The Inner Game of Tennis: The classic guide to the mental side of peak performance

using awareness to “discover the technique” is that it doesn’t tend to evoke the overcontrolling and judgmental aspects of Self 1, which wants to rely on formula rather than feel.

Self 1 easily gets enamored of formulas that tell it where the racket should be and when.

So I believe the best use of technical knowledge is to communicate a hint toward a desired destination.

“Hold the foil as a bird, not so loosely that it can fly away, but not so tightly that you squeeze the life out of it.

A brief explanation of the meaning of “game.” Every game involves at least one player, a goal, some obstacle between the player and his goal, a field (physical or mental) on which the game is played and a motive for playing.

No matter what a person’s complaint when he has a lesson with me, I have found that the most beneficial first step is to encourage him to see and feel what he is doing—that is, to increase his awareness of what actually is. I follow the same process when my own strokes get out of their groove. But to see things as they are, we must take off our jud

“Trust thyself.

“Abandon” is a good word to describe what happens to a tennis player who feels he has nothing to lose. He stops caring about the outcome and plays all out. It is a letting go of the concerns of Self 1 and letting in of the natural concerns of a deeper and truer self. It is caring, yet not caring; it is effort, but effortless at the same time.

Usually the first thing that needs to be done is to deal with the negative concepts inhibiting the innate developmental process. Both the pro and the player stimulate this process as they begin to see and to accept the strokes as they are at that moment. The first step is to see your strokes as they are. They must be perceived clearly. This can be