Performance Under Pressure: Book Review

Red 2 Blue: enhance your mindset so that you can be the best, most authentic version of yourself

Review by FCN Founder - Vicky

As a coach and avid reader, I have read a myriad of self help and mindset development books all with the aim of educating myself in how better to support the coaches I work with, but also to find effective ways of improving my own lifestyle.  It has not been until I read the book Performance Under Pressure by Dr Ceri Evans, that the penny dropped, and I felt I finally found a practical way of coping with pressure.

Performance Under Pressure is a detailed look at the mindset model "Red 2 Blue".  The concept is simple: when you feel out of control, overwhelmed, overloaded and hot headed, you are in the RED brain, and when you feel in control, have clear thinking and are task focussed, you are in the BLUE brain.  The model then provides you with the tools you need to move across the scale out of the RED and into the BLUE when you need it the most!

"The RED-BLUE mind model draws on several different schools of thought, but in the end it has one intention: to help you gain emotional self-control to enable you think clearly and act effectively when you need it most, when you are performing under pressure"

Dr Ceri Evans

This RED-BLUE concept was made famous by the New Zealand Rugby Team, the All Blacks, after they won the Rugby World Cups in 2011, 2015 and came third in 2019 (and runners up in 2023)