The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance

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First, something is judged as good or bad: “That serve stunk.” The player then starts thinking about how to recreate the shot if it was good or how to not do it again if it was bad. For over forty years I have focused my efforts on the importance of what I call The Inner Game. I have learned many things on this journey while all the time in both my personal life and my public work, there has been one overriding passion. For both individual and for society, there must be a re-balancing of the importance we give to “the inner domain,” that which takes place within human beings as distinct with all that goes on in external world.” For decades, Timothy Gallwey has been teaching tennis in a way that can change his pupils’ games on the court and lives off of it. His method revolves around the concept of the “Inner Game” that players play with themselves. He introduces the idea of “Self 1,” which governs our ego-mind—the part of our brain that is chastising ourselves for mistakes and praising us for successes—and “Self 2,” which relies on base instincts to do everything from continuing to breathe to hitting a tennis ball.

urn:lcp:innergameoftenni00gall_0:lcpdf:5e5045e8-462e-46cd-b338-def95468c8ce Extramarc Duke University Libraries Foldoutcount 0 Identifier innergameoftenni00gall_0 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t75t5h953 Invoice 11 Isbn 9780679778318You’ve probably heard the phrase: What we resist persists. The questionis: Okay, I’ll stop resisting… now what? Tennis matches involve second-by-second positive or negative judgments: frowns after poor shots, satisfaction after good ones, sometimes literally yelling at oneself. A fantastic read that's far less about tennis and far more about how to learn any skill or ability. It is remarkably well written; concise and straight to the point, without the filler material you find in most business books; and a useful read for just about everyone.

Anxiety is fear about what may happen in the future, and it occurs only when the mind is imagining what the future may bring. But when your attention is on the here and now, the actions which need to be done in the present have their best chance of being successfully accomplished, and as a result the future will become the best possible present. So” I found what helped me read this book was to imagine real scenarios in my head to try to apply the concepts more thoroughly. For example, I do not play tennis but I would visualize how I play badminton, and internalize the lessons through that medium. The next time I played I would also try to apply what I read. One thing I instinctively started doing (even before reaching that part of the book) was to let go of negative/positive judgement during a match by focusing on breathing. Even if I still sometimes say "ugh sorry bad shot" or hear "wow great shot" during the game, before I start a new point I would try to let go of those thoughts, breathe, and refocus. It’s not enough to simply move our attention away from an unproductive line of thinking like arguing with our own thoughts. We must become skilled in the art of redirecting our attention to something more valuable and productive. This has two parts:

On Potential

Having provided yourself with an image and a feeling, you are ready to hit some balls. Now focus your eyes and mind on the seams of the ball and let it happen. Then observe what happened. Once again, don’t analyze; simply see how close Self 2 came to doing what you wanted it to. As a boy, Tim Gallwey was nationally ranked tennis player in his division and later captained his Harvard University team. Then, begin to think about desired outcomes: Ask your body for the results you want, the form it should move in, and the qualities you see in others that you want. You won’t reach all of this right away, but remember not to pass judgment, and let your body learn what it does not know and complete what it does know. You’ll realize that without this judgment, a lot of your mechanics will fix themselves naturally. The goal is thus to play without thinking too actively or “over trying.” Good players of course still have to exert significant effort on the court, but there’s a difference between this and trying too hard, which almost always involves getting angry at yourself.