Talking Motivation With: Tully Kearney

hello and welcome to the believe you can be more podcast today I'm joined by someone who breaks the world record thinks that was fun and to say again the next day it's totally Kearney how are you I'm all right thanks how are you I'm all right thank you so so uh when you break a world record and then and then you do it again how do you do that uh not really sure to be honest I think part of me I'm just crazy and I'm just willing to to do anything to get to what I want to achieve so I think part of it is just like my determination and part of it's obviously creative I mean who does that we'll break it and then instead of taking the glory for what they've just done again uh yeah I don't think there's many of us that do it to be honest fears but it's pretty cool people I like the shock on people's faces so I want to start off on related as I usually do I wanted to create a fantasy band with a guitarist drummer lead guitarist and bass player so the members actually can't be in the same real-life band and you cannot have a digital vocalist one of your members must sing as well right we're gonna go for Tom Fletcher for the guitarist because it was also vocalist from before uh she's struggling dramas trying to think of drummers like that aren't kind of in the same sort of bands because I'm assuming busted doesn't count because they also work on that fly at some point uh I don't know many drummers I honestly don't I don't know any more drama right so we're having a button with no drummer yeah right um lead guitarist the guitarist will be Tom Fletcher guitarist their normal rhythm guitar Ed Sheeran so you're going with sort of the acoustic yeah fair enough I I I'll accept that um right and then Faith who are you going for on both right you've got no drummer so you must have a good bass player uh hmm she's Googling it she's definitely Google it cool bass players cool bass players I'm really good who's the best player for Rolling Stones we'll go with that you know what if you're allowed to Google I'm not allowed to Google as well so the most corrupt one is Robbie Ward okay we'll give it up all right so great start um we've gotten the first question okay so come on right this might be an easier question for you what is your favorite ice cream flavor mint chocolate chip fair enough come on a song that gets you motivated uh year three thousand I had I've got a few so I had to pick one it's hard what are the other ones uh basically almost flying busted songs and sort of explained who you are a bit but who who if I said to you will explain a little bit about yourself what would you say uh so apparently picks from that for GB to World Records in two days like if you can't miss that bit out okay Brown and fit gold silver medals in Tokyo uh ten times world champion uh European champion you're forgetting the bit about the MBE aren't you oh yeah I have no videos oh yeah oh yeah [Applause] just would make that the whole place oh yeah oh yeah I forget about it sometimes it feels like surreal that I have one so what what disability do you have if you don't I'm asking so I was born with um mild Dark Age of cerebral palsy affecting my legs and my left side's weaker and then when I was about 16 I was diagnosed with generalized dystonia all right so so how does that affect you so a CP just basically makes the muscles in my lower body quite tight and um I struggle with like my left side I just will weakness and my left hand function and my dystonia's uh it's a neurological movement disorder so it affects like causes muscle spasms and contractures Okay so does that how does that sort of affect your day-to-day with with certain tasks so I'm a full-time wheelchair user and I don't have great use of my left hand and my I don't have four use in my shoulders so like reaching things up high is kind of difficult um my core is pretty weak so I think it makes tasks like a little bit more difficult but I've just kind of figured out ways how to do stuff over the years yeah so does that as a disability sort of change the way it affects you from from when you were younger yeah so when I first started in my it was only really this CP that affected me it was quite modern so I used to be able to walk around and use my legs a bit in the pool and my shoulders weren't affected then and as I've gotten older my I went through like a five-year period where my dystonia like rapidly got worse which is quite um common for generalized dystonia when you kind of develop it in like teens and I think it was about 2016 uh was when I had like the worst progression and then that was when I became a full-time Ultra user instead of part-time yeah so if the if there's another young person struggling struggling with the same issues that you're currently struggling with and struggled within the past what what would you say to them and what sort of words of advice would you give them I think the biggest thing is to reach out to other people with the same condition so like if it is something like dystonia reach out to this don't you UK If it's another condition find the charity that helps support people with that condition I think for me it's difficult because you feel like you're alone you feel like you're going through this horrible thing and like for me having to relearn how to do things again was really difficult but when I started to reach out to other people and saw that loads of other people go through the same thing it made it easier and then you've got like a little Support Network balls it'd be so easy to feel sorry for yourself and just sit home and not do anything but that honestly makes it worse like actually getting out and even though it's really difficult and forcing yourself to do things and learning new ways of doing things is the only way that you're actually going to get through it and Achieve what you want to achieve but I I get that with my cerebral palsy because I