The Inner Game

While Tiger’s success was the driving force behind the change, the tipping point may have been Ernie Els’ victory in the British Open in 2002. Helped by Jos Vanstiphout, Els cruised to victory at Muirfield, St. Andrews. That spurred changes. Today, more and more sports psychologists are advising golfers about golf’s mental side. They’re also writing books about it. One noteworthy book is Tim Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Golf, fashioned after his breakthrough book, The Inner Game of Tennis.

via A Golf Lesson On Beating Tiger Woods « jack wills blog.

Tags: Tiger, TigerWoods, Woods

Tom:  If you can think your way through it, you wouldn’t have to practice.  So, you do then do establish a subconscious level to play golf.  You do need to establish some muscle memory.  And, you need to use your subconscious to play.  Timothy Gallway put it very well in a book called “The Inner Game of Golf.”  And, I recommend that to people.  Tony:  Okay.  So, it’s called “The Inner Game of Golf?” Tom:  Yes.

via Tom Linskey – Linskeys Laws | Breaking News Sports – Make Yours Needs.

Tags: linskeys, linskeyslaws

I read Timothy Gallwey\’s book from cover to cover so many times it fell apart. What\’s more it seemed to work when I remembered to follow the instructions.

via Golf Hypnosis Leads to Success Over The Inner Game of Golf | Alain Silberstein watches.

Tags: awareness, coaching, Inner Game of Golf, mental approach, Performance

It is a lovely course but a round that I would prefer to forget. I have no idea what I shot, suffice it to say that there was not enough space on the card to write my score in. This raises an interesting point in why does this happen in golf and how best does one cope with it. I have been reading a very good book on the mind and golf and how best to make what we have to work best in all circumstances. The book is titled ‘The Inner Game of Golf’ and is written by W. Timothy Gallwey. I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy.

via Must it all end so soon? « Saayman Says … Golfing Weblog.

Tags: Inner Game of Golf, The Inner Game, Tim Gallwey

Tim Gallwey, a former captain of the Harvard tennis team, wrote a series of books in which he described his findings that performance error resulted primarily from “doubt, tension and lapses of concentration.” We are at our most effective and creative in the moment. The moment is what we can impact.

via Why good golfers make good managers – Executive Travel Magazine.

Tags: Golf, influence, Inner Game of Golf, Innergame, Motivation, potential, Tim Gallwey

One of the best books to read is ‘The Inner Game’ by Tim Gallwey, he explains in great detail about how our conscious mind-Self 1, fights with our natural ability to hit the ball- Self 2. By confusing Self 1 and keeping it busy we can then allow ourselves to play without interference. One of his best drills is the Back-Hit drill, I have taken this and added a few things to help tempo and retain balance, I call it the back, hit, bounce drill, on your take away say b-a-c-k slowly, where ‘b’ is the start of the backswing and ‘k’ is the top of the backswing, then say ‘hit’ when you hit the ball and then hold your finish until the ball bounces and say ‘bounce’. Saying this out loud at an even, calm voice or even in your mind will turn off the interference from Self 1 and allow you to swing tension free.

via Play Better Golf » The Mental Game.

Tags: Golf, Inner Game of Golf, mental approach, The Inner Game, Tim Gallwey

W. Timothy Gallwey’s bestselling Inner Game books–with over one million copies sold–have revolutionized the way we think about sports. And now, after twenty years of applying his Inner Game methods to the royal and ancient sport of golf, Gallwey brings us this completely revised edition of his classic The Inner Game of Golf, nearly half of which is new material, published here for the first time.

A new review of the revised edition of The Inner Game of Golf. Read more at the Golfing Sense website.

