When the Snooker Shed Met The Snooker Gym - Nic Barrow Professional Coach and Ex Pro Player

Hi, so welcome back to the Snooker Shed and today we have got something special. A very special guest has come along to visit us here at the Snooker Shed. This lad has been with me from the very beginning when I started to play snooker again. He's helped me along with the Snooker Shed table, with the Snooker Shed creation, and he was there to guide me through my first 100 sensory break on the lineup. Give it up for Mr Nick Barrow. Thank you very much Andy. Thanks for inviting me and I'm pleased that someone referred to me as a lad. Nick, it's absolutely fabulous to have you here. My pleasure. I love this room set up, it's wonderful. How are you doing? Wonderful. I mean we're on the way through the North Coast 500 road trip and we couldn't resist begging you to come and see this room. We're so excited here at the Snooker Shed to have such a celebrity with us. It's just amazing and we've spoke so many times on the internet, but to meet you finally is really, really good. Likewise. So Nick, you've been an ex-professional player, you are a world-class coach, you have the largest global coaching business in the Snooker gym. What is it that keeps you motivated? It's more what started my motivation, which was to do something in life. When I was a kid, I remember seeing when I was eight, I saw this blue Ferrari in Knightsbridge when we were driving past. I thought, I've got to have one of those one day. And I thought, yeah, let's do something with life. And then shortly after that, I saw Snooker on the TV and that was the end of it. I had to get involved and I had to get obsessed and I had to give 100% to it. So my motivation really was to do what I love, do what I can to master it, because no one actually masters it, do they? No, no. Even Ronnie is just a smaller distance to mastering than anybody else, and share it with others. So really, that's the foundation of my motivation. And it hasn't changed. I feel like still a kid, actually. And that's still what drives me, is to do what I love, try and master it and share it with others, share what I've learned along the way with others. Definitely, the thousands of people that you've come in contact and the groups and the Beat It Highs break you. Nick Barton's been all over the world. Hi guys, can you believe he called me Nick Barton? Well, I think the reason might be that before we were talking on video, we were talking about Steve, actually, and saying how great his videos are, his content. And I wish I could watch more of his videos, actually, because I'm a fan. So good content, good delivery, good topic choice, good filming, good editing, good concept all round, 10 out of 10. So for those of you who haven't been to see his channel yet, go and check it out now. And also, Steve, if you're listening to this, make sure you get up to the Snooker's shed and get interviewed by Andy Stark. So Snooker has obviously been a massive part of your life. Yes. You've done everything in the game. And I'm sure I read somewhere just recently that you were a coach in a Snooker player's body. That's interesting. Yeah, I remember saying that. Yes. There's an interview with the world's Snooker. But going on to my next question, what else do you like doing? Well, just going back onto that coach trapped in a Snooker player's body, probably one of the things that held me back as a player, just picking up on your point there, was being determined to understand the game and work it all out and unpack it so that I could, first of all, understand it myself and figure the damn game out, but also help others do that. That was always in my head later on. I want to create this body of knowledge, even as a teenager. I've still got some notes from when I was a teenager. I used to sit at a desk. I had this book called The Book of Truth, Love, Life and Snooker. So I was writing down things that I discovered about the game even then. And that's partly why I made that comment, that I felt I was really an instructor in a coach's body, much more suited with my skill set, education and imparting the knowledge to others. And that probably held me back as a player to a degree, because at the top level, you don't need to understand anything. You don't need to unpack everything. You don't need to log everything in a table that you can impart to others. It's just going to hold you back. You just need to play, make it automatic and focus on winning. But that wasn't actually my highest motivation. I thought it was, because I wanted to be world champion, etc. But that wasn't actually my highest motivation. Highest motivation within the game was to understand the game and share it with others so that they didn't have to go through that frustration. But on a bigger scale, it's more about finding something you're passionate about in life and then sharing that with others. So that's your next question, I think, is to do with what happens next. But we'll come on to that in a minute. Yeah, yeah. So it was the things that you like to do outside Snooker. Have you got any? Cars. Cars or the Aston Martin? Yeah, petrol has been in my veins since I was about that tall. My dad's fault. He used to go and watch the drivers in the 60s, you know, driving around Silverstone, soaring the steering wheel like this around the corners. And so I picked that up from him. Formula One in the 80s was my number one excitement outside Snooker. And it's probably good for my own safety that I didn't go motor racing and for my wallet as well. I didn't go the motor racing route. But that is what we love. And we love our cars. And actually, what we discovered when we bought our first Aston was it's not actually mainly about the car. It's about the people you meet and the shared enthusiasm and the inspiring places. So one example was to be invited to park in the quadrangle of Blenheim Palace with a police escort. That doesn't happen every day in my previous little A-Class. So that type of event is just really gems in our year. Yeah, that's an equivalent in that bottle coming in the Snooker shed. So looking back at your career in Snooker, what would you say was there any pivotal moments that you reckon you could share with us? Seeing Reardon and Spencer when I was eight or nine. That was pivotal because that just hooked me, entranced me into the game. Making a first tonne. Was yours a 104 as well? My first tonne in a frame was 102. So my first 104 clearance, that was pretty pivotal. My first 140, that was pivotal. That was huge for me because that was