AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 3
Watch The Female Fist with @ScarlettDelgadoBoxer and @katieclark.92 on YouTube – or LIVE at talkinfight.com/live Friday’s at 12pm EST
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Transcribed:
Everybody for joining us on the third episode of the female fist.
My name is scarlett delgado and i have a really intriguing guest with us today.
She brought home bronze for the golden girl tournament out in sweden.
She’S also gone, which one silver silver, oh yeah, finals.
Man, silver, i’m corrected silver she’s, also brought home two silver medals for the canadian championships until 2019, when she brought home for the 64 kilogram division a gold medal.
So please welcome our canadian reigning champion caitlyn clark, how you doing caitlin good good thanks for having me sorry for correcting you there.
Well, no please correct me.
I want everybody to know exactly at what caliber you are and let me tell everybody i’ve known kaitlyn for quite some years.
She is quite the amazing athlete.
Every single club show that i’ve gone to if you’ve been there and if you fought i’ve, always seen you win like honestly, we were having this conversation earlier.
I’M really surprised that 2019 was your first canadian championship.
I always see you winning.
You know what i actually.
It was funny because some people, when i won they were like well how many of you won, and i was like this – is my first one and they were like what i thought you had already.
I thought you’d won like numerous times before and even before i won nationals.
People were calling me a canadian champion and i was like no, i’ve never won canadians and they they were perplexed by i mean just as i was but like they were like they were like how, but i always see you beat these really good.
Girls like how are you not a canadian champion, i swear to god, like you, and i we had this conversation earlier, like i literally thought for years that yeah you were the champion, that’s what i figured but whatever now you are so there’s your rightful crown where It belongs okay, so a lot of the audience.
They don’t know who you are so why don’t you give us all a little bio about yourself? Why’D, you start boxing why’d you go down specifically this path.
Tell me everything: okay, um! So obviously it’s a question.
We get asked a lot um and then my story is very different from most people.
There are a lot of people.
You hear.
Oh my dad box, my brother boxed.
I tag along to the gym.
For me i say something yeah, both you and mandy.
I’M pretty sure, that’s how you guys got into it um, but a lot of people.
It was like they had a sibling or a parent, typically a male figure in their life who boxed um.
For me, it wasn’t like that boxing was not a part of my family.
I actually didn’t even start watching, like i hadn’t watched a full professional boxing fight until i was had like 15 fights like that is how removed from the boxing world my life was um, but what it was i danced growing up and i’m a big reality.
Tv junkie, so i was watching dancing with the stars back in.
I think it was 20 2006 like a long time ago, um but laila ali was on it and i didn’t know who she was.
I didn’t really care um.
It was the fact that i was captivated by her beauty, her elegance on the dance floor, and then she has this phenomenal physique, like even to this day at, i think she’s, like 44 years old or something um.
If you follow her on instagram, like that, woman has an amazing like she’s goals, straight up goals: yeah um yeah.
It was like right, part of me, she’s, a mother of two right.
Yeah she’s got a few kids yeah and she looked.
She got a banging body, but that’s what it was.
It was like she had this elegance about her and she was so feminine on the dance floor, and then she had this very fit physique that you typically at that point like that was during that paris, hilton era, where everybody was just really skinny, and you like Strong wasn’t considered pretty in the media, anyways and uh yeah, and then she was so outspoken.
She told people off and i was like that is who i want to be right there like.
I want to be like this chick.
What does she do? I looked it up, saw she boxed and i was like that’s what i’m gon na do with my life.
I bet that she would be so happy to hear that she made that kind of impact on somebody and then look at the path you chose.
I actually tweeted at her like maybe six years ago about it and she she responded to it and retweeted it, and i was like that was pretty cool like yeah like it was just i’m sure she is doesn’t remember like it’s a you know.
It’S like one off but like, oh, maybe she does yeah like one day she’s.
Basically, this my entire path after the age of 18 is because of that person which is pretty unreal cause i’ve never even met her um but yeah.
So then i started my.
I had to wait to start boxing until i was 18, so i had to wait three years because my parents were so against it really.
How did they want me in the head, so the rule was like when i turned 18.
I could sign off for all my own life and i was my own responsibility, but until that point i, my parents didn’t want me being in danger.
So i just kind of stuck around like playing.
I played other sports at like pretty high levels.
I’Ve always been a competitive athlete and then, when i start but sports always came really easy to me, like you are a very athletic person, it they just came easy and boxing was the very first thing.
