And we talked about Tennis, since I was suffering from some neck pain related to my competitive tennis play.

And in a eureka moment, he said, “And there’s that guy who wrote that book about tennis.”

My eyes lit up. “Timothy Gallwey.”"That might be it.”"You mean The Inner Game of Tennis, by Timothy Gallway?”

“That sounds right.”Holy Cow! He had hit me square in the heart. Not only had The Inner Game of Tennis formed a HUGE part of my youth, and my understanding of tennis as an exploration of self, but more recently I had gotten in touch with Timothy Gallwey, in order to support the publication of his new book, The Inner Game of Stress.

“YES!” I said. “The concepts of the Inner Game have been part of my life for a long time. I think they’ve guided me more often than I know. I mean, I learned them when I was about 14 or 15.”"Well, there you go.”"I was trying to learn about tennis, and this “self 1″ and “self 2″ concept was a bit over the top. BUT… It worked.”"That’;s what I’m saying. I think you have your training. And it’s something you’ve been working at passionately for years.”"Yeah, since I was about 10.”"And you still love it.”So we talked about tennis and Timothy Gallway for a bit and I said something about the tennis racquet being sort of like a sword. And the game being fairly analogous to a duel. And in telling him about my game, I was describing my serve as a powerful weapon.

“The first cut,” he said.In principle, the serve is a single motion and attack, when executed effectively puts the opponent on the defensive. In my game it is my single strongest weapon. Nothing gives me more confidence than to have my opponents complement my serve at the end of a match. At the completion of a doubles match, hearing “We just couldn’t get a handle on your serve tonight,” is truly the highest complement one can receive in tennis. In addition to the WIN, that is.

I’ll go fish out my Gallwey book. And both my friend and I made a point to go seek out the new book The Inner Game of Stress.

Now I think I’d better go hit some tennis balls before the weekend rain starts again.

via The First Cut: Applying The Way of the Sword to Life and Tennis | uber.la.

“I don't play tennis, Al,” I responded, confused.

“It's not about tennis,” he explained. “It's about attitude. About changing it, becoming master of it.”

via David Ellison: The game of self-control – Inside Bay Area.

via The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance « karycumby.

via Tennis Server – Turbo Tennis – Confidence and “Slumps”.

Tim Gallwey, who wrote “The Inner Game of Tennis,” said athletes such as Henin and Clijsters who devote their lives to sports starting as youngsters often have to get away from the game to regain control of their lives.Gallwey, 72, who was captain of Harvard University's tennis team in the 1959-60 season, said such athletes have a psychological advantage when they return from retirement.

“They’ve had time to step back out of the normal disciplines and grinds of any sport,” he said in a phone interview. “They get to come back with renewed energy and self-determination. Instead of something they have to do as a pro, it’s something they want to do. I admire them, because they’re going back with eyes open.”

via Henin Makes Australian Open Final on Own Terms – NewsFlash – MassLive.com.

But it’s important to get to exactly what we mean. Let’s take an excellent Pete Carroll profile that I reread a few days ago (for obvious reasons).

On page 4:

People who know him best invariably seize upon fun to describe Carroll, either saying it’s fun to be around him or that he’s forever having fun. His emphasis on fun comes mainly from his DNA but also from his reading, specifically W. Timothy Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Tennis, a 122-page book with a cult-like following. (The latest edition features a foreword by Carroll.) Using tennis as a prism through which to view all human endeavor, Gallwey says we focus too narrowly on results. “The three cornerstones of Inner Game,” he tells me, “are Performance, Learning, and Enjoyment . Usually people put Performance first, and Learning and Enjoyment are almost absent.”

If we focused more on Enjoyment and Learning, Gallwey says, we’d perform better and we’d be a lot happier: “You look at a child. He learns while he plays. Anything he tries to do, or win at, he’s playing, he has a wonderful time doing it. They’re not separate things for a child. That means to me these things are inherently built into human beings. Most human beings, you have to coach what’s already inherent—that is, the drive of excitement to learn and keep learning, and the drive to enjoy. It gets really covered up when winning is everything. I agree with Lombardi: Winning is everything. It’s just what your definition of winning is.”

via Various Provocations: Performance, Amateurism and Professionalism.

Getting in the zone either happens by chance, on any given day and there aren’t really any events that trigger it. It just happens. Sometimes you do everything right to prepare and have the worst day on court. Other days it feels like you’re not ready and then all of a sudden it clicks.

There are certain ways to trick your body, or rather your mind into helping you get into the zone. Mostly its about thinking about one thing and letting the body do other things by itself. I don’t wanna make this post long, so I’ll make a quick suggestion. Buy and read the book Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey. Amazing book and will answer many of the questions you have.

via Controlling when youre “in the zone” – Talk Tennis.

