Tom Clark
Performance Coach
BSc (Hons) Fitness & Personal Training, MSc Athletic Development & Peak Performance
Throughout adolescence, sport was my life, chief among which was motor racing. With both my father and grandfather having careers in racing, I was naturally positioned to observe the exhilarating world of a racing driver. This lead the way for a start in go karts, where I began competing in the sport at the age of 11. Although I of course had aspirations to be the next Michael Schumacher, a professional career as a driver was never a considerable possibility due to a lack of funding, but it still allowed me to compete in the sport I love and battle with some of the future stars of racing. Following school, my ambition to further my education in this area took me to university where I started my bachelor’s in health and exercise science. Towards the latter end of my studies, the end of my research projects dovetailed into my first opportunity in motorsport working with a physical preparation consultancy specialising in racing drivers. It was here where I worked with an abundance of drivers and other athletes. Unbeknown to me at the time, the volume of high performing athletes I was able to coach in isolation, was an incredibly fortunate position to be in and real rarity for a young coach. This exposure to so many elite level athletes enabled me to hone my craft as a coach and begin to understand in depth the physiological demands and mental obstacles faced by high performing racing drivers and other athletes. Over my time here I worked with over 100 racing drivers, from elite level karters, through to formula one drivers.
Having worked primarily as a physical preparation coach for athletes, I was given a new opportunity to work with select elite level racing drivers in closer proximity. This role epitomised my outlook on high performance as it prompted me to consider all areas contributing to a racing driver’s overall performance. A few years working in this intensified individual athlete role lead me to being introduced to Hintsa. At this point I felt I had began to understand the multifaceted nature of high performance and had developed my own set of core values. When I then read further about the Hintsa philosophy and the core values the company coaching outlook is built upon, I could see that we shared much of the same. That, coupled with their coach’s depth of experience and credibility from a wide variety of backgrounds, made it clear that for me to develop as a coach I needed become part of their team. At the beginning of 2017 I got that opportunity, where I have now worked with Hintsa on several projects and with some of the very best racing drivers that they support. In 2018, I lead the coaching and development of one of their F1 drivers. Travelling to all the races and competing at the highest level taught me so much about the consistency of high performance and the balance of all the contributing variables whilst in a highly stressful and competitive environment. This coincided with another critical aspect of my development as a coach, with Hintsa also providing me the opportunity to work with some of their high performing corporate clients. At present, generally speaking, I am focused towards making a significant difference and becoming bigger and bigger asset to the individuals I am working with, whether it be in sport or business. All the while becoming more respected, accredited and becoming one of the top practitioners in my industry.