feel like sometimes if I just sit there then obviously my legs aren't going to get the the exercise that they need and they're gonna get tighter and I'm gonna lose some of the some of the ability that are that I currently have and then they'll get worse so I understand what you're saying about that yeah I think that especially like cerebral Pals it's the biggest thing that we're always told with physios when we're kids like if you don't use it you lose it and that is that is one of the best pieces advice you can give someone with a neurological condition so was there something else besides the video that you did that that you felt helped your progress for me swimming I mean it's it's always going to be when you're trying to do an Elite Sport it's a really hard balance because if you do too much it makes symptoms worse but just by training especially having something like Sarah palsy's muscles are any tight yeah it really helps it really helps loosen and I think the reason that I stayed so my mobile for as long as I did is because of all the hours I spent in the pool yeah so and also with the swimming you were saying that with your shoulder you don't get sort of full range of movement with it how do you deal with that when you're swimming so at first it was really difficult um but over the years I've kind of learned I swim my swimming stroke is a bit different than it used to be and and that you'd usually see people sweating um I think I've just kind of got used to it but I do have a dodgy shoulder from all of the years of swimming and because obviously my shoulders don't get a rest like as you all know like when you've got a lower limb disability your arms just never get a rest so just from that and over you start my right shoulder isn't brilliant so one thing I actually have had to learn through the last couple of years is most of my swimming is actually like most of my training isn't actually done in the pool it's done on land so I do frame running and that's how I get my fitness or the bulk what the most one of the most important parts of my session is actually not in the pool not shoulder based it's a frame running sort of something that you think it picked up in lockdown where you couldn't swim or is that something that you were doing beforehand so I actually started it in 2018 I met um Hannah dines who was a parasiticalist at University when I went to mmu for a lot of sports scholarship scheme and for about a year she kept trying to get me to try this like really cool sport called frame running and I looked at her and I was like I'm a swimmer why do I want to do athletics and I kept saying no like no to her and then at the end of 2018 I had bilateral shoulder surgery so I couldn't swim for six months and that's one thing that definitely helped with my range but um I'm not very good at not exercising and obviously like if I can't use my arms there's not much I can do so I kind of gave in and was like fine I'll come with you and I'll try frame running and she took me to the local tracking Stockport where she used to keep a frame and introduced me to the wheelchair racing group there and I just absolutely loved it it was the first time I've been able to run and it was just kind of like I just felt free it was so cool to actually be able to use my legs because in the water now I'm just arms so she then let me borrow a frame for about eight months until I got my own maid and yeah it just kind of fell in love with it and then we kind of realized when I got to the World Championships That season we kind of real I had no idea how my fitness was going to be and how quick I'd be able to swim but then I went and won all three of my races in really good times so then we were kind of like hang on this could actually really help and this is something we could continue doing it's something that I've never stopped so going back to sort of swimming when did you when did you first start swimming so first started when I was eight and I can't my mum was really overprotective of me and there weren't really any sports I could do I've got an older brother and I always tried to keep up with them and copy him it does that I couldn't like play football or do athletics like he did um but he joined a swimming club and basically the coach one day just asked if I wanted to join instead of watching and when I got in the water I my mum very looked at me said yes but I just kind of felt free I realized that I wasn't the disabled kid I didn't need help and I could keep up with everyone else and I just kind of I merged into that club environment and I just felt like everyone else yeah I did try other sports I was just terrible at them I don't know why but I tried football I've also I tried golf I don't know why uh I tried like Athletics like throwing but I'm not very good at letting go of things so if I'm trying to throw something behind me and doesn't go in the opposite way and then I hit people oof so we imagined your brother but also the the coach saying you want to have a go do you think that was a massive turning point I honestly don't think I would have got into swimming if it wasn't for that it's not something I'd have thought oh let me try this it was just kind of that was like my brother's thing and I kind of got into that mindset of like oh I can't do what my brother can do so I'd have never thought to myself oh let me try something so going into sort of the the competitive swimming so uh when did it sort of first declarity that I could actually I could take this further it was quite a while I did like the arena league like little races when I was eight and then my first like individual races when I was nine but I think it was I got classified when I was 13 uh for Paris written um and then 14 I raced in Berlin and even then like I loved racing I think that's kind of where I got my thrill for racing is around like 13 14. so it took me quite a few years to get that kind of