#Verified: Peter Clarke
As y'all know, we've been kicking around the sport science world for some time now, and if there's one name that brings a smile to everyone's face, it's Peter Clarke's.
Born and raised in Barbados, the avid cricketer moved to Australia by himself at 18, and less than eight years later, secured a coveted spot on the team at Cricket Australia – albeit as a psychologist, not a player.
Here, we speak to Peter about identity, the freedom of controlling little, and being a high-vibe human.
You now work with the cricketing pros, but before that, you were a strong cricketer yourself. Can you walk us through your journey?
Peter Clarke: I grew up in the West Indies, in Barbados specifically. Everybody played cricket from a young age, and I was no different. I was fortunate enough to represent Barbados at the under-15 and under-16 levels as captain and was selected for the West Indies under-15 squad in 2005. I left Barbados when I was 18 to undertake my tertiary education journey in Australia in 2009. While studying at the University of Queensland, I had the great fortune of playing for the UQ Cricket Club (UQCC) on a very successful side. At best, my performances at the first-grade level made me a decent cricketer among a team of excellent cricketers but I was happy to contribute in some important moments and had the best time being a part of the team.
When I was 24, I started working full-time and figured the timing was right to get out of the way as a player and let somebody else grab their opportunity. I had reached my ceiling, and at the first-grade level, it's important to let people come in who have a chance of playing professionally. While playing and studying, I completed my Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 Cricket Australia coaching certificates with the support of the club, and have been coaching at UQCC since 2016.
When I graduated in 2014 from the Masters of Applied Psychology, I worked at QUT [Queensland University of Technology] as a part of their student support services – particularly enjoying working with QUT Sport, QUT Dance, and the Leadership Development Initiative. Just over a year and a half into that job, I got the opportunity to do this job, which is the Australian women's team psychologist and male and female pathway psychologist. And I've been in this role with Cricket Australia going on eight years now.
You've stressed the importance of your athletes thinking of themselves as "playing cricket" rather than "being a cricketer". Why is this so crucial?
PC: In anything you do, you're performing a role. Even if it's just in your general life, you're performing the role of a husband, or a father, or a friend, or a coach, or a student – basically, a performance identity in order for you to be successful in whatever you do. We're not always cognisant of that, and we can get kind of lost. Now, you're still only one person, and you only get one brain, but if you're not cognisant of the role you're playing at the time, one thing can bleed into the other and we can see people's identity become fused with one role.
For example, rather than seeing myself as "I'm in the role of performing as a cricketer", you can fall into the trap of thinking "I am a cricketer". I try to relay some perspective and ask people to look at themselves holistically: "Do you understand who you are as a fully formed, diverse, and complex person?". Who you are is made up of your psychological needs, values, personal characteristics, experiences, and memories. If we can understand what shapes us and makes us tick, and then can compartmentalise each of those things across different roles and do them to the best of our ability, we've got a chance.
Can you unpack the concept of the "third space" in relation to this?
PC: I first came across this idea by reading the work of Dr Adam Fraser. Basically, he called the place we're currently in – environmentally, physically, emotionally, cognitively – the "first space", and the "second space" is the space we're going to. The "third space" is the is the moment in between, where we transition from one space to the next.
To give you an example, if the first space is me giving a presentation where I need to be calm, clear, make sure I'm explaining things well, focus on the company being attended to, and then I go to play rugby [the second space] and I'm a big forward, and I need to be aggressive and physically amped, my space in-between might be the car – that drive from the presentation room to the rugby field. Often, we think about the what, and we don't think about the when. So, that 35-minute drive is my opportunity. Then, what am I going to fill that time with? Maybe it's music; maybe it's a podcast that motivates me. What's something I can do between here and there to get myself in an emotional and mental state to perform the next role effectively?
In both acting and cricket, there isn't always a neat correlation between solid preparation and desired outcome. How can performers foster more acceptance here?
PC: If you were to boil it down into its simplest terms, it's about understanding and accepting locus of control. You can't control most things. We actually control a lot less than we think we can. You can't control the past. You can't control the future. You can't control other people. You can't control results – not completely. And you can't fully control your own thoughts or emotions. Full control would be "I only think what I want to think, when I want to think it, and I never think anything else". We can't control our thoughts like that. And you can't control your emotions like that unless you don't have the ability to process and have emotions. 95% of the things we worry about will fit under one of those categories, and they're all uncontrollable. That can be really stressful to think about, but with a slight shift in perspective it's actually functional that we don't need to control all those things. If we did, we wouldn't have enough bandwidth to do what matters.
Now, I'm not saying we're helpless. We can give ourselves the best chance to influence those things or respond to them better. There's a quote attributed to the American composer Irving Berlin which says, "Life is 10% what you make it, and 90% how you take it". The only thing worth doing in life, in my opinion, is to give yourself the best chance to succeed. That's all you can do. Life isn't "fair". I've accepted that. Let's say somebody exercises, eats well, never smokes a day in their life, and gets lung cancer at 40. Then another person drinks all the time, smokes all the time, doesn't look after themselves, and lives until they're 85. That happens. But my motto in life is "Never beat yourself". If life beats you, it beats you. If someone else beats you, they beat you. But if you didn't prepare well, you beat yourself. If you didn't focus on the right things, you beat yourself. If you didn't give your best effort, you beat yourself. And that I am not prepared to live with. I can accept any result as long as I can honestly reflect and know I gave the best shot I could, and it didn't work out.
