Customer Reviews
Know Your "Selves" Better - By: tennismom, 29 Sep 2008 
As most people can guess by the title, the "inner game" of tennis is the game that takes place iin the mind of the player & is played against barriers such as nervousness, self-doubt, etc.
To gain clarity on the mental problemsin tennis, the book looks at the concepts of "Self 1" & "Self 2". Self 1 is the name that is given to the conscious ego-mind which likes the tell Self 2, you & your potential, how to hit the ball & play the game. Or, to put it another way, Self 1 is the "teller" & Self 2 the "doer". I found this to be an interesting idea, as we have all caught ourselves talking to ourselves or have seen others talking to themselves during a game. If you ask someone who they are talking to, they will usually say "I'm talking to myself." This, of course, implies that there are 2 "selves", "I" & "myself"- & so is born the idea of Self 1 & Self 2. Pretty astutue observationin my opinion.
Now according to the book, to achieve peak performance, the key is to resolve any lack of harmony between the two selves, as it is the contrary thinking of Self 1 which causes interference with the natural abilities of Self 2. This requires the learning of several inner skills, such as the art of letting go of self-judgements, letting Self 2 do the hitting, recognizing & trusting the natural learning process, & so on- which is what much of the books spends discussing.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who plays tennis (or any other sport for that matter) as it does a great jobin dealing with the fact that many of our difficultiesin tennis are indeed mentalin origin. Other helpful books for tennis players I've come across include Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff.
Inner Game of Nothing Special - By: C. Tucker, 14 Jul 2008 
I have not found the reason why people rave about this book. It basically tells you to make a clear mental image of what you want to achieve & trust your body to do it - that's it!
So good. Never forget what the author tells you in this exquisite book. - By: Onewithall, 14 May 2008 This is beautiful. Every chapter just makes perfect sense. Gallwey has taught me many things through this masterpiece - how farin you can get away standing to receive even fast serves, that I was a "good-o" type player & why this mentality won't get you anywhere or at least any happiness, how you shouldn't *try* to win but instead make the *effort* to win, how breathing can transform your game, how awareness is the key to playing to your potential & thoughts are your obstacles, & so much more.
The only thing I lament is that I don't remember what he saysin this book everytime I step on court & instead sometimes end up reverting to my erroneous thinking! But I think I'm getting better. I'm determined to win the inner game! What one really needs is to find a way of drilling his advice into their subconscious! I can only recommend continually rereading it!
You should also bearin mind that this book is a lesson on life as well as tennis, & can make you life more peaceful. I think Gallwey says somewherein here something along the lines of "you can practise concentration to improve your tennis, or you can practise tennis to improve your concentration..." If you buy one book to improve your tennis get this one, no matter what level you're at. It will increase your enjoyment of the game.
A book for ALL coaches not just tennis - By: K. Mcdougall, 01 Mar 2007 
I was recommended this book not to improve tennis (I don't play at all) but to improve my understanding of coaching & improve my own coaching skills.
The book is written by a tennis coach & is of course about tennis, however it is more than that. The skills & principles of the inner self & the competing elements of `I' & `myself' can be applied to all types of coaching whether that be sports, lifestyle or executive.
If you are a coach or want to become a coach this is a great book to read.
The Missing link. - By: Marcus Alexander, 17 Oct 2005 My Tennis nowhere what it should have been, Ive been good at other sports, but not ball sports what this book addreses is we all know what to do & we are all capable of doing it, but we dont/wont for some reason . Not just tennis but with anything else we do. I was trying too hard & not allowoing my subconscieous to do its work it is so capable of.
This gives practical advice on how to concentrate, & blot out your interfearing nerves, easy to follow & straight forward. My favourite at the moment is the book tells of how if you concentrate you can slow the fast balls downin your minds eye, (which is how I would imagine top players do such incredible things) by, literally creating more moments as the ball travels towards you ie instead of saying a serve goes byin 1 moments you can say the saem time is 10 moments, as I understand it this is why everything seemsin slow motionin a crash, excellent book. Fills the missing linkin learning Tennis.