Tennis and business have a lot more common than you may think. In 1982, a tennis professional coined the term “unforced error” to describe what happens when one player who is in position to return the ball makes an error by hitting the ball out of the field of play — or missing the ball altogether. That same kind of error happens all of the time in the business world.

Research shows that even the smartest managers make the worst career errors. Once again, the same is true in tennis. Even the best players in the world make unforced errors in every match. In professional tennis as in business, the player with the fewest unforced errors usually wins.

Research also shows that at the top levels of corporations unforced errors have taken a greater toll than ever before. For example, CEO turnover is up 60 percent between 1995 and 2006 and shows no signs of slowing down (that according to a Booz Allen). However, you do not have to be a CEO to make a costly unforced error.

In my career of nearly three decades, I have had a front row seat to countless number of unforced errors in the workplace. Much to my surprise, I have witnessed egregious, stupid errors made by people I regarded as the smartest, most effective of colleagues.

So what kind of tennis mistakes also translates to your life and career? Consider the following:

Mistake No. 1: Always playing with a singles mindset
“Playing doubles,” alongside a partner, is more realistic than acting like the Lone Ranger who does everything on his own. There are some individuals — think of them as cowboys — who have no ability to delegate or work with colleagues. This could be a huge unforced error; given the complexity of today’s operating environment, every employee and manager can use all of the help he or she can get.

Mistake No. 2: Not facing reality at all times
Many great tennis players have wasted precious time arguing with referees insisting that the ref’s calls were wrong (think John McEnroe and Serena Williams). In business, the same phenomenon occurs all the time. For example, managers cannot come to terms with the fact that their latest new product is a failure and they pour more good money into bad chasing something that should have been abandoned.

Mistake No. 3: Not taking learning seriously enough
This is another problem that exists in both the tennis and business worlds. In tennis, one needs to put in the requisite practice hours to improve his or her game. John McEnroe felt that Ivan Lendl became the incredible champion he did through “sheer rehearsal.” In business, one needs to take learning just as seriously. Former GE CEO Jack Welch affirmed that when he said that it is the responsibility of every worker to find a better way of doing things.

Mistake No. 4: Not experimenting on a consistent basis
Celebrated tennis writer W. Timothy Gallwey once said, “Perfect strokes are already within us, waiting to be discovered.” Tennis great Billie Jean King explained that champions keep playing until they get it right.” In business, a perfect stroke might be a marketing presentation that wins a million dollar account, or a strategy presentation that that helps you to win that elusive promotion.

Mistake No. 5: Not being prepared at all times
Being prepared counts for a lot in business as it does in tennis. And unlike other traps, this one is entirely within your control. For example, if you go to a meeting and your boss asks you about a project that is your responsibility, can you give her up-to-date-information on the account? Do you know important deadlines? What landmines must you look out for? These are the kinds of things that a manager must be prepared to answer at all times.

Mistake No. 6: Not protecting your flanks
Tennis players need to see and be in command of the total court. In business, one needs to be in touch with all aspects of the game if they are going to have a good chance of success. Everyone is affected by turf wars and power plays that take place every day in your office. The key, says career expert Dr. Kathleen Reardon is that if you “choose any two competent people, the one who has political savvy, agility in the use of power, and the ability to influence [others] that will go further.”

Mistake No. 7: Not taking ownership of your part of the court
Not taking responsibility is another of those tricky unforced errors of omission. The mistake is not in something one does, but in something that one doesn’t. So this is an easy mistake to make and one of the more common of unforced errors. While you can’t control everything, step up and take more responsibility — within reason — whenever you can. If there is nobody addressing a problem that you notice or taking advantage of an opportunity that you identify, think about whether you should be doing it yourself.

RENTON, WASH. — Thick playbooks aren’t the only literature Lawrence Jackson dives into during the season.

Let’s see, there’s “Zen and the Art of Archery.” Other entries on Eastern Religion. “The Inner Game of Tennis.” And, for more contemporary awareness, Time Magazine.

He also writes a personal journal.

The Seahawks’ second-year defensive end is currently preparing for Sunday’s game against Jacksonville while he rereads “Zen and the Art of Archery.” The widely acclaimed book introduced Zen thinking to Europe soon after World War II.

“It’s about transcending your technique so you can make it an art form,” Jackson said of the short narrative by Eugen Herrigel. “I’m a thinking person.”

Jackson’s problem during his rookie season as Seattle’s first-round draft choice was that he thought too much. He tried to compute all the game film, game plans and tendencies of opposing offenses during the split second after the ball was snapped. His head was sent spinning, as much by all the data in his noggin as by the blockers and the ball that sped past him.