1000%. As someone who's worked closely with sporting "celebrities", what might be helpful to demystify about the reality of life performing at the highest level?
PC: The first thing to demystify is that you will never be great for a long period of time unless you work hard. People don't want to accept that because it's not easy, and it's not sexy. It's like dieting. People will come up with all these different things to try to lose weight. [But] talk to the greatest dietician ever, and they'll tell you, "You want to lose weight? More calories need to go out than come in". It's that simple. But people don't want to accept that because that means I need to eat less, and I don't want to eat less, or I need to exercise more, and I don't want to exercise more – and I've got to keep doing that over and over and over and over again. People want there to be something special. They want to know, "It couldn't have been me because I don't have that talent". No, maybe you didn't work hard enough or want it bad enough. There's no one thing that makes an elite athlete – they're all different – but the great performers over a long period of time all work super hard and try to get better.
The second thing to demystify is that it's not sexy all the time when you get to the elite level. We see the sexy stuff – the World Cup Finals, and the trophies, and the travel, and the smiles. And that stuff is amazing, don't get me wrong. But for every moment that you win the World Cup, there are so many difficult moments or factors you have to navigate. In international cricket, for example, you travel a lot. And travel is great, but you can be on the road for long stretches. You're tired, you're on a plane, you go to the next place, you train, you go to the gym, you play the game... Before you know it, you don't even know what day it is. We don't see the things they miss because they're on the road – friends, weddings, relationships they couldn't continue to pursue. There's so much sacrifice that people don't see.
On top of that is the fact that it's not guaranteed. One injury, and that could be it for you. Or poor form at the wrong time. I don't want to tell a lie, but I think in professional tennis, maybe the top 150 people are making a living. You could be an amazing tennis player – imagine you're the 300th best in the world of 8 billion people. That's unbelievable, right? But you're not making money unless you have endorsements or sponsorships. It's all on you. You've got to pay for your own physio, airfares, to play in the tournament... It's still worth pursuing your dreams even if you don't make it to the top – there are plenty of other people doing it – but you've got to be in it for the work.
A series of surveys in 2019 found only 2% of actors "make a living from the profession", so this is super relevant to us, too.
PC: There you go. But I think one of the great things about acting – as a complete novice from afar – is that you could "make it" at any age, right? You could get your gig when you're 70 because there are roles for all people. The great thing is you always have hope. But are you prepared to do that for 40 years? Ages 20 to 60, just grinding to get a role at 60? Is it worth it for you? Does it fulfil you? And what if you do that but you don't get a role at 60? Is it still worth it for you? If it is, and you're acting because you love acting, keep doing it. But if you're only doing it to get the result at the end, remember, that can't be guaranteed.
You're considered one of Australia's most-loved sport psychologists. How do you think about making your own peak performance possible?
PC: The first thing is I've been incredibly lucky. I have had so many opportunities given to me and doors opened by the people who came before me. I have had incredible mentorship and tutelage within the field of sport psychology, from the likes of legends like Michael Lloyd, Cliff Mallett, and Gene Moyle, to name the most influential on me. In other areas of my life, so many people have allowed me to be successful – whether it was coaches, my family, or my mates. They sacrificed to put me in a position to be successful and made sure I had the education, or resources, or facilities to do well. Before I came to Australia to study, I was a lazy student. I was always a good student and could do well, but I was lazy. When I came to Australia, my mum was like, "Let's understand something: This is 10,000 Australian dollars a semester. Do not play the ass". Then, I was on it. You can't muck about because you can't let down the people who have done work for you. So, that's the big thing: people have put me in a position to be successful, and the way to repay that is to put in the appropriate effort.
What comes naturally to me is being around people. I like people. By no means am I perfect – far from it – but I'm genuinely passionate and enthusiastic about helping other people and being around other people. There are certain people in your life that, when you see them, you just smile. I always tell myself if you put your best foot forward all the time and make that a feeling that people get when they see you, you'll add value to their life. And it's not just with your clients or colleagues; it's everybody you meet. If you always bring joy or a positive disposition to someone's life, you'll get it back somewhere.
I've also learnt to always be professional in my work. Do what you say you are going to do, and do it well. I try to strive for professional competence – "This person understands what they're talking about and can deliver" – and personal relatedness – "I like what this person stands for and want to be around them". You can have content knowledge and not be relatable, or you can be relatable but not competent in your job. But if you can do both of those things, I think you put yourself in a great position to be successful.
Peter's qualifications: BA (Hons) Psychological Science, Master of Applied Psychology (Sport & Exercise).
Big props to Peter for his time. You can find out more about Peter's work and say hello here. If you do reach out, be sure to let him know you’re from the Dojo 👊