Master the Mental Game of Elite Performance
For elite athletes, coaches, and high-performance teams
Elite mental skills coaching for champions in sport and beyond. Unlock your championship potential by training the most important muscle > your mind.
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Olympic Gold Standard Results
Our proven track record speaks for itself. The same mental coaching trusted by Olympic champions and world-class athletes is available to elevate your performance.
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Olympic Medals
Fiji Rugby 7s – Gold 2021, Silver 2024
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Coaches & athletes
From Olympic level to emerging talent
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Years of experience
Elite mental performance coaching
Mental Performance Coach to Fiji Rugby 7s during their historic Olympic triumphs.
Faced with unprecedented challenges including pandemic isolation and intense pressure as defending champions, the team’s mental resilience became a decisive advantage.
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The Integral+ High-Performance Model
Unlike conventional sports psychology, our comprehensive approach trains all mental dimensions of performance. Just as elite training develops strength, endurance, skills, tactics, and strategy on the field, we develop your mind across those same dimensions.
Mental Strength
Build unshakeable resilience and composure under pressure. Train your mind to thrive in adversity.
Mental Conditioning
Develop mental endurance to maintain focus and intensity throughout preseason, competition and seasons.
Mental Technique
Master specific developmental cognitive skills like visualisation, self-talk strategies, and mental routines.
Mental Tactics
Enhance real-time decision-making, situational awareness, perspective awareness, and adaptability under pressure.
Mental Strategy
Align daily habits (1% incremental gains) and team culture with overarching objectives, strategy and vision for sustained excellence.
A comprehensive framework mapping human potential across all dimensions of development
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Four Elite Service Offerings
Each service targets a different segment of the sports performance ecosystem, delivering personalized mental skills training for maximum impact.
1-on-1 Athlete Mental Skills Coaching
Personal mental coaching for athletes who want to elevate their game by training the mind as intentionally as they train the body. Break through mental barriers and build unshakeable confidence under pressure.
Team Mental Skills Coaching
Strengthen the collective mental fortitude and culture of your team. Develop shared mental frameworks for success, from creating accountability and trust to training unified responses to high-pressure situations.
Staff Mental Skills Coaching
Specialised coaching for support staff and coaching personnel to enhance their mental skills and leadership impact. Help your performance staff model mental toughness and communicate effectively with athletes.
Head Coach Development
Executive-style coaching for head coaches in elite sport. Refine your leadership mindset, communication, and emotional intelligence to lead your team to championships.
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Trusted by Champions
From Formula 1 drivers to Olympic teams, elite performers choose Head Coach for the mental edge that makes the difference.
Formula 1 & Formula 2 Motorsports
Red Bull, Williams and Invicta Racing for drivers, performance and corporate staff. Mental coaching for the high-stakes world of motorsport, maintaining confidence through racing’s extreme pressures.
Boxing & Combat Sports
Mental skills coach for world featherweight contender Michael Conlan From amateur ranks in boxing to professional title fights, sharpening mental approach for handling pressure and bouncing back from setbacks.
Professional Teams
Fiji Rugby 7s (Men and Women), Hong Kong China Women’s Rugby 7s, Fijiana Rugby XVs, NSW Waratahs (Super Rugby), Queensland Firebirds (Netball), and Rugby Australia programs. Cultural shifts and mental resilience training for championship-level performance.
NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS)
Our methods have proven effective for training mental resilience in elite coaches under pressure conditions.
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Beyond Traditional Sports Psychology
Head Coach offers a developmental coaching approach that goes far beyond conventional sports psychology. We don't just address problems when they arise – we proactively train all mental dimensions of performance.
We look at things not from a psychology perspective, but from a developmental perspective. It’s about growing the human being on the inside to unleash their potential on the outside.
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Meet Jay Hedley
Co-founder of The Coaching Room and creator of the Integral+ High-Performance Model. Jay brings over 20 years of elite mental performance coaching, combining advanced methodologies like NLP, Integral Psychology and cognitive sciences with proven championship results.
Unique approach
Unlike run-of-the-mill sports psychology, Jay’s Integral model systematically trains mental strength, conditioning, technique, tactics, and strategy. This comprehensive framework has been championship-proven at the highest levels of sport.
Philosophy
Jay’s Integral+ approach recognises that elite performance emerges from development across multiple dimensions simultaneously. Beyond mental skills training, this methodology maps the whole performer, tracking vertical stage of development (from reactive to self-authoring), horizontal state access (from gross awareness to flow and peak states), multiple lines of intelligence (cognitive, emotional, somatic, moral), personality structure (Enneagram patterns and Identity Compass), and shadow integration (unconscious limiting beliefs and blind spots).
Athletes don’t just “wake up, clean up, and show up” – they evolve through progressive stages of complexity within their thinking and decision making under pressure, developing multiple intelligences at different rates, by understanding their typology patterns, and integrating their blindspots.
This whole-person methodology addressed within all 4 human perspectives (available to us today): interior individual (mindset, beliefs), exterior individual (physiology, skills, technique), interior collective (team culture, shared values), and exterior collective (systems, structures, strategy and environment), rather than just pulling levers with performance symptoms.
Credentials & Expertise
Elite Credentials & Proven Results
Olympic Excellence: Gold Medal (Tokyo 2021) & Silver Medal (Paris 2024) – Fiji Rugby 7s
World Championship Impact: Rugby World Cup 2025 – Fijiana Women’s XV (England)
Professional Pathways: Super Rugby (2018/19 NSW Waratahs) | Super Netball (2022 Qld Firebirds) | Professional Boxing (Michael Conlan 2023-2026 WCB)
Elite Performance: Formula 1/Formula 2 teams and Drivers: Red Bull Racing Williams F1, Invicta F2
Foundational Mastery
- Meta Coaching Foundation (MCF) Certified Professional Coach (Associate Certified Meta Coach)
- NLP Trainer (International Society for Neuro Semantics)
- Neuro-Semantics Specialist
- Founder of The Coaching Room Australia
- 20+ years elite coaching experience across Olympic, professional, and international competition
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Meet Tarek Michael-Chouja
Unique approach
As the owner and co-founder of the Functional Training Institute, a leading a global fitness education company, Tarek works with some of the best movement specialists globally, acquiring a cutting edge education in movement that blends practical knowledge with an evidence-based approach.
