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Writer's pictureJack Mcveigh

Did “The Inner Game Of Tennis” Impact my life?

Intro

Timothy Gallwey began his journey as a nationally ranked tennis player, this lead him to the impressive achievement of becoming the Harvard tennis team captain while completing a degree as an English major. His love for teaching and learning lead him to continue the pursuit of knowledge in the art of learning, finding ways to help students learn and maximize their potential. He continued as a tennis coach, learning many valuable lessons and putting his knowledge to the test, he put these ideas on paper and those same ideas became a multi-million all-time top seller self-help book, “The Inner Game of Tennis”. Timothy Gallwey must have done something right if in 2022 Jacob Chance, Head assistant coach of the Tasmanian Jackjumpers NBL side is recommending me this book as his top 3 books of all time. Considering the release of “The Inner Game’ was in 1972 this alone shows the longevity and timelessness of a masterpiece in education and performance.


Summary

Describing The Inner Game as a book on tennis would be in theory correct, but also completely wrong. Gallwey tackles topics such as the art of teaching, learning, finding excellent performance in high-stress situations, tools to help us enjoy the journey of chasing a new skill, and much more. He describes the battle of an inner game vs an outer game. The outer game is that of you vs the opponent on the tennis court. The inner game is the battle with self1(conscious mind) vs self2 (subconscious mind) that is constantly battling on the inside of us. Gallwey writes about the value of letting go of the self 1, these traits can be described as, our ego, judgments, good or bad, and self-talk. The ideas he presents on focus, nonjudgmental awareness, and presence are all described throughout the book. The mix between psychology and sports performance can’t be highlighted enough in the book and is a really insightful learning experience combining these together. Discussed are the ideas that trying too hard can have a negative outcome and only focusing on results can consistently leave you feeling defeated with a lack of energy and self-belief. Gallwey gives his instructions on what to focus our energy on, this consists of several ideas such as; letting go of our negative and positive self-judgments, trusting our subconscious, competing with a goal of learning and having fun.

Impact

Reading ‘The Inner Game Of Tennis’ leaves me in a situation where articulating the theories I’ve been working on throughout my career has become instantly easier. I always watched guys who I felt cared a little less then me about the game, thrive under pressure and have more fun playing the game I loved so much. After a miserable college experience on and off the court, heading to Adelaide I knew I had to change a few things. The need to change grow and adapt led me to look at the game of basketball very similar to Gallwey, especially when it came to maximising what I was going to receive from the sport and the work I was putting in. This book really hits home on how important it is to be wise with what we choose to focus our energy on, especially our thoughts. I constantly choose to spend my energy on learning, having fun, building relationships, and testing the maximum capability of my skill and heart through competition. Through failure and many hard nights, I was forced to stop comparing myself to external results such as a teammate I was battling or the opposition team. The Inner Game really nails this home for me. Jacob Chance was extremely surprised when I told him I hadn't heard of the book before, Gallwey and my outlook on learning and performance are extremely similar, so because of this the impact this book will have on my life will not be as large as it could be for someone else. This book will no doubt strengthen my views on theories I’m working on when it comes to my pursuit of excellence and with awesome takeaways on his ideas about whether competition is good or bad and the definition of winning, I will remember this book fondly and recommend it to multiple people.



Conclusion

“The Inner Game of Tennis” gets the tick of approval, and has made an impact on my life. It will improve the way I talk to students in the future by really focusing on awareness and self-management. I particularly loved the second last chapter talking about the ideas of competition. I choose not to battle my opponent to beat them to make myself feel important and powerful in comparison, but I choose to battle with them to pursue what I am capable of as a human being. I seek to learn and have fun. Not to fuel my ego.

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