I ever tried that i sucked at really it was horrible.
You can literally ask people that i started with and i was not good.
I cried my first time sparring.
I was like, like total night and day difference from who, like the athlete that i am now in terms of boxing wise um but yeah, and it was just it – was the fact that it was so hard for me and i was used to sports.
Typically, being pretty easy, yeah, that’s where i wanted to do it, and i remember, like my first coach, basically told me she’s, like you know, you can always quit and i was like no, no, no, but she because she gave me the out right, like i think I think that makes her a good coach is.
She saw somebody who was really struggling and it’s like.
Well, you can quit like the options there.
There’S no there’s! No shame in not wanting to be a high level at like a high-level boxer.
You play so many other sports you’re, smart you’re, you know, you’ve got all these things going for you and i was like no, no i’m going to become a canadian champion and i was like i told you that i know we’ve talked about this since because we’re Still friends, yes, we did.
I was like i was like.
I am going to win my first provincial title.
The first time i go.
It’S like i’m not going gon na lose.
Then i’m gon na go to nationals.
I’M gon na podium my first year, which i also did and then i was like i’m gon na win a canadian title which i’ve done and then the next thing was.
I wanted to win a world championship which is still on the list.
It’S the only thing left on the list of what i told this woman 10 years ago.
It’S just and i told her the weight classes that i was gon na that i was gon na.
Do it in two i was like because at the time i think i was 195 pounds and really i was like i’m gon na fight at i like pointed, and it was like, i just like pointed the wall at the weight class chart and it was between 141 and 152 – and i was like that’s where i’m going to fight and i’ve always fought in those two weight classes, pretty much so good for you, you said not dominant i’m gon na get that the nostradamus of my own boxing career, i guess [ Laughter.
]! Do you do like anything right now outside of boxing like? Do you kind of just do something to just level out all of that built up like energy that you got going on? Do you ever try to yeah? I um i people actually people that are really close to me, notice that i tend to escape.
Like i go off the grid, i find a place.
That’S very remote.
I leave, for you, know up to like four to seven days at a time: no cell phone, no, nothing, i disappear, but i’m usually in the wilderness somewhere.
That’S what i do.
It’S um it’s so calm and peaceful and, like i’m, a wilderness lady, which a lot of people don’t assume um but yeah.
It’S very calming to me to just be in the wild and like where you’re chopping, wood every day to make fire and you’re cooking your meals like that, you brought on your back.
You carried in like things like that.
I’Ve always really enjoyed that and that’s where i find peace, because it makes you realize how small you are and how insignificant you are.
But how significant you are, because, when you’re surrounded by these big trees and like water – and you know you’re so you’re such a tiny little speck, but then it’s like when you think about it: you’re chopping down, trees and you’re, impacting the environment anyways.
So it’s like yeah we’re like it puts into perspective, how small we are, but also how big of an impact we can make.
So it always just brings me back.
That’S beautiful! It’S like reconnecting back with the main source, the main elements, finding your grounding exactly literally so, and now you’ve been boxing a little bit longer than me like.
I think that i’m reaching like my eight year mark how long have you been boxing for i’m at ten years now i got 10 years, yeah um, my first fight, so i i moved pretty quick.
Actually i was through novice within.
I think it was within a year and two months of walking into a gym.
I was done novice like i owe my first provincials like a year and it was only like a year and a half or something into my actual fight career like it was very quick um but yeah.
I started boxing and then six months later at my first fight, it was just like boom boom and i don’t think i was ready, but i’m still here, because i don’t think that women’s boxing was necessarily well from what i remember like it wasn’t even olympic.
Still, it was still something that was kind of like woman had their ring, and then you had the men’s ring yeah, so i’ve always been really lucky, um or blessed.
I guess in a sense that no matter where i’ve been in my career, i’ve always trained around other very accomplished women.
Like my first boxing coach kathy year, she was a two-time canadian champion in her own right.
My one of my training partners was um debbie richards, who won numerous canadian titles, like anyone will tell you that debbie richards back in the day was like the girl like she was it.
She was.
She scared me she’s, like the nicest human in the world.
She scared me um, but so i’m this novice this lady at the time i’ll call her a lady she’s.
I don’t even know how much older she was than me, but back then there wasn’t like female bossing.
What is it isn’t wasn’t what it is now, but at that time, in 2010 she had like 120 fights, which was unreal.