competitiveness because to start with I didn't really care about being competitive and now I'm a very competitive person so was battling your first sort of like competition my first like International competition on on GB yeah how how did it go uh it was a good learning curve when I was younger I was really fussy with food and I was already underweight so like going away and having like really weird we had to stay at the pool all day and they get the food options were at the pool and I'm not lying it was literally this pink slop like it was this liquidy thing that was pink that was I don't even know what it was that was like lunch and I just like so it was like I know because I really didn't eat much I didn't take any snacks with me because obviously I was like the newest like there was a 13 year old and Mitty who's just turned 14 didn't really know what we were doing we didn't really know what to pack it was my first time wearing a racing suit like I was just having the best time but my recovery strategies and race strategies were awful so do you think it was more more preparation and things like that that helped me with rather than me physical swimming side yeah and it for me the biggest learning care from that was being around the I like experienced athlete and learning from them seeing what they were doing and I think that's really important for a young athlete is just seeing what is required to be at that level so after you've done all that and then you realize that but you've made a few mistakes not necessarily in the pool but did you sort of change the way that you did things yeah I suppose like from competitions and camps and stuff like they're quite good at you know we had loads of workshops kind of teaching you how to do things and the right ways and and then I slowly built up and made sure that the stuff outside of the pool didn't affect the the racing yes what was the next step up for you after the the Berlin competition um so the next big one would have been 2013 I went to my first world championships that were in Montreal um that was that was a crazy experience and that's probably gonna be one of my favorite worlds because it was in an outdoor pool but because of the rules we're not allowed to race Outdoors so there was like a tent covering it however they didn't think about the fact that in the summer of Montreal sometimes there's storms and the training pool was still outdoors and all of our athlete areas were outdoors and under metal tents so like all our team areas so when there was a thunderstorm we all had to like evacuate because there was nowhere safe for us who organized it the IPC but yeah it was but it was done organizing or trying to organize it and just coming up with these stupid ways to get around the room I don't think they're allowed unless it's like a short course championships I don't think they're allowed to do like have one under a tent anymore probably get the bad event that it just went on we got such great suntans it was amazing yeah the only thing that was bad was the they had like stands they had one stand for like Spectators one side and it it probably only held a couple hundred people it wasn't big and then the other side of us for like all the biomechanics not our team staff but the tent didn't cover like the side so every time you breathed you get blinded by the sun because the sun was like coming inside the way oh dear I've ever heard and there wasn't anything to follow for backstroke like there was no like not no poles like over the lanes for like the the backlight for you to actually follow so people were like weaving because they had nothing to swim in a straight line so you birthed International one was at Berlin so what was your first sort of like senior International uh so Sydney would have been the world um in 2013 yeah and then 2014 wasn't a great season for me I got a virus and then there weren't any medical appeals that year so I missed out on Europeans um but I went to Welsh Nationals and said and that was really cool and then 2015 we had worlds in Glasgow which was it's so much easier when you've got a world in like your own country because you don't have to worry about like flying and you can just take so much more stuff when you've sort of made your first senior appearance how did you feel I haven't sunk in yet I was still like a immature teenager I was just like that annoying kid that was like running around like annoying all the older ones like yeah didn't really I still hadn't sunk in that I was at a World Championships like it was just it was just kind of surround what are you doing running around the pool like yeah I was actually just causing Mayhem and I was more interested about swapping kit with other people rather than the racing when did it first sink in that you that you've made a senior International appearance once you've you know got past stuff in literally everyone that will listen to you for that for that swim cap um to be honest I don't think it wasn't that me I think it was 2015. at my second world I think I was just too immature at the the first one I think it was about 16 and it was just too much War for it to sink in like I just so so how does that senior Camp differ from from sort of so sort of from your age group camp uh with the under 18s and the like when everyone's new everyone's kind of the same thing like we don't really know what we're doing and we're just kind of running around crazily and just being immaturity but when you go to a senior team you've obviously you've got people that have been to like four five six grand Olympic games um and it's just like it's kind of weird because you kind of like it splits into like you've got the guys that are like really focused they're focused on the medals they're doing everything they can everything right and then you've got the younger ones that were just looking at them like oh my God like this is crazy but it I think it was it's