The Inner Game of Golf Quotes

“But the basic strategy for increasing feel is consciously to switch games from a game of results to one of awareness. Usually, it is overconcern with results that leads to overcontrol and decreased feel, so change your goal to increasing awareness. Pick any awareness technique and increase your focus on whatever feel is there. Don’t judge it as good or bad; merely observe it. Feel will pick up immediately, and improved results will follow as a matter of course.”
― W. Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Golf

“fully. Still, I found that like most tyrants, Self 1 didn’t like losing control and resisted efforts to minimize his influence.”
― W. Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Golf

“It seemed to me that the precision required to play good golf demanded much greater mental discipline than was necessary for good tennis. The reason for the low margin of error was not hard to discover: the speed of the club head that is necessary to hit the ball a long distance. The speed of the golfer’s arms on the downswing is not much greater than the speed of the tennis player’s arm on the serve, but because of the greater length and flexibility of the golf club, the club-head speed is much greater than that of a racket. If a club head traveling over 100 mph contacts the ball with a face open a mere degree or two, the ball can be sent off target many tens of yards. With those odds, it’s amazing that the ball ever does go exactly where we want it to. In tennis, the serve is the only shot in which the player initiates the action, whereas in golf he does so on every shot. It is interesting to note that if you miss your first serve in tennis, you get another try. Golf is not so forgiving! Further, in tennis a much larger surface hits a much larger ball a much shorter distance. Moving from tennis to golf was definitely going to require some fine-tuning of my concentration. The greater precision required in golf is also reflected in the manner in which the player addresses the ball. A tennis player can be pretty casual, or even a little flamboyant, as he sets up the service line, bounces the ball a few times, and serves. Most professional golfers display much more self-discipline. They seem to approach the ball in the same controlled, almost ritualistic way every time. Even their dress seems more meticulous. (I’ve often felt I could pick out the golfers from the tennis players at a cocktail party.) Meticulousness has never been my strong suit. There isn’t a family picture of me as a boy in which at least one shoe wasn’t untied. I could usually solve”
― W. Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Golf

“Un tercer paso es hacer una distinción importante: la distinción ente la voz de la duda y tú. Cuando la duda llama a tu puerta, nadie dice que tengas que abrirla, mucho menos invitarla a tomar un café. Sin embargo, si, como yo, fuiste educado en un entorno de falta de confianza y siempre teniendo que demostrar tu valía, es posible que termines tan enredado en ella que no puedas distinguir entre ti mismo y la duda. Si la invitas a pasar, puedes escucharla, pero no tienes que creer todo lo que te dice. La mayoría de los golfistas son conscientes de que hay una conversación produciéndose en sus cabezas dentro y fuera del campo de golf.”
― W. Timothy Gallwey, El Juego Interior del Golf

“the world to think and, while doing so, to increase his tension and doubt, while after success he won’t be able to resist the temptation to analyze how to repeat it.”
― W. Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Golf

“The awareness instruction, on the other hand, asks only one thing of the conscious mind