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Sean Brawley

Contributor

Sean Brawley has spent more than 25 years helping individuals and organizations deepen focus and elevate performance. A former world class tennis player, he competed at Wimbledon and the US Open.

Following his playing career, Sean worked closely with Timothy Gallwey, author of The Inner Game series.  Sean is the only Master Certified Inner Game Coach in the world and has coached more than 100 elite athletes, including work with the New York Yankees and Pete Carroll’s USC football team.  

Sean is also an executive coach, facilitating leadership programs for GE, Seagate Technology, Union Bank, and many others.

Creative Visualization to Improve Performance
Mental Game
Creative Visualization to Improve Performance

How imagination reveals—and limits—our mental game Eight years ago, while working on a project for Wilson Racquet Sports titled Mental Readiness, I interviewed several of their top contract professionals, including Roger Federer, Grigor Dimitrov, Gaël Monfils, Simona Halep, Venus Williams,...

February 2026

The Spirituality of the Inner Game: Self 3
Mental Game
The Spirituality of the Inner Game: Self 3

At a recent Inner Game of Tennis workshop for 16 people, all 16 players were able to have consistent rallies of 30-40 balls with moderate pace in less than two hours. This was unusual because usually at least a few...

August 2023

The Inner Game and the Hero’s Journey
Mental Game
The Inner Game and the Hero’s Journey

Is there a connection between my work in the Inner Game and the hero's journey so brilliantly described by the late mythologist Joseph Campbell? If you don't know his work it is more than worth studying. Campbell did a compelling...

April 2024

Body Presence
Mental Game
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...

November 2023

The Inner Game Approach to Technique
Mental Game
The Inner Game Approach to Technique

This article is for all coaches and players who wish to better understand change and the change process in the hopes of learning a more effective way to change, whether that be improving your volley or serve or grandstrokes, or...

June 2023

The Inner Game of Carlos Alcaraz
Mental Game
The Inner Game of Carlos Alcaraz

Spanish men's tennis professional Carlos Alcaraz is currently ranked number two in the world. He is 19 years old and has already won 9 ATP Tour singles titles, including the 2022 U.S. Open and three Masters 1000 titles. With his...

May 2023

Bounce Hit
Mental Game
Bounce Hit

Jack Groppel, who at the time I spoke with him was the Chairman of the USTA Sports Science Committee, told me that Bounce-Hit, the ball tracking exercise from The Inner Game of Tennis, was the single greatest exercise ever created...

April 2023

The Inner Game and Professional Baseball
Mental Game
The Inner Game and Professional Baseball

There I was standing on the hallowed ground of the New York Yankee spring training facility in Tampa, Florida. On the surrounding walls were numerous inspirational quotes from the likes of Lou Gehrig, Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter and...

March 2023

Towards More Effective Teaching
Mental Game
Towards More Effective Teaching

In the last Inner Game article, we looked at the Culture of Coaching and its dependence primarily on giving technical instructions arising out of a model best described as the "medical" model or "fix what's wrong" model. We also looked...

February 2023

The Inner Game and the Culture of Sports Coaching
Mental Game
The Inner Game and the Culture of Sports Coaching

When The Inner Game of Tennis was first published in 1974 it took the tennis world by storm. Tens of thousands of players bought the book and by the letters they sent to author, Tim Gallwey, it clearly helped them...

January 2023

Meeting Tim Gallwey
Mental Game
Meeting Tim Gallwey

Meeting Tim Gallwey changed the course of my entire life. Prior to meeting him, I was a highly successful coach working with numerous highly ranked juniors and tour pros. I had what I thought was a successful coaching philosophy that...

December 2022

The Origins of the Inner Game
Mental Game
The Origins of the Inner Game

I appreciate the opportunity to write about something so near and dear to my heart. I have known Tim Gallwey for almost 30 years and had the good fortune of being mentored by him for over 6 years starting in...

November 2022