The 3-Second Reset: How Stuart Barnes Helps Cricketers Perform Under Pressure

Host David Charlton, Sports Psychologist and Mental Toughness Practitioner

Stuart Barnes, Cricket Coach: Warwickshire County Cricket Club Bowling Coach

Host – David Charlton, Sports Psychologist: I’d like to explore your relationship with the sports psychologist, how that works, and how you help players in that respect.

Guest – Stuart Barnes, Cricket Coach: We have a really good psychologist who works part time. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any county cricket club that has a full-time psychologist, and I think that needs addressing personally because of the schedule, the demands, and the amount of money that some players are earning. The pressure of earning half a million quid in a year for a developing player can sometimes be overwhelming as well.

The psychologist we have, I’ve known for years. When I first started working with Warwickshire, they were in place, and it was great to reconnect from that point of view. Players enjoy the company—lots of sessions happen over dinner, over coffee, or walking around Cannon Hill Park, which is right next to Edgbaston.

I know that there are some things that players share that are confidential, but I will always ask: Is there anything I need to know? Is there anything I can help with? Is there anything that you two are discussing around their performance?

I consider myself, in a very positive way, to be a failed professional cricketer because I should have had a 12-15 year career, not two years. But that failure enabled me to become who I am now, both as a coach and as a husband and father. So my own personal experiences can add value to the work that the psychologist is doing.

Ultimately, we’re not working separately. We’re working with that player right in the middle, and the support staff around them. We’re all working in the same direction.

Visualisation and Self-Awareness

Host – David Charlton, Sports Psychologist: There’s a couple of points you touched on. With the line of questioning you talked through, what’s happening for the player is they’re starting to visualise what it’s like to be at their best. You’re building their self-awareness around the game under pressure. The other thing I picked up on was that cricket is a team sport, but it’s also an individual sport within the team, and you’re embracing the teammates to be able to help them in those moments.

Guest – Stuart Barnes, Cricket Coach: Yeah, they’re leaders on the pitch. I would always go up to one or two people—not even senior or experienced necessarily, but one or two people who are observant. I’d say, “Right, I’m not going to name any names, but let’s say John. If John looks like they’re rushing back to their mark, would you go up to them and stop them? Just have a conversation, break their state, ask what they did last night, whatever it might be.” Break whatever mindset they’re currently in. Then go back to: “Right, what’s your plan?”

I think it’s really important that you understand what a team is. There are people you can assign to look after their own backs and their teammates’ backs, helping them in the moment.

I’ve always felt that reviews—team performance reviews, match reviews—are really important. But in the moment, there are things we can absolutely do right then. Because if we get those right, there’s a chance we can flip the game on its head, as opposed to talking about it after the event. That’s all history.

You know, “What would you do differently in the same situation?” We can all answer that. But how do we get the answers to almost design the next ball as opposed to talking about after the event?

Taking a Pause Under Pressure

Host – David Charlton, Sports Psychologist: Asking bowlers to ask themselves the question: How can I make this as difficult as possible for the batter? And it comes back to what we said earlier about the two or three seconds or five seconds—taking a break. In that state of mind, you can start asking yourself those other questions. When you speed up and go so fast, it’s so hard, and you end up in a fearful threat mindset.

Guest – Stuart Barnes, Cricket Coach: I think there are some really simple questions—simple when you’re not in the moment. “Okay, what just happened? Okay, didn’t quite get that right. Got my line wrong. It’s just gone for a boundary. Right, what would I do in the same situation again? Okay, I just need to feel the ball come out of my middle finger a little bit more. Get my line right. Okay, right now, I’ve just learned from that previous one. What needs to happen right now? I can’t go for another boundary. But what needs to happen? I need to get this fella off strike. What can I do now? Okay, big boundary, wind’s going that way. My fielder’s over there. Right, I might have thought a couple of overs ago to hit to deep point to actually get the field right there.”