It was unheard of wow that is like that surprises me yeah.
So this is who i’m training with, and my coach is a two-time canadian champion.
It’S like i’ve always been really blessed to be around high-caliber women who are accomplished in the ring and outside um.
So i never really felt pressure because i always knew that like i always.
I always knew that there was a possibility that i could be great too, because i was like i surround myself with people i want to be like, and i’ve always been like that, like you become like the five people, you spend the most time around.
Yes, so yeah i’ve really been very blessed in my my boxing career because like for that um but yeah i didn’t.
I don’t think there was a lot of pressure like before my first fight, though i thought i was going to die.
Why was that? Was it? The nerves, or was it just like? Actually i um the girl i was fighting – was supposed to have zero fights or something or like three yeah, very minimal um.
It’S actually.
My first fight was against bonnie hunter.
Believe it or not, really yeah excuse my first fight.
We go way back and um.
Oh, she was there.
She fought mary spencer that day yeah yeah she um yeah.
She was my first boat and, what’s actually kind of funny, is that we had this, like also like a rivalry through like the very early part of our career, because we always fought each other, and then we had this moment and now she worked my corner at Nationals when i won that’s cool – and we had this moment where we were like wow – we’ve come full circle.
This is insane that we started around the same time and like now, you’re the one that’s in my corner yeah.
So it was like it was like a very beautiful moment, but um anyways she was supposed to have like three fights.
Allegedly, she shows up with seven she’s six wins one loss ten years older than me, i’m like what, if i die like what, if this [ __ ] kills me, then i’m still here to tell the tale, but uh yeah so and like like.
How did you do like how’d? The fight go for your first fight ever so we turned into an exhibition because of the bout difference that was the rule um, but it was competitive enough where kathy ran up the fight.
She was like okay, we’re taking them on their club, show next week or like two weeks later, yeah and you did yeah, so we took it on the club show in their gym um.
I actually watched i have the dvd of it.
I watched it the other day i was like wow.
It was pretty bad when i first started um, she beat me she bested me.
She bested me quite a few times as a novice um.
I evened it out when we got open class, though, but uh experience right yeah.
It’S all love, though, like yeah, i know bonnie she’s, a wonderful person.
She’S got this like good light to her.
Oh yeah.
You guys have that experience, though yeah it’s pretty unreal.
What so, okay, so your first national title was 2019, as we mentioned, so you’ve been boxing now for 10 years now.
I know you personally.
Obviously your audience doesn’t, and i know that you’ve been through a lot in the past 10 years.
You’Ve gone through a lot of ups and downs.
Most people don’t come back from those kinds of things and win a championship like that.
So do you want to take us through those transitions? Do you want to kind of highlight like? Was there a moment where you’re like i need to change something i need to make a switch because 10 years in 2019, you made that gold happen.
So something changed want to tell us yeah um a word that i’ve always used to define myself throughout my boxing current i still do to this day is resilient, like when some, if someone were like what’s three words that describe you resilient 100 um throughout my boxing Career, it’s like even that first fight with bonnie, you know she’s got seven fights.
I have zero.
I’Ve been boxing for six months, i’m 10 years younger than her.
Like you know, she has that woman strength, i’m a kid um from then on, like from from my very first day in the gym it was just like i was always having to be resilient, yeah, um, and so for me, it was like we took.
I was with a coach and we, you know she sat me down just like.
If you want to be great, you need you need to get the experience like.
That’S the only way to be great is to fight great people, so we literally fought seven canadian champions in a row and i lost three of them and then it was like all one day i won, but i was on eight losses in a row at that Point when i won that first one and i i’d gone to the point where i forgot – what it felt like to be a winner wow, and i just a lot of people like i remember my coach and i had this conversation and i said to her.
I’M like the one thing i know, and i thanked her for still like you know, investing in me.
So much considering i was on this massive losing streak, but i said to her.
I was like the one thing i know is that other people would have quit, because we had the option to take easier fights.
We had the option when i had 13 fights to fight someone who had 10, but we fought someone with 50.
um like i got whooped and it’s like every single time.
I came back with the mindset of this is growth.
This is development, absolutely um, so that worked for so long and then i started beating these girls, but then it kind of leveled out where it was.
I was on this huge growth curve and then the growth curve stopped right, and that was around the time yeah.
I like petered out i, after a nationals, i lost my split decision in the finals.
