Today I play every point to win. It’s simple and it’s good. I don’t worry about winning or losing the match, but whether or not I am making the maximum effort during every point because I realize that that is where the true value lies.

Habits are statements about the past, and the past is gone.

So it is with the greatest efforts in sports; they come when the mind is as still as a glass lake.

In other words, the key to better tennis—or better anything—lies in improving the relationship between the conscious teller, Self 1, and the natural capabilities of Self 2.

Winning is overcoming obstacles to reach a goal, but the value in winning is only as great as the value of the goal reached.

Now we are ready for the first major postulate of the Inner Game: within each player the kind of relationship that exists between Self 1 and Self 2 is the prime factor in determining one’s ability to translate his knowledge of technique into effective action.

In short, “getting it together” requires slowing the mind. Quieting the mind means less thinking, calculating, judging, worrying, fearing, hoping, trying, regretting, controlling, jittering or distracting.

When we unlearn how to be judgmental, it is possible to achieve spontaneous, focused play.

In true competition no person is defeated.