Dealing with nerves, anxiety and pressure are challenges any high-performing athlete has to deal with. As human beings, we have inbuilt emotional responses to uncertainty and no doubt, at some stage, you’ve had nerves or anxiety get the better of you. For some people, this is an all too regular occurrence.

Personally, I’ve written about the ‘Night Before My Debut At Lord’s’ and how sleep escaped me because of the anxiety of making a debut. Since my professional cricket career ended, I’ve been determined to understand what separates the best performers, from those that aren’t as consistent (like myself), and have learned so much. The most intriguing element in this, for me, is the power of the mind, and therefore, human potential. In order to learn and up-skill in certain areas, I have read, listened to audiobooks and podcasts, watched TED talks and other educational videos, and most importantly, talked to those far more qualified and knowledgeable.

In Episode 8 of Under The Lid with Scolls, Buck & Burkey, we invited Peter Clarke to join us. Pete is a sports psychologist who works with Cricket Australia – from the junior pathway to national sides – and during our hour long conversation, we (former Australian Test Opener Chris Rogers and I) asked Pete a variety of questions dealing with nerves, anxiety and pressure.

This article is a summary of some of the things that Clarke shared with us in part one of this three part series.

To listen to the conversation on your preferred listening device, click here: APPLE PODCASTS   SPOTIFY  GOOGLE PODCASTS

IT’S NORMAL

If you went to the gym once, would you expect to put 10kgs of muscle on straight away? … Of course you wouldn’t!

Yet Clarke said that some people expect to understand and train their mind with one special strategy or technique…which isn’t possible. There is no ‘silver bullet’ that is going to make you mentally the best you can be. It’s far more broad than that. It’s a holistic process that you have to work on, day after day, to see improvement.

Clarke also started by saying not everything is going to make sense for each person. What’s important is you take the information and apply it, to see if it resonates with you. If it doesn’t work for you, keep searching for what does.

What do Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and LeBron James have in common?

Well, according to Clarke, they have all gone through similar mental and emotional battles, much like I was going through the night before my debut at Lord’s. Clarke said the first thing he does when coaching an athlete on this topic, is to normalise the experience. As aspiring athletes, we think the players on TV don’t feel the same way we do, and this makes us think there is something ‘wrong’ with us! However, it’s ok to feel anxious or nervous! It’s actually incredibly normal (I wish I knew this as I tossed and turned in the early hours of the morning before my debut).

Feeling nervous or anxious is a default human response. As a default mechanism, the human brain strives to look for some sort of control or predictability. Therefore, when there is a level of uncertainty paired with a level of importance on the result, there’s a strong possibility of the presence of anxiety. The night before a game is a prime example of when we have no control of the outcome, hence why we can feel anxious. With thoughts about the opposition, the conditions, your statistics or place in the side, who’s going to be watching, what could go wrong, plus thousands of other things, it can be extremely hard to stay calm and in control the night before a game.

To deal with nerves, Clark gave an example of what he tells his athletes…

“Hey mate. It’s ok to feel anxious or nervous. This is a very normal, natural response.”

According to Clarke, by just telling the athlete it’s normal to experience these feelings, and they aren’t strange or different, it often helps them feel more calm.

NO SUCH THING AS PERFECT

Feeling nervous is completely normal and you CAN perform well when you’re nervous! It is unrealistic to think you have to feel perfectly calm and confident to perform well. Clarke told us it’s the actions that are most important, not how you’re feeling.

Clarke explained, that as humans, our core beliefs about ourselves and the world around us are defined by the ‘lens’ through which we see. Outside of that, we have a dynamic process around how we interact with our thoughts, emotions and behaviours. We’re always thinking, feeling and acting in a certain way … so it’s important to understand your own mind and think about how you influence the process.

How do you start to influence your thinking? How do you manage your emotions and behaviours?…something which Clarke said is what you want to lean on the most.

Peter Clarke is not only a sports psychologist but also the head coach of the very successful University of Queensland Cricket Club

CHANGE THE STORY YOU TELL YOURSELF

For anyone who struggles with nerves, you need to change the narrative and how you perceive nerves. Instead of being scared of them, see the nervous energy as a good thing. Ask yourself, how can I harness this energy to my advantage? By changing how you view the nerves, it can have a huge impact on how you deal with them.