Philosophy
With a career rooted in a lifelong passion for movement that began with coaching youth soccer at age 16, Tarek Michael-Chouja is the co-founder and driving force behind the Functional Training Institute (FTI). His journey from a young, inspired athlete to a globally recognised educator and CEO is a testament to his core belief: coaching is not a transaction, but a meaningful connection that creates a lasting impact.
Tarek’s philosophy is woven into the DNA of FTI. He champions the idea that the “inner game informs the outer game,” emphasising that true functional coaching must integrate the mental and emotional aspects of performance alongside the physical. This conviction has guided FTI’s evolution, expanding its world-class education to include nutrition, mental skills, and cognitive fitness, ensuring FTI coaches are the most holistically equipped professionals in the industry.
Navigating FTI through industry-wide challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, has only deepened Tarek’s commitment to integrity, quality, and collaboration. He believes in creating win-win outcomes and owning mistakes quickly, values that have built FTI into a resilient and trusted global institution.
Credentials & Expertise
Currently pursuing a PhD at Southern Cross University that bridges exercise science and psychology, Tarek is at the forefront of research in mindfulness and nature-based wellbeing. His vision for the future is clear: to continue innovating and collaborating, augmenting coaching with technology like AI while preserving the irreplaceable authenticity of human connection. For Tarek, success is measured by the ripple effect FTI has, empowering elite coaches who, in turn, transform the lives and careers of their clients.
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Meet John Dams
Unique approach
John’s approach is grounded in experience—not theory. Having worked alongside some of the world’s best coaches, teams, and leaders, he understands world-class processes at every level of the performance business. He blends the discipline and structure of elite sport with the strategic, human dimensions of modern leadership — helping people build clarity, consistency, and sustained success.
“I’ve seen what world-class looks like, and my mission is to help people access that level in their own environment—whether that’s in sport, business, or life.”
— John Dams
Philosophy
With over 25 years in professional sport, John Dams has dedicated his career to understanding what drives world-class performance. Having worked across three countries as a Strength Coach and Performance Manager, John has been part of multiple championship-winning teams, helping athletes and organizations reach the highest levels of success.
From 1999–2003, John learned his craft under some of the most recognisable names in rugby, including former Wallaby coach Dave Rennie. He began his professional journey working alongside Chris Boyd, managing the next tier of New Zealand rugby talent — players such as Tamati Ellison, Jimmy Gopperth, Piri Weepu, and Neemia Tialata.
Between 2003–2007, John joined the giants of European rugby, the Leicester Tigers, where he helped prepare some of the biggest names in the game, including World Cup-winning members of the 2003 England side — Martin Johnson, Neil Back, Lewis Moody, Martin Corry, and Julian White. During his tenure, Leicester reached finals every year, culminating in the 2006/07 season, winning two of the three major trophies on offer in Europe, narrowly missing the treble in front of 90,000 fans at Twickenham.
Credentials & Expertise
From 2007–2015, John joined Harlequins, where he played a key role in delivering the club’s inaugural Premiership title in 2012, along with other European honours. He later took his expertise to Australia, working with the NSW Waratahs from 2015–2018 — continuing to develop world-class systems and helping elite players reach their full potential.
Over the course of his career, John has worked with hundreds of world-class athletes, coaches, and teams, embedding high-performance principles that drive consistent excellence at every level.
Transitioning from elite sport into technology and strategy, John now leads the Asia-Pacific region for a global sports analytics company, partnering with professional teams and governing bodies to design and implement data-led systems that turn information into action.
Retrained as a Developmental and Executive Coach, John has designed and delivered programs for finance professionals (traders), product managers, software engineers, and leadership teams — translating elite-sport frameworks into sustainable results in business and life.
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Our Clients Say
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Championship Case Study: Fiji Rugby 7s Olympic Gold
The Challenge
Defending Olympic champions Fiji Rugby 7s facing unprecedented pressure, with a new head coach, pandemic isolation from families, and the need to maintain mental strength and consistency for a back-to-back Games medal.
The Intervention
Weekly coaching sessions with head coach Gareth Baber on mindset and messaging. Training coaching staff in NLP and Integral Psychology, communication strategies, framing etc. Integrating mental, physical, and tactical training with cultural meaning. Sessions in camp with players, 1-1 sessions with players.
The Strategy
Married elite technical and tactical skills with comprehensive mental skills training. Created simple, powerful communication platforms that resonated with Fijian cultural and religious values.
The Results
Olympic Gold Tokyo 2021, Olympic Silver Paris 2024. Team demonstrated exceptional mental unity, clarity, and resilience under the highest pressure in world sport, winning 2 matches in a row between Oceania and Olympic campaigns.
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Ready to Unlock Your Championship Potential?
Join the elite athletes, teams, and coaches who trust Head Coach for the mental edge that makes the difference.
Whether you’re aiming for Olympic gold, professional success, or personal breakthrough, we’ll train your mind for victory.
Book your consultation
Start your journey with a personalized assessment of your mental performance needs and goals.
Develop your programme
Work with Jay to create a customised mental skills training program using the proven Integral+™️ model.
Achieve championship results
Experience the mental edge that has helped athletes and teams reach the pinnacle of their sport.