I was pretty down about it in 2014, um, which in hindsight is kind of funny, because, like three and a half years into my boxing career, i’m sad that i lost on a split to a seven-time canadian champion being a champion like an inner champion.
You don’t settle yeah anything except for what you want, yeah and um in hindsight, it’s kind of funny to think about, but i actually ended up getting very badly injured shortly after that, and then all of 2015 was a write-off.
For me, the entire year was a write-off.
I had a really bad back injury and then i ended up.
I got pushed off a bus right before provincials and tore the ligaments in my foot.
So then i couldn’t fight then yeah.
I got pushed up a bus.
Just bad luck, some guy pushed me when i was getting off and i tore the ligaments in my foot and it was a week before the tournament to qualify for nationals.
Did you like punch him out? No, i i just walked to training.
I was like, oh whatever my ankle, just kind of hurts, walk right to the gym, see that was a big mistake, heart of a champion right there yeah.
It was a horrible idea.
I tore the leg into my foot um so that put me out for quite a while um and around that time as well.
I started so i guess we’ll go back a little bit before all of this.
I started having um.
You know really bad foot pain in the morning.
I it hurt to literally hurt to live.
It physically hurt me to be alive um.
I can’t put it any other way, and so i was like doing all these tests and i was like 21 at the time.
I was really young and it comes back after nationals that i have rheumatoid arthritis, which a lot of people don’t know about.
It’S an autoimmune disease and it causes inflammation in your body but specifically in your joints and then it’s not from wear and tear it’s just you’re born with it and typically it doesn’t surface until you’re in like your 50s and 60s.
So but it came out as a for you yeah as a young athlete.
I i remember when i found out and i went to the gym – and i told a friend of mine who had gone through um some autoimmune issues and had thyroid cancer and some other things and she was like caitlyn.
That’S a big deal.
How do you feel – and i was like whatever i can do anything i want like i’m fine and that that was the wrong mindset, because i just kept plowing forward so flash forward a little bit 2015 total write-off.
We find out that there’s a second qualifier in 2016.
yep, my i have.
I have a rheumatoid authorized flare-up right before a tournament.
Then the qualifier is three weeks after my dad dies three weeks before so it’s like my dad died like right after the brampton cup um, which i didn’t compete at because i was in the hospital the week before and i didn’t get medically cleared.
So when my dad passed away, i kind of had to reassess my life and it was.
It was very challenging because i was going through this point in my life, where i was in my last semester of my undergrad as well like i have um.
So i was finishing my university career and i was trying to focus on boxing and everything was just too much so i took about eight or nine months off at that point as well, so it was like almost two years.
My boxing occurs right off, like in terms of i guess in terms of fights in the ring um.
The the development mentally spiritually physically outside the ring was great um but yeah when my dad passed away.
That was like this moment where i really looked at my life, and i was like what do you really want from the world like you need to figure it out now, because it was the first moment where i realized, like my dad, died very suddenly.
So it’s like life can stop in an instant and if you’re not doing what makes you happy or it makes you feel good, stop doing it, and so my my like, i people will tell you like i changed completely.
I was a totally different person after my dad died, yeah like but and then that ended up actually impacting some of my relationships overall, where i stopped being a doormat, and i stopped doing things just because somebody told me to – and i started like i would say I started fighting back a little bit where i was like.
I don’t want to do this.
I don’t want to do that like.
I think i should train this way and it did cause a bit of a riff and i had a falling out with my coach who had been my coach at this point for six years and i learned a lot under this under her um and then i Remember going to nationals and not boxing well at all, having a very hard time making weight um, and we had this conversation that i should quit and i agreed and within three minutes after agreeing i was like no like.
I was like i’m not quitting, like i’m gon na figure out how to do this with my without my body, hurting without me being injured without all these without me, mentally feeling, horrible and then a few months later, i’d say about six months later, i ended up Quitting my career, i had a career at this point in ottawa.
I quit my career and moved home and decided that i was just gon na box and figure it all on my own and then i won a canadian championship and then i won a canadian championship.
Wow caitlyn – that is quite an amazing story, and i really hope that everybody listened to that and everybody’s paying really close attention, because that right there is what champions are made of and that right.
There is a prime example of.
If you put your mind to something, you can go through anything right there on her shirt, it says faith over fear, faith, caitlyn, you’re, you’re, somebody that should really like.
That’S amazing, i’m proud of you! Oh thank you yeah.
I just.