Clarke suggested that you should identify what the nerves are about. It’s normal to think ‘what if I don’t do well here?’ and focus on the negative outcome, but this just exacerbates the already normal nerves to a point that isn’t helpful. So changing the narrative to ‘what an amazing opportunity I’ve got tomorrow’, can really help bring a deeper sense of calm. Another great way to calm your nerves if they are getting out of control, is to try and put the situation of the match and outcome into perspective. Instead of thinking that your whole life depends on the outcome of the upcoming match, thinking things like ‘my mum’s still going to love me’, takes a bit of pressure off and gets your nerves into a place that you can manage.

At the end of the day, you can’t control the outcome of a match and Clarke said that ‘all you can ever do is give yourself the best chance.’ This is amazing advice for any young athletes who are desperate to do well, to understand. You can’t do any more than prepare well to give yourself the best chance. The result will then look after itself. Some days it will go your way and, especially in cricket, a lot of days it won’t go your way.

IDENTIFY THE CONTROLLABLES

“Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it.” This is a famous quote that Clarke shared with us, which he said relates to the psychology principle of the ‘locus of control.’  I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, ‘control the controllables’ before. Clarke said that what’s even more important, is identifying what the controllables are. Ask yourself, ‘what are they in this situation?’ Then you’ve got to make sure that you spend your energy focusing on the controllables. Instead of worrying about who you’re playing, bring it back to what you CAN control. You can’t change or control the conditions, so instead of worrying about what the conditions are going to be like, all you can do is adapt your plans to the conditions that you’re faced with.

CONSISTENCY IN YOUR PREPARATION

So what can you control? Consistency reduces anxiety, while uncertainty provokes it. So building consistency around your routines and processes (your preparation) is a great way to calm nerves and anxiety. As an athlete, you should be striving to find a way to be consistent in off-field activities like sleep, diet, homework (match planning), and have a clear plan of what you want to do. If you’ve done your physical (your skills) and tactical preparation, then you’ve got to try and ‘park the rest of it’ (not focus on the outcome).

Everyone reading this will know that this is a lot easier said than done! As humans, we often focus on the result and outcome. However, Clarke said that rather than dwell or focus on these things, instead, try and put your energy and focus into the controllables. Build a routine around that, and it will start to alleviate your nerves because it creates consistency.

‘This is what I do the night before a game. This is what I do on the morning of the game.’ By having consistency in your routines and preparation, it allows your mind to focus on what’s important, while performing, such as making good-decisions and problem-solving.

“I JUST WANT TO SEE BALL, HIT BALL”

Towards the end of this episode (part 1 of 3 with Clarke), Buck asked him his thoughts on when people say that they ‘don’t want to think.’ Both Buck and I have come across players who believe that thinking is bad, and they just want to see the ball and hit it.

Clarke responded with:

“I think you’ll struggle to find a great, consistent performer in any sport, who’s not a great thinker of at least that game. They are usually a great problem solver and understand their game and the game really well.”

CLEAR MIND VS BLANK MIND

When executing your skill, what state of mind do you want to be in? Clarke said that people get confused between a clear mind and a blank mind. A clear mind is when you’re only thinking about the things that are relevant in that moment. When you’re thinking about the ‘right stuff,’ you get into a sense of flow and clarity.

When you’re really nervous, thinking about the result too much, dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, that’s when you feel a ‘scattered mind.’

Thanks for reading this article. Stayed tuned for parts 2 & 3 coming soon.

To listen to the conversation on your preferred listening device, click here: APPLE PODCASTS   SPOTIFY  GOOGLE PODCASTS

About the writer: I founded Cricket Mentoring in August 2016 with the goal of helping cricketers all over the world become the best they can be – on and off the field. As a former professional cricketer with Middlesex CCC (2010-2012), I’ve played with and against some of the world’s best players and worked with some elite coaches. I’m a Cricket Australia Level 2 coach and through my own personal experiences, practice and a hunger to always learn, I’ve developed and continue to refine my principles and philosophies on coaching and cricket. I believe there’s 6 pillars to peak performance (Technical, Tactical, Mental, Emotional, Physical, Lifestyle) and most athletes only focus on one or a few things. All of our content (articles, videos, podcast) covers the 6 pillars and has been created to assist cricketers understand what it takes to achieve great things in the game.

