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

Why

do I recommend this book when almost all self-help books IMHO are market hype, and in truth, fraudulent. The only other “self-help” books I can recommend are Merton’ The Seven-Storey Mountain, St.Augustine’s Confessions, and Willian James The Varieties of the Religious Experience

NOTE: the point is not my life; it is just testimony through an illustrative example.

I first read this in 1982. I was living in Vermont, and in that peaceful place had taken the incredibly sport of bulleye pistol shooting (done single-handed with .22 Long Rifle and .45 ACP pistols). It is peaceful sport (I am a card-carrying pacifist and a Quaker).

Anyway, I had moved up to the too 10% of such competitors in the state, even in the NE region. Hard work had gotten me this far, with coaching from senior shooters. But I had plateau. A top competitor who competed at a national level (and often won) noticed I hadn't been improving for months. He tslked to me and suggest some improvements. This helped a little, but I was obviously stuck.

Finally this mann, a State Police officer, video taped and analyzed my faults. He gave me a traing program, but said it wouldn't be enough. So he said, read this book -it is not about tennis. He told me it allowed himmto move to the too. (The book also unexpectedly improved many other aspects of hislife, leading promotion (and eventually accept a high-salary offer from the State Police of another state.)

So I read it. I was skeptical , until I grasp the core ideas, Applying these idea to my sport was truly a surprise! Over a couple of months, my score shot up and I started winning matches. Eventually I won the State hampionships, beating even the man who gave me the book. I started to apologize to him, and graciously said hecalways thought Imwas more gifted, and should win matches! He told that that attitude of gracious acceptance also came from reading Inner Game.

Imfound the rest of my life improved as well. When I returned grad school, Inner Game helped me turn anxiety into excitement and joy. None of the the graduate-level science course were difficult for me because I was confident hard work would let excel in every course and in my dissertation work. I would not be a college professor today if I had not read Inner Game.

The point is not my life ; that is just testimony through an illustrative example.

Inner Game for skiing used to be very good, but apparently has been revised, and the core ideas were lost.

So, with profound gratitude, I highly recommend this book. YMMY, but reading it will still be some you never forget or regret.

It changed my writing and I published. It changed my sport and I began winning state and regional matches. It helped me sail through grad school to become the college professor I am today.

Buy it. Read it.

With a myriad of self-help and personal development book's and courses available, I was compelled to buy this book after reading a comment by NFL player Tom Brady say that this was the book that changed his game. Just to be clear, I am not a tennis player nor do I have any intention of taking up the game. After reading a brief sample of the book I purchased it with great curiosity. The clear and concise style of authorship by Gallwey makes this a pleasant read and makes the application of the ideas very practical. Gallwey draws up on his extensive personal experience of teaching tennis to share his style of tutorship that encourages the student to "get out of their own way" and let the natural flow of the body or "self 2" as he puts it to do the work. Though the application of this program is through the medium of tennis, it can be just as easily applied to any sport or indeed, facet of life. It almost takes on the aura of a spiritual works by a devout practitioner without actually leaving the practical plane or getting all "woo-woo". Far from it in fact.

Whether you are looking to perform better in your chosen sport, hobby, profession or life in general, this is a book that is elevated far above most of what is available out there by the more well known "self-help" gurus. The book is a life changer, not by offering you a short term buzz or illusionary pill that once it wears off you need more. Gallwey's work here produces the outline for you to take back control of your own life by giving up the control of "self 1". Its well written chapters provide real world practical advice and examples on how to best support your natural learning mechanisms, making permanent and positive changes that can provide fluid experiences. Even the chapters that offer technical advice on improving particular tennis skills provide a deeper insight on how to assist your own desires wherever you choose to apply them.

I recommend this book for anyone keenly interested in self improvement or with an interest in how the body best learns new skills. No book shelf should be without this great work.

Does it matter how and what we think about while we are playing tennis ? Yes, it matters so much that it affects our tennis performance significantly and could even affect our mental well being. W. Timothy Gallwey obviously understands both tennis and psychology very well and has written an excellent book that very clearly explains why it matters how we think about our tennis performance. As a long time tennis player I enjoyed reading the book and learned very much from it. I am eager to start applying Gallwey's advice as soon as possible. If you often scold yourself everytime you make a " mistake " and / or you are trying too hard but not quite achieving the performance you aim in tennis then you can not afford to not read this book. I read it twice and I recommend that everybody read it again and again every few months.

Many tennis instructors do not know the psychological aspect of the game that is so well explained in the book. Their ignorance is obvious from the incessant verbal instructions they give their students.

The harmful and correct ways of thinking explained in the book are not limited to tennis ; they can be applied to our self talk about anything and to any interaction between humans such as parenting, marriage, social, work and other relationships.

The types of scolding comments and even positive instructions and praise we make to ourselves either silently or aloud when we are playing tennis are self defeating ; they re- enforce the performance that we label unsatisfactory. Then the negative comments we make to ourselves about our tennis performance become self fulfilling prophecies.Timothy Gallwey demonstrates that it is no use to replace negative self talk with positive self talk neither. Because positive thinking is actually negative thinking in disguise ; it communicates the demand for good performance and is therefore manipulative. Thus positive self talk and manipulative self praise also have an unfavorable effect on our tennis performance although not as much as negative self talk. Any instructions we give ourselves such as : " tilt the face of the racket a little more " or " I hit it very well this time " also interfere with the natural method of learning which is much more effective. We have the potential to learn naturally which is possible only when we let go, that is when we shut up and stop criticizing or praising our performance, stop giving instructions to ourselves and stop trying too hard to correct our mistakes.