That’s what I mean by designing. And even then, it still might not happen. But I honestly believe that somebody with a plan that makes a lot of sense, that they know they can execute, gets confidence and belief in that. And then their body language changes. Their language changes on field—you just see it. Any plan is better than no plan. That’s what I mean by designing, really.

Host – David Charlton, Sports Psychologist: Yeah. So then just trust yourself, back yourself, and try and execute that. I’m guessing over the years of supporting many bowlers and cricketers, quite a number will be in a position where they have selection worries. I’m curious as to how that’s going to affect them and how you support them as a coach in that respect.

Supporting Players Through Dropped Selection

Guest – Stuart Barnes, Cricket Coach: Yeah. So first thing: we have a second team. We have all sorts of people in the second team for different reasons. Some come back from injury, some are on trial desperate to do well and get contracts, and then other players will be dropped.

Lots of it comes down to: What are you in control of here? What are you really in control of? Because those are the only things that matter. You’re in control of your sleep, what you eat. You’re in control of how you prep. You’re in control of adding value to your team, the energy you bring to the dressing room. In control of your mindset when you’re going out to bat or bowl. You’re in control of the plan.

All of the things that you are absolutely in control of, including the free stuff that we talk about. The free stuff being: rocking up, working on the ball, talking to your teammate, having fun—behaviours that aren’t measured, but they’re free.

When players are dropped, I have conversations, of course I do, but it always comes back to: “Well, what are you in control of? What are you in control of?” Your currency as a bowler is being fit, staying fit, maybe even getting fitter. Your currency ultimately is wickets. What gets wickets? Seam movement, lateral movement, bowling at your optimum pace, making good decisions.

I will always come back to: Which one of these things that you are in control of are we missing? And when you start breaking it down like that, it becomes a conversation. Ultimately, lots of players know exactly what they’re missing, but they just need the conversation. They need to offload on coaches and teammates. But there’s always something that coaches, teammates, and support staff can help them with to understand what needs to happen in order to put pressure on to get their spot back.

Is it belief? Need a bit of belief reminding? Actually, look at your career. Your career is good. Are you on an upward curve or downward curve? I haven’t really come across many players that are at rock bottom as they go into their career, whilst their career tells one story—it’s not the current story. And so you’re a year older: Is everything still in place or not?

So there’s lots of love, there’s lots of empathy, but then at the end of it, there’s a conversation to be had for them to understand. That’s what I generally use, that sort of template, and then kind of see where the conversation goes.

Creating a Supportive Environment

Host – David Charlton, Sports Psychologist: Really challenging environment. The support’s there, and then the player feels ready to open up and actually discuss things. And you mentioned offloading—that they’re able to offload. In some environments, if there’s too much fear, too much challenge, and not enough support, that might not happen.

Guest – Stuart Barnes, Cricket Coach: Yeah, as a culture, we have a history of high support. So it’s interesting because some players need longer than others. Some need to chat, vent their frustrations with other people first. I’ll say, “Let me know when you’re ready, and we’ll find a place to address a few things.” Some players need longer than others.

It’s not always easy because even when somebody’s injured, it creates time to work through things. But when somebody’s not injured and games are coming thick and fast, the challenge is knowing when to have that conversation.

I’ll be honest with you, Host – David, I’ve probably got the timing wrong more times than I have right. But I always say it’s easy to pick up when the player’s ready to talk or not. And I always say, “Okay, you need more time. That’s fine. Apologies. My bad. You let me know when you’re ready.” And if I don’t hear anything, I’ll revisit it again. This is never a personal thing.

I kind of gauge whether it’s their ego that’s been dented or whether they’re looking at things in a logical way. It’s always fascinating, but some players need longer than others. Some players never get over the hurt of being dropped—they feel rejected. What’s that connected to? What previous experience have they had that they’re holding onto that prevents them from moving forward?

Working with the Sports Psychologist

Host – David Charlton, Sports Psychologist: In terms of your relationship with the sports psychologist, how does that work day to day?

