For a two-time World and European champion in a sport where the aim is to kick your opponent in the head, Bianca Walkden has hers screwed on incredibly tightly.
This isn’t just because the taekwondo star barely suffered a scratch during a year-long unbeaten run, that saw her become the first fighter to claim all four World Grand Prix titles in 2017.
Instead, most striking is the heavyweight’s laser-sharp focus on winning Olympic gold in Tokyo.
It's an ambition that has rode out two ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments and survived degrees of disappointment at London 2012 and Rio 2016.
After all of these experiences, the wins and the losses, exactly what happens in two years’ time in Japan seems to matter so much more than anything else to Walkden.
“It started straight away really, the moment I walked away from Rio with the bronze medal,” said Walkden, who exited at the quarter-finals stage at her home Games in 2012.
“My goal is to get gold at Tokyo. Not any other colour, that’s the colour I want.
“I don’t think you quite realise how dedicated you are to your sport until you finish the journey and get to where you want to be.
“But I know I’ve succeeded in so many things despite two big injuries and being knocked off gold down to a bronze at the Olympics.
"Gold is the only thing I need left. I’ve won everything else and I have everything else. I just need to tick off that last medal.”
Trailblazing alongside 57+kg scrapper Jade Jones, the Liverpudlian helped deliver GB’s most successful-ever European Championships in May.
Walkden’s record of nine global titles speaks for itself, but the pugnacious 26-year-old also offered a reminder of how just how difficult it is to remain dominant in her discipline.
“Taekwondo is growing at such a rate and it’s a really tough sport to be consistent in,” she said.
“There’s just so much that can go wrong. So many people can knock you out, beat the system, there are so many variables.
“I don’t bother too much about the recognition I get from outside. I just go onto the next one, win the next one, keep my head down and stay in the bubble.
“It would be nice to get more and more recognition over time.”
Next up for Walkden and her colleagues are the fourth leg of the World Grand Prix in October and the World Championships next May – both in Manchester.
The 2017 Sports Personality of Year nominee is relishing the prospect of two significant tournaments taking place in her adopted city, where GB Taekwondo call home.
“I went to the Manchester Arena the other night just to watch comedy and I was already thinking about standing on the main stage as a World champion,” she said.
“I was already in that mode, feeling that moment just watching a show.
“The excitement and the anticipation for the World Championships have already started.
“Fingers crossed I can go out there, stand where I wanted and become World Champion again.”
Sportsbeat 2018