The inner game of tennis
Author: W Timothy Gallwey
Tennis is my favourite sport by a long shot. I have played it casually since I was young. In 2022, I decided I wanted to try and take things to another level and signed up for some coaching. The coaching was useful and fun, though I still didn’t feel like I was where I wanted to be at the end of it. I pondered many a night, “why oh why after 6 lessons was I not semi-pro?”
One great part of coaching was the suggestion from my coach of a few online groups where I could match up with players nearby. The result was a few people in my area I play with regularly now, where in the past I struggled to find friends my level to play with.
Now it’s 2023 and I am thinking about another round of lessons in the spring. I talked to my coach and he recommended I read this book prior to our lessons so we have a common understanding of some of the topics in the book so we can practice them on court.
The book focuses a lot on your mindset, and argues that when we are overly focused on technique, we often play worse. He says that when players are relaxed and not overthinking, they play better.
He suggests testing this theory on an opponent by asking them how it is their forehand is so good today. He says 95% will take the bait and start explaining what they are doing. Then during the game they will think about it, and lose their streak. I will definitely be trying that soon.
He speaks of two selfs. Self one is the teller. It is the person speaking to yourself while you play. “Run up to the ball”, “you messed up”, etc. Self 2 is the unconscious doer. Self 1 tends to activate muscles like tensing the face for example when its focusing really hard. But self 1 is supposed to be the teller, not the doer. He argues that Self 2 is very competent and we should rely on it as the doer. He calls out a couple important takeaways to overcome “trying too hard”.
- Learning to program your computer Self 2 with images rather
than instructing yourself with words; - Learning to “trust thyself” (Self 2) to do what you (Self 1) ask
of it. This means letting Self 2 hit the ball; - Learning to see “nonjudgmentally” – that is, to see what is
happening rather than merely noticing how well or how badly it is
happening.
Perhaps this is why it is said that great poetry is born in silence.
Great music and art are said to arise from the quiet depths of the
unconscious, and true expressions of love are said to come from a source
which lies beneath words and thoughts. So it is with the greatest efforts
in sports; they come when the mind is as still as a glass lake
He encourages the reader to put the book down briefly and try and empty the brain of thoughts. He says if you are able to do it, you can put down the book right away as you have mastered the key to the concentrated mind. I laughed at this because over the years I have become quite skilled at completely zoning out, which seems to imply I should make an excellent tennis player.
The book was a bit fluffy for my taste and got more and more fluffy the longer it went on. It felt like the author got really into yoga and buddhism, and started applying it to everything in life including tennis. I have a hard time believing that professional tennis players coaches simply watched their trainee in non-judgement, and restrained from providing critiques, and simply asked questions like, how did that feel and relied on the player to discover for themselves the potential within them.
I play tennis because I enjoy the sport. I am also competitive and enjoy winning. So since I am competitive, I want to focus on my technical skills, and get better so I can beat the people I play with. I don’t really care about using tennis as a means to develop a higher consciousness. I am happy with my ability to concentrate, such that I don’t need to use tennis as a way to practice concentration as he suggests, instead of use concentration to practice tennis.
I had a few good takeaways from the book for sure, but found myself rolling my eyes a fair bit as well.