PDF Summary:The Inner Game of Tennis, by W. Timothy Gallwey

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So the Inner Game is all about learning to play unconsciously without trying too hard to do just that.

Two Selves

To understand the two selves, consider what players often say to themselves on the court—it’s all technical:

• Keep your forehand level.
• Meet the ball in front of you.
• Get up for the ball.
• Bend your knees.

When players fail at these technical instructions, they start scolding themselves.

When players talk to themselves this way, the “I” doing the talking and the “self” listening are, in essence, two different selves. We’ll call these “Self 1” and “Self 2,” and they are at the very center of learning the Inner Game.

• Self 1 is the “I” or the “ego-mind”—the part of the brain that questions the actions of the body and chastises the body for mistakes or rewards it for success.
• Self 2 is the “myself” or the body—the physical self that is able to perform remarkable actions on a regular basis.

The key to improving your tennis game (and the rest of your life) is to improve your relationship between Self 1 and Self 2.

Think about Self 1 and Self 2 as two distinct humans:

• Self 1 is constantly repeating itself...

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We can see this often when players are volleying at the net—the ball is coming so quickly back and forth that base instincts have to kick in. This is more difficult to achieve when players have more time to think and Self 1 has more time to take over.

Making the Mind a Mirror

There’s a difference between letting go of judgment and ignoring mistakes. If you have control over your mind, you will notice a mistake but not assign a negative value to it. You can still fix actual mechanical issues this way if you have any—notice the reason a shot is going out without labeling it “bad.”

Rather than bad, errors are part of development. A player’s tennis game improves a lot from making errors. If you notice your stroke without judgment, you can make quick adjustments to it without pressure.

The key is to have your mind act like a mirror. Reflect what happened accurately without passing judgment on what’s in front.

Example: Jack’s Backhand

Jack says he has an erratic backhand. His coach asks him what’s so bad about it. He says he brings his racket too high on the backswing and that five pros have told him this, he just can’t manage to fix it. This is slightly...

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This is clear in tennis—a relaxed wrist allows for a snap and more torque, adding more power to the ball. If muscles are too tight, the ball will be less accurate and slower.

We should trust tennis strokes like capable parents trust their kids to learn to walk. Don’t identify with the stroke, in the same way the parent wouldn’t identify with the child who’s unable yet to walk.

Letting Yourself Learn

If your body already knows how to do something like hit a forehand, you should let it happen. If not, you should let it learn. The more Self 2 practices, the more the body learns. The brain picks up and stores things like what a nice stroke feels like, how quickly the ball comes at you, and so on.

Think about this like learning a dance:

• If you have to learn something like the foxtrot and are taught all of the steps, it takes forever to figure out.
• On the other hand, if you’re out one night and you’re watching your friend do a dance, which is probably much more complicated than the foxtrot, you can often pick it up right away, because you absorb the visual in front of you and then feel what it’s like to imitate that image.
• **If you’re asked to...

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• This can also be applied to watching pro tennis: What are they doing that you’d like to do? What specific moves work with your own body or Self 2?

Gallwey includes some technical instruction here that he pairs with some awareness teaching. Consider here some common instructions for ground strokes, serves, and volleys, and how you should use observation to your advantage. Remember to use the instruction as a starting point, but to rely primarily on your own observations to figure out what works for you.

(Shortform note: Since the book was published in 1974, some of these techniques are outdated.)

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If you are straining or squinting in any way, you are not really focused because you are trying too hard. Become truly interested in the patterns of the ball, and this focus will come.

Listening and Watching the Ball

One focus tactic is listening to the ball.

• When the ball is closer to the sweet spot, it will make a better sound. Remember that sound and remember when you are able to reproduce it and the body will work towards making this happen more. This is particularly useful with serves because of the sustained and repeated motion of the serve.

While you’re watching the ball, you also need to know where your racket is at all times. This introduces the concept of feeling, one of the most important in tennis. The slightest change in positioning or angle can produce very different results.

• Spend a lot of time in practice feeling the exact path of your swing. This may produce undesirable immediate results, but taking the time to understand exactly how the motion of your swing affects the trajectory of the ball is essential. Remember nonjudgmental observation!
• Also be aware of what muscles you’re using when. Know what it feels like to move...

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*   The obstacles are the gap between your own idea of what perfect is and your abilities, as well as self-criticism that comes from not bridging that gap. 

• The second subgame is “Compete-o.”
  • The thesis is that “good” is measured against your opponent. All that matters is beating your opponent(s).
  • The obstacles are that there’s always someone who can beat you, as well as the internal preoccupation with competition against others that can lead to an inferiority complex.
• The third subgame is “Image-o.”
  • “Good” is measured not based on whether you win but by how confident, flashy, or good you look on the court. This is led by a desire for attention.
  • The biggest obstacle is that it’s impossible to look good enough, which can lead to feelings of imagined loneliness because of your wish to please others.

Friends-o: The main aim is to make or deepen friendships.

• The first subgame is “Status-o.”
  • This game is often derived from playing at a country club, where it matters most who you are playing with rather than how you’re playing. You are attempting to improve your social status.
  • The obstacles here are mostly a...

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• Consider a surfer’s goals. She is there to find her way all the way to shore in an attractive way, but she doesn’t take every wave that comes her way. She waits for a wave that’s going to be a challenge and fun to ride.

Your opponent can become a friend because she is doing her best to be a difficult obstacle, thus making the goal of winning valuable. Competition, in this way, can be indistinguishable from cooperation. Each player benefits from the other’s attempts to make goals difficult to reach.

Understanding this can also make you a better player: If you have worries or qualms about being competitive or trying your hardest, understand that in a sense, iron sharpens iron. Beating someone does not increase your self-worth or decrease hers.

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Leaving Attachments Behind

Most stress in modern life is caused by attachment—Self 1 becomes so dependent on a job, a relationship, or an idea that when change does come it’s threatening. Freedom from this stress is the recognition that we will be alright if we lose one of these things, so long as we continue to be able to live fairly comfortably.

Here, it’s important to distinguish between what Self 2 needs to operate well and what Self 1 has internalized as a need. A lot of demands that you place on yourself are derived not necessarily from what you need but from what you’ve been told somewhere along the way that you need.

There’s a distinct difference between this and “self-improvement”—everyone’s Self 2 is fine as it is, we just need to listen to it.

After all of this, readers may still be questioning what it means to win the Inner Game. The response is essentially impossible to give, although the question is important. It’s impossible to give because the moment that we give an answer, Self 1 will see a goal that can be conquered. This will add to our stress. **The only way to “win” is for your Self 2 to be the only Self that knows when you’re conquering the...