quite a big turning point because you kind of look at like oh well actually if I want to be like them and goes Prime Olympics or medals this is what I need to do but no it's it's definitely a different atmosphere like everyone's calmer and like but it's like the focus is different like it was just kind of I don't know I think that's what's so important for young athletes to like get on senior teams to just like it's just it's just very it's a very different experience but I think it's a really important experience yeah one you got to Paralympics 2020. if I'm correct in saying that you missed 2016. and this was your first one yeah so so when you realize that that you've sort of got to the Paralympics and you looks back on it and your whole career Did you sort of appreciate it llama I did after the races before the races I was just in a panic mode to be honest and I was going into quite a bad injury and I just had no idea I hadn't swam at 200 meters in about 18 months and I had no idea wasn't that the one way he got the first world recorder no no not not um not in Tokyo it was a World's last last year and I got the word record but I think for me I've kind of over the years I've kind of developed like I used to struggle with racing getting anxious but I'm now like as soon as I get behind the blocks like ready to race like I switch flips and I get into automate the race mode which is great it's amazing and it means that I can race through pretty much anything but when you're not fully fit and you've got an injury and you know that when you've got a long distance like a 200 freestyle and you know that if you go out too quick you're gonna die not very helpful because exactly what I did in the final was I went out so quick that I broke my first world record to feet on 100 meters and then obviously you know with cerebral palsy like getting over a tumble turn like it's so much slower than it is to hand so it was like a really really quick time and then I completely died and got touched out so like it was uh but like before that I was just kind of panicking but then as soon as I got one race out the way and I had a medal obviously not what I wanted but I was so determined to like get gold the next day but then after that I was just kind of thinking back to the time where I didn't swim for two years when my dystonia got worse I thought I'd never swim again yeah and I felt like really down at that point and thought that I'd like let everyone down that had helped me and but after winning two middles on token I was like well actually this was like the best way to say thanks to everyone that's helped me did you thought I'd go and see that original coat that sort of been bad used to go and swim with your medals yeah so I did that um last year and I went during my training sessions and like spoke to the kids like the effort like it was really nice to like like there's eight nine ten year olds like literally where I started and said well I started here at this portal with this coach and this is where I got to so that was what does he still work in the ever same place yeah he does yeah he's still there so so those people that think you were talking to were they able-bodied or are they disabled uh everybody I think I was their own one and only ever Paris woman so did it sort of make them look and think that that no matter what that they're facing they can always get through it yeah I'm hoping so I'm I'm hoping that's what they thought yeah so so you know with the the Paralympics being like did that did that help or would that sort of I think obviously for me I know some people said it really helped some people say hindrance I think for me it was kind of indifferent um but I do think mental health was that I needed that break I actually think it was a good thing although I did because I was shielding I think I got to like week 14 and I had my frame on a treadmill I was swimming in a freezing cold temporary above ground pool like in the garden and I just got to the point where I was like I'm so done with this treadmill I just want to go and run outside do you think you have the frame Runner propped upon some books yeah so the my I actually I'm I have the tallest frame roller on the shortest settings but because of that like I had all the poles chopped shorter because I never needed before to use it on a treadmill but it meant that I couldn't make it any taller and obviously everything was closer I couldn't buy it all the poles and the treadmill is 20 centimeters off the floor so it was too short so then like obviously not being able to go and get anything built um or anything welded to like make it safe we just had to raid my mum's book like um cupboard and we just prop books under and then used some belts to strap it to the frame of the treadmill so it didn't just fly off yeah you're not gonna use that you're not going to use this one let's just do that going back to the power Olympics what what was the event Village in the atmosphere like and was there anybody that came on to you back in there for your swimming cup to be honest I think so we were so worried like with the Japanese rules of isolation if they we had like this app on our phone that was literally like a GPS so if someone had covered like they knew exactly where they'd been and who had been around them so if you're a close contact then and the close contact system in Japan was very different to the UK it was like much more stringent so if you were close contact you were whisked away like out of taken out the village and put into like a holding room like like where you'd have a nurse or a doctor looking after you so I was like none of us wanted to do that so we were literally staying away from everyone so like I didn't swap cats with anyone because I was like I don't want to get close enough to swap kit with every anyone like I was just going around like pretty much on my own um and one of the guys that I train with