(SOFT, PURPOSEFUL MUSIC) - You know that saying ` you know, you're your own worst enemy sometimes. I look at it in a different way. I'm like, you're always your best competitor, I reckon. And that means that you just want to improve yourself to be the best you can be. And the way that we do that with para athletics ` I really like that it's always about, you know, your own PB. It's not about if you're better than this person or better than that person. It's that, are you better than you were a month ago? I'm Josh Chisholm. I am an aspiring teacher as well as an aspiring para athlete. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024 (CHURCH BELL TOLLS) I have a condition called achondroplasia, which is also known as dwarfism. Hi, guys. - Hello! - How are you? - Good. How are you? - Good, thank you. I think being short has made me very talkative. I think it's made me have to be an extrovert in a way. You know, if you're down here and everyone's up there, you're like, 'Hey, look at me. Talk to me.' You know, everyone's talking to each other up there. I think it has made me not necessarily prove myself, but like, you know, to notice me in ways that it's just not my disability. Hola. Como estas? So, working at the university, I am a kaiawhina whare, which means that I am basically a live-in pastoral care worker here at, um, University College. That can mean anywhere from chatting about their day, seeing if they need anything, that they're going to classes, that their cup isn't too full. So if they're stressed to the max, is there anything I can help with? I love that the buttons are in an accessible place for me to use them. Being someone who has had to... to fight to be heard, I guess, I know what it's like not to be heard, and I don't wish that on any other person. So being able to listen to other people as part of my job, as part of my future career ` um, I think my disability has definitely taught me how to actively listen to other people. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) Yo. Hey, guys. How's it going? - Hey! - Hello, Josh. - Josh! - Good to see you. - Hey, mate. - How's everyone's day been? - Good, thank you. - Pretty solid, yeah ` pretty solid. - Not too bad. Lots of work ` bit too much work, maybe. (CHUCKLES) - Bit too much work? - Yeah. - Sometimes. - Uni is, um, sometimes really hard, but... if you've got people around you, that's mean. (LAID-BACK ELECTRONIC MUSIC) - (EXHALES) Who's pouring ` me or you? - You can. - All right. - 'Growing up, my parents never really used the word disabled.' I always thought, you know, I was just like everyone else. So I have two siblings ` a brother and a sister ` who are both younger than I am. Cheers. - Cheers! - Cheers. - They never went easy on me, which was, um, looking back, really good. It helped me realise that, you know, I can do a lot of what other people do. With my mum and dad, they never treated me any differently either. So if I was to need something, I'd have to use a stool. I was encouraged to do most things. - So, how much training you got to do this week? - Well, I'm gonna take it a bit slow this week, so I'm only gonna throw a few times and then maybe go to a pool. - Oh, OK. - Yeah. - Yep. When it was time for him to go to school, they had a meeting to get an idea of what equipment they would need to have. They tried to do something with the desks ` make it lower so that he could sit. He did not like that cos it meant that he was different. So in the end, they decided that... - Not to do it. (CHUCKLES) - ...they would have the` yeah, the same-sized desk, but they would give him a gas-lifted chair so he could go up and down as he needed. - It wasn't until I was in primary school where, um, I noticed that everyone was growing more than I was. I wouldn't be able to walk as fast as other people. My mobility became a slower thing. During my teenage years, um... I suffered with depression and anxiety due to, um, my realising that I wasn't like everyone else. You know, I had all this hope, but I couldn't do everything that I wanted to do, and there were a lot more limitations that I realised, and that took a big hit on my mental health. Even when I was hating myself to some extent, I always felt support and I always felt loved by my friends and family. - Nice! - Nice. - Oh, that was solid. - Oh! (CHUCKLES) - Nice. - That was good. (LAUGHS) - Nice. - Whoo! - Whoa. - That was pretty good. What the hell? 'I had quite a lot of friends at school. 