There’s a word we throw around too casually in sport. A word that, when truly understood, will change how you approach training, competition, failure, and even life:
Resilience.
Not the Instagram version. Not the slogan on a T-shirt.
I mean real, tested, earned resilience the kind that becomes your best friend when it matters most.
Why Resilience Matters
I’ve worked across the game: player, national coach, mentor, and now founder of Clark Elite Performance.
Through every chapter, the one constant I’ve seen in every successful person, whether they win gold medals or build incredible businesses, is this:
When others fold, they keep going. That’s resilience.
You don’t get to the top by coasting. You get there by rising after rejection. By training harder after being dropped. By confronting the things that scare you and doing them anyway.
My Wake-Up Call in China
When I was 16, I was invited to China for a three-week training tour.
What I saw there changed me.
Day after day, session after session the training was ruthless. No excuses. No shortcuts. These weren’t just young players learning the game. They were becoming the next generation of World champions.
Some of the European players were shocked. I wasn’t. I was inspired.
That trip didn’t intimidate me, it lit something in me.
I thought: If this is what it takes to be world class, then I’m in.
That was my first real taste of what resilience looks like in its rawest form. And I knew I wanted to build it for myself.
Brutal Beginnings in Milton Keynes
Not long after, I began full-time training at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes. It was six hours a day. Running, court, gym. Repeated every day with relentless standards.
