Welcome back to the Inside Edge Podcast, this is the show that turns the journeys of some of the leading coaches, athletes, and leaders into actionable lessons you can implement into your own lives.
Our guest today is Tom Scollay - a former professional cricketer and founder of one of the leading coaching companies in the world in Cricket Mentoring. Tom is someone I've worked with for a few years and am incredibly inspired with how he has gone about building his life to revolve around doing what he loves and having such a large impact on others.
There are 2 parts to his story that can provide so much value:
The first is based on his coaching philosophy - the difference between Tom and your regular coach is his focus on holistic coaching. We go deep into his pillars of performance: technical, tactical, mental, physical, emotional and lifestyle. In particular, Tom's focus on helping with the mental side of the game, and the lifestyle habits that accompany personal growth set him apart form most coaches out there.
I found this conversation a great follow up to the episodes we've had with Viv Paver and Paddy Upton - a common theme in all of them is the focus on all parts of performance, rather than just the technical or tactical side. Many of the athletes that come across to us are sick of not performing when they are putting in the work physically, and I truly believe that this is the way forward for performance. Tom talks through great examples of athletes who are in high performance programs with access to some of the best cricket coaches and facilities in the world, yet still find so much benefit in having a mentor outside the system to lean on.
The second part that is beneficial for all listeners is paying attention to how Tom has responded after not quite making it to the big time as a professional cricketer. Rather than being bitter about it, he is driven by the purpose of being the mentor he never had. He has taken what we call ultimate responsibility; working extremely hard to build the lifestyle that allows him to do what he is passionate about have big impact and still spend time with his wonderful young family. Many people see the success on the outside with Cricket Mentoring's huge online following, but not many realize the amount of work Tom and his team put in behind the scenes. That in combination with the courage to consistently put himself out there before anyone else had done so and cop the judgement of others in those early days in something truly inspiring.
