The Inner Game of Golf

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Shortly thereafter, KCET produced a six-part nationally viewed TV series called Inner Tennis, each of which focused on a particular theme such as overcoming fear, achieving concentration, breaking bad habits, etc. Inner Skiing applied the same learning techniques to an icier sport and dealt specifically with overcoming the various kinds of fear commonly experienced in that sport. W. Timothy Gallwey’s bestsellingInner Gamebooks have revolutionized the way we think about sports. As he did in his phenomenally successful The Inner Game of Tennis, Gallwey provides methods that can be applied to situations beyond the green. The Inner Game of Golf delivers strategies to achieve potential—both in the crucible of competition and in everyday life. With Gallwey as a guide, you’ll learn how to

A good structure for practice sessions: 5 minutes of pure play, 20 minutes of focused swinging, 5 minutes of play, remaining time on performance—playing as if you're on the course. Lccn 97041272 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL693998M Openlibrary_edition To develop putting feel, play the "touch game": the goal is to putt the ball without looking where it's going, and then predict it. Success is predicting correctly, not getting the ball in or near the hole.Hod do "do-instructions" incur doubt? How do you walk down a flight of stairs? How do you tie your shoe? How do you write your name? Think about one of these actions and see if you can come up with a set of instructions about how to perform it. Then try to do the action by following your own instructions. p60 W. Timothy Gallwey's bestselling Inner Game books--with over one million copies sold--have revolutionized the way we think about sports. And now, after twenty years of applying his Inner Game methods to the royal and ancient sport of golf, Gallwey brings us this completely revised edition of his classic The Inner Game of Golf, nearly half of which is new material, published here for the first time. When the mind is concentrated and absorbed in what it is doing, interference is minimized and the brain is able to function closer to potential. Once Self 1 was focused in a concentration exercise, his interference with Self 2 decreased significantly, and performance instantly improved. p20

Awareness instructions are radically different from do-instructions, and tend to put the student in another frame of mind entirely. They engender a mode of learning that is free of doubt, frustration, and discouragement. They induce a national state of learning, which, once rediscovered, progresses organically and rapidly. Most important, they strengthen the student's faith in his own capacity to learn from experience; the instructor's role is only to help him in focusing on the most relevant parts of his experience. p63One of my first long-term clients was AT&T. In the early 1980′s, they were faced with the challenge of changing the mindset of the largest company in the U.S. from the “bell shaped head” of monopolistic thinking to the mindset of a competitive, market-driven, entrepreneurial company. In the years after his first book’s release, readers even began to employ the Inner Game methods to their lives off court, and Tim moved into applying The Inner Game methods of change to corporate work. His long term clients included Apple, AT&T, The Coca Cola Company, and Rolls Royce where he applied The Inner Game of coaching for Leadership, Sales, Change management and Teamwork, Gallwey’s work has often been credited as the foundation of the new fields of corporate and life coaching.

The classic guide to sharpening your mind and raising your performance as a golfer and in the game of life—part of the bestselling Inner Game series, with more than one million copies sold! W. Timothy Gallwey (born 1938 in San Francisco, California) is an author who has written a series of books in which he has set forth a new methodology for coaching and for the development of personal and professional excellence in a variety of fields, that he calls "The Inner Game." Since he began writing in the 1970s, his books include The Inner Game of Tennis, The Inner Game of Golf, The Inner game of Music (with Barry Green), Inner Skiing and The Inner Game of Work. Gallwey's seminal work is the The Inner Game of Tennis, with more than one million copies in print.[1] Besides sports, his training methods have been applied to the fields of business, health, and education.[1] On what was meant to be a sabbatical from a career in college administration, Gallwey worked as a tennis instructor in Monterey, CA. Initially, he focused his efforts on giving traditional instructions with mixed results. He soon discovered that if he simply invited his students to focus their awareness on their strokes as they were, technique evolved naturally and seemed to self correct. Players using Gallwey’s methods improved far more rapidly than usual, and without self-criticism or trying so hard to “do it right.” By quieting self-interference, they were more able to tap into their natural abilities with greater ease. In 1980, Random House asked me to write The Inner Game of Golf and to, in doing so, describe the learning from the point of view of a student of the game, which I was. Perhaps more than in any other major sport, the golfer is vulnerable to subtle shifts in mindset, which can have drastic impact on one’s performance. About that time Barry Green, then the lead bassist for the Cincinnati Philharmonic Orchestra approached me to collaborate on The Inner Game of Music, another activity in which both the fear of failure and doubt can be anathema to the quality of performance. Precision can be achieved through the positive manner in which one approaches the ball. Most professionals seem to approach the ball with great self-discipline. This should be the goal of the novice as well. Consistency in one's approach is important. Every single time, approach the ball with a calm nature. Everyone knows that golf does not allow for the release of pent up frustration. The next shot must be achieved with a kind of 'quiet' attitude. This calls for one to understand the inner game of golf as well as the outer game.

Whatever you're trying to do, don't. Don't try to do it and don't try not to do it. Simply don't try at all and see what happens. p47 Awareness mode" is the optimal mode for performance. You're focused and alert, but not "trying" hard. You're attentive but detached.

I then began to explore ways to focus the mind of the player on direct and non-judgmental observation of ball, body, and racquet in a way that would heighten learning, performance, and enjoyment of the process. With this new awareness, amateur tennis players seemed to naturally develop the instincts and physicality of much more experienced players without specific instruction.An alternative is just to say "da" at all points of the swing, and you can add one at takeaway if you like.