Summary
What is the foundational knowledge required for me to learn this?
- Self-awareness
What ACTIONS/HABITS will I partake after reading this book?
- If I have a bad habit, rather than focusing on avoiding that habit, occupy myself with something new/exciting/constructive; focus on cultivating new neural paths while the old one dies down
- Knowing that love is the solution for concentration, and knowing that it is our attitude at the beginning of a test that determines its successful outcome, it becomes clear that in order to concentrate, adopt the attitude of curiosity, love, admiration, and captivating wonder towards your task
What Questions do I have after reading this book?
What Phrase(s) can I add/validate to my mantras?
- Man is a thinking reed but his great works are done when he is not calculating and thinking.
- It is the initial act of judgement which provokes a thinking process. To stop thinking, stop judging.
- Repeated over time, these self-judgments lead to self-fulfilling prophecies, because they are communicated from “I” instructor to “myself” doer. We become what we think about.
- But let’s be clear about something: letting go of judgments does not mean ignoring errors. Rather, it means seeing events as they are and not adding anything to them.
- “I had learned and he had learned, but there was no one to take credit”
- “Compliments are criticisms in disguise! Both are used to manipulate behavior, and compliments are just more socially acceptable!”
- To see your strokes (or anything in life) as they are, there is no need to attribute goodness or badness to them. By ending judgment, you do not avoid seeing what is; ending judgement means you neither add nor subtract from the facts before your eyes. Things appear as they are–undistorted. In this way, the mind becomes more calm.
- So this begs the question: how do we “let it happen?” Simple: if you know how to do it, then do it. If you don’t know how to do it, then allow yourself to learn.
- To the “myself” unconscious, a picture is worth a thousand words. The best way for “myself” to learn is through action. Period.
- The Inner Game way of learning is about unlearning the unnatural ways of learning and relearning the childlike ways of learning that are innate within us all
- It is much more difficult to break a habit when there is no adequate replacement for it (both for positive and negative habits). A child doesn’t dig his way out of his old grooves; he simply starts new ones. The groove may be there, but if you’re not using it unless you choose to. A child doesn’t have to break a bad habit because he doesn’t think he has the habit; he simply leaves it in place of another, more serving habit.
- To still the mind, one must learn to put it somewhere. It cannot just be let go; it must be parked. When this is done, we have achieved concentration.
- Concentration is not trying to concentrate; concentration is a fascination of the mind.
Introduction
According to Gallwey, every game is composed of two parts: (1) an outer game that’s played against an external opponent to overcome external obstacles and reach an external goal (2) an inner game played to overcome all habits of the mind which inhibit excellence in performance
While the outer game focuses on practical and technical techniques to master the game, for some reason, we often find the instructions to be easier to remember than to execute.
Victories in the inner game may not provide additions to the trophy case, but they bring valuable rewards which are permanent and which contribute significantly to one’s success thereafter–off the court as well.
The player of the inner game comes to value the art of relaxed concentration above all other skills; he discovers a true basis for self-confidence; and he learns that the secret to winning any game lies in not trying too hard.
Side note: Goodness! I just finished reading “The Untethered Soul” by Michale Singer, and he talks about the exact same relaxed attitude. Naval Ravikant also speaks of life being somewhere between effort and settling. Seems like these people are onto something!
The player of the inner game also uncovers a will to win which unlocks all his energy and which is never discouraged by losing.
Side note: Again, Singer in his book talks about the Conscious will!
Accessing the will does not need additional learning, but rather the unlearning of habits that interfere with it; it’s about relaxing, and letting go by letting it happen.
Chapter 1: Reflections on the Mental Side of Tennis
Summary
The inner game is all about connecting the instruction or intent of what we wish to accomplish to actually execute the action. This is the intention-action gap, and it’s fixed by improving the inner game. The player who is on top of his game is the one who plays in stillness of the mind, without consciously thinking about his play.
Notes
The most common complaint of sportsmen is “It’s not that I don’t know what to do, it’s that I don’t do what I know!”. In other words, it comes down to execution.