uh with the wheelchair race in Stockport he went for reflex so it was basically he was the only person that I was like a close contact with because I was like I don't want to be close around anyone else because in case they've got covet so like the food Hall I'd get my food but I would literally find like there was thousands of rows of tables and I'd find the furthest one so like people are lazy and don't want to walk that fast that no one would sit near me but a village is so like big that if you've got a low lemon pen and that most people like hire or buy like a scooter because like even if you're like a Mobility yeah so like even if you can walk you won't be able to get around a village like you just get so tired that you just be like really tired for your races so it's like counterproductive so it's better to get like some sort of a or although they did actually have like little like shuttle bus things that could drive around the village it was really cool so what were your goals going into the Paralympics uh one was like it wasn't to get to world records no to to actually race um to be able to swim the 20-point relay because we don't have many low classification swimmers so there's loads of kids at home that because there's not many of us like they wouldn't potentially see us like and I think it's really important for everyone to be able to see someone like them to know that they can do it because if you imagine how many kids will have severe cerebral palsy or other conditions that would think oh well something's not for me because I'm too disabled because they don't see people like me very often uh so for me like being able to a 20-point relay which basically everyone's classification has to add up to 20 points so it's all the lower classification severe disabilities and it was a really good way to Showcase to like kids back home that no matter what your condition is you can still do it if you want to so that was like one of my biggest things um that I really wanted to make sure that I was in and it was after my two it was on the second day after my second race and because my shoulder was not in a good way we weren't sure if I was gonna be able to do it but I think honestly I went going in I wanted to win I just shoulder wise I was like no one knew if I was actually physically going to be out of race because my shoulder was not in a good place at all when you're on the start line at the Paralympics how proudly is it to sort of represent GB so I don't really think I thought about it until after and I think one of the weirdest things that because there wasn't a crowd it was kind of weird it didn't feel like a proud and picks but I did have on my first race I could hear someone screaming and I was like hang on who's that and it was Rosie Jones up in the stand so that that helped but no I think I think it was more after I did after my first race my first heat I think that's when I felt really proud and I was like I'm wearing like panel fixed kit I've like raced them and somebody else doesn't come up and asked me for it I honestly because it was my first games I don't think I would have swapped anything I think I was so like even the stuff I never wore like the bright orange vest like I think I would have been like no like yeah I just wanted to keep it all because it was just so cool but yeah I think it was really after my first race like in between before my final and I was just like this is really cool I'm actually at games like I race like I'm paralympian and I think that that was then when I felt like really proud that like I finally achieved what I wanted to so when you win the first world record and apparently that's not good enough for you so then you go into it again the next day how did that feel oh it honestly it's such a relief like I was so determined the second day that no one in the world in the world I was like I'm not letting anyone beat me nothing's happening with the relief you won the world record the day before that I know I know that kind of gave me the confidence that if I can do that to feet then the the same race to hand obviously it can go quick but it was way quicker than I ever thought even my coat my coach so my coach at the time I'd been training with him for I think about seven six seven years like a long time and he knew me better than I knew myself and like before competitions he'd go to me and be like I know that you can win like not to put pressure on you but I know you can win this and he would always he'd never tell me but in his head he'd write down before a race like a time and he was always right that was the one time that he was wrong that he thought I would go uh 115 and I went on what low 140. that was like the one time that he was wrong so so if that's totally currently with a bad shoulder how fast can you go with a perfect shoulder well I'm never gonna have a perfect shoulder because I've got damaged yeah well repaired but so last year at Worlds uh so Tokyo was 114 I think 114 .04 I want to say um last year at Worlds I went a one 13 and then six weeks later British Champs I went 111. so you broke the world record two more times after that yeah the one didn't count because there were no drug testers the rules for well Paris women is that if you break award records it doesn't have to be you but one person at the competition has to be drug tested and they wouldn't test anyone so my British and European record is quicker than the world record so are you still counting that this is my PB so yeah like obviously if I go like a 1 12 it'll still be a world record but I won't be happy because it won't be my PV so how so how would you a younger version of yourself look back on this on you breaking your world record three times I don't think younger men will ever believe that I think I'd laugh at you you taught me that like it's just it's crazy especially like last year um year at Worlds and Madeira I had three individual