'We still have quite a close group, 'and they've always been super supportive of me.' School was, yeah, my safe haven. It was more like, you know, when I go out in public, it's... not bullying ` it's just harassment, and... - Ah... - (EXCLAIMS) - I mean, the hole's that way. (LAUGHTER) - There's definitely cases of... What do they call it? Coddling. Not like coddling, but like coddling. Like, um, (COOS) 'He's a cute little character.' You know? 'I just want to pat him on the...' Like, a lot of head pats. Stuff like that where they don't recognise that that's just in itself... - Rude. - ...rude and just, you know, it's a huge no-no. - It does come out a lot when, you know, they're drinking. Like, drunk girls are the worst. (LAUGHTER) - Just say like it is (!) - COOS: Oh, Joshie! Awww. - Go on. - Athletics was never a thing on my radar, because at school, it was always, um, something that you had to do. - Nice. Oh! - Whoa! But when I had to compete with able-bodied people, I wasn't gonna do well, so I was never introduced to para sport until that one day. - Nice! - Yay! - Well done. Well done. - I was down at the track, you know, four or five times a week. and one fateful day, Josh decided to come with me. I guess from across the other side of the track, Raylene and her squad were training and saw Josh, and she immediately thought, 'Ah. I want him.' And, yeah, I guess that's how it started. - I was over here coaching and, um, just happened to see him standing over by the grandstand. So I just rolled on over to him and said, you know, 'Have you ever done sport before?' And he said, 'No.' And I said, 'Well, would you like to have a go?' And he says, 'Yeah.' So I said, 'Oh, well ` turn up on Sunday, and let's have a go,' which he did and, um, yeah, he's just taken to it. - I think that was a point in my life where I was open to try almost anything, um, just to change how... how things were going, how, um... how life was, um... and I'm very glad that I did. (TWANGY GUITAR MUSIC) - My first year at university was very messy. I'd just come out of school, and I felt like I had to study and I had to go to university and get a degree and all this stuff. I lived at home, and I really enjoyed the freedom of being a student, but then that took a toll on my grades, and I started to hate going to class. So I ended up, um, dropping out halfway through my second year. Having a disability and having the anxiety of going into new places really affected how my first year actually went. But also, I did not know anything about disability support. I didn't know anything about student services, so it was kind of an isolating experience, yeah, and I kind of fell into that spiral of not really caring. So that's kind of why I needed to drop out. So I moved to Christchurch, and I joined, um, a youth worker collective up there doing specialised pastoral care in schools and stuff and realised that... I liked being in schools, I liked... teaching young people, so I thought that I'd come back and enrol at teachers' college. - When I push pause or say freeze, I'm going to call out a body part. So, for example, it could be 'elbow', and you've got to find a partner and touch elbows. In the classroom, we do this, because it helps children get used to being close to other people. In dance, we are going to be sometimes having to work together in close proximity. - I think that teachers' college is not like any other academic degree. - And feet! - Boom. The classes that I'm doing this year are very specialised, so I'm doing art, drama, dance, music, and then I also have, like, the professional papers, like Maori language, how people learn, and behavioural management and all that sort of stuff. Um, so it's not like going to law where I have to sit in a lecture. I'm actually in a classroom dancing. - I'll count us in ` tahi, rua, toru, wha. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. - Being me, I really am a dramatic person, so I like to do drama, and I like to do music and dance ` just moving the body, which is, I don't know, a nice way to just, you know, learn movement and learn a different, uh, aspect of teaching. - One, two, three, four. - I want to be able to allow the children to feel like they can move around, rather than stay rigid all day, and I think that encompassing things like Jump Jam and dance creates, like, better behaviour in the classroom as well. - You know, as teachers, we want children to be able to look and see themselves represented, you know, whether it's culturally, whether it's their different abilities, um, you know, gender, etc. So for` You know, Josh is paving the way for our small-in-stature people, and he is just fantastic. Last year, I got the privilege of getting to go out and observe him out on placement, and at the school that he was at, it was actually athletics time. They were all excited to let