both
undesired and desired.
So the mind can be that powerful tool.
And then, of course, in the moment,
particularly when we use body and breath
to calm and clear the mind,
we're better able to make choices of where
we take our attention
and our decision making.
- Great.
Thanks, Richy.
I've had a few more questions come in.
Do keep the questions coming.
So, one of our attendees, Long,
has asked… This is a Chinese student who's
wanting to be an AFL umpire.
"Just wondering if you've got any
information on some of the pathways that
people go through to become umpires."
- Yes. It's quite interesting…
- It's very specific.
- From my observation so
far, it's a little bit
like how I ended up surfing Waimea Bay.
You know, I started in a local shore
break, and, in other words,
there's local clubs, regional clubs,
and then there's, you know,
the different leagues.
So depending on what state you're in,
VFL or WFL, you know,
there's pathways within those leagues.
What I would encourage is going onto,
I think it's the AFL website, actually,
and there is information on there.
There's another website.
Oh, probably the AFL website is the ideal
one, and you could do a search, or
it might even be pretty easy to find
all the menus, umpiring.
And in the region that you're in,
there might be also a regional website
with some contact numbers and some contact
people that you can have a chat with and
gain some direct, you know,
light on the ideal pathway to become
an AFL umpire.
- Thanks, Richy, and good luck, Long,
with your quest.
Thanks.
Kelly asks, "Do you think you'll stay in
sport over the next 20 years?"
- I'll always be active because we're
built to move, and I really enjoy it.
But in terms of my actual practice of
performance psychology,
one of the reasons that I use the title
"performance psychology" is because sport
is only one domain of
performance that I work in.
And, you know, as shared in
Sam's  introduction, I've
done a lot of work with artists, dancers,
musicians, actors, actresses,
and choreographers, you know,
a range of people in the artistic world,
range of people in our security,
military services, emergency services,
lots of people in health care,
in education from, you know,
Deakin doing some performance work with
some of the students here,
through the basic mindfulness and fun
games with kids at, like, a private school
in Torquay, and then doing my mentoring
program across there,
but quite often in the professional
corporate sector.
So I already work a lot in performance
across a whole range of settings,
and I'm sure sport will continue to be
part of that because I really love
and enjoy that.
And, yeah, the other settings are also
quite enriching, too.
And I find when I spend time, say,
in a health care or a corporate setting,
there's some understandings that arise
that invigorate my work
in the sport setting.
And then, as I've shared today,
insights from the sports setting can help
invigorate my work and experience in other
settings and personal life.
- Great.
Got a couple of questions
which tie into each other.
One person's asked what advice do you
have to move on from errors,
and another person has asked any advice
for avoiding reliving mistakes that
we make, so avoiding doing them again,
but also moving on from them.
- Well, the first part of the question,
responding to errors,
that's a really great question because
it's a reality of human experience that,
every now and then, we will make an error.
That's really that humility part that I
just touched on earlier that, you know,
when we make an error,
how we respond is really going to be the
most important part,
whether that's an error that we have
to respond to later or it's an error right
in the moment now, you know, "Okay.
I've powered in the wrong position for
this wave, and I may have launched
in the air."
So, if it's in the moment, quite
interestingly… And Kelly Slater talks
about this in my book,
The Surfer's Mind, that when we're very
present in the moment,
even if things go wrong,
we stay quite composed because we're just
dealing with what's happening moment
to moment, the free fall, the impact,
the wipeout, and then we'll have time
to review that as we're paddling back out.
In other words, "Well,
was I in the right position?
Did I jump to my feet quick enough?
Do I need to take a couple
extra power strokes?"
So, whatever your performance experience
is, there can be some tangible practical
skill changes, or decision making changes
that you can do in the next moment if you
need to deliver again.
When, you know,
there's a bit more time around an error.
You know, we've made a decision,
and we can, kind of,
see it unfolding, so it
wasn't the greatest decision, or,
as the second part of the question touched
on, that we seem to be repeating patterns
of decision making or behavior
that don't serve us.
I mean, that's where self-study is such a
beautiful and profound pathway
to understand, "Hang on."
You know, it's quite natural,
our body grows afterward,
and then decays.
So our body's in a state of change
throughout its whole existence.
Well, ideally, the mind and our belief
systems are, like the [inaudible]
I touched on earlier.
So we can actually form belief systems,
you know, 10 years of age so that we can
survive and thrive.
And if we stay stuck to those, you know,
a 10-year-old's view of the world,
trying to be applied in it
when we're 20, or trying to be applied
when we're 30 or 40
isn't really going to fit.
So it wasn't a wrong thing or a bad thing
that I formed this belief system
as a 10-year-old.
And, in fact, when I talked about the
winning with the passing of my
first puppy, it's actually a classic
example where the grief experiences that
took a long time to process
even though I'd had another dog and
I'd grown up. And it wasn't until I got to
Portland and really had that awakening
of practicing yoga and getting into that
self-study process to decide,
"Oh, well, hang on.
What I was thinking,
and how I protected myself with that
isn't necessary anymore."
And then once you knock down the wall,
like Pink Floyd Wall album,
it all opens up again, what's available,
the opportunities, and, of course,
what's the next path?
