The Inner Game
of Carlos Alcaraz

Sean Brawley

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 U.S. Open win, he became the youngest player to top the singles rankings.

What is the secret to Alcaraz's success? And at such an early age?

Well, certainly he's strong, fast, technically masterful, and tenacious. All qualities that serve him well. But so are fifty other pros on the tour.

Often times we say that the difference at that level is mostly mental. It's their mental attitude that is the difference. And so far I think Alcaraz is definitely mentally tough.

Surprise Secret

However, what I believe the secret to his success may surprise you. I think it's because he's having a lot of fun out there. And you can easily tell because he's always smiling!

This may seem trivial at first glance. But after having just spent a week in Stuttgart, Germany at the WTA 500 tournament which had 17 out of the top 20 women pros in the world participating I can tell you they are not having fun. I first discovered the massive amount of internal pressure the top pros typically feel while interviewing Roger Federer, Venus Williams, Simona Halep, and numerous other top pros five years ago.

And during an interview recently with retired pro Andrea Petkovic, she confided to me that her most unhappy time during her 11 years on the WTA Tour were when she cracked the top 10. In fact, sometimes the internal pressure can become so great that it leads to mental health issues, depression, and injury.

So Alcarez's smiling and having fun is a very big deal in my book. It means inherently that he feels safe in his body. According to Stephen Porges Ph.D, founder of Polyvagal Theory, when we feel safe in our body we are able to access our parasympathetic system which is often referred to as the “rest and digest" system.

Our other system is called the sympathetic system and is often called our fight-flight system. As such, it was once thought that the parasympathetic system and the sympathetic system were antagonistic and opposed to each other. You could either be in one or the other, but not both.

But Porges discovered that they are not antagonistic. They can weave together in a blended state. For example, if we feel safe and we mobilize for action to play tennis then the two systems can work together in harmony and if that happens, then we are more open to learning, discovery, exploration, creativity--and can more readily achieve a state of flow.

If, however, we detect a threat of some kind in our environment—say a tennis ball coming to our weak backhand or serving at match point—then we move out of the parasympathetic system and the fight-flight aspect of our sympathetic system takes over. When that happens we play more aggressively than normal, take more chances and get angry. Or we play fast and try to end points quickly and get off the court as soon as possible.

Joy and Instinct

And so again, returning to Alcaraz, what is his secret? How is able to be so relaxed on the court and have so much fun?

I believe the clue lies in an interview he gave recently where he said that his goal out on the court was to “play with joy and instinct."

When I heard that I was astonished. Playing with joy and instinct.

As a long-time coach of the Inner Game of Tennis, I would say this sums up the whole philosophy in a nutshell. Putting joy and instinct front and center as an intention while playing is a simple practice anyone can do to change the inner landscape of their mind and awareness.

Joy is a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. Instinct is a natural ability that helps you decide what to do or how to act without thinking.

We all have good intentions whenever we go out on the court to play tennis. We start out wanting to enjoy ourselves, to have fun and be challenged. But how committed are we to staying aligned with those intentions.

If you look out across the courts at any club or public park facility, you will most likely see the vast majority of people getting frustrated, becoming angry, and judging themselves. They have completely forgotten or lost sight of why they are playing the game.

There are a lot of inner games we can play while we are playing the game of tennis: trying to be perfect, performing the right technique, or looking good. But the biggest inner game I have found that most people play is trying hard to win and being overly attached to the outcome, whether that is a point, game or match.

This presents a problem internally because we don't have any real control over the results. And if we want something badly that we don't have control of, we feel fear.

So it is important while playing, especially when competing to focus on what we do control, and that is the process. We can only control to some degree where and how we place our attention, our attitude, and how we deal with our emotions.

Setting an intention that is within our control before we walk out onto the court and committing to it helps to keep us in the present moment and aware of what is important. Said another way, having an intention creates a reference point for our reticular activating system, which is akin to the “guardian at the gate." The RAS is housed in our cerebellum and filters out and directs the information that is constantly streaming through our senses.

When we get stressed, our attention often goes from being in the present moment to worrying about the future or getting stuck in what we should have done differently on the last point. It takes us away from joy and having fun, and certainly interferes with our ability to play intuitively from instinct.

Having a clear intention of playing with joy and instinct will keep you aware of what is happening internally and better enable you to come back to the joy of playing. As with nearly all meditative techniques, it is the coming back once you've gotten off track that leads to a greater ability to focus and to improve in a natural, unforced way.

Joy and instinct reside in our higher self, what Tim Gallwey referred to as Self 2 in Inner Game terminology. The more we play from Self 2, the more confident, relaxed, and peaceful we are. We trust ourselves and make decisions that will further the likelihood of learning and performing optimally.

Joy and instinct can't live in a mind filled with limiting beliefs and negative self-talk. Gallwey says that “relaxed concentration" is the mother skill that can help create an environment that can lead to confidence and allow our natural abilities to be expressed fully.

Relaxed concentration is critical. Research has shown that it is the foundation for optimal learning and performance. But I have found that feeling safe in our bodies is even more important. It is the ground which allows for relaxed focus, and for playing with joy and instinct.

And this is what Alcaraz is showing us. He knows the key to being successful isn't focusing on winning, although I'm sure he wants to win. The key is to put in the hard work, trust his natural self and enjoy the ride. He trusts that his results will follow if he can play with joy and instinct.

Joy and instinct are found within each of us and are always there waiting for us. But we need to put these two friends front and center like Alcaraz.