Olympian Elle Armit on Developing a High-Performance Mindset

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It's twenty twenty four and water polo player Ellie Armett is training hard for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris. The Ossie Stingers navigated a difficult Tokyo Olympics in the height of COVID. After they placed fifth, Ellie needed some time out of the game, rested and recharged. She's ready to revisit the dream of winning gold. She's training from five each morning, racing to her teaching job, and then

I started when I was quite a little in primary school and I started with a modified version, the kids playing like the shallow end of the pool and like a smaller ball. I was quite fortunate when I was growing up in North Queensland there was a huge push for development in water polo in Queensland and I just gave it a go pretty much and fell in love with it.

And I played a lot of different.

Sports right up until I left school, but yeah, water polly was one of my main sports.

I think I was much.

More a water athlete than I was a land athlete, So it was just something I took to like a duck to water.

Really And you say your water athlete. Were you brought up by the beach? What did your family sort of unit look like? You come from a big family where you always outdoors. How did that look Yeah?

Definitely.

I have four older brothers, so we're quite an active family, always, you know, doing some sort of sport on the weekends or playing.

With each other. In the backyard.

We grew up in Townsville in North Queensland, so it's on the beach, so we did a lot of surf, life saving and swimming as kids.

But yeah, we played up multitude of sports really, I did everything.

And any of your brothers into water polo.

Yeah, so a couple of them did play growing up. One was quite good. He got to the junior os level, but then they all went on and chose their careers over their sporting endeavors. So the one that got to the Australian level, he is now a or three D surgeon, so he chose that route over playing water polo.

Yes, I've I've learned that within within water polo there's there's a second career that you that you have to have right in order to obviously support yourself, support your family and and to really focus on on the water polo from from a separate standpoint. So ultimately there's there's two careers there. When what what career came first to you,

Kind of stumbled into the professional sense of water polo first. When I first moved to Brisbane, it definitely wasn't on my radar. I was just kind of cracking into the q I S squad and and trying to make the national senior team.

And then this.

Chance, this opportunity came up to go play in Italy, and I was eighteen and stari eyed, and of course I wanted to go live in Italy and play professional water polo. But I don't think I actually knew what that meant until I got there, and it was one of the most humbling and hardest times of my life. But after I came home and realized that was probably a silly mistake. But we don't know those things until we look back, and hindsight is a beautiful thing.

I then started studying for to become a teacher.

So take me back to Italy. What happened?

Did you?

It was an exciting time. How did that look and how did your parents and your family take to that decision?

Yeah, So generally what happens when you're an import in one of the European leagues is someone kind of scouts you somewhere along the way and kind of gives you a call or your coach a call and says, hey, we'd love to have her on our team. In this case, there was an Australian girl already in this team. She didn't want to stay anymore. She wanted to come home, so she kind of rang me and was like, do you want to take my place? We played similar positions again.

We had.

It was Italy and I wanted to go, and my dad used to live in Italy, so he had some family friends there that if things went south, they were kind of okay with me going to them. And it wasn't like I was in a foreign country with absolutely nobody around. But it was a very hard time because I did spend a lot of time on the phone to my mom crying because it was so hard.

And I was eighteen.

I had no idea, you're homesick.

Yeah, And I had no idea what I was doing, and the coach was the typical European screaming at me in Italian, and you know, it just there was just like a multiputitude of things happening, and yeah, it was a really very steep learning curve for me.

So the psychological aspect is there, especially being an next book player, like you said, so you know a lot of pressure on you to perform. Everyone looking to you, what's the physical sideline because you're constantly in the water, You're constantly how often are you training? What does that physical side to water polo look like?

Yeah, so I went to Italy a few times to play in a few different teams, and in the kind of later teams that I was in, they were a bit more in the top one two of the league.

So they were training.

I think we ended up training about ten eleven times a week, so you do you know, three gym, three swim and then all skills at night and games on Saturday every Saturday. So it is a quite Yeah, it's a physical toll on your body, and you only get one kind of day off to rest. But then again you're in a different country, so you kind of want

So it's a lot of yeah, moving parts.