- All right. And there's just a little
follow-on from that question.
One of the people who asked the questions
was saying, "Having errors haunting you,
how do we stop thinking like that?"
I know you've sort of touched on some of
that, but do you want to touch on it
a bit more?
- Yeah.
Another pathway which is really helpful is
cultivating our gift of mindfulness.
Now, there's lots of information out there
about mindfulness and what it is.
So, like I said before, you know,
psychologists are like musicians,
you tune into the understanding and the
practice of mindfulness that
resonates for you.
The one that resonates for me
is a really simple one.
I understand that the mind works best when
we keep things simple.
And that is, mindfulness begins with
awareness of the world around and
the world within.
If we're not aware,
we can't act for change.
We just keep doing it [inaudible]
as we're unconscious.
So, awareness is the starting point.
But then, of course,
if we're aware of everything in the world
around as well as the world within,
which is a lot of stimuli,
a lot of information that
could become overwhelming.
So the divine purpose of mindfulness,
in my understanding,
is actually about our divine nature,
which is freedom.
It's free will, it's free choice,
so cultivating this gift of awareness,
of being able to be aware objectively.
Observe reality as it is,
without judgment,
without labels, without opinions.
And that reality includes
the arising from within.
My identity, how I think and
feel about self.
We observe this thought,
because we can't
actually control thoughts.
You know, if I asked you not to think of
the color purple, the color purple is
going to arise, and then maybe even a
story about that is going to arise,
you know, if you're old school uniform had
purple, or something like that.
So it's more things arise in the mind,
just like waves rise in the ocean,
you know, performance demands,
decision-making demands arise
for AFL umpires.
We have the option, the choice,
the free will to act or to let it go.
And as I shared with Jimi Hendrix's lyric,
you know, the "Castles Made of Sand,"
whatever will arise will fall away.
So I can observe these thoughts that are
around that past mistake,
that if I give them energy,
they're going to grow.
When I observe them and allow them to fall
away, and eventually they will.
Well, then they're going to, you know,
lose their energy.
And then you can also
be quite intentional.
I can choose to observe these thoughts
with gratitude, because I am seeking the
lesson of these thoughts.
I can choose to observe these thoughts
with any other sentiment that I feel is
going to assist me to move through from
the discomfort of the thought to the
comfort of seeing them fall away,
and having the opportunity to choose a
better thought or a better
approach to my experience.
And then, as I shared before,
making practical changes, actions...
It's a quote that I love
from the Dalai Lama.
It's wonderful to do all this self-study
and this inner work,
but actions are what make a difference
with you and the world.
So we actually start to put in the action,
the change that we have in our mind,
and it's no different to having a dream
and a vision, we put into action so that
we realize that when it's about inner
challenges of belief or moving
through areas, it's the same process.
- Okay. We had one question from Matt,
who says, "Richy, tell us
about your breakfast/morning routine."
- Well, mine has changed that quite a bit,
because, well, I've been a morning person
for a long time.
Pretty much since I finished school,
and moved to Torquay and lived, you know,
just a moment from the beach,
I became a full-on pre-dawn
morning person.
It's been the same since.
But I like to get up pre-first light.
I love that softness of the light
pre-sunrise in the beginning of the day.
I'll often meditate.
As I was just alluding to before,
Mana's changed that a bit because he likes
to get active.
And it's been quite a nice change to get
up and actually start the day with some
real activity, you know,
I take him for a walk or a swim,
or something like that.
And I actually find that very meditative
as well, a little bit like my preface
to what mindfulness is.
Meditation is a whole lot of things, too,
and it can be done a whole lot of ways.
And sometimes I'm meditating as I'm
walking with Mana.
Other times, it might be some [inaudible]
surfs or after I've, you know, walked him,
I'll go and have a surf.
And I've really been enjoying growing my
own fruit trees and veggie garden,
and eating from my garden.
So, most often I'll walk out and pick…at
the moment the citrus is in, so I'll pick
a grapefruit or tangelo,
or something like that,
and then I'll start my breakie, and, yeah,
then the day opens up.
- Breakfast of champions.
- Yeah.
- Great.
We're getting close to the end of our
question time, but there's a question
from Ashley who asked,
"Have you ever had experience working
with Australian Defence Force,
frontline servicemen and women?"
- The "Mind at Work" I'd actually done
with militaries, a wounded warriors
program that was set up between Australian
Army and Australian Paralympic Committee.
And a lot of that was looking at, "Well,
how can we, you know,
create a pathway between these servicemen
and women who have had the misfortune
of being injured severely in their service
to becoming Paralympians?"
And, because of the mindset and the
conditioning that they've had
with military service, you know,
it's really a powerful mindset they bring
to the performance space,
and then it's also such a wonderful
experience for those humans to
reinvigorate all that beauty of dreaming,
of striving, of achieving that
can happen in sport.
- All right. Well, thanks so much for your
time, Richy, and for your insights,
and sorry to anyone whose questions we
didn't get to, we might ask them to reach
you afterwards and send you an
email with the response.
Thanks very much, and great to have you.
- My pleasure.
Thanks, Sam.
- Just a few quick messages from
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