He was considered a huge disappointment, thrown by many into a pile of underachieving Seahawks top picks from recent years that includes defensive backs Josh Wilson and Kelly Jennings.

But, with his own coaching future in mind, Jim Mora helped Jackson find his way through his self-made fog.

Still the Seahawks’ defensive backs coach under Mike Holmgren, Mora met a couple of times each week during the 2008 season and then after it with this supposedly fiendish pass rusher who had zero sacks in his final 14 games.

“He understands I’m a thinking person,” Jackson said of Mora, now the Seahawks’ head man. “He said, ‘Lawrence, do all the thinking you have to do during the week, so that when you get to Sunday you just play.’”

“Because when you think,” Jackson said, “you lose a step.”

He’s gaining ground now. Faced with Mora’s public preseason mandate that he must start fulfilling Seattle’s high expectations for him, Jackson has three sacks in four games. That’s one more than he had in 16 games last year. He also has four quarterback hits, also one more than he had in all of ’08.

The forgotten 28th overall pick and second-team All-American as a senior at Southern California has, in one month, ascended from an endangered part-timer.

Now, he’s the end Seattle summons for pressure on passing downs. And his importance will grow against the Jaguars (2-2), with two-time Pro Bowl end Patrick Kerney questionable to play because of a strained groin.

“(He’s) quietly becoming a pretty darn good football player,” Mora said. “One of the hidden jewels, I guess you could say, in the 1-3 start is the play of Lawrence.”

From a strict football perspective, Jackson is simply more consistent, according to first-year defensive coordinator Gus Bradley.

“Now, every game you are seeing him get some pressure,” Bradley said Thursday. “I just think he’s matured.”

But there’s more to it than that for the 24-year-old.

In Mora, he seemingly has a coach similar to USC’s Pete Carroll. The renowned players’ friend and free thinker gave Jackson the 1974 book “The Inner Game of Tennis” during his redshirt junior season to get Jackson to relax more during games, to not try so hard and let his athletic ability flow more easily.

“Jim’s a great leader,” Jackson said of Mora. “He understands what it takes to separate yourself from the norm.”

Amazon has more than 300 reviews of the autobiography of Lance Armstrong, It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. The reviewers consistently agreed that this book is very inspiring and hopeful.
There are too many messages and lessons in the book, they all relate in this article. However, there are three main strategies that are of particular relevance to the Inner Game of Tennis. Basically, they can be absorbed by the declaration, it is not about the Racket.
The three main strategies are:
1. Do not let others limit your goals or your dreams
When Lance Armstrong was recovering from brain surgery and aggressive chemotherapy, there was a lot of people said that he would never ride again. Even one of his main sponsors dropped Lance, because he believed that he could never recover from the destruction of cancer and related treatment.
Lance refused to betray to define or limit his ability to beGoals and dreams. He was determined not only to ride again, but to win on the demanding Tour de France for his first time. Lance Armstrong went on to win the Tour de France seven times!
Even when he was emaciated, exhausted and worn out, he still maintained his goals and dreams. So the first strategy was is to your goals and dreams even in the face of resistance tended meaning people.
2. Deep in your inner resources
Lance argues that the keyFor him, learning from his illness and survival, that we are better than we know. We are completely underestimate our inner reserves and unrealized capacity, not because we do test the power of our mind. It is often only emerge from a crisis that these inner capacities.
One of the key strategies of the Inner Game of Tennis is to learn to dig deep into our inner resources and develop our untapped potential. This requires the will, determination and willingness to win against all adversity. Lance survivedhis cancer, even though the doctors assume that he is a 3% chance of survival, not had great opportunities!
Here is another striking example. The press, globally and locally, decided at the beginning of the 2007 Australian Open Tennis Championship, that Serena Williams had no chance because they are overweight and not suitable. They did not allow for its underlying basic fitness or ability to open up to her incredible inner resources. You will have the force was so strong that their opponents often in the fadedgiven their sheer determination, even if they led in the game.
Therefore, the second important strategy in order to learn to tap your inner resources against the limitations that we impose on themselves.
3. Make every obstacle an opportunity
Lance Armstrong takes this strategy to his mother, who reminded constantly to him as a child, that he in all obstacle an opportunity to improve. Said in an interview after his first Tour de France, Lancethat his illness has a new opportunity to improve on many fronts. He claimed that his fight against cancer it harder and more patients than even cyclists and more thoughtful, compassion and responsibility as a man, a father and partner enabled.
Therefore, a third key strategy of the Inner Game of Tennis is to improve your game and offending over every obstacle you.
The Inner Game of Tennis is not about the racket. It’s all about you. It is concerned about how your skills to define and maintain your goals, how you access your inner resources and how to obstacles, improve, and your tennis game.