The Inner Game of Golf

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In 1980, Random House asked me to write The Inner Game of Golf and to, in doing so, describe the learning from the point of view of a student of the game, which I was. Perhaps more than in any other major sport, the golfer is vulnerable to subtle shifts in mindset, which can have drastic impact on one’s performance. About that time Barry Green, then the lead bassist for the Cincinnati Philharmonic Orchestra approached me to collaborate on The Inner Game of Music, another activity in which both the fear of failure and doubt can be anathema to the quality of performance. Coaching is an art that must be learned mostly from experience. In the Inner Game approach, coaching can be defined as the facilitation of mobility. It is the art of creating an environment, through conversation and a way of being, that facilitates the process by which a person can move toward desired goals in a fulfilling manner. It requires one essential ingredient that cannot be taught: caring not only for external results but for the person being coached. Slumps don't exist; they're something you create in your mind. Stay in the present, and let each shot, good or bad, stay in the past. W. Timothy Gallwey’s bestselling Inner Game books have revolutionized the way we think about sports. As he did in his phenomenally successful The Inner Game of Tennis, Gallwey provides methods that can be applied to situations beyond the green. The Inner Game of Golf delivers strategies to achieve potential—both in the crucible of competition and in everyday life. With Gallwey as a guide, you’ll learn how to

The less a golfer tries, the most fluid his swing will be, and the easier it will be to produce a good golf swing. Golf is a game that is at once exhilarating and frustrating. The possibilities for perfection excite the player, but the game has the uncanny ability to expose weaknesses of mind and character of the player too. A good structure for practice sessions: 5 minutes of pure play, 20 minutes of focused swinging, 5 minutes of play, remaining time on performance—playing as if you're on the course. Most of us learned this pattern of problem solving at a very young age. Probably our parents, eager to be "good parents' " solved some of the problems that should have been left to us to solve so that we could gain skill and confidence. We come to expect this kind of help from the coach or parent. We may get an answer, but we don't develop the skill or self-confidence to cope with similar problems in the future. In turn, we tend to try to validate ourselves as parents and coaches by solving the problems of our children or clients.Not long after, I was asked to help IBM to change its prevailing corporate attitude of “we know it all” to that of a learning and coaching organization. Inner Game methods were then put to use in Apple Computer Company’s Leadership Development program. An alternative is just to say "da" at all points of the swing, and you can add one at takeaway if you like. The true professional keeps his goals high, without letting himself become so emotionally attached to them that he fears failure. His sense of his own value is independent of external results. He doesn't listen to self-doubt, nor does he perform by rote. He dances to the tune of his Self 2 intuitions. In this state of mind his attentiveness to detail is sharp and selective. He sees each situation as it is, not as he would have liked it to be, and nonjugementally he perceives in each situation opportunities to propel him toward his goal. The he gets more done than most, his acts seem relatively effortless. p49 The game brings with it the pressure of knowing one has to make every shot count because golf does not allow for many mistakes. And, because golf is a game one plays against herself (as well as others), the inner game becomes intensified, i.e. the ego is challenged and threatened. Many times, this pressure can cause the player to perform poorly, yet it is just this kind of pressure that attracts one to the game in the first place. urn:lcp:innergameofgolf00gall_0:epub:2d8ede05-9307-4321-bd00-d3edf84073b9 Extramarc University of Alberta Libraries Foldoutcount 0 Identifier innergameofgolf00gall_0 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t9088xd6h Invoice 11 Isbn 9780679457602

W. Timothy Gallwey (born 1938 in San Francisco, California) is an author who has written a series of books in which he has set forth a new methodology for coaching and for the development of personal and professional excellence in a variety of fields, that he calls "The Inner Game." Since he began writing in the 1970s, his books include The Inner Game of Tennis, The Inner Game of Golf, The Inner game of Music (with Barry Green), Inner Skiing and The Inner Game of Work. Gallwey's seminal work is the The Inner Game of Tennis, with more than one million copies in print.[1] Besides sports, his training methods have been applied to the fields of business, health, and education.[1] urn:oclc:842901487 Republisher_date 20140527034727 Republisher_operator [email protected] Scandate 20140513100852 Scanner scribe11.shenzhen.archive.org Scanningcenter shenzhen SourceLccn 97041272 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL693998M Openlibrary_edition Sam Snead quote: "The only thing wrong with your swing is what’s wrong with most amateurs’ you don’t hit the ball with your practice swing.” Awareness questions do not require answers to be effective. The clients express their awareness as it is. The degree of awareness indicates whether more attention should be paid to that variable or not. As a result of this conversation, both the client and the coach become more aware of the awareness of the client. The seed of each question is usually embedded in the previous response. In the process, the client automatically becomes more conscious about how to direct attention in the next experience. As in all coaching conversations, the point is simply that both client and coach become more conscious and more mobile. In this article, we are going to talk about the game that takes place inside your own mind. That means we are going to discuss your mental approach to golf, the attitude you take with you on the course, and the way you think about the game in general. At first, these concepts are going to seem rather abstract, and it won't feel like they have much of a direct connection to your scores. You will learn as we go, however, that the way you think about your game is directly connected to the score you write down at the end of the day. Golf is a complicated game, and there are many factors to consider when thinking about your level of play. Yes, the way you swing the club matters, but so does the way you think while making those swings. And, it is even important to control the way you think between shots. The golfer who possesses a great mental approach and attitude throughout each round is going to start with a major advantage over the player who has never even thought about such topics.

The underlying skill behind all of this work: relaxed concentration. Master this and you can master anything else you wish. The Inner Game of Work, published in 1999, is an inside look at how the Inner Game methods and models have been applied by many individuals, in a wide variety of companies, over the past twenty years. Mostly, it is focused on the attainment of individual excellence. With the turn of the century, the focus of my own interest had turned towards The Inner Game of Teams. The work of overcoming the obstacles faced in people working together effectively is both challenging and fascinating. In the last half of 1999, I helped facilitate over 50 workshops with teams, and joined forces with Dr. Valerio Pascotto to do what I believe is pioneering work in the field of people learning to work effectively together. Once you're more advanced, you can stop looking at the ball, and instead look at the hole while you're putting. Find something of interest to focus on with "soft eyes" and allow yourself to putt naturally.

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This association had the same magical effect for me. I held in my mind the memory of tossing a tennis ball and felts so comfortable inside that I didn't steer. Ball after ball went straight toward the market. Only when I got sloppy with my technique or started thinking about my swing would accuracy desert me. p53 Hod do "do-instructions" incur doubt? How do you walk down a flight of stairs? How do you tie your shoe? How do you write your name? Think about one of these actions and see if you can come up with a set of instructions about how to perform it. Then try to do the action by following your own instructions. p60 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.”