The common complaints are:
- I do well in practice, but fall apart during competition
- I know what I’m doing wrong, but I’m having issues breaking the habit
- When I get close to winning, I get nervous, choke-up, and lose concentration
- I am my own worse enemy
So, here’s how Gallwey overcame these issues:
“[from a coach perspective, to his student] One day when I was in a relaxed mood, I began saying less and noticing more; errors that I saw but didn’t mention were correcting themselves without the student ever knowing he had made them”
Gallwey realized that sometimes, verbal instructions to a conscientious student seemed to decrease the probability of the desired correction occurring.
Gallway came to the following conclusion:
Images are better than words, showing better than telling, too much instruction worse than none, and that conscious trying often produces negative results.
Imagine a player who is on his game. Is he thinking at all? Peak performance comes when we’re not thinking about it.
Side note: this is similar to the disciple of Jesus walking on water; the moment he realized he was on water and started thinking, he fell through, yet he was doing just fine before then.
The “hot steak” usually continues until he starts thinking about it and tries to maintain it; as soon as he attempts to exert effort to control, he loses it.
In fact, if you wish to throw your opponent off, simply tell them: “Wow, you’ve been jumping much higher than usual”, or ask, “what are you doing so differently that’s making you jump so well today?”–this will usually make him too self-conscious.
Chapter 2: The Discovery of the Two Selves
Summary
The inner game can be summarized in three steps:
- learning to program the moist computer “myself” with images of an ideal goal, rather than verbal instruction
- Learning to trust thyself
- Learning to observe without judgement
Notes
Here’s Gallwey’s central claim: the Self is composed of two parts: (1) the “I”, which gives instructions on what to do AND evaluates the action performed (2) the “myself” which performs the action.
This leads to the first postulate of the inner game: within each player the kind of relationship that exits between “I” and “myself” is the primary factor in determining one’s ability to translate his knowledge into effective action.
In other words, to improve your performance, seek to improve the relationship between the conscious teller (“I”) and the unconscious, automatic doer (“myself”).
Your self talk (“I”) matters tremendously. The “I” is known for complaining, which we know is not a good mental habitual narrative to develop.
Ideally, “I” watches and observe without judgement, while “myself” performs the action without “I” interruption or feedback.
The inner game can be summarized in three steps:
- learning to program the moist computer “myself” with images of an ideal goal, rather than verbal instruction
- Learning to trust thyself
- Learning to observe without judgement
These three skills combined overcome “trying too hard” and lead to mastery.
Chapter 3: Getting it Together Part 1: Quieting the Mind
Summary
The first inner skill to be developed in the inner game is that of nonjudgmental awareness.
The reward of habitually practicing nonjudgmental awareness is self-confidence.
To see your strokes (or anything in life) as they are, there is no need to attribute goodness or badness to them. By ending judgment, you do not avoid seeing what is; ending judgement means you neither add nor subtract from the facts before your eyes. Things appear as they are–undistorted. In this way, the mind becomes more calm.
Notes
Harmony between the two selves exists when the mind itself is quiet, for only when the mind is still is one’s peak performance reached.
As soon as we reflect, deliberate, and conceptualize the original unconsciousness is lost and the thought interferes.
Man is a thinking reed but his great works are done when he is not calculating and thinking.
Think back to your greatest race from track. During the race, the mind does not act like a separate entity telling you what you should do nor criticizing how you do it. It is quiet; you’re “together”, and the actions flow as free as a river.
So, how do you quiet the mind? Stop it! That’s it!
Of course, you cannot prevent a bird from flying over you, yet you can prevent it from building a nest. Likewise, just stop thinking; if a thought comes through, let it pass.
What do we mean by judging an event? We mean assigning a label to indicate something being bad or good. These judgements are our personal, ego reactions to the sights, sounds, feelings, and thoughts surrounding our experience.
It is the initial act of judgement which provokes a thinking process. To stop thinking, stop judging.
Repeated over time, these self-judgments lead to self-fulfilling prophecies, because they are communicated from “I” instructor to “myself” doer. We become what we think about.
But let’s be clear about something: letting go of judgments does not mean ignoring errors. Rather, it means seeing events as they are and not adding anything to them.