CHECK OUT MY VLOG

When I quit my job and went full time with Cricket Mentoring in July 2017, I decided to do a vlog (video blog) detailing my life as a player, coach, small business owner, entrepreneur and someone who is constantly trying to learn and become better. Fast forward almost 3 years, and we’ve published just under 300 episodes of a daily vlog Scolls Stories and this year transitioned into a weekly vlog, Scolls Weekly. Click here to check it out plus the other hundreds of awesome free coaching videos we share on our YouTube channel. They are created to inspire people to chase their dreams and live their best life, and are designed to help aspiring cricketers and coaches around the world learn and improve themselves. Please say ‘G’day’ in the comments on here, YouTube or any of our social media channels and make sure you subscribe or follow so that you get our daily tips and advice!

FOLLOW US…

About the author : Tom Scollay

One Comment

  1. Jordan Sondergeld July 7, 2020 at 8:19 pm - Reply

    awesome content

Leave A Comment

Subscribe to newsletter

Insider offers & flash sales in your inbox every week.

Latest videos

Join our mailing list today

Insider offers & flash sales in your inbox every week.

[one_full last="yes" spacing="yes" center_content="no" hide_on_mobile="no" background_color="" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" background_position="left top" hover_type="none" link="" border_position="all" border_size="0px" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding="" margin_top="" margin_bottom="0px" animation_type="0" animation_direction="down" animation_speed="0.1" animation_offset="" class="" id=""][imageframe lightbox="no" gallery_id="" lightbox_image="" style_type="none" hover_type="none" bordercolor="" bordersize="0px" borderradius="0" stylecolor="" align="none" link="" linktarget="_self" animation_type="0" animation_direction="down" animation_speed="0.1" animation_offset="" hide_on_mobile="no" class="" id=""] [/imageframe]

Chris 'Bucky' Rogers batting for Somerset in one of his 554 First-class innings

[/one_full]

I once spoke to a former professional player who became a coach in the professional ranks and asked him whether he would change his technique during the season during his playing career. He responded in the negative.

[one_third last="no" spacing="yes" center_content="no" hide_on_mobile="no" background_color="" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" background_position="left top" hover_type="none" link="" border_position="all" border_size="0px" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding="" margin_top="30" margin_bottom="" animation_type="0" animation_direction="down" animation_speed="0.1" animation_offset="" class="" id=""][imageframe lightbox="no" gallery_id="" lightbox_image="" style_type="none" hover_type="none" bordercolor="" bordersize="0px" borderradius="0" stylecolor="" align="none" link="" linktarget="_self" animation_type="0" animation_direction="down" animation_speed="0.1" animation_offset="" hide_on_mobile="no" class="" id=""] [/imageframe][/one_third][two_third last="yes" spacing="yes" center_content="no" hide_on_mobile="no" background_color="" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" background_position="left top" hover_type="none" link="" border_position="all" border_size="0px" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding="" margin_top="30" margin_bottom="" animation_type="0" animation_direction="down" animation_speed="0.1" animation_offset="" class="" id=""]

About the writer: Chris 'Bucky' Rogers isn't your typical cricketer. Having toiled away in First-class cricket for over 15 years, he was finally rewarded for years of dominance opening the batting in both Australia & England with selection in the Australian Test team for the 2013 Ashes in England. He went on to play 25 Test matches for Australia where he scored 2,015 runs @ 42.87 including 5 x 100s. With the amazing First-class record of 25,470 runs & 76 centuries, he has now retired from playing and transitioned into coaching, where he currently is the batting coach for Somerset CCC. 

[/two_third]

He said working on technique is for preseason and once he started playing, all that mattered was watching the ball.

That, I’ve discovered, is a very traditional response, handed down from father to son.

