029 How to Play Professional Rugby with Confidence

Lome Fa'atau is a former professional rugby player from Wellington, New Zealand. He played for the Hurricanes and Chiefs in Super Rugby, as well as Glasgow Warriors and Nice in Europe. Lome also played over 30 times internationally for Samoa.

He is now a Personal Trainer and Rugby Coach with special interests in strength and conditioning, health and wellness and young athlete development. Where he works with people from all walks of life, as well as athletes. Inspiring, supporting and pushing people towards their goals. Lome believes self-belief, an element of mental toughness is a key component to being successful and uses his experiences and soft skills, as well as challenging people with resistance training to bring out the best in them.

In this episode, Lome and David discuss his professional rugby career and journey into personal training. Challenges that he encountered such as moving clubs where things didn't work out and not seeing eye to eye with coaches. Dealing with criticism as an athlete and using difficulties as a fuel to get better and improve as a person and player.

Key Takeaways include:

• Look to talk with supportive people when you go through tough times.
• To get the best out of people, it's important for coaches to get to know the individual on a personal level.
• Self-confidence appears to be a problem area with a lot of young athletes today, where they struggle with dealing with criticism or worry too much about what other people think.
• Surround yourself with people who are looking to achieve similar goals.
• Successful people are not afraid to ask questions and look for help.

Connect with Lome:

Storm Fitness - https://www.storm-fitness.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lomefaatau/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lome_faatau

About the Host – David Charlton

David helps ambitious athletes, teams and executives achieve their goals faster by improving their Mental Toughness. He is a HCPC Sport and Exercise Psychologist and Executive Coach who supports many professional athletes, some of whom play at the highest level in their chosen sport.

To join The Sports Psychology Hub a Facebook group that David hosts to help ambitious athletes, serious sport coaches, sporting parents, sports psychologists and mental game coaches to support each other.

The Sports Psychology Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thesportspsychologyhub