so significant to achieve that. And then, okay, they were playing achievements over the next eight years. And after I made that 140, not 180, it's not a dart, where I was competing. But I think the key pivotal moment was, I remember I was in a ranking tournament and I was on black like this. And I remember thinking, why are you doing this? So I was 28, I was only just inside the top 200 in the world. And I thought, I want to be number one, nowhere near. And the gap between me and the top 16 was just immense. And I just thought, why are you doing this? And I made the decision there and then, that's it. I've committed my whole life to it until that point. So having the courage to say, well, it's not 100% anymore, then I have to stop. I can't continue unless it's 100% because that's just, 99 is the same as zero for me. So at that point, I said, right, we're going to bring forward the coaching phase. And I did that. We set up Nick Barrow snooker schools in Oxford. And on the back of that, a letter came round to world snooker coaches, actually, of which I was one, saying there's a job in Dubai to take over from Doug Mountjoy's head coach position in the Emirates. And they need someone to help with the juniors. And I've got this CV for the last six months, a playing record and playing background and this ability of kids that I've really enjoyed. And they loved it. And they offered me the job. I was 28. I was terrified. But what do I do now? I'd never coached anyone who made 100. So I didn't know what to do. I mean, at that time, I was a stronger player than anyone in the team. But I was so nervous. I just acted confident for six months. That change from player to coach, it was good for the Emirates to have you. But look at what you've done across the globe. We're not just talking here in Scotland or down in England. We're talking the group has participants from all over the world. So that moment where you decided to be a coach has been a massive advantage to so many much more people. Yeah, I didn't actually think of it like that. And it's one of those synchronistic moments in life where you feel the time is right. And you can't. There's no logic. It's a feeling. And you just have to go for it and do it. And not everyone. We don't always take that decision. We sometimes play safe, don't we? Yes. And keep the status quo and safe and secure, safe and sound. But there have been a few instances like that in life. My wife, for example, where you just say, right, let's do this. Get the ring out. And will you marry me? Yeah, she said yes. Yeah, that's right. Surprising. Yeah, I must have been doing something right. Anyway, and one of the best things in my life. And the same thing with the coaching. That was that's just been a blessing. I didn't actually see until now from the other people's point of view who benefited. But you've shared in how many hundred breaks, how many achievements you would have shared with other people. But, you know, if you carried on as a snooker player, you would have missed that. The glory of my own personal hundred break when we had that interview, you shared with that, you enjoyed that with me. If you're doing that across the planet, you know, your snooker boots are well filled with satisfaction. How well things are going. That's a good way of putting it. And what people don't realise so much. I remember one student came to the snooker room, the snooker gym training student, Milton Keynes. And he was about 10 minutes late. He said, oh, sorry, you know, I'm a bit late. I was in my car and I was shaking coming into the room because I didn't know what to expect. And I thought you'd be really strict or something. And I think what players don't often realise, it's my dream as well. You know, you think it's your dream to achieve a ton, but it's my dream equally. It's another side of the same coin to say, to help somebody in that achievement. Yeah, you get almost as much satisfaction. It's in that hundred score coming up. There's a clear, correct. Yeah. So looking forward, what's next for you? Well, it's expanding what I do. People understandably, but incorrectly label me as a snooker person. I'm a passion person. I wanted to do with my life what I love to do, master it and share it with others. It could have been crochet or golf or bricklaying or whatever it is. It happened to be one of the most frustrating games in the world. So I've had plenty of work. It's kept me in business. This frustration that we have from our addiction to these stupid little balls going into pockets. So for me now, the phase is to look after my coach licensees, which I'm trained, that's very exciting. I feel I've ticked every accomplishment and applied myself in every genre of coaching in snooker that I've wanted to. I feel I've ticked all the boxes. Now it's about helping my licensees to derive some of that knowledge and experience so they can build their businesses and help other players as well. And so I'm really enjoying that process of helping them and then helping other sports coaches as well. So we're taking our transferable skills to other sports coaches. And that's very exciting. And also for people in life in general too. We saw a quotation on the back of the van on the way here. And it said, one life, live it. And that is what I also want to help other players do. So I've got a system that I've only been testing for about 30 years. Because when I was at school, I decided to retire when I was 16 and do what I love now, not wait until I'm 63 and use my life as an experiment in doing what you love. And then one day I'll be able to share it with others, what I've learned along the way. So that also is just in the background coming into fruition now. So that's basically it. Your life work seems really selfless. You know, it's like you're just here to give. You know, it's like I'm going to write a book so everybody else could profit. I'm going to be a coach so everybody else can profit. You know, that's an outstanding quality to have. Well, thank you. And it might sound altruistic and maybe it's selfish as well because I get something from that process. And it's a secondary motivation to my obsession with doing this and almost a spiritual goal of doing what I love, mastering it and sharing it with others. That's great, Nick. And this is a magical moment in that journey. It certainly is. It's magical to have you here. Yes, we can, my friend, we can. It's absolutely amazing to have met you and it's amazing to have you here. Thank you so much for the invite and keep watching the content because this is the man.