I had to stop myself from groaning out loud. “How short-sighted” I wanted to reply. I’m sure he’s not alone and these days, coaches are reluctant to challenge technical issues in young players, preferring the students to figure it out themselves. Perhaps they fear intervention will only create more problems.

NO PRE-SEASON?

What if a player never has a pre-season as, like me, he plays continuously on both sides of the world, where the seasons overlap?

Just once did I have a pre-season in Australia – and that I remember mostly for the agony of running the sand-hills at City Beach in Perth, rather than any working on technique.

Instead I was chasing an endless summer by playing 12 months of the year in England as well as home. “What is a pre-season?” was my standard jibe at teammates.

That meant technical experimentation had to be done on the job – so the standard answer to not work on your game for six months of the year seems like a waste of time and opportunity to me.

Often as a young batsman, you’ll have days when you pick up a bat and it feels like it is a natural extension of your body and other days when it feels like you’re hefting around a railway sleeper.

DAYS WHEN THINGS WEREN'T WORKING

Numerous days in grade cricket and even opening the batting for Western Australia, my swing would feel so awkward I would be trying to adjust almost every ball. I might try picking the bat up higher in my swing, other times move my hands forward in my stance and even change the width of my stance. These were just a very few of many.

In fact what would really confuse me is, somehow I’d last until the lunch break feeling like I couldn’t hit one off the square and then come out after a 40 minute sit down and feel like I was Brian Lara … well not quite but you get the drift.

What it taught me though was to keep trying to get better. I would often think to myself, and now sprout this to every kid possible, one step back to go two steps forward. Working with my dad who was my coach, I’d try all sorts of technical changes and usually, after a while, something would click and it would all fall into place. It would be like hitting at a brick wall and then all of a sudden one thing works and the rest fall over like dominoes.

PROBLEM SOLVING - DON'T GET OUT THE SAME WAY

One of the great advantages of playing in four innings matches is the chance to problem solve as a batsman between the first and second innings. I disliked … no, I hated getting out the same way or to the same bowler in the second innings as I did in the first.

After getting out I would sit down and figure out a way to combat the bowler who dismissed me first time around. It might not have just been a mental change but quite possibly a technical one.

Stuart Clark once dismissed me for a duck with a perfect ball that pitched on off stump line and nipped away but instead of just accepting he’d bowled me a jaffa, I checked out the footage and saw my hands were not coming down straight in my swing pattern and caused everything - my hands and bat - to go towards mid on. So my bat actually was inside the line, hence the ball found my outside edge.

Second innings, my focus was trying to get my hands to go towards mid-off while playing with the inside half of my bat to counter the away movement. Yes I know this is a bit more than ‘Batting 101’ but I only started to understand my own batting by constantly tinkering – even to the extent of working out what doesn’t work, to find out what does.

PLAYING TO COACHING

As I moved from player to become a coach, a surprise first-up piece of advice from other coaches was to be careful about the level of input you try to pass on. Yes, that makes sense and it would be ignorant to not listen to advice from people who have spent a long time coaching. However, it will need to be balanced against my long-held belief that the best players in the world never stop seeking improvement.

My first club-coaching role came via former Australian player and teammate Bob Quiney to help out at his beloved St Kilda Cricket Club, where the players have an average age younger than ever and a thirst for learning.

I was wary of saying too much early, but when one player said, “I’ll do whatever you tell me to do Buck”, my tinkering instincts took over.

“One step back to go two steps forward”, I reasoned.

The first player asked me how to play slow medium pace bowlers as he had nicked off to one the previous Saturday. I told him to be positive and proactive. Walk at the bowler or walk into his line … a la Steve Smith … and whip him through the leg side if the bowler went for the stumps. The next Saturday he was in the same position and ended up, he said, with too much going through his mind and being neither proactive nor defensive. He nicked off again. But he had learnt from his mistake and knew what he’d do the next time and since has had some success.