Guest – Stuart Barnes, Cricket Coach: I’m often asked: Is there anything I need to know? And then the other side of it is: “Right, this player had a bad day. I’ve had a conversation with them. These are the things that we discussed. This is for your records. I know you’re going to be catching up with them. I have no issue at all with you mentioning that I said this.”

So that is, in a real snapshot, the way that I work with the sports psychologist, the team psychologist. Because they’re working part time, we probably don’t have enough of these conversations. But the important bits are always shared, really, unless the player shares something that they prefer to be confidential.

Host – David Charlton, Sports Psychologist: That’s always a tricky bit as a psychologist in team settings—the confidentiality piece. It sounds as though you open up certain things and not others, which is what it should be, really.

Three Key Takeaways

Host – David Charlton, Sports Psychologist: Okay, we’ll wrap things up. Stuart, I really enjoyed the conversation. I’m curious: What would the three key takeaways for listeners be based on what we discussed?

Guest – Stuart Barnes, Cricket Coach: I think ultimately, it’s really important in this day and age to find ways to slow the world down. Social media—everything is happening really quickly. First of all, what does each listener, depending on their background, want to achieve? What is their process? What are the possible things that could knock them off their process? And what strategies to slow the world down, to bring them back into the moment, the present moment, could they deploy to help them with what needs to happen right now? That would be one thing.

Second, I think it’s really important: You’re either getting better or getting worse. The way I see the world, there is no maintaining because there’s somebody else that’s just nudging and taking baby steps to improvement every day. Therefore, they can overtake you at some point. So what are your areas of growth? What are the conversations you need to have in order to keep growing as a person?

Host – David Charlton, Sports Psychologist: The thing about the world being so fast-paced and the information we’ve got—it’s just crazy, isn’t it? There’s so much noise. So that ability to take a step back, to reveal yourself, introspect, reflect, whatever it is, and as you say, look at how you might get better, how you grow amongst all of that—it’s a skill. Ultimately, one of my worries is that when I speak to a lot of different people, they do just get caught up in this hamster wheel, this treadmill, and they’re not spending time to do that, and that becomes a habit as well.

Guest – Stuart Barnes, Cricket Coach: Yeah, it’s easy because everybody’s looking for a silver bullet, right? There are no shortcuts. You can look at social media with all these promises that lots of people are making, but actually, there are no shortcuts. It’s about working out: What things can I do daily? Really simple things.

Can I get up early and design the day ahead? What three things do I really need to make sure I deliver on today? And then at the end of the day: Did I show up? Did I deliver on the commitments I made to myself?

Because confidence and belief at any level is everything. Belief and confidence do not come from just being the person that takes wickets. Of course, there’s an element of that, but how often does that happen? I honestly believe that belief and confidence primarily come from: Have I fulfilled the commitments I made to myself? Did I train well? Did I make a teammate smile? Was I a good husband? Was I a good dad? Did I do that gym session? Did I drink three litres of water?

Whatever the three things are—those really simple things—when you do them, you feel very good about yourself. And that’s where the growth of belief and confidence comes from. I honestly think that’s the most important thing.

Host – David Charlton, Sports Psychologist: Nice way to finish the podcast episode, actually, with that golden nugget there. If people look at that as a process, give themselves a little checklist and look at it once a week or every other day, they’ll not go too far wrong. The danger is emotion, isn’t it? Looking at a fantastic little motivational clip on Instagram or whatever it is to draw from. But actually, as you say, just having those little simple processes in place—that’s going to hit you inside and grow your confidence in that way.

Great conversation, Stuart. Big thank you. Where can the listeners get in touch with you should they want to?

Guest – Stuart Barnes, Cricket Coach: Well, I am on social media Stuart Barnes, or Barnes Consulting or something like that. I can’t quite remember. I’m on LinkedIn. I’ve started sharing some personal stories and bits on LinkedIn as well, so they can find me on there more than normal social media. Started sharing stuff a bit to try to add some value.