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.
Anxiety is fear about what may happen in the future, and it occurs only when the mind is imagining what the future may bring. But when your attention is on the here and now, the actions which need to be done in the present have their best chance of being successfully accomplished, and as a result the future will become the best possible present. So.
For the teacher or coach, the question has to be how to give instructions in such a way as to help the natural learning process of the student and not interfere with it.
The problem is your people don’t know who they are,” I said emphatically. “Thus, they tend to identify themselves with their roles, their reputations, the company itself, and the current way of doing things. When the stability of any of these factors is threatened, their automatic response is to resist, and to resist as if they were protecting their own selves. Because they are protecting who they think they are, they do so with considerable force.
Negative judgment of the results of one’s efforts tends to make one try even harder; positive evaluation tends to make one try to force oneself into the same pattern on the next shot. Both positive and negative thinking inhibit spontaneity. THE.
Forget should’s and experience is.
Attention is focused consciousness, and consciousness is that power of knowing.
One caution about “the zone”: it cannot be controlled by Self 1. I have seen many articles that claim to provide a technique for “playing in the zone every time.” Forget it! This is a setup. It’s an age-old trap.
It’s difficult to have fun or to achieve concentration when your ego is engaged in what it thinks is a life-and-death struggle.
Like a good gardener who knows when the soil needs alkali and when acid, the competent tennis pro should be able to help the development of your game.
In a society that has become so oriented toward language as a way of representing truth, it is very possible to lose touch with your ability to feel and with it your ability to “remember” the shots themselves.
Uncomfortable without a standard for right and wrong, the judgmental mind makes up standards of its own. Meanwhile, attention is taken off what is and placed on the process of trying to do things right.
He aims at the kind of spontaneous performance which occurs only when the mind is calm and seems at one with the body, which finds its own surprising ways to surpass its own limits again and again. Moreover, while overcoming the common hang-ups of competition, the player of the inner game uncovers a will to win which unlocks all his energy and which is never discouraged by losing. There.
To me it makes sense to build any system of instruction upon the best possible understanding of natural learning, the learning process you were born with.
The development of inner skills is required, but it is interesting to note that if, while learning tennis, you begin to learn how to focus your attention and how to trust in yourself, you have learned something far more valuable than how to hit a forceful backhand. The.
I was beginning to learn what all good pros and students of tennis must learn: that images are better than words, showing better than telling, too much instruction worse than none, and that trying often produces negative results. One question perplexed me: What’s wrong with trying? What does it mean to try too hard? PLAYING.
Awareness of what is, without judgment, is relaxing, and is the best precondition for change.
Again focus your attention on the can; then let the serve serve itself.
Since the mind seems to have a will of its own, how can one learn to keep it in the present? By practice.
Once you learn how to learn, you have only to discover what is worth learning. Summarized.
When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as “rootless and stemless.” We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed.