The Hero's Journey
and the Inner Game
Sean Brawley
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 series of interviews on PBS with Bill Moyers shortly before his death. (Click Here.) But he had published a long series of books before then.
The Hero's Journey (Click Here) is probably the best known. It can be summarized this way: a hero or even an ordinary man goes on an adventure, faces a decisive crisis and comes home transformed.
But what does that have to do with tennis? Let me give you the background on that from my own life. It all started with Star Wars.
Background
When Star Wars first came out in 1977, like most people, I absolutely loved the movie. The advanced special effects for the time were amazing, of course, but I especially liked the story line about Luke Skywalker going on the adventure of a lifetime, learning how to use the Force, fighting Darth Vader, and feeling his obvious deep sense of purpose in what he was doing.
Fast forward a dozen years later and I would discover the man behind the story. The man without whom George Lucas said Star Wars wouldn't have been made. Joseph Campbell and his ideas about spirituality and mythology would help me process a great loss in my life and help me see parallels in the Hero's Journey and the life of my mentor and my relationship with Tim Gallwey and the Inner Game of Tennis.
A little more than 34 years ago the course of my life changed dramatically. My father, with whom I had a rather tenuous relationship, died at the young age of 62, and the deep sense of pain and loss I felt opened up a dimension in me that I hadn't realized existed.
I'm still not sure what I should call that dimension. The dark abyss? My soul? All I know is from that moment on some part of me woke up and I began a search for meaning and purpose that continues to this day.
The first steps on my quest were aided by Joseph Campbell who went from relative obscurity to a national sensation with the airing of Bill Moyer's interviews in 1987. My brother gave me the video of the series and I watched it transfixed.
Campbell had spent a lifetime studying the world's myths, legends, religions, psychology and eastern philosophies and his command of his subject was obvious. He in fact answered questions for me that I didn't even know I had about life, death, God, following your bliss, who we are, and consciousness.
Campbell's major discovery was what is called the "mono-myth." Regardless of geography or time, underlying all of the seemingly different stories that human beings have told over thousands of years was one elementary story, which Campbell called The Hero's Journey. He wrote about this in detail in his seminal classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
In short, the Hero's Journey follows a similar pattern from story to story, which is probably best illustrated in the Star Wars saga.
We're all familiar with the pattern even if not consciously. For example, in the first Star Wars movie Luke feels a burning call to adventure to help the Republic fight the Empire and when he heeds that call, he soon after receives supernatural aid via his mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi, who gives him his light saber and teaches him the ways of the Force. Luke then embarks on his adventure where he will face a series of trials and challenges.
In Campell's telling, eventually the hero ends up in the whale's belly, dark forest, or deep cave, all symbolically representing our deep unconscious. Here the hero will face his darkest fears, wounds, and insecurities in the form of monsters and demons, and in Luke's case, Darth Vadar. From this great ordeal or battle, the hero emerges a new man with confidence, knowledge and "boons" that he brings back to the community.
Campbell died shortly after the show aired and six years later my wife and I found ourselves at the Esalen Institute located on the rocky cliffs of Big Sur, California, nestled amongst a majestic grove of towering redwood trees, while attending the Campbell Foundation's first retreat held since his death.
Campbell used to present regularly at Esalen and so this workshop on mythology was quite special. His wife of many years, Jean, attended, as did several of his long-time friends including author and Tai Chi master, Chung Liang Al Huang, who created the Foundation's logo right there in front of us.
As the small group of us explored the Hero's Journey theme and what it meant to us in our own lives, I began to see correlations to my own journey that I hadn't seen before. and helped light the way for me.
Like Luke, I, too, felt like I had received a call to adventure in the form of a driving impulse to answer the great questions of life and make sense of it all. It definitely did not come from my conscious mind but from deep within. And I felt compelled to let it guide me.
Soon after I found myself making the decision to leave my commercial real estate job and to return to tennis as a coach. And within a few short months, I met Tim Gallwey. Tim graciously offered to mentor me in the Inner Game approach, and I started learning about how the mind affects our learning, performance and enjoyment of all we do.
In the TV series, Moyers asked Campbell, "What do you think the meaning of life is?" Campbell responded that he had been asked this question many times over the 35 years he taught at Sarah Lawrence College.
"Life has no meaning. What is the meaning of a flower or a bird? What I think people really want to know is, how can I have a deeper, more meaningful experience of life? And to that I say follow your bliss. Do the thing you must do that your heart tells you to do. And when you do doors will open for you that you never thought would open and wouldn't open for anyone else."
Reaching Tim
After reading the Inner Game of Tennis, my initial attempts at reaching Gallwey all fell flat. As a result, I gave up that goal, while still keeping my intention.
Within a few weeks, I became reacquainted with a man who had given me a bit of money prior to going out on the tour after graduating college. I taught him and his children for three years.
In all that time, Tony never mentioned The Inner Game of Tennis to me. It turned out Tony was Tim's cousin. The introduction made. The door opened. It is here I first learned "when the student is ready the teacher will appear."
With Tim's help, I began to experiment with innovative coaching techniques other than giving technical instruction. Specifically, I Iearned from my students how self-awareness, an inner resource that we all have, is the most powerful agent for change and natural learning, yet most sports coaches to this day, 30 years later, still don't know about it.
I also learned how crucial directing our focus of attention is for attaining sustainable high performance. Neuroscience research now confirms this.
I quickly saw the parallels between my relationship with Tim and Luke's relationship with Obi Wan Kenobi. You could say that Tim was helping me learn the ways of the Force! Much like Obi Wan, Tim would also advise me to "trust my instincts" and to "use my self-awareness" to gain greater feedback and clarity from my experience.
Another key aspect of the Inner Game approach is to bring awareness inward so that we may learn how to overcome our inner obstacles such as fear, doubt, self-judgment and limiting beliefs that can interfere with our experience and results. Learning how to overcome these powerful gremlins can greatly improve our learning, performance and enjoyment of all we do.
Can you see the parallel to the Hero's Journey?
At the time of the Campbell workshop, I was still a novice (padawan?) so I hadn't quite become a new man or gained enough confidence to bring the knowledge and boons back to the tennis community.
But a year later, I was giving my first Inner Game of Tennis workshops, then started helping golf members with their mental game at the country club where I was Director of Tennis.
Soon after I left the club, and found myself working in football, baseball and the corporate world helping leaders and coaches learn the importance of the inner game and the tools necessary to enhance flow, improve focus and reduce self-interference.
I don't really consider myself a hero, in spite of the parallels I've noted. Like Campbell, I consider myself more of a maverick. I've followed my bliss and lived a life of mostly of my own choosing.
That being said, I believe all of us are traveling on the path of the Hero or Heroine. We don't have to be playing in packed stadiums for Grand Slam titles like our favorite pros or vying for Olympic medals.
We are all attempting to realize our vision for our lives, accomplish meaningful and purposeful goals that align with that vision, and battle the outer obstacles and inner demons that crop up along the way.
What so many players don't realize is that this applies to tennis and that this perspective can help them maximize their potential and especially, their love of playing the game.
Your Darth Vader could be your backhand, or an opponent, or a tournament, or a ranking. There's a different approach to dealing with it. Click Here for the first article in my series to find out what I mean.
Tennisplayer founder John Yandell was also deeply influenced by the Inner Game. For his article on two key elements in Gallwey's approach, Self 1 and Self 2 Click Here.