Tags: Game, Golf, Golfing, Inner, reviews, Sense

Ben Hogan scoffed at the idea. Jack Nicklaus spurned it. Gary player scorned it. Among the game’s most respected legends, they disdained the idea of using a sports psychologist or a mental coach to help them win. Instead, these players preferred to retain the stubborn independence that drove them to succeed. They provided their own mental golf tips. They didn’t need a sports psychologist or mental coach. For a long time, this approach dominated on the Tour.
Today, more and more sports psychologists are advising golfers about golf’s mental side. They’re also writing books about it. One noteworthy book is Tim Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Golf, fashioned after his breakthrough book, The Inner Game of Tennis

Read the rest of this article on Tincanradio

Tags: Beating, Golf, Lesson, Tiger, Woods

In a recent addition to the user forum over at The Sand Trap website, a reader addresses his newly developed problem with “shanks” and how The Inner Game helped him work through it.

Shanks!
Devoted the last 6 months of my golf life to short game practice, and mainly trying to understand and execute Stan Utley’s techniques. I had been happy enough with my long game and my distance and consistency, but was sick of not scoring any better for many many years.. perpetually stuck in the low 80s barrier.

So for about 6 months I averaged probably at least an hour per day of short game practice, overall. I didn’t playl. Occasional driving range to make sure my long shots were still ok. Usually I would head over to the practice area in a public course near my house, in the AM before work, and then sneak again over there at lunch, for another session. Logistically I was lucky in that it’s easy for me to get over there.

Yeah, that’s a lot of practice. Some days I would skip, but I would go more often then not. I was able to grasp, absorb and improve my facility with Utley’s various methods for chipping, pitching, putting, bunker and recovery. I read all his books and watched all his golf channel and youtube vids over and over again, religiously.

My technique improved. I often would find myself looking like a genius on the pratice area. But I started having a problem. It usually started when I would move to working on slightly longer pitch shots from tighter lies. I would start shanking– often combined alternatively with fat shots. Horrible!!

It started to become a very consistent pattern… I would get to the practice area, hit a bunch of great shots and then at some point start shanking. I would gradually deteriorate, shanking more and more until I would eventually stumble on something that would make them go away, I’d hit great shots again and feel like a hero once more. I would think it was licked, only to have it return again, the very next day, usually as soon as I started trying the tougher lies again. Frustrating!!

Very very frustrating. Started to get me thinking about throwing in the towel. One who shanks doesn’t deserve to play golf! The dreaded shank!! Most golfers don’t even want to say the word!

I developed all sorts of theories as to what was causing them: ‘Pitching from tight lies is hard and causes tension, and the tension makes me flinch and shank.’ or ‘I get tired and my swing stops working’ or..’i'm too old (48) and golf is just too hard’, or.. ‘my setup is wrong, Im too closed, and if I try to swing on a single plane (i.e. flat) as utley advocates, then I’m misaligned and at that point I have to shank.’

I started laying down a club as a reference point for my allignment, and that helped, but wasn’t a cure. They returned after I would stop using the club.

I firmed up my grip and left arm and increased my arm swing length somewhat and that seemed to help, but ultimately I knew that was a bandaid and sure enough they came back.

Finally I saw that they weren’t going away completely. I would need to come to terms with them, or just stop playing. Then I started to think more about shanks in general, and decided that shanks had a bad rep that was undeserved; I convinced myself that a shank was no better or worse than a fat or thin shot, just different. An unfairly categorized mis hit. That kind of thinking oddly seemed to help and reduce the tension or whatever it was that was causing them to begin with, but they still didn’t go away completely, and clearly I wasn’t going to be breaking 80 very much with them being so “abundant”.

Finally I decided that my only hope was to take it a step further. I decided I would truly welcome the shanks. I borrowed a method that I got from Tim Gallwey’s golf book that I read long ago, called “welcoming the yips”. Sure enough when I really allowed myself to shank and really started to feel and focus on what was actually going on, something really cool happened: I started focusing on the heel of my wedge. Without trying to control it, I just focused on it, to see what it was doing exactly. Then it happened: I felt myself leaning in towards the ball slightly during the process of the swing. And as soon as I became aware of it, the instability felt really noticable– like a big ship teetering in the waves.

