Wow, thanks Made You Think podcast. I was so short sight in avoiding this and thinking I needed to focus instead on technique and the physical.

This book is life changing, I will be reading and re-audiobooking it soon.

When I was younger, I stopped playing tennis partially because my coach thought I wasn't good enough to compete at a high enough level to take it seriously. Internally, I knew that the frustrations of losing a point or serving incorrectly would initiate a very negative and highly self-critical dialogue that really hurt my performance. How I wish 15 year old me picked up this book and learned this internal dialogue was completely normal, and a symptom of my state of mind as opposed to an objective self-critique of my skills.

Not only would this book have helped me excel at a sport I loved, but the lessons you can draw from this book are applicable almost anywhere in life. At 100 pages, its a quick and easy read with great lessons in anxiety by learning to be constructively critical of yourself, and maintain a sense of stoicism in your day to day life.

Man this book was like 14 pages and it took me so long to get through cause it was soooooo boring.

I actually love tennis and everytime I tried to read this book I fell asleep.

5 stars for the impact on my mentality and mindset on my life. For the first time, I feel more in control of how I cope and react to situations, no matter how big and small. I feel I am able to focus on moments greater and be more relaxed, finding a kind of focus that came and went without knowing exactly why. I feel great in previously stressful situations, I well engrossed in moments when I would be preoccupied in past/future events. I feel I am kinder to myself and respond to situations with more efficiency and less emotion. This is my first step to playing, and possibly one day winning, the Inner Game.

Genialiskt! Fick den tipsad av en lärare och nej inte i tennis utan musik.

Den diskuterar det ”inre spelet” dvs psykologin bakom prestation och hur man blir vän med sitt inre och får en mer koncentrerad inlärning genom fullständigt focus genom att låta sig själv lära i en miljö som är fri från dömande tankar och som framhäver det naturliga lärandet.

Dessa principer kan man applicera på sitt musicerande och allmänt i områden där man presterar. Jag kan gott rekommendera den!

Eu não leio muitos livros, mas este acabou de se tornar num dos meus favoritos.
O que começa como uma reflexão sobre (maus) hábitos na prática e aprendizagem do ténis, desenvolve-se numa exploração dos diálogos internos do ser humano, seja sobre o desporto, ou sobre o que pensamos e esperamos de nós mesmos.
Razoavelmente curto e muito bem escrito, honestamente não estou a ver alguém a não retirar nada deste livro. No meu caso, retirei imenso, e será certamente um que irei revisitar mais tarde (e eu nem sou de reler livros).

Enjoyed it. I realized pretty soon that this isn't a book about tennis at all, instead it's about how to control your mind while doing anything. Turns out, you can't control it. Instead, you let the body dictate and find its natural rhythm. You have two selves, Self 1 and Self 2 (Kahnemann and Tversky anyone?). Self 1 is the intellectual self that tells you, "take a longer backswing!" whereas Self 2 just does. The book veered off from tennis to get into breathing, meditation, concentration, consciousness, and more. I loved it. Will add it to my list of reread-every-once-in-a-while books.

ETA: My husband's Goodreads account is inexplicably linked to mine. So when he finishes a book, his review shows up here. I have not read this book but I trust the reviewer. He's pretty keen. ;)

His review:


An enlightened view

Some simple and profound insights. Practical and theoretical guidance on the power of attention and focus, and the pivotal role these essential skills play in the game of tennis and the game of life. Highly recommend. A swift and engrossing read with lasting value.

This book could have been a short essay. While I believe in the idea presented there are better books on the same topic such as "Flow". This might have be a popular and original book when it first came out but it is no longer.

The Inner Game of Tennis by Tim Galloway is one of the best book I’ve ever read. Tim wrote this book in 70s and since then this book became classics, it even kicked off new profession - coaching…
The key idea of the book is that all of us are perfect from birth to death, so only limitation to achieve full potential are self-limitation we put on ourselves by being judgmental, unfocused and egocentric. Tim illustrates this by saying that in ourselves there are 2 selves: Self 1 - teller, thinker, criticizer, and Self 2 - doer.
So to achieve full potential Self 2 need to get freedom and some support from Self 1, otherwise it is stuck in its development. So Self 1 should just non-judgmentally observe, create image of success, be confident and let the Self 2 act!
The key is to enable such cooperation between Self 1 and Self 2 is to make Self 1 to focus on something so that it is not blocking Self 2. So for tennis one could: watch the ball closely, listen the ball, feel the shots and at last feel own breathing.
And in the end of the book Tim explains that he is not about “positive thinking” and “self-improvement”… the main idea of the book is that there is only now when we can truly live in, so to get most out of it one need to focus. So instead of learning to focus to improve tennis, author recommends to practice tennis to improve one’s focus.
Highly recommend this book to everyone, sure will be revisiting it to understand deeper the ideas presented in such a metaphoric way!
Here is my mind map for my reference, hope will be helpful for you too (see here)

It’s Buddhism, secularized and westernized and applied to sports. Bloody brilliant if you ask me.

1 star, the book is really boring, I gave it start during vacation, but wasn't able to finish it