[imageframe lightbox="no" gallery_id="" lightbox_image="" style_type="none" hover_type="none" bordercolor="" bordersize="0px" borderradius="0" stylecolor="" align="none" link="" linktarget="_self" animation_type="0" animation_direction="down" animation_speed="0.1" animation_offset="" hide_on_mobile="no" class="" id=""] [/imageframe]

 Bucky passing on some knowledge during a batting masterclass for Cricket Mentoring in Perth

[separator style_type="none" top_margin="" bottom_margin="" sep_color="" border_size="" icon="" icon_circle="" icon_circle_color="" width="" alignment="" class="" id=""]

INDOOR NETS SYNDROME

Another had what I call ‘indoor nets syndrome’ and had developed a swing where he just jabbed at balls that would race off his bat on the true synthetic surface, but had difficulty with the natural variation of turf wickets. His hands would go towards the leg side in his swing but the ball would slice to cover or more likely the slips. I was wary of trying to reshape his whole swing but then thought “Why not?” I’ll show him what I think works and he can figure the end result out for himself”. He was quite difficult to adjust and we even experimented with grip changes, not something I’d usually recommend.

After an hour’s work he was starting to get the basic principles and enjoying it. He had a far better understanding of a swing after trying something new and that can only benefit him. He can always go back to what he was doing but at least he’d tinkered and thought about it. Afterwards he seemed genuinely excited at the change and the understanding.

Yet there have been plenty of times where my coaching hasn’t worked. I tried to help Peter Siddle with his batting but made it worse. Eventually he figured a few things out himself and is still getting better – so maybe my “one-step-backwards” theory helped!

CHANGE TAKES TIME

With most things, change takes time to feel natural and this principle needs to be stressed and I’m wary of trying to change players into playing like me but sometimes certain things need to be tried.  I’m amazed when I see any tall player stand with his feet close together in his stance when Kevin Pietersen is ‘Example A’ of how to succeed as a tall batsman.

I firmly believe all the best players in the world are tinkerers and never stop trying to improve. Just ask Marcus Trescothick, who at age 41 was still telling everyone how he’s trying to fix things. That and his saying that ‘form hides in mysterious places’ were my two favourite things I got from him.

At the moment the county season has just started and he’s still working on his game plan against different kind of bowling. You’d think he’d have it all sorted by now but no, he’s using every opportunity to improve as we all should.

SUCCEEDING AT THE AGE OF 38

When asking me to write this article, Scolls (Tom Scollay) asked that I write a little about my own journey and how I managed to play well in the 2015 Ashes at age 38.

Like Trescothick, I had a thirst for perfection. Grit and determination was only a part of it. So many years of 12-months-playing of four-day cricket meant I had a very good understanding of my own game, with all its strengths and weaknesses, and to have some success against James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood and Steve Finn in bowler-friendly conditions was only possible with an in depth, intimate knowledge of my swing and my game.

For different bowlers and conditions, I would have different triggers. On the wickets that provided more bounce and seam I would have a back and across trigger while at other times, particularly against Anderson’s swing, I would push forward to try and cover the movement.

This skill only comes from trial and error and experimentation and willingness to learn. If every time I tried something, had initial failure and not persevered, my game would have been very one dimensional and limited.

Growing up I often watched in awe some of the bigger kids who seemed to make batting look easy but then fell away when they had to play against adults who matched them in size and strength. I believe it was because these kids had got it so easy early on, that they hadn’t learned to work at their game to try to understand it better.

ALL THE BEST ARE ALWAYS CHASING IMPROVEMENT

Of course, there are plenty of examples to disprove the mould but of all the best batsmen I have seen, the one consistent attribute they possess is a desire to never be satisfied and to chase improvement.

They tinker to learn … and then comes improvement.

[separator style_type="none" top_margin="" bottom_margin="" sep_color="" border_size="" icon="" icon_circle="" icon_circle_color="" width="" alignment="" class="" id=""][one_full last="yes" spacing="yes" center_content="no" hide_on_mobile="no" background_color="" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" background_position="left top" hover_type="none" link="" border_position="all" border_size="0px" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding="" margin_top="30" margin_bottom="" animation_type="0" animation_direction="down" animation_speed="0.1" animation_offset="" class="" id=""]

If you enjoy our thoughts and insight into the game then please Subscribe to get our articles straight to your email (keep an eye on your junk mail as they sometimes end up in there).

[/one_full]

Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit sed porttitor lectus.