So what is the correct and effective method of improvement in tennis ? It is visualization in our mind of the desired strokes and consistent practice on the court. This practice must be without interference from the disruptive way of thinking and self talk. Gallwey does not propose that we do not pay attention to our tennis strokes. On the contrary, he says we must feel and be aware of our strokes without judgement i.e. without labelling our strokes as bad or good. If you think you are making mistakes eg : the ball keeps on getting caught in the net when you hit it, instead of saying to yourself things such as : " You loser ! you couldn't hit even one ball over the net ! " just observe how you play non - judgementally and visualize in your mind's eye the ball clearing the net and landing inside your opponent's court and continue to play. Do this consistently without giving yourself verbal instructions about how to hit the ball ( aloud or silent ), be patient and observe the eventual correction in your strokes.

He says that each human being has two selves ; Self 1 who continually makes judgements about the performance of Self 2 and scolds or praises it. In the meantime Self 2 is trying to play tennis under nagging and much less often praising from Self 1.Self 2 has the natural ability to learn and improve, like a toddler learns to walk naturally without any lessons nor comments from parents about how to walk. But Self 2 can not learn naturally nor effectively as long as Self 1 judges and comments negatively or positively about Self 2's tennis performance and rolls out instructions to it. What we need to do is to silence Self 1 , visualize in our mind the desired strokes, continue practicing on the court and trust our body and mind's natural ability to learn. The power of visualization in the mind with open or closed eyes ( with open eyes when you are playing of course ) of the desired performance to improve it in sports and other aspects of life is mentioned in many other psychology books too. As I mentioned above this principle is valid whatever we are learning and in our communication with other humans not just in tennis. In fact Gallwey says that Self 1 could be a critical parent and self 2 his / her child.

Achieving these will involve unlearning the bad habit of self judgement whether it is negative or positive. Gallwey says that if we fight the bad habit it will get stronger. Instead of fighting the existing bad habit, develop the new habit to replace it. In fact don't even see the bad habit as a habit. Like a toddler who promotes from crawling to walking does not see crawling as a bad habit to get rid of but rather as a stage in development.

I observe that in many cases in addition to the disruption from their Self 1s many children taking tennis lessons also have to cope with additional negative comments sometimes even insults, yelling and unproductive praises from their tennis teachers, in front of their parents who bring them to the tennis lessons. The parents think that the tennis teachers are doing the right thing when they scold and yell at their children everytime they make a mistake. The result ; the mistakes get worse instead of being corrected. I have observed the same destructive attitude in swimming, basketball, gymnastics and classrom teachers at schools. It is a pity that most parents, teachers and bosses at the workplace do not know the psychology in this book titled " The inner game of tennis ". Certainly there are tennis and other sports teachers, parents, bosses who are effective communicators but unfortunately they constitute the minority ; most teachers, parents and bosses are of the Self 1 type even if they have no bad intentions. Some of them are aware of the inefficacy of their methods and wish they could replace them with better methods but they can not help it. These teachers, parents bosses their students, children and employees would benefit greatly if the teachers, parents and bosses read and applied this book.

In the book the author also gives a detailed action plan about how you can become more aware of your various tennis strokes without thinking about them in the wrong way. Just observe various parts of your strokes non - judgementally, become aware of them, by feeling and hearing them as they are without labelling them as good or bad. If you decide there is a need for improvement visualize your desired correct strokes as you may have observed from competent players. Avoid Self 1 from giving instructions to Self 2 and let it happen. He also gives examples of how dogmas regarding the correct way of hitting various types of strokes have changed overtime ; tennis teachers were scolding their students about some " mistakes " until tennis pros challenged the dogmas and started playing like the long time believed mistakes. Only then did the non - traditional strokes become generally accepted.

Another very important issue the author talks about is the wrong and correct reasons for playing tennis ; if you play tennis because you like the game, want to be healthy and fit, want to make friends and at the same time you want to win from time to time etc. you are on the right track. But if the only reason you play tennis is to win, beat everyone else, prove to yourself and to everybody how great you are then you are playing tennis for the wrong reasons. Tennis is a very good stress reliever when played for the correct reasons. But it becomes a source of stress if played with such selfish motives. There is nothing wrong with wanting to win but if you are playing tennis only to prove your supremacy over other tennis players it is very likely that your motive is to compensate for low self esteem even if you are unaware of this.You may have low self esteem regarding your failures in other aspects of your life ; your social, work, marriage, parenting relationships or other feelings of inferiority. I know tennis players who play very well, but are very unpopular and annoying because they always brag about their tennis and are unhappy about other aspects of their lives. It is OK to want to win and improve in tennis provided that our self esteem does not depend solely on our tennis performance and we do not belittle other tennis players. If currently, knowingly or unknowingly we are relying only on tennis to bail us out of our low self esteem due to other problems in our lives, it makes sense to deal with our low self esteem by reading and applying a good self help book on the subject such as " The six pillars of self - esteem " written by a psychologist named Nathaniel Branden. If reading and applying that book is not sufficient to improve our self esteem we should seek professional help. Let's play tennis for the correct reasons, not to liberate us from our low self esteem.

Like any tennis player I am also pleased with myself when I win after a good game of tennis but I personally do not have the negative, the positive self talk nor the " I must be the greatest in tennis otherwise I am no good " attitude to the extent described in the book. Still, I found some mental and attitude corrections I need to make about my own tennis. I also realized that I am frocing my 10 year old son too much in tennis. I will ease the pressure on him. It would be nice if he won in the tournaments but not at the expense of his happiness.

To summarize I highly recommend that you read " The Inner Game of Tennis " by W. Timothy Gallwey.

Contents of the book is phenomenal. But...Every other page has print so light its not legible. Apparently this has happened with other reviewers. Buyer beware.

Update 07Jan2024: Another copy was delivered which didn't have the same print issues. Changed rating from 2 stars to 4 stars. I guess just be aware that a non-zero number of these books have print errors.