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February 5 - February 14, 2022
It’s about watching and thinking less, it’s about internalizing the visual image in front of you, it’s about experimenting with role playing and trying out different routines to increase the range of your game, it’s about play and leaving Self 1 aghast at the goings on in this room of fun. Gallwey says it is ‘the art of letting go of Self 1 control and letting Self 2 play the game spontaneously.’
it’s about being aware of your breathing and what it is to be in the moment.
‘Letting go means allowing joy to come into your life instead of contriving to have a good time’ and the ultimate ‘winner’ in the end ‘stops caring about the outcome and plays all out.’
art of relaxed concentration
For clarity let’s call the “teller” Self 1 and the “doer” Self 2.
spontaneous and alert.
“childlike.”
The first skill to learn is the art of letting go the human inclination to judge ourselves and our performance as either good or bad.
nonjudgmental awareness.
When you toss the ball up, focus your attention on its seams, then let the serve serve itself.
Letting go of judgments, the art of creating images and “letting it happen”
used. There is a tightness which prevents maximum fluidity of stroke and precision of movement.
Though the player knows his goal, he is not emotionally involved in achieving it and is therefore able to watch the results calmly and experience the process. By so doing, concentration is best achieved, as is learning at its highest rate of speed; making new changes is only necessary when results do not conform to the image given.
court. The more you let yourself perform free of control on the tennis court, the more confidence you tend to gain in the beautiful mechanism that is the human body. The more you trust it, the more capable it seems to become.
When a player experiences what it means to “let go” and allows Self 2 to play the game, not only do his shots tend to gain accuracy and power, but he feels an exhilarating sense of relaxation even during rapid movements.
Relaxation happens only when allowed, not as a result of “trying” or “making.”
The practice of watching the seams produces interesting results. After a short time the player discovers that he is seeing the ball much better than when he was just “watching” it.
To the extent that the mind is preoccupied with the seams, it tends not to interfere with the natural movements of the body.
“Say the word bounce out loud the instant you see the ball hit the court and the word hit the instant the ball makes contact with the racket—either racket.”
It is effortless and relaxed, not tense and overly controlled. When watching the tennis ball, allow yourself to fall into focus.
Similarly, one can learn to achieve the desired amount of spin in a second serve by listening closely to the sounds of balls hit with varying amounts of spin.
Watching the seams of the ball is a narrow focus of attention, and can be effective in blocking out nervousness and other possible irrelevant objects of attention. Sensing
“Relax your forearm. Relax your mind. Simply relax into the present, focus on the seams of the ball, and let it happen.”
But when your attention is on the here and now, the actions which need to be done in the present have their best chance of being successfully accomplished, and as a result the future will become the best possible present.
The process can be more rewarding than the victory itself.
If you play his backhand as much as you can, it can only get better as a result. If you are a nice guy and play his forehand, his backhand will remain weak; in this case the real nice guy is the competitor.
Since it is impossible to feel anxiety about an event that one can control, the mere awareness that you are using maximum effort to win each point will carry you past the problem of anxiety. As a result, the energy which would otherwise have gone into the anxiety and its consequences can then be utilized in one’s effort to win the point. In
In short, we worry too much and don’t concentrate very well.
This requires the learning of several inner skills, chiefly the art of letting go of self-judgments, letting Self 2 do the hitting, recognizing and trusting the natural learning process, and above all gaining some practical experience in the art of relaxed concentration.
Perhaps the most indispensable tool for human beings in modern times is the ability to remain calm in the midst of rapid and unsettling changes.
This gift is much greater than I could have imagined, and therefore time spent living it in a state of stress means I am missing a lot—on or off the court.
The cause of most stress can be summed up by the word attachment. Self 1 gets so dependent upon things, situations, people and concepts within its experience that when change occurs or seems about to occur,
It comes from being more independent—not necessarily more solitary, but more reliant on one’s own inner resources for stability.
It does not mean not to think—but to be the one who directs your own thinking. Focusing can be practiced on a tennis court, chopping carrots, in a pressure-packed board meeting or while driving in traffic.
“Abandon” is a good word to describe what happens to a tennis player who feels he has nothing to lose. He stops caring about the outcome and plays all out. It is a letting go of the concerns of Self 1 and letting in of the natural concerns of a deeper and truer self. It is caring, yet not caring; it is effort, but effortless at the same time.
