The Mental Skills Coach: How the Inner Game Drives the Outer Game, with HeadCoach and The Coaching Room’s Jay Hedley
Description
What separates good athletes from great ones? In this episode, host Tarek Michael-Chouja speaks with Jay Hedley, Managing Partner at The Coaching Room, who draws on years of experience in elite sport to show how mental skills shape winning outcomes. From working with powerhouse teams like Fiji Rugby to launching the HeadCoach brand, Jay explores transforming anxiety into potential, building strong team cultures, and collaborating with sports psychologists. You’ll also hear about his mental skills training program designed to equip coaches and athletes with the tools to thrive under pressure. Listen now and step inside the mindset of champions.
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Our favourite quotable moments:
“As I always say, the game's always won before it's won.” - Jay Hedley
“Sport is a bridge between the early stage of development and the later stages of development.” - Jay Hedley
“High performance is about waking up, growing up, cleaning up, and showing up.” - Jay Hedley
Resources:
Get 15% off any of our online courses. Simply go to Functional Training Institute and input 'PDM15' at the cart checkout.
Check out our best selling book Purpose Driven Movement by host Tarek Michael-Chouja and Dan Henderson.
About Our Guest: Jay Hedley is the Managing Partner at The Coaching Room®, a firm dedicated to helping high-performance executives, athletes, sports coaches, and teams unleash their full potential. With a focus on identifying blind spots and challenging limiting beliefs, Hedley is known for building clarity in both professional and personal life. His extensive client roster includes executive teams at organizations like RedBull Racing, KPMG Australia, and Optus, as well as elite sports programs such as the Waratahs and Fiji Rugby Sevens. Most recently, he contributed to the Fijiana XVs at the Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025, specializing in developing mental and leadership capacities. His unique approach synthesizes NLP, developmental coaching, and integral theory, all centered on the critical question of "how you show up."
About Your Host: Tarek is the co-founder of the functional training institute and FitWell Education lab. Tarek is an international educator and speaker who has presented numerous times at the biggest convention in Australia, Asia and the US. In addition, Tarek has presented courses to thousands of trainers throughout Australia, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Tarek is also a best-selling author of ‘Purpose Driven Movement.
This podcast is produced by Brave Moon Podcasts.
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Related: high performance coaching, mental skills, sports psychology, coaching dynamics, team culture
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