The cure seemed clear.. stop doing that leaning thing!! It made sense that the leaning could cause both shankin and the fat shots. But I knew from the inner game book that trying to avoid something doesn’t nessesarily make it go away, and often strengthens it. So I focused instead on expressing stability during the swing, and kept on focusing on the heel of the club, and just noticing whether I leaned in or not and how much, without trying to control it.

Well– in short, Bingo. No more shanks. I’m happy to report that I’ve been doing much better the last few days, and ‘they’ are being held at bay. I’m feeling much more confident now and I even think I’m getting ready to play again. Will keep you posted as to my progress. Dang shanks!

Tags: awareness, Coach, coaching, Inner Game of Golf, Innergame, sports psychology, Tim Gallwey

Grant Brad Gerver is an entrepreneur and creative consultant for Filibi, a classified and online coupon advertising site and home business. He’s also a YouTube Channel (gbgerver) blues singer-songwriter and guitar player with The Buzzard Brothers. Additionally, Grant writes political humor, thousands of bumper stickers, and humorous movie reviews. He has also worked with various companies as a product-naming specialist. He’s a retired elementary school teacher and published children’s author who works in the health care field. Here is a recent article about his experience with Tim Gallwey.

What if you decided to quit trying so hard? I’m not talking about giving up. I mean holding on to your dreams, but not grasping for them like straws or brass rings. It seems like the harder you want something, like a better relationship, a mended fence, a new car, monetary success, paying off all your debts, the harder it is to accomplish it. It’s as if the more you yearn, the more you push it away from yourself. I don’t exactly know why, but I’ve found when I’m patient enough to look back on my life, the best things that have happened to me (and I’m grateful for plenty) come when you just let it go and let it happen.

I read about Tim Gallwey many years ago in Reader’s Digest. He wrote Zen-like books about sports: Inner Tennis, Inner Golf, and my favorite, Inner Skiing. He could have written Inner Whittling, but it doesn’t matter. He used sports as a vehicle to teach about not being so damn self-critical and letting your mind be free to achieve, allowing your body to follow.

Gallwey discovered this approach on a frigid night in the middle of nowhere in the wee hours of a dark, starlit snow-covered morning. He was driving in the backcountry of New England and his car died. He became panicked and fear-stricken knowing he might well freeze to death. There were no houses or signs of humanity anywhere for miles around. So, he decided that rather than freeze, he would walk until he found someone home, or until it was the end. As he walked in the brisk cold darkness with shining stars illuminating the way, he realized how entirely beautiful his surroundings were. He had a transformation. He no longer felt panicked, but rather, a sense of immense joy and awe at the beauty that enveloped him. He let it go and let it happen, leaving his sense of doom and gloom by the wayside. It undoubtedly saved his life. He finally happened upon a farmhouse where he was gladly taken in by the occupants.

I have embraced his philosophy of inner peace and the Zen-like qualities that can make a huge difference in the lives of anyone willing to give this path a try. It truly revolutionized my skiing and the other sports I’ve played over my 59 years. It helps you get in “the zone.” But, don’t try to recreate it, or think about how you got there, for it is a fruitless exercise in futility. You have to LET yourself find the sweet spot in life without grasping for it, owning it, or writing down the perceived “formula” as if it were a recipe. Just give yourself a break and see what unfolds.

I am in the process of trying to remember these timeless teachings without stressing about them. It is so easy to fall back into your old self-destructive mindset. You can’t get in the “zone” at will. It’s as if you need to be open to letting it find you. And when you do, boy is it a Godsend. Writing about this phenomena here has helped to pave the way for me to get back on track by not looking too hard for the rails, if you know what I mean. Thank you Tim.

Tags: Grant Brad Gerver, inner game, inspiration, sports psychology, The Inner Game, Tim Gallwey