Yeah, that's really interesting because I suppose you know, you're like a rabbit in the headlights as well. Like you said, you're young, you're not and you mentioned naives. Sometimes it's best to go into situations like that with a naive mindset because you know, you deal with the situation at hand. You deal with you know, with everything once it's presented

I guess as the seasons went on and I got a bit more experienced at it, you just kind of learned that you can only do what you can only do, so instead of kind of putting all this pressure on yourself to be the amazing player, They've picked you for a reason, So you're going to go there and play your game and and try and incorporate their tactics for sure, but yeah, you can only do what you can I do.

That's amazing because you know, to function at such a level, you sort of need that sense of confidence to realize that, you know that without teaching into arrogance. I suppose of realizing that, you know, coh, you know, I'm flying through the ranks here, I'm being you know, I'm playing for all the top clubs in Europe, and then all of a sudden you get a call from the Stiggers in Australia.

Yeah, definitely.

I remember kind of doing a tournament and the head coach was there.

At this time.

I was still living in Townsville and he was like if are you going to move to Brisbane next year? And I was like, well, I don't know, and he was like I think you should and I was like okay, and then you know, kind of told me to move. And once I moved, I was kind of accepted into this QIS program. And then eventually I think in like twenty thirteen was my very first game, and I.

Was so nervous.

I got on for maybe a minute and I was just shaking the entire time. But I don't really remember the call that he gave me or the email that I saw my name, but yeah, it just it was just I was just happy to be there, to be honest, I was just happy to sit on the bench and watch everyone else because I was too scared to get in the water.

But once you kind of get over that initial shocks, it's a lot of fun.

And then Tokyo comes up. That was quite an unsettling sort of time in the world. Talk me through when you first got called up to Tokyo to represent your country for the Olympics.

Yeah, so obviously the lead up was just so tumultuous and unsure, and you know, I kind of still remember flying home to Townsville to be with my parents with their quarantine and getting the message to say that the Olympics were canceled, And it still gives me chills this day that we were like but I just, yeah, I

So we're going to turn around and go back to Australia. So we went back to Australia.

We went back to our training environments, and I think we went to camera for a little bit and back home. And then I vividly remember what she like sitting on the couch watching the news and they're going to close the borders to Queensland, and I just called my manager and I said, should I be going home?

And she was like, yeah, get out.

So I left the next day, packed a bag enough for like two weeks.

Like I thought it was good, you know, everyone thought it was two weeks. And then when.

I got home, I was at the airport waiting for my mom to pick me up, and the message came through that it was postponed, and I was just bloodgates and yeah, it's just still emotional today actually. But then we kind of just locked in and we just had to train in case there was a call one day that we're back on.

So we just did what everyone else did.

I suppose there was a little glimmer of hope that things would come about. And when they did come about, can you remember that moment And was it from pure sort of you know, just that same routine to all of a sudden having that spark ignited, or was it just a case of oh, this is this is happening now and not really believing it.

Yeah, it was a tough one because there was still obviously, you know, the Japanese people didn't want the Olympics to go ahead, and there was still protests and things happening. So we still weren't sure. Even though the IOC were like, yes, the Olympics are going ahead, we weren't sure until we got on the plane that it was actually happening. And there was just so much protocol and things that we had to do, like go in stage in cans for two weeks just to be able to get on a

Going to deal with it when we got there.

But yeah, I still remember the moment my coach called me up and said I was on the final thirteen on the way to Tokyo. It was I think I was on my brother's deck and kind of overlooking towns where my mum was behind me, and I said, don't come out here until I tell you to come out here. And the minute I had hung up the phone call, she was like by my side. So I was like, oh, I'm good, yeah, actually, and she's just kind of like,

I bet it was, And it obviously reignites the whole reason for you doing what you were doing during lockdown, and you know, continuing to be an elite athlete, which is what was required of you, even you know, the discipline to do that during lockdown is another level by itself. What was it like landing in Tokyo.

To be honest, we were so sheltered, so like we got off the plane, we were like corraled, we were tested, and we were put onto a bus and like masks and everything, and then we got bus straight into the village. You know, once we're in the village, you're not allowed to leave unless you're going to a training or game. So we didn't interact with any of the public at all.

And what was it like training together for the for the first time after such a long time of being you know, by yourself, you know, having the team back together. Was that was there a moment there or was it just like, listen, we've got a drop to do. We've been out of the you know, out of it for a while. We just need to get get in and utilize time to crack on. And what was that like coming together?

