Anyone else read The Inner Game of Tennis back in the 70s? [View all]

It's on my list of books to read again. I read it in 1975 and thought it was great even though I'm not a tennis player or ever hope to be one.


https://theinnergame.com/inner-game-books/the-inner-game-of-tennis/



A phenomenon when first published in 1974, the Inner Game was a real revelation. Instead of serving up technique, it concentrated on the fact that, as Gallwey wrote, “Every game is composed of two parts, an outer game and an inner game.” The former is played against opponents, and is filled with lots of contradictory advice; the latter is played not against, but within the mind of the player, and its principal obstacles are self-doubt and anxiety. Gallwey’s revolutionary thinking, built on a foundation of Zen thinking and humanistic psychology, was really a primer on how to get out of your own way to let your best game emerge. It was sports psychology before the two words were pressed against each other and codified into an accepted discipline.