It’s the same attitude we hold when fixing cars. A car engine goes out, we say that the engine is smoking and not turning on; we don’t say the entire car is bad. This comes from a place of “Here’s what I’m seeing, let’s backtrace to the root issue” compared to “this is bad, I am bad, and I cannot get any better, therefore I am a loser”.
One of my personal favorite illustrations that Gallwey makes is when he helps a student without providing any instructions:
" “I can’t remember you telling me anything! You were just watching me, but I sure learned a lot” He had learned without being taught "
“I had learned and he had learned, but there was no one to take credit”
The key is to focus on objective reality. Neither bad nor good. Even the presence of positive judgment reveals a bad standard to avoid, and if one happens to find himself NOT in the good, then he must be bad. In other words, keep it neutral.
“Compliments are criticisms in disguise! Both are used to manipulate behavior, and compliments are just more socially acceptable!”
It is impossible to judge one event as positive without seeing other events as negative.
To see your strokes (or anything in life) as they are, there is no need to attribute goodness or badness to them. By ending judgment, you do not avoid seeing what is; ending judgement means you neither add nor subtract from the facts before your eyes. Things appear as they are–undistorted. In this way, the mind becomes more calm.
Really think about the power of nonjudgement; you’re able to read books, turn on lights, and go out for a run, all automatically, without thinking. But the moment you compete; the moment you are set to create a comparative “good” versus “bad”, you start THINKING and measuring yourself to others. Comparison is the thief of joy, it’s also the initiator of the negative self-talk.
Chapter 4: Getting it Together Part 2: Letting it Happen
Summary
The primary goal of the “I” (Self 1, conscious, ego driven) is to communicate to “myself” (Self 2, unconscious, actor) the goal at hand via imagery AND letting Self 2 do its job. By imagery, we mean results-based imagery; how the results should appear if we are successful.
The native language through which Self 2 learns is through imagery.
The inner game can be summarized in three steps:
- learning to program the moist computer “myself” with images of an ideal goal, rather than verbal instruction
- Learning to trust thyself
- Learning to observe without judgement
Notes
This chapter focuses on how to improve something without labeling it as “bad”; a process by which actions flow spontaneously and sensibly without an ego-mind on the scene chasing positives and trying to reform negatives.
Understand, similar to what Michale Singer writes, that YOU are not your body, nor are you your tennis matches; you are the observer of these actions. So, allow your body to let it do its thing, without judging.
Side note: I mean, this may be dangerous if you live hedonistically, just saying.
So this begs the question: how do we “let it happen?” Simple: if you know how to do it, then do it. If you don’t know how to do it, then allow yourself to learn.
Muscle memory is abundant: in speech, in hands, in body, in mind.
So the important thing for beginning players to know is to allow the natural learning process to take place and to forget about stroke-by-stroke self-instructions.
The main job of the chatty “I” (the conscious ego) is to set goals by communicating to “myself” (the unconscious learning actor) what the target to aim for is.
The slow and painful way of learning is by thinking about each step and then commanding ourselves to execute it.
So how should we learn? Just watch and observe. Practice nonjudgmental awareness by being curious. Observe visually the lessons. Then, when you feel ready, JUST GO FOR IT!
Ironically, once we succeed, we’re unable to explain how we do it, making us question whether we know how to do it to begin with–BUT WE DO, the proof is in the data!
“While most of us who learn tennis through verbal instruction can explain in great detail how the ball should be hit but have trouble doing it [ourselves].”
To the “myself” unconscious, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Side note: I’m pretty sure Naval Ravikant spoke of something similar to this; how the greatest athletes can’t describe exactly how they do their skill, simply because they master the skill at such an intuitive level.
To the “myself” unconscious, a picture is worth a thousand words. The best way for “myself” to learn is through action. Period.
The benefits to your game come not from analyzing the strokes of the top players, but from concentrating without thinking and simply letting yourself absorb the images before you.
Side note: But how does this differ from Ray Dalio’s “reflection” component of his success formula? How can we reflect if we can’t label certain actions as “good” or “bad”? Maybe view them from an engineering/curiosity standpoint and fix the issue as it is?