Yeah, it was different because we didn't play any international games leading up to Tokyo, so the first one was a bit a bit of a shock to the system. But yeah, once you're in that Olympic village, it's so exciting. There's so much kind of happening still that you get a few days to find your feet and then it's just game mode.

So like your game on, let's go. We're here to do a job and we're not kind of stop until we have done it.

And do you feel like that Tokyo was you know, obviously you couldn't prepare as you wished as a team, and you know that interaction, you know, face to face interaction, the energy, the you know, the the that team sort of ethos that that you can't experience during lockdown or when you're isolated. Did that come back straight away or did you find that you were working on that while you were actually competing.

It definitely we had to work on that every day while we're competing, and yeah, you just lose those kind of little nuances and the little touches that you have with each other that you learn from playing with each other over a long period of time. So we had to try and get that back quite quickly. We still had lots of team meetings throughout where we were kind of like what's missing, what's the where are the gaps

So do you think it affected your overall performance of the Tokyo Olympics.

Yeah, it's really hard to say because everyone kind of had a similar prep Some of the teams played games, some didn't, So yeah, it's really hard to comment whether that. I mean, playing prep games might have helped us, and it usually does help in the lead up to things, but again, yeah, who's to say.

Yeah, where did you come in the Tokyo Olympics. We got fifth, and was there a sense of excitement about that or was there a sense of success considering the situation or was there a sense of disappointment where you believed you could have done better.

Yeah, so we got bronze of the World CHAMPCE in twenty nineteen, so the year before the Olympics were meant to be so we were a top four projected team, so we're expecting to get top four and we lost our quarter final by one. So that was a big kind of heartbreak moment for us, because it's a hard thing playing a team sport. Once you lose your carter, you're out of middle contention. There's no coming back.

But after that moment, we kind of slapped down.

And we're like, well, we're going to finish it the best result we possibly can. So we just kind of went out all guns blazing and got the best we could from then on.

And were you happy with your performance after after Tokyo because you fell out of love with the sport shortly after Tokyo. Was it due to the team? Was it due to your personal performance? What happened there? Why did you fall out of love with something that was been ingrained in you for such a such a long time.

Yeah, So I think I did.

For my first Olympics, and for being kind of the inexperienced national player that I was, I think I did quite well in my position. I just it was just a huge kind of two years. And then I was living out of a storage unit at the time in Sydney because of COVID. I was back and forth from everywhere, so I had no way to live, and just the thought of having to find somewhere to live in a job and all those things, I was just like, that's

So that's what I did.

I just took a step back and you know, took stock of my life and saw kind of see where I was at.

And how did the coaches and the national team take to that.

The national team players coaches definitely were It was kind of a weird time for Australian water polo went through quite a lot of coaches in about a you know, eight year period of seven year period, so we were kind of in the midst of changing coaches at the time, and when the new coach came on board, I just, yeah, I just kind of gave them a call and said, look, I just need a break.

I'm sorry. I can't. I can't go to World Champs.

And he was quite accepting of that and understood, you know, where people first, and he was taking care of, you know, the person first. And then he just said, you know, we'll circle back after World Champs and see how you're going.

What was your mindset? Was your mindset I'm never going to revisit the sport again, or was your mindset, I'm going to go away, work on myself and come back. Yeah.

So I worked really closely with my sych at the time, and he was kind of the one that suggested that I take that step back, because when you're in it, it's really hard to see what.

Else is outside.

And so I took the step back from water polo, and then I kind of came home from my international season, got a job at the school that I'm working at right now, and just kind of enjoyed life without sport.

Got you? So you just did cut it all out? You went back to teaching. What changed your mind?

Well, I kind of played There's like a Queensland kind of tournament that happens at the end of every year, and I played that with my friends in a one of the random teams, Like I wasn't planning on taking it seriously, and I was just going to play to have fun with my friends, and obviously playing games is really what generally ignites the love of the game in everyone, and just doing that and then I kind of did my toe back in and then went back to training

Type of thing.

And I remember one vivid conversation. I was working at a different school as a casual teacher and there was an excess traine athlete that he was a roller in Sydney and he was the reserve and he was talking to me and he was like, you'd be so stupid not to try again for Paris. Like if you can't do it now, then you know you got the rest of your life to work. And I'd heard people say

I can't leave like this.