I think that for me it’s like, i always look at like i’ve always had this.
It’S funny like i’ll, say things.
People are like.
Oh, are you a pessimist? I annoy people with how optimistic i am about things because i’ll come up against challenges and people like we can just quit.
You can just walk away like my first coach right, give me the out and i’m like no i’m gon na figure it out.
I might get a little like pissy along the way, but i’m gon na figure it out and that whole experience of like kind of completely removing myself and being at my lowest point and not having a whole lot of support, like i remember that eight weeks, prepping For that nationals nobody thought i was gon na win like if you would have asked anybody other than i think.
Like me, sid natasha, like some of my supporting group and like chuck and people blue water like no outside.
I don’t think anybody thought i would win.
All they knew was that i was flying to other countries for sparring on like for a week, i was going out east to spa.
I was literally in my car, i put 90 000 kilometers on my car and sparring.
It was like 47 000 kilometers for boxing in, like a literally a two-month period, i was driving everywhere.
I was like double sparring.
I remember i drive two hours to kitchener after work.
I would spar and then i would drive to the other gym in town and spar more there like i just took a break ever.
Did you just like get some help? Maybe no.
I just was like.
I need to do this for me to prove to myself, because i’ve wanted to win a canadian championship for so long, and it was basically told to me that it will never happen and i don’t take never for an option.
So i did what i had.
I did literally did everything i had to do to make it happen.
I fundraised for some like for these trips overseas.
I paid my own way to go over and spar with stacy copeland, because she’s like a very decorated professional, very decorated, amateur and we’re like we’re good friends – and i was like i need to get to england – to spark this girl yeah and then at the end.
It was just like having to invest that much into myself has showed me what i’m actually capable of, but the result afterwards.
I remember when sid after after nationals sid and i were working together – we’d work together for about like eight weeks.
At this point, he tweaked my job and i’m just thinking.
Man like i can’t even throw a job right, but i’m a canadian champion, like that’s amazing, imagine what’s going to happen when my job is good, like the fact that i’m winning these and i looked at him, i’m like how did i get this far without you? I will never forget this, we’re, like you, know, we’re doing pads and i stopped and he’s like what you know.
Sid doesn’t talk that much he’s like what i’m like.
How did i get this far without you and he was like what do you mean like he thought that i meant it as something negative and i was like no sid, i’m a canadian champion, and i’ve done all these really amazing things and look how far i Am and you’re literally construct like deconstructing my job and fixing it like imagine how far we’re gon na go together like this is.
This is literally the ground floor like a canadian championship, is the ground floor? How amazing, is that yeah? Absolutely because that, like that is what you’ve constructed yourself, you have literally built yourself from the ground up and then coat so coach sid.
He is such a like.
I don’t you know what i don’t think that he gets enough credit to be honest.
He’S such a like a valuable individual he’s got like wisdom in him.
He’S got this just this knowledge and he understands what it takes to speak to the athlete themselves.
Not everybody.
The individual athlete he’s got a heart attack.
Man he’s an incredible person.
He, like, i remember, asking him to coach me full time because i was at bluewater and sarnia, but i knew like if i wanted.
It was a very hard decision because i love training with chuck evans and he put in so much time with me and he was there with me at nationals and like we had such a great connection.
But i remember being i talked my sports psychologist ear off about.
How do i tell chuck that i need to leave like how i love this man? I don’t want to hurt him um.
It was the first time that i was leaving where it was my choice to leave, and i remember asking sid i was like said: i don’t know how to tell him and he was like caitlyn.
It doesn’t matter how you enter into relationships.
What matters is how you exit them and he’s like, so the choice is yours, and i like have never forgotten when you told me that, and but that was also something that cemented like how great of a human being sid is.
Yes, where i know he’ll have my back, because he told me that, where it’s like that’s how he approaches relationships is that you know it’s always it’s never about what happened in the past.
It’S about the last thing.
Yes, he’s he’s given me some good words exactly like that, yeah exactly like that.
He is like you know what he’s a great man, and i think that he’s done wonders for you as well, even in that short blip at time, because you were working with him.
Only for eight weeks right did you say eight weeks for an hour a week.
I worked something for like eight hours.
They put it in perspective.
It’S like eight weeks, canadian champion and like chuck, played a big part in that too, like i never would want to take away credit from the people in sarnia, chuck evans that man like he made me just so much more confident.
