Body Presence

One of the core principles of The Inner Game of Tennis (Click Here) is to rediscover how to learn from your own experience. And the key to that is self-awareness.

Becoming more aware of your body and what you are doing generates high quality, highly relevant feedback and enables change or learning to happen quickly and effortlessly. This feedback occurs, of course, internally through your feelings and body sensations rather than from outside sources such as your coach. Neuroscientists call this proprioception.

In essence, with proprioception you tap into the billion plus sensory receptors you have throughout your body and nervous system. Most of these receptors are located in your muscles, joints and tendons. When you move, the receptors send detailed messages to your brain about your body’s position in space, your balance, and your actions.

Neuroscience studies show that awareness and the focus of awareness is the key to optimal learning and performance in any activity. So where and how we focus our attention is crucial.

So where optimally should we put our attention to become biomechanically more efficient and improve our technique in tennis?

There are four places that are helpful in this regard: your body, the ball,…