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The Inner Game of Tennis - by W. Timothy Gallwey, 1974

The main takeaways of the book:

Almost all human activity is composed of two parts:

• the outer game played against external opponents, facing external obstacle/challenges - to reach external goals
  • specific to the situation, different skills needed for every activity
• the inner game, takes place in the mind - played against internal obstacles - habits of the mind that inhibit excellence
  • (distraction/lapse of concentration, self-doubt, self-condemnation/judgments, worry/nervousness)
  • generic, always the same skills, no matter the activity
  • focus, non-judgment, welcoming obstacles/challenges - are a remedy

it makes more sense to focus on the inner game - to play the inner game
as the mental skills we develop can ge generally applied to all ascpects of life

Prioritize Internal Needs vs External demands - to be in sync with yourself and more resilient to stress

• External pressures - demands put on us by other, by society
  • sometimes so deeply ingrained we don't even think about questioning them - external validation
  • or so authoritative that we are afraid to question them
• Internal desires and needs
  • listening to yourself, Self 2, and acting in sync with inner desires
  • self-discovery to uncover true inner desires

The two selves

To explain mental processes, let's imagine that each person has two selfes:

Self1 - the teller, the ego-mind, expresses itself verbally - tries to hard, tries to control, is judgemental, always looking for approval and avoiding  disapproval
Self2 - the doer, expresses itself through body movements, has a great abilities, good instincts and natural learning capabilities (the human brain and body is a remarkable instrument)

Quieting Self1 - Letting go of judgements

• Judgement is labeling things/actions as "bad"/"good", this leads to ego reactions/emotional reactions (Self 1)
  • anger, frustration, discouragement, tightness - which then interferes with concentration and the natural ability of a player (Self 2)
• Letting go of judgement does not mean ignoring errors, just means seeing events as they are, not adding labels to them
  • even positive labeling/judgement results in ego-interference, compliments can be seen by the ego-mind as potential criticisms to avoid. Once the standard for "good" and "bad" has been established, even if some event/action was labelled good, it creates an expectation on Self1 to repeat/keep up the same performance or else it will be disliked - looking for external validation

Communication with Self2

• Change the relationship between Self1 and Self2, instead of using the critical tone of Self1 looking down on Self 2, try using a humble admiration towards the natural intelligence and capabilities of Self 2
• The native tongue of Self2 is not words, but sensory imagery: visual image and feelings ("feelmages")
  • Observe other players executing strokes, try imagining what does it look and feel like to copy their movements
  • Picture the desired outcome: shift attention from means to ends, where do you want the ball to end up, and trust Self 2 - let it happen

Technical Instruction for Tennis

Instructions always originate in a certain experience and feeling of an exceptional athlete, and then words are used to try to communicate those feelings to others

• experience precedes technical knowledge
• words cannot exactly represent these feelings, and so we should always remember to take these instruction only as a guidance to experimenting and finding our own way
• the "standard way" of serving has changed several times in tennis, do to people challenging the instructions and relying on their feelings

Changing habits

• habits - characteristic patterns of acting an thinking - exist because they serve a function
  • it is not helpful to condemn a current habit as "bad", it's helpful to identify the function it serves and look for an alternative behavior to serve the same function
  • it's difficult to become aware of a function a habit serves, while we are in the process of blaming ourselves

Ways of learning:

• the usual way (Self-1 trap of self-improvement)
  • criticize or judge current behavior
  • tell yourself to change, instructing with words
  • try hard to do it right
  • critical judgment of results -> leading to Self1 vicious cycle

i am bad, i need to improve
accepting this self critique and trying to compensate for it - is neither enjoyable nor rewarding
you are good enough, accepting yourself - and look at improvement as an extra activity not something you need to do in order fix yourself
abandoning the ego, stop caring about what other people think

• the inner game way
  • observe behavior non-judgmentally (awareness)
  • picture desired outcome
  • trust Self2, let it happen
  • non-judgemental calm observation of results -> leading to continuous observation and learning

Focus & Concentration

• the mind is restless, disturbed
  • but to achieve top performance - you need a clear the mind, stop thinking
  • this does not mean being stupid, it means quieting the endless jabbering of thoughts so your body can instinctively do what it's been training for
  • the thinking mind (Self 1) gets in the way
  • how can we learn to be in the present? practice. bringing back attention
    • focus on seams of the tennis ball
    • sounds of ball impact with floor/racket
    • on breath in between plays to not loose focus