Mastering the Inner Game
By Kyle Condiff
Professional athletes, regardless of sport, play at their best when they think less about what they are doing. Sports psychologist W. Timothy Gallwey argued that the cause of this effect is the conscious mind's tendency to get in the way. The premise of his 1974 book The Inner Game of Tennis is that a quiet mind allows more efficient performance. The inner game in the title involves avoiding distractions to maintain in-the-moment awareness of the outer game, which is the activity or sport being played. Although the title mentions tennis, Gallwey mainly uses the sport for anecdotes and examples in order to discuss the inner game as applied to any activity.
Gallwey gives the name Self 1 to conscious thoughts and calls the subconscious Self 2. He analogizes Self 1 to a coach, commanding and criticizing, and Self 2 to an athlete who already knows the motions and listens to the coach for directions. In activities like tennis, where there is little time for reaction, Self 1's job is to maintain awareness and supply Self 2 with updated information, and Self 2's job is to move the body.
If Self 1 does not trust Self 2 to do its job and tries to micromanage, then awareness is lost. A tennis player must be aware of the locations, momenta, and spin of the ball and the racket, and trust their body to respond the way they have practiced. In ballroom dance, each dancer must be fully aware of their partner's position as well as their own, and on the dance floor, there is too little time to simultaneously focus on technique during each movement. Movements must be learned and practiced by Self 2 before they can be applied in the outer game with awareness.
According to Gallwey, new tennis students commonly come to him frustrated because other instructors have told them specifically what they are doing wrong but they are unable to fix it. In essence, Self 1 knows what the problem is and unsuccessfully tries to force the body to move correctly. Gallwey's solution is to help Self 2 learn on its own by supplying Self 2 with imagery of correct technique. He tells his students to watch his racket strokes and then watch their own racket strokes in a mirror. This technique of visualization has become a common tool in sports training. It is especially relevant to ballroom dance, where movements are frequently too complex for Self 1 to comprehend and control all aspects, and where the goal is often to be visually appealing.
Self 1 must also refrain from judging the success or failure of outcomes. Such judgment provokes emotional responses. If Self 1 notices a failure, then it may doubt Self 2, leading to timid hesitation or wasting energy with tenseness. If a tennis student continually hits the ball into the net and judges it as a failure, the student will begin to either second-guess themselves or overthink their strokes in hopes that consciously controlling everything will work. On the other hand, if Self 1 notices success, then it may try to determine how to replicate the outcome, which can have similar consequences. Simply observing what your body is doing, without judgment or preconceived ideas of what you are doing wrong, allows your body to make adjustments without interference.
The inner game requires Self 1 and Self 2 to work together, each doing its own job. Since Self 1 is the part we are conscious of, its job of maintaining impartial awareness is what we should think of in any activity we perform. Self 2 is the part that must learn the movements, and since it operates at the subconscious level, we must help it learn by providing the imagery and feelings of movement without overthinking or attempting to control everything.