races and I wrote what I'd reckon all three of them like that just doesn't happen like it's just kind of even now I'm just like how did I do that's mental um and obviously I know how I do it with training and being happy but it was just like yeah it's just it's even now I can't come to terms with it so like nine-year-old mate would definitely not understand that so go on then what what are your future goals how many time times are you gonna beat the world record and if there's anything below ten if you can single figures I don't I don't know about how many times I break it but my goal is to never be beaten ever again although that's on freestyle so I've started adding backstroking um and my aim was to try and get it how's that with your shoulder line the backstroke well when I first tried to add backstroke in our old physio told me I looked like a drowning cat that was nice so but I think it looks slightly better now over the years my range is better but I still have like T-Rex arms when I'm swimming back strokes but it still looks it doesn't look it doesn't look as good as my friends yeah but it's it's functionally I think I'm always going to struggle slightly because I can't freestyle is a bit easier but backstroke because you're not having to rotate more I get less so I'm probably only getting half of the catch compared to everyone else but surprisingly I can actually swim it fairly quickly and I think it's because I used to also be a back stroker when I was younger so I think like muscle memory helps so when when when you sort of do throughout your swimming career has there ever been one thing throughout the most difficult times that somebody either directly to yourself or on an interview or something that they've said something and it stuck with you and inspired you trust my biggest thing was my coach which one the the original one yeah so the one I had from 2015 um Grant Smith he was the center coach at the national performance center in Manchester um and he's honestly like changed my career like and and changed me as a person like really helped with me developing that natural race mode and knowing give me the confidence to know that I can do it what what what what what sort of things did he say I needed I think the first thing so he became my coach just before the world in 2015 and I was feeling like really down and I didn't actually qualify for the worlds that year I was put in for a relay but it meant I could swim everything um but like I had loads of individual back then I used to do loads of races when I was selling S9 and I had like seven individuals and two relays and some of them were on the same day so some athletes were saying to me you need to pull out of your like race your individual to focus on the relay and I was like well you wouldn't do that so why do I have to do that and I was still like I think I was like maybe 18 so I was still like I always performed well I was still really good at like I could swim multiple times and still swim well uh like in the same day and he just pulled me over and was like you do realize that if you swim well and do everything like as it should be done that you could be GB size metal and I just looked at him like what but he was right and then here we go with the the world records about two or three times over well that was the first time I became a world champion I was four times more Champion I got six medals at a world Champs and um and just they're like he just knows what what to say to me but I've obviously I had all the trust in him that even when I was struggling shoulder wise and couldn't train much I knew I I knew that he knew what to do to get me fit quickly like even if we only had a few weeks in the water before a competition what have you done with all the medals so at the minute I've still got my pal input medals on my MBA on me in Manchester because so many people asked for them but generally like they're all at my mom's in Birmingham what would you say to someone generally who's struggling to find motivation to do anything I think it's so easy to think like oh I should be doing this and that but really it can be something really simple like walking a dog or like walking to a supermarket into the driving or but literally it can be sunk small you don't have to go out and I exercise for two hours or get in a pool and do like 10 000 meters like it can literally be as simple as starting small and and find something you enjoy like if you don't like walking obviously don't walk or you know find a sport club find something like a social activity and and just do it for fun like go out with friends and like play basketball you know it doesn't have to be like a in competitive environment and I think that's what people struggle with they think oh I need to go and do a part run or do like this or that and it you don't like even walk in for 10 minutes it's better than nothing isn't it and you can slowly build up and get the mental health benefits from that would you say just going out and doing doing something may open your eyes to something wider and something bigger that you can do yeah I think like we as humans are our worst like we put the limits on ourselves by thinking we can't do stuff and we're the worst part but there are so many things that you could do in like I'm saying you don't have to like run a marathon or anything it can literally be as simple as walking down the street um but obviously there are things out there like couch to 5K and patterns and stuff if you did want to start running like to give you that that motivation something to drive towards there are like a lot of schemes out there that can help but um and I think the biggest thing is just like finding something you actually enjoy doing and do it with friends because if you socialize and having fun at the same time you're gonna enjoy it more yeah so thank you Tully it's been great listen get win more World Records thank you silly