In my my hand, speed in my ability, because i had never thought that i was quick and then it’s funny now, because i you know i spar with like i’ve done rounds with you.
It’S like mandy, you guys are so much smaller than me and the fact that my okay, i am slower, i will admit, but i don’t think i am as low as i don’t think, i’m that slow for my size, no you’re, not i’m so it’s like.
I know you’re yeah and it’s because of chuck like if in i would not have won nationals.
The way that i did had chuck not have like helped me become confident and help me work on my hand speed.
So it’s like it was like this tag team between him and said that they kind of neither one really knew what’s happening, but it worked perfectly well.
At least you made it work, because that was that’s the goal right, because at the end of the day, i think that um, we give our credit to our coaches.
Of course right.
We love our coaches, the time that they invest in us, the impact that they have on us on individual athletes.
But then, at the end of the day like we have to do always what’s best for ourselves and the coaches being good coaches.
They know that too yeah.
You would hope right like that’s to me.
That’S the marker of a good coach is if your athlete can leave, and you don’t have like you’re, not there’s no sour grapes about it.
It’S like no.
This person needs to move on, for whatever reason it is yeah um, but what you were saying there about how we’re always so quick to give thanks to our coach, that’s another way that i’ve really grown over the years is, i used to i used to like Pay homage to my coach and, like i love sid but like yo when i win man, it’s about you, that’s me now and i never was like that.
I was always like.
Oh thanks to my sparring partners that, like i was the last person on the list, whereas now it’s like god, me sid, and you know what that that’s a really good point that you make because everybody forgets.
This is your journey.
This is your journey and when you make these accomplishments, it is about you, you can’t tag team, your coach and say: can you finish the round for me or like? Can you just i could do that sid would be in every round.
Can you just finish this quickly for me, please um, yeah and, like you can’t like it’s it’s funny like in fight sport.
I think people you know because you you read about the internet, it’s like.
Oh, this athlete doesn’t appreciate their coach or like this and that but like when a team wins the super bowl.
It’S all about the players, it’s in team sports, it’s all about the players when they win in individual sports, though it’s like you’re expected to you know and, like my coach is helping me get there, but like i’m, the one who’s performing performing and putting my life On the line – and that’s actually something said told me he was like when he started training me.
One of the stipulations was that i wasn’t allowed to thank him on the internet.
He told me that in a message he was like, i want no thanks.
I want no praise he’s like i he’s like.
I just want to help you and that’s when i was like man, this guy’s this guy’s.
The real deal is that he didn’t want anything and even when i won nationals, he was.
I think i tagged him in the post and he was oh.
I just said thanks to sid and natasha spence, for like the sparring i never said like, for you know for this, that and the other, because he didn’t want that, and i was like this is the man that i need in my life at this stage of My career is that he’s because he was an athlete he sees that, like you know, he’s he’s helping me make the magic in the ring, but he’s helping me do it.
You know it’s and because he’s able to pull his ego out of it, it makes for a much easier relationship.
Coach athlete wise um, but it’s like.
He also knows that.
I appreciate him.
I thank him every day.
Yeah he’s like you, know what and – and it all comes from here from him yeah, it’s all right from here.
You know what he’s gon na be so upset when he sees this because we’re just giving him so much credit right now running the street, no one’s ever gon na be scared of him.
Ever again, i’m like oh he’s a softy like such a nice guy in training, [ Laughter ], another thing that is actually something that i’ve been thinking about, because i don’t see you obviously as much as we normally would po like out of covid so like what’s Training looking like for you right now during this covet and like do you still have the same aspirations like you’re gon na make it to the world championships? I’M like.
We all know that, but do you still have like the same now that you have a whole year that just went by? I think that this year, for me, has been so it’s been a gift like everyone want is so this is where i get annoyingly optimistic.
Um everyone is so quick to be like this year’s horrible.
This year’s garbage – i want it to be over, like whatever and it’s like.
Yes, okay did i.
My last fight was in february.
My last training camp was in february march, like of last year.
Um.
It’S been a long time since i’ve even sparred against some of my own size right, but in that time, like sid – and i have had this chat where it’s when i wasn’t living here or training with him all the time.
I would see him once a week and so it’s like in a year’s time of working with them, i may be taking out holidays whatever we even work together for 40 hours before i before i moved here, and then it’s like i move here and i’m out.
East i’m in montreal, i’m back here.