me know that through Josh's coaching, a couple of the children had actually broken some records. What a cool role model for our future children to have. - It's always funny going to a school for the first two days, and they're not` they're not listening to you. They're just looking at you. But they're getting used to you, and by the end of the placement, you know, I am Mr Chisholm, and they do respect me, and that's... it's cool to see that. (MUSIC STOPS, APPLAUSE) (GENTLE MUSIC) Going back to Trinity today, it was full of nostalgia. Kia ora, guys. - Kia ora. - Hi. - My name's Josh. - Scarlett. - Scarlett. - Charlotte. - Charlotte. - Max. - Max. - All right. Let's go through. - Just seeing where I had once gone to school; seeing how it had changed but not really changed... Seeing a lot of staff and even some pupils that I know their siblings and stuff was very cool. A little overwhelming at times when, um, you know, you stand in front of a class and you... you know, you get asked questions and you hope, you know, you say the right thing, and you want to inspire them. - What was it like being at Trinity? - I found Trinity... very inclusive. But the stairs, man ` the stairs were killer. (LAUGHTER) Yes. - Um, do you like doing athletics? - I love it. I love it. It keeps me fit, so, I don't know... I was pretty lazy before I started doing it, to be honest. It also helps with the mental health as well, because you're keeping up the exercise. So if anyone's ever thinking of doing sport, no matter if you are a person with a disability or able-bodied, you should give it a go. You're not gonna regret it. Yes. - What keeps you inspired? - Ooh, good question. Wanting to beat myself every time I throw. Allowing kids to have that freedom to ask whatever question they want is, most of the time, really effective. I think for some parents and some teachers, when kids ask a question that kind of seems like embarrassing, you know, like, um, like today, for example, being asked, you know, 'What's it like being a dwarf?' (CHUCKLES) - Uh, what do you personally feel being a dwarf and all? - I love having dwarfism because I think it makes me very different. And I don't think I'd be myself if I didn't have it, you know? I feel like it's become part of my personality. I've actually been given opportunities because of it. Um, but I've been really lucky in that regard. That curiosity is something that I really like, and that's something that I want to, um, fuel in my classroom as well, is to keep kids curious and to keep kids questioning. Has anyone else got a question? Yep. - What are some of the most challenging things in your life? - Some of the most challenging times or things that I've experienced in my life have to do with... believing in myself. So I've always had a bit of a hard time... figuring out where I fit in a world that's very different to who I am um, and realising that I have, you know, the same opportunities as everyone else. So why don't I just do it? And the first few times was, you know, I was very debilitated with anxiety, but it gets easier when you say yes to things. You know, all these opportunities have helped me with my confidence and realising that you are good enough to do what you're doing, I guess, yeah. That's my challenge. (TWANGY COUNTRY-STYLE MUSIC) - Right. Did your left foot move? - No. - Did so. - (CHUCKLES) Did it? - Yeah. So make sure` Yeah. So even a bit closer. I would even start a bit here. - Here? - Yeah. Yeah, and really drive off that left. Boom, boom. Yeah. Yeah. - So, I'm working towards Nationals which is next week in Wellington. We train three times a week with throws. And in between that, we do gym work, occasional pool sessions ` just keeping up fitness and strength. Hey, Emily. - Hey, Josh. - How's it going? - I'm good. How are you? - Good, thank you. - What are you hitting today? - I'm doing the lats, you know, doing the... - Oh, fair enough. - ...doing a bit of arm workout. - Getting ready for Nationals? - Heck, yeah. - Excited? - I'm so excited. How's your day been? - Not bad. - The exercises that I do as a little person and as an athlete ` they're a lot to do with what part of the area I use for shot put. So I do a lot of arm workouts. I do a lot of bench. Skip rope is another good one that I use, so I try not to do a lot of running just because, uh, it's not that nice on my hips and knees. When I was a bit younger, I was a bit more chubbier. I was out of breath quite often, and my hips ` they hurt when I walked too far. Um, but when I started, like, you know, exercising more, I noticed that my body started to change, and I started getting stronger in different parts. My energy