The inner game can be summarized in three steps:
- learning to program the moist computer “myself” with images of an ideal goal, rather than verbal instruction
- Learning to trust thyself
- Learning to observe without judgement
Chapter 5: Master Tips
Notes
“The perfect strokes are already within us waiting to be discovered.”
Summary
Said broadly, the source of infinite wisdom is within, and it is from within that we can discover our true gifts to society.
The rest of this chapter focuses on tennis-specific techniques.
Chapter 6: Changing Habits: Practical Applications of Inner-Game Learning
Summary
The Inner Game way of learning is about unlearning the unnatural ways of learning and relearning the childlike ways of learning that are innate within us all.
Energy can never be created nor destroyed; a broken habit must be replaced by a newer one.
Here are the 5 steps to natural learning:
- Nonjudgmental observation
- Visualize the act
- Let it happen
- Nonjudgmentaly observe the results
- Iterate
Notes
The Inner Game way of learning is about unlearning the unnatural ways of learning and relearning the childlike ways of learning that are innate within us all.
Learning is not the collection of information, but the realization of something which changes one’s behavior, either externally (such as a tennis stroke or making friends) or internally (the habitual narratives we tell ourselves).
The time for change comes when we realize that the same function could be served in a better way.
It is much more difficult to break a habit when there is no adequate replacement for it (both for positive and negative habits).
Every time you swing your racket in a certain way, you increase the probability that you will swing that way again.
The above quote is NOT limited to tennis, but applies to all habits.
Without a healthy alternative to our negative habits, we grit our teeth, tense our muscles, and exert all the will power in our abilities to simply stop the negative habit.
A child doesn’t dig his way out of his old grooves; he simply starts new ones. The groove may be there, but if you’re not using it unless you choose to. A child doesn’t have to break a bad habit because he doesn’t think he has the habit; he simply leaves it in place of another, more serving habit.
In short, there is no need to fight old habits; start new ones instead.
Chapter 7: Concentration
Summary
Concentration is not trying to concentrate; concentration is a fascination of the mind
Notes
The quiet mind cannot be achieved by means of intellectual understanding. Only the experience of peace in a moment when the mind is relatively still is one sufficiently encouraged to let go more completely the next time.
Side note: this is similar to Singer’s understanding that God cannot be understood via intellectual understanding
Very gradually, one begins to trust the natural process which occurs when the mind is less and less active.
When one has experienced the practical benefits of a still mind, he usually finds it a strangely elusive state.
They call it a secrete for a reason, because the moment you proudly announced your secrete and begin telling others, you are now on stage for performance and the self-critic is on.
To still the mind, one must learn to put it somewhere. It cannot just be let go; it must be parked. When this is done, we have achieved concentration.
One of the most practical ways to increase concentration on the ball is to learn to love it!
Indian yogis from bahkti yoga recognized the power of love in overcoming distraction.
Concentration is not trying to concentrate; concentration is a fascination of the mind.
Holy sheep. This is in line with:
- curiosity
- love
- captivation
- smitten
When there is love present, the mind is drawn irresistibly toward the object of love. It is effortless and relaxed, not tensed and purposeful.
Ideally, if we wish to make concentration even easier, that which we love should be an objet in motion (like a tennis ball, but you can get creative).
Meditation and breath work are two of the most direct ways we can improve our attention.
Chapter 8: Games People Play on the Court
“I began to realize that I was about to be beaten by a ‘better-than-average club player’. I don’t know what was happening inside his head, but he couldn’t finish me off. As I walked off the court, I had no sense that I had won the match–rather that he had lost it.
If you’re feeling anxious, answer these questions (preferably on paper):
- What is the worst that can happen?
- What are you going to do about it?
- What is the best that can happen?
- What are you going to do about it?
- What do you actually want?
- What are you going to do about it?
Chapter 9: The meaning of Competition
The thrill in competition is not from beating the other person, but from confronting and iteratively overcoming larger and larger obstacles that permit us to grow.
It’s on the ascending climb that we experience the most euphoria.