The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance: W. Timothy Gallwey, Zach Kleiman, Pete Carroll: 8601417207543: Amazon.com: Books (original) (raw)

Why

do I recommend this book when almost all self-help books IMHO are market hype, and in truth, fraudulent. The only other “self-help” books I can recommend are Merton’ The Seven-Storey Mountain, St.Augustine’s Confessions, and Willian James The Varieties of the Religious Experience

NOTE: the point is not my life; it is just testimony through an illustrative example.

I first read this in 1982. I was living in Vermont, and in that peaceful place had taken the incredibly sport of bulleye pistol shooting (done single-handed with .22 Long Rifle and .45 ACP pistols). It is peaceful sport (I am a card-carrying pacifist and a Quaker).

Anyway, I had moved up to the too 10% of such competitors in the state, even in the NE region. Hard work had gotten me this far, with coaching from senior shooters. But I had plateau. A top competitor who competed at a national level (and often won) noticed I hadn't been improving for months. He tslked to me and suggest some improvements. This helped a little, but I was obviously stuck.

Finally this mann, a State Police officer, video taped and analyzed my faults. He gave me a traing program, but said it wouldn't be enough. So he said, read this book -it is not about tennis. He told me it allowed himmto move to the too. (The book also unexpectedly improved many other aspects of hislife, leading promotion (and eventually accept a high-salary offer from the State Police of another state.)

So I read it. I was skeptical , until I grasp the core ideas, Applying these idea to my sport was truly a surprise! Over a couple of months, my score shot up and I started winning matches. Eventually I won the State hampionships, beating even the man who gave me the book. I started to apologize to him, and graciously said hecalways thought Imwas more gifted, and should win matches! He told that that attitude of gracious acceptance also came from reading Inner Game.

Imfound the rest of my life improved as well. When I returned grad school, Inner Game helped me turn anxiety into excitement and joy. None of the the graduate-level science course were difficult for me because I was confident hard work would let excel in every course and in my dissertation work. I would not be a college professor today if I had not read Inner Game.

The point is not my life ; that is just testimony through an illustrative example.

Inner Game for skiing used to be very good, but apparently has been revised, and the core ideas were lost.

So, with profound gratitude, I highly recommend this book. YMMY, but reading it will still be some you never forget or regret.

It changed my writing and I published. It changed my sport and I began winning state and regional matches. It helped me sail through grad school to become the college professor I am today.

Buy it. Read it.