I can't leave thinking it was that bad and I was that down on the dump. So I just had to give it another go. And if I didn't make it, I didn't make it.

But at least I gave it a go. And I might have lasted one month, I might have lasted all the way to Paris. But yeah, that was kind of the turning point for me.

Okay, so you're working a full time job at the school and then you're obviously training on I say, on the side, how does that schedule work for you? You're getting up super early and John in the pool. How did that look all the way up to to obviously you going into your training camps to prepare for their paras Olympics.

Yeah, so it wasn't all the time, but like for a huge like two to three months, I was up early.

And that takes some dedication and discipline, So you'd fallen back in love with the sport because obviously you have to be to be that dedicated and committed and discipline towards it. How does the call up feel for obviously you've had the call up before for your first Olympics back in Tokyo. How did it differ from the cool up for Paris?

Honestly, the Paris one was a lot harder because there's a lot more emotions, there's a lot more at stake, and I like, I'm not sure if you know, but I got dropped from the team about six months out, so I was still in the squad, but I got dennounced from the World Champs.

That yeah, I was a reserve for the World Champs. That happened in January.

Why and how it was just.

Kind of a moment of me getting in my own

Knew who we were being the assistant coach, and.

She after I got the announcement that I didn't make it, I had to sit down meeting with her and she was just like, we've spoken about this before, and it was something that she and the old coach had come to me with before Tokyo and said.

You know you're in your head, you're in your own way.

You're the one stopping you here from being this athlete that we know who you are, and you have the potential and capabilities of being So she's like, I think you need the time right now to get that fixed so you can go to Paris. Otherwise, if we prolong this.

You're not going to Paris.

Essentially like paraphrasing, but it just was, Yeah, a conversation and a huge wake up call.

I had become too comfortable. I was just going and going.

In the motions complacent.

Yeah, I was complacent. I was just turning up. I wasn't training, you know, maybe to my full potential. And this was a huge wake up call. And you know, there was moments where I was like, well, you know, I tried to see how this will be it I'm out.

And then there were other moments where I was like, no, I'm.

So close, and I'm I'm going to prove to her that this I'm not complacent, like I'm doing everything. And so that was another moment where I got all the kind of assistant and support stuff that I couldn't in a.

Room, and I was like, how am I getting to Paris? How are we getting there?

Let's go, let's organize, because again I wasn't in the the traveling squad, so I had to stay home and trains, which I mean I had to stay home and work.

So again I'm.

Working full time when I didn't plan to be, and and things like that. So yeah, it was getting the final call I think was even more emotional than the first one because I was just I purposely was myself in my apartment, just just sitting in the fields for a long time.

Yeah.

Wow. And this is where the head game comes in because you know you've been dropped, and you go one or two ways, but you either have that sort of fuck you attitude where you go, well, listen, I've done everything I can for you lot, or you go, actually, you know the reason why this happened. You know, am I being complacent? Am I getting a bit too big for my boots? Am I getting over confident? And you know, do I think that the team can't function without me?

Yeah, so we just got a message kind of saying, you know, this is the schedule we're going to I think we're doing the locks in Canberra again. So we did like months since in Canberra doing training at the Ies. But yeah, so when I got back into that, I was really nervous.

I was scared.

Yeah, I was like, I have to prove myself every minute of every day here. There's no sleeping at all, like not physically sleeping. Of course I slapped.

Back, Yeah, I know, yeah, there's no sleeping exactly.

But yeah, so I was just kind of nervous, and I just channeled that nervous energy into doing the best I could every day and trying to prove that I was everything that she was saying that I wasn't and you know, fizz being physically fit and being a team player, being mentally fit.

And things like that. So yeah, I just kind of threw myself into it.

Wow. And then Paris. What differed from landing in Tokyo to landing in Paris? Obviously, apart from all of the pandemic sort of lockdown stuff. But what differed in pressure in you know, you were you were expected to perform a lot better than you did in Tokyo, right.

Kind of the opposite. We did a lot of a European tours before, so we.

Were in the end, I think we're in Europe, including the three weeks at the Olympics, maybe like seven weeks. So we did a lot of prep beforehand, a lot of common trainings with other countries and things like that.

And the week before we went into the village we were.

In the French Institute of Sport with the pat with the French team playing them.

But ranking wise, we didn't ranked very high.

