Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5451 in Books
• Published on: 1986-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Book Jacket
The Inner Game of tennis is that which takes place in our mind, played against such elusive opponents as nervousness, self-doubt and lapses of concentration. It is a game played by our mind against its own bad habits. Replacing one pattern of behaviour with a new, more positive one is the purpose of the "Inner Game".

Peak performance at tennis, like any sport, only comes when our mind is so focused that it is still and at one with what our body is doing. The key to the "Inner Game" and better tennis is achieving this state of relaxed concentration so that we are playing "out of our mind" and therefore no worrying about how, when or where to hit the ball.

In The Inner Game of Tennis, Tim Gallwey, a professional player and instructor who has produced dramatic results among the amateurs and pros he has trained, explores how to overcome mental obstacles, improve concentration and reduce anxiety for better performance at every level. There is no physical reason why any of us should not more consistently serve aces or hit perfect returns. The Inner Games approach makes all the difference.

Customer Reviews

Know Your "Selves" Better
As most people can guess by the title, the "inner game" of tennis is the game that takes place iin the mind of the player and is played against barriers such as nervousness, self-doubt, etc.

To gain clarity on the mental problems in tennis, the book looks at the concepts of "Self 1" and "Self 2". Self 1 is the name that is given to the conscious ego-mind which likes the tell Self 2, you and your potential, how to hit the ball and play the game. Or, to put it another way, Self 1 is the "teller" and Self 2 the "doer". I found this to be an interesting idea, as we have all caught ourselves talking to ourselves or have seen others talking to themselves during a game. If you ask someone who they are talking to, they will usually say "I'm talking to myself." This, of course, implies that there are 2 "selves", "I" and "myself"- and so is born the idea of Self 1 and Self 2. Pretty astutue observation in my opinion.

Now according to the book, to achieve peak performance, the key is to resolve any lack of harmony between the two selves, as it is the contrary thinking of Self 1 which causes interference with the natural abilities of Self 2. This requires the learning of several inner skills, such as the art of letting go of self-judgements, letting Self 2 do the hitting, recognizing and trusting the natural learning process, and so on- which is what much of the books spends discussing.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who plays tennis (or any other sport for that matter) as it does a great job in dealing with the fact that many of our difficulties in tennis are indeed mental in origin. Other helpful books for tennis players I've come across include Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff.

The Best Book On How To Handle The Major Aspects Of The Game
If there are many of you out there that are like me, then you can be forgiven for being very sceptical about learning from a book rather than the more conventional typical coaching methods, however this book differs from all the others I have read, and also gives you the advantage on the most important aspect of the mental side of the game.

Before I read the book I was having a lot of trouble with keeping my mind focussed when things didn't go my way, I would get frustrated and more often than not my tempor would get the better of me time and time again. However after reading the book my tennis pals noticed a huge difference in my temprement, and I was channelling my frustration into determination. But the book also demonstrates ways of improving your all round game in the simplist terms and I found that I learned more from the book than I was learning from my qualified coach from serving to backhand its all here and for the price it is a true bargain, the book isn't as expensive as some that are out there but it is clearly more effective as it really focusses on the mental game and explains it in a way that would put most of the best coaches to shame. If you keep smashing your tennis racket like me then look no more and buy this book immediately because it is a true bargain.

The Missing link.
My Tennis nowhere what it should have been, Ive been good at other sports, but not ball sports what this book addreses is we all know what to do and we are all capable of doing it, but we dont/wont for some reason . Not just tennis but with anything else we do. I was trying too hard and not allowoing my subconscieous to do its work it is so capable of.

This gives practical advice on how to concentrate, and blot out your interfearing nerves, easy to follow and straight forward. My favourite at the moment is the book tells of how if you concentrate you can slow the fast balls down in your minds eye, (which is how I would imagine top players do such incredible things) by, literally creating more moments as the ball travels towards you ie instead of saying a serve goes by in 1 moments you can say the saem time is 10 moments, as I understand it this is why everything seems in slow motion in a crash, excellent book. Fills the missing link in learning Tennis.