What I Learned from the Inner Game of Tennis: Part 2

[arturohernandez]

I tend to agree self-criticism tends to perpetuate problems indefinitely. Both in terms of learning strokes or in matchplay. 'Show me a moaner and I'll show you a loser' is a quote a friend of mine would frequently use to describe junior players with poor temperaments losing matches.

I think the inner game method is great for learning strokes if a player can get onboard with it. I think you can get inner games temperaments too. Arthur Ashe got there with it defeating Connors at Wimbledon In 1975. I am not sure a player can reach that level of inner calm on a daily basis. Connors got there be 'sheer will' I always felt. I guess you get hybrid temperament, too.

The idea of hybrid temperaments is interesting. But everyone experiences those days. Was it the 1982 or 83 Wimbledon final where Johnny Mac simply played out of his mind to beat Connors in straight sets. That day he was quiet as can be.

But most days are not like that. Then it becomes a battle to try and win. Those non-Zone days feel gritty to me. I am fighting and battling but not against myself. Like running up a steep hill and trying to get the top.

The key is that I am never against myself. I tried this once Ice Skating where my son wondered what the hell I was doing. I must have looked like I was skating on two left feet. But in my mind I was calm and skating like a pro.

I know the image in my mind did not match reality. But imagine if I had thought I was horrible. I would have been much worse. Better to be very bad with a very positive outlook than absolutely horrible with a negative one. That is the trick that is very hard to learn. To fool oneself into performing better.

[johnyandell]

Good thoughts!

[jthb1021]

Self 1 or the ego always has a narrative bringing forth problems and commentary...it never shuts up! The key is to take a step back from this voice and learn that you are the observer of what Self 1 says and actually can get quiet when you sit in the seat of consciousness in your mind and not just allow the auto pilot to keep the running dialogue going unchecked. Getting quiet is the key to getting in the zone and getting lost in what you are doing. We are always at our best in everything when we get lost in what we are doing that is the Self 2 side according to this book.
keys to getting in the zone from the book Flow that i referenced in the previous article.
1. clear understanding of what you need to do or are doing
2. You know in the moment what you are doing is getting you closer to the objective or not. In other words feedback is immediate like the feeling of hitting a clean ball
3. The challenges of the activity are matched with the skill of the person. Basically what there is to do is in balance with what you can do
4. feeling of focus or of concentration on what you are doing. You lose the split attention that we have in everyday life of thinking of what you are doing and doing it at the same time (this is the self 1 self 2 stuff). In Flow the split energy disappears and channels into a singular beam of focused concentrated energy allowing you to become one with what you are doing.
5. You are unaware of problems, worries, and distractions that intrude on your focus. You are completely engaged in what you are doing in the present moment
6. You feel a sense of control over what you are doing. You are not actually in complete control because that would mean you your skills are above the challenge(s). You are on an edge where control is possible...you can fall off the edge if you relax too much. but in principle you feel like you can have control
7. The challenge creates the use of all your skills and you lose a sense of self consciousness. The ego disappears because you are so engaged in what you are doing that you don't care about the egos self defense mechanisms such as judgement from what others think of you, you actually go beyond the limits of the ego and the self. You actually transcend by not thinking of yourself and then feel a sense of accomplishment afterward. You forget yourself at the moment and after the activity you return stronger than you were before. It is a paradox like everything else
8. Time seems to be transformed. Something that takes a long time flies by in what feels like a moment. Or in tennis a stroke that takes less than a second feels like a you have an abundance of time.

In my opinion by getting quiet and staying engaged in the present moment allows you to enter this flow state more frequently. We have all felt these characteristics. Getting students to understand these will allow them to walk through the zone door more frequently. It is always open! We just have to surrender ourselves to walk through it

[stotty]

I tend to agree self-criticism tends to perpetuate problems indefinitely. Both in terms of learning strokes or in matchplay. 'Show me a moaner and I'll show you a loser' is a quote a friend of mine would frequently use to describe junior players with poor temperaments losing matches.

I think the inner game method is great for learning strokes if a player can get onboard with it. I think you can get inner games temperaments too. Arthur Ashe got there with it defeating Connors at Wimbledon In 1975. I am not sure a player can reach that level of inner calm on a daily basis. Connors got there be 'sheer will' I always felt. I guess you get hybrid temperament, too.

[arturohernandez]

Yeah academia speak is what I want to avoid

Nevertheless, it is crucial to...

Okay, so back to less academic English. The whole article is very intriguing. I find an interesting contradiction between IPS and the notion of suffering. Cristina in the article was basically using a Spanish tactic via John's instruction. Accept that suffering is normal and embrace it.

Learning to be one's greatest cheerleader is the hardest thing for a tennis player. No matter what I am on my side. It's not a normal state of being in the world. Doubts, fears, hesitation is normal and even good in real life. I should probably think twice of going to an ATM at 3 am.

In tennis, all of these feelings just get in the way. The best thing is to focus on the task at hand and nothing else.

I still have Visual Tennis on my bookshelf. Oh and schooling could also be improved by focusing on Self 2. In fact, a book called stranger to ourselves argues that the true leader is our Self 2. Self 1 spends most of its time inventing stories to justify Self 2's actions.

The idea of selves is great.

Keep the articles coming John!

[johnyandell]

Yeah academia speak is what I want to avoid

[doctorhl]

Been out of the academia loop for awhile, but will see what I can do.

[johnyandell]

Doctor,
I must agree! Anything you could chop out of your dissertation for an article in simple English??

[doctorhl]

Kudos, especially to the discussion part on visual imagery and its relationship to IPS. My dissertation(1990) involved trying to verify a qualitative, systematic observational approach to sport skill analysis. In other words, can you teach people how to visually recognize the appearance, or absence of, sport movement checkpoints through a visual medium like video.This requires an ability to retain a visual image, especially if a teacher/ coach is presenting analysis feedback to someone in real time. Your tennis visual imagery system, with its identified checkpoints, most likely improves a person’s visual retention ability, including improved checkpoint appearance/absence detection ability as a positive reinforcement exercise, either when done by yourself or a teacher/coach.

[johnyandell]

Would love to get your thoughts on my article, "What I Learned from the Inner Game of Tennis: Part 2"