We maybe got a fourth at the one of the World Champs and maybe a fifth or sixth and another one, so we were in top six for sure, but there was we have to keep reminding ourselves that. I think what kind of failed us in the Tokyo cycle was that we thought we were a gold medal chance without

So landing in in.

Paris or going into the Olympic village was so exciting because we were just so excited to see what we could do. Because we had a few pre tournaments where we were winning games that you know, theoretically we shouldn't.

Have been winning, or previously we wouldn't have won.

But but yeah, leading into into Paris, it was just kind of like, well, we can one.

On us as well, So there's almost the pressure was off, but it was on. You know, you knew you could perform. But and I suppose when the pressures off as such, you know, and the spotlight's not on you, you sort of have you go in with a more relaxed attitude, don't you in a more relaxed feel, even though you know that behind the scenes, you know, there's expectations and there's pressures. You come out of the Powers Olympics with silver. Did you ever imagine that you could possibly win this?

To be honest, we had a really hard pool, and so we were just literally taking a game by game, and like I said, we hadn't really had that much many performances where we were winning all the tournaments and things like that. So we literally took a game by game, and when we topped our pool was kind of a minute that we were like, well, hang on a second, Like anything can happen at the Olympics here, so you know,

A pinch me moment.

Like our programs a whole year ago was in ruins and we were in a review and we lost our coach, and you know, there was so much going on background to now being in a gold medal and big game, like that's unheard of, and so we were just kind of like, we are here, why don't we you know, finish strong, and why not us. This team is this Spanish team. Yet it's a it's a unit. It's a strong team that's played together for so many years, but so with other teams that we knocked off.

So yeah, that's amazing. And you and you unfortunately you know, you don't come out on top, but you come out on top with a with a silver medal in the Olympics, which is absolutely phenomenal. And you talk about a moment after receiving your medal where you where you had a hug with with with your family. Why was that so important and what you know, what did it feel like?

Yeah, it was just incredible.

It's a weird thing losing a game but getting a getting a silver medal because the bronze people in the call room are so excited, the gold medal team so excited, and you're just kind of like in this weird middle feeling. But once it kind of like we had our moment and we got the medals and we were excited that we got a civil medal.

Yeah.

I found them in the crowd and just giving them the hug. Like obviously having four brothers, you don't show a lot of emotion and they'd never really hug me or you know, say nice things to me. So having this like big hug and you know, moment with my brothers was just incredible, especially them and my parents. It's as much their metal as it is mine, because they've

So they have been on every part of the journey with me.

So I'm really glad that I give them something tangible and physical that they could touch and see that you know, this, this wasn't wasted.

I can see you're getting emotional right now about that. I can only imagine what you were like when you actually had that hug. And it's such a powerful moment. And you mentioned, you know, it's so so aware of you to mention a sacrifice that you know other people make to get to where you want to be and where you where you you know, you could deliver that silver medal and it's it's given me goosebumps thinking about it. But how important is it to not give up on yourself? Ellie massively.

It's it's something that I think everyone battles with every day, is just this imposter syndrome, especially as Australians where you know, have this tall puppy syndrome and whatnot.

But it's something you have to work on all the time.

And I think along the way I lost it a few times and I was so grateful to the people who pulled me back and reminded me and gave me another chance. You have to back yourself and you have to put the effort in and put the work in.

Things aren't just going to come easily. So I think your self belief and self love is crucial.

It's huge ask question what is next for yourself. I love it that you're in your school doing this interview with myself because you're you're still working away as a teacher. But what's next for you when it comes to water polo and your career That.

I really don't know. I am at the minute.

I'm kind of taking a break from the national team again and I'm back training once a week with the QAS squad, but I'm just kind of enjoying doing my own kind of training in a gym or running or plarties and and I think I just need to kind of throw myself into my job for a bit and see if that's something that I want to pursue, because it's.

Had such a backseat my entire career.

So yeah, I'm just kind of figuring it out at this point in time, and I'm not really sure where it holds to my life.

Well, listen, that's magnificent. Thank you ever so much for coming on head Game. I hope I didn't make you cry too much. No frilling your glasses up there. It's amazing what you're doing with the children. Keep it up and listen. Thank you for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

Thank you so much for joining me on Headgame. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss any of our incredible stories, and leave me a review wherever you're listening. I'm Att Middleton. Catch you again next time.