levels started to change as well. Other areas of my life started to be impacted positively by athletics and all the training that was part of it. - RAYLENE: He's improved about 1.5m since he first started, which is a lot in shot put, and he hit 5m for the first time in Canberra this year, and, you know, now we're on our road now to try and hit 6m. - For the first couple months, I was getting a PB, like, all the time and breaking my record all the time. But, you know, now it's not as common an occurrence, like, I've got to where my body naturally can throw it. Now I need to push it even more and start to build on it and get stronger. In Wellington. I'm aiming to throw another PB, so I'm hoping to get over my current one of 5.11m. I will be happy just getting over for 4.60m, but I know I can do a lot more. Um, if I can't get the 4.60m, then I'll be very disappointed (CHUCKLES) because that is the standard to be eligible to go to Oceanias as well. - Right. Heaps better. - Phew. - All right? - Yeah. - And the right side still didn't go through, but you drove through the circle. Do it again. - Yep. - We don't have a huge amount of athletes in this classification in Oceania region, but he's leading the way in that. He just keeps improving all the time, so, yeah, who knows? Who knows where we'll be? EMPHATICALLY: Left leg on the ground. Pull off it. Yes! - Boof! - OK, we're ready to go for Nationals now, aren't we? - Yes. I'm super excited. - Yeah. (SOFT MAJESTIC MUSIC) - I'm still getting used to the big atmosphere of competing at a big event, and I still get nervous and all that sort of stuff, but, um, I feel myself getting more confident as I progress. I've never actually competed against another short-stature shot putter like myself. The pool of athletes are quite small because, you know, the population of people with, um, achondroplasia is not large either. But that means that I am competing with people with different abilities in open categories. (SOFT, PURPOSEFUL MUSIC) - 4.22m. 4.22m. - I was throwing pretty poorly at the beginning. I was throwing only, like, 4.20m, 4.30m. Early morning ` body wasn't really feeling as liquid as it normally is. (GRUNTS) I could feel my body trying to, like, warm up, though, and by the time I got to, like, the fourth throw, I was throwing better. But, you know, you only get six, so you don't get... by the time you get to the fourth one, you're like... yeah, you got limited options. - 4.70m. - Top score today was 4.70m. My PB, my season's best and my New Zealand and Oceania record is 5.11m. So not too far away. I did end up getting enough to get the standard for Oceanias, which I'm really excited about. - Yeah, no, it was good. I mean, he threw further than last year, so we're really happy with that. We're always trying to improve each year. He's a little bit disappointed he didn't get over 5m, but it's really early, and it was cold when we arrived. And, you know, you got to get` that's the breaks. You just got to compete in those conditions. But, you know, sometimes you've got to (INHALES DEEPLY) suck it up as well. (LAUGHS) As I said, it's further than last year and still above his average for the season, so we're happy. Yeah. - My overall goal is to try and represent New Zealand. I know that there is still a bit to do towards that, but I'm also looking forward to the smaller goals, such as trying to maintain my New Zealand and Oceania records, but it is much more internal than just the records. It's more what can my body do, and how long can I do this sport for, and how better I can be. - All I can say is I've just noticed a huge growth in him as a person. He's confident` not just confident about athletics; he's confident to be able to go and achieve other things. It's just a pleasure to have him part of our family. - Apart from the sporting goals and all that, I have the teaching degree that I want to eventually have, and I've given a lot to it, and I hope to become a qualified teacher just so I can finally get into a classroom. I know it's kind of a challenge to have a career as well as to be, you know, a full-time athlete. But I think, you know, it's definitely possible. - KATHY: He's achieved a lot of things. I'm just proud of what he's become. - DWAYNE: Yeah. - An inspiring young man. - Definitely, eh ` inspiration, eh, to others. - Yep. - Yeah ` knowing what you can achieve. - And he gives everything a go. - Yeah. Proud dad. - I think I am quite proud of myself. Looking back to where I was five years ago with my mental health, with who I was back then, it's been such an experience the past few years, so it'll be really exciting to see where the next three or four years go.