Oh it’s christmas! Now i’m back in montreal, then i’m in sweden, then i’m in korea then we’re in lockdown, and so it was like these four months went by so fast and then when we reopened up in july.
I think it was two weeks and i was like so this is the most time we’ve ever spent together and he’s like.
I know i can’t even believe that he’s like you’ve been here over six months – seven months now, and this is the most time that we’ve ever spent together wow and the amount of development that i’ve done from a a technical.
I technically, i know i’m way better than i was a year ago um, but i think just i have this swagger about me now when i box, where it’s like i’ll drop my hands, i used to be like who all the time and if my hands dropped Because i’m tired, now it’s like no i’m going to drop my hands.
I’M going to taunt you a little bit.
I’Ve got some like.
I got some swagger in the ring and you’re like let’s go yeah that comes from the confidence right like absolutely that’s the mental side of it that i that i was missing for so long um and another really great thing about this year.
Actually is um a lot of people actually don’t.
I don’t think know this about me, but i um i’ve had an eating disorder for about nine years, eight years um, so this was like yeah.
So this was the year was like.
I was able i told sid about it was like the first time i ever actually talked to a coach about it um, but this year we got someone to help me out with my nutrition, who i’ve also told about this and like very much in-depth and it’s.
I think that’s like the first time.
I’Ve ever actually mentioned it like in like a live interview or anything um, but this year it’s been the year where i’m able to rebuild that relationship with food and like nourishing my body and the fact that i was able to let a coach in let a Nutritionist and and let my training partner and like manny, knows i’m weird with food um to me.
It’S like that’s such a relief, and it’s really setting me up to be great down the road, because to think that i can be a high performance athlete and like not understand like and not have my head in their best spot possible in terms of like nutrition Training, sleep everything, that’s a flawed concept that you can get there without every single individual piece.
We’Ve spent all this time working on and it has not been easy whatsoever like i still have days where i wake up and i’m like oh well, i’m a little bit heavier today, so i’m not gon na eat doesn’t make sense.
Now i can look at it like from that analytical standpoint.
So that’s a huge gain too, like that’s amazing, like this past year, for me, has been absolutely incredible and kovitz sucks.
It does it’s horrible people are dying, but i never would have gotten this year.
In my career at like in any other situation, this was this one.
We got to really focus on you exclusively without any other buzz going on without responsibilities like, for example, i’m going to put myself on the back burner because i have to take care of this tournament coming up or i have to take care of this club show None of that’s going on no like big events or concerts or anything that could possibly distract us.
All of that is out the window, and you literally took this time to just say i can do this and i can make myself even better than what i already am yeah and a big piece of that came like it was not an easy journey at all.
It still isn’t um.
There was a couple times where i told said where i’m like yo, i’m not i’m like i’m drinking with my friends like i’m doing these things that i know i shouldn’t be doing to be a good athlete, but it’s like those things had to happen so that I was i’m able to be where i’m right now and i think too, it’s like surrounding myself with people like sid mandy, you uh my nutritionist divorce.
It’S like it’s allowed me to be my best self and like focus on every day.
I want to be a little bit better than i was the day before, and it doesn’t mean that, like you know, we in boxing we always think about weight like everything is about weight like wear those every day.
What do you add today, 124.
7 yeah, give me one give me one weight class athlete who isn’t like petrified or like traumatized by the scale of some capacity where it’s like you get on the scale you’re pointing more and you’re like.
Well, i didn’t like i didn’t pee as much this morning or like you’re, trying to make like some reason all these things right and it’s this time has allowed me to really reflect on these things that i do and then i do them and i’m when i Do them in front of sid, i’m like i know like i tell them verbally, i’m like that was the person.
I used to be saying that, like that’s, not me, no, that’s not who i want to be um, but it’s not to say that, like when i was thinking about being better every day.
It’S like it’s not like every day.
My job has to be one percent.
Better every day, i have to run one percent faster.
It’S like i look at all the different.
I compartmentalize a lot of things.
I look at all the different pieces of my life yeah.
It’S like okay with my nutrition today.
I might be one percent better now, tomorrow, okay, well, my sleep habits might be one percent better, but on the whole because they make up – who i am i’m becoming one percent better overall.
So it’s about like not being fixated on like the individual thing and being able to look at yourself as a whole being as opposed to just like some person who has to make weight and train all the time and win fights.
Because of what other people might say, no, it’s always about.
What’S going like you have to always give a hundred percent in your day, what’s going on in your day in those moments it’s not about like okay.
Today i didn’t run as fast as yesterday.
So now i suck it’s like.
No, that’s just your body, probably recovering because of the awesome workout you did yesterday.
Just give yourself a second just you know enjoy like what your body’s, letting you do, which is rest a little bit.
No, that’s a good point that you make that not every day you have to be perfect.
Not every day has to be like this.
You just got ta, show up and give it what you got in that moment and push yourself and just kind of go with that and look at it as like your athletic career, like even if you, let’s say, you’re, not an athlete.
It’S like in your actual, like professional career, like that, isn’t we were talking about this? I think today, or the other day was like that.
Doesn’T a lot of athletes are like really successful.
People think that one thing defines them yes and it doesn’t, and so it’s like, i might not be a better boxer tomorrow than i am today, but i’ll tell you what, like my tutoring business, i’m gon na give one percent more to one of my students than I did yesterday yes and it’s like that’s still growth, that’s still you as it being growing and then that will spill over into your athletic life.
So it’s like.
Maybe today i don’t have the energy to like run faster, but i can treat my spouse or my mother or my brother, or whatever a little bit better than i did the day before i can have more patience now, you’re now you’re growing you’re becoming a better Person that will spill over into your athletic career, where, when you get frustrated with yourself, you’re gon na have more patience.
That’S an excellent way.
To put it, you know what like this has been such a great, very substantial conversation and i have loved every second of this conversation.
This is like some really good stuff.
I hope that everybody is listening and hearing really understanding what it takes to be a champion.
Not to be so hard on yourself, you can hit rock bottom and still be a canadian champion.
You can literally put 100 effort into yourself and look at the final product, which is which we have right here is a champion in all forms.
Thank you.
Caitlyn for sharing with us your story and everything that’s been going on with you, and you know that especially right now, you’re gon na be having a lot of people cheer for you going into the next nationals and eventually into the world champions, which i’m very, very Confident that you’re going to accomplish that you’re going to crush that.
Do you have any final words that you want to say to everybody? I think if i could like say one thing, especially people who, like do sports like girls who do sports, it’s especially young girls.
Listen just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you have to be a pushover and listen to what people tell you like my biggest thing.
I wish someone told me this 10 years ago, if your coach tells you to do something, and you morally don’t agree with it or, like you feel like this weird conflict in your life about it, you don’t have to be a jerk about it, but speak up And say something like it’s okay, to express how you feel about things and i think, as women in sport, we’re told you’re too emotional you’re too this you’re too that, as opposed to being like you are, who you are express yourself so yeah.
I think like for women in sport and or women in the workplace, it’s like, if you want to race, go ask for it.
Like you, don’t get things without asking for it.
You got to break down doors.
You got to do it on your own terms and honestly, like if you’re a good person it’ll work out and like you, don’t need to be a jerk about it, treat other people loving kindness, but also go after what you want and then you’ll positively affect the People around you because you’ll be happier absolutely just like, for example, what’s the difference of if one of the female fighters, let’s say she loses a fight or she doesn’t do well in sparring.
What’S the difference of her crying as opposed to a guy, throwing things exactly you’re just? Why is it that girls can’t cry, and if that guy wants to cry, let him cry too, and if i i remember one time actually, i threw something and i got in trouble, but it’s like, i see guys, throw things all the time i i didn’t throw Anything like in the venue i like went to the change room and i picked up a chair and i chucked.
I was so mad, but i didn’t feel like crying.
I wanted to throw something – and i got like talking to you about that, and i was just like that’s just me letting out my like, i was told i can’t cry so i threw something and now i’m being told like now, i’m being told i’d be a Roblox now we’re just gon na walk in monotone.
No, that’s an awesome awesome note to leave off on because we’re just because we’re girls doesn’t mean that we’re not going to display what we feel in those moments just like how guys get to display what they do and they get no criticism.
They’Re.
Just like.
Oh yeah, it’s because they’re a guy and they just get the password the hall pass exactly but stand up for yourself and always follow your heart and do what you believe in, because, even if it’s tough and even if you other people are gon na, be against It you just got ta live, live your best life, but do it in a way that like will make god happy or whoever you know, whoever uses your guiding post, do it in that light and you’ll be okay.
Thank you.
So much caitlin.
Can you put him up for me? Thank you.
Thank you.
Everybody for tuning in and you’ll be here again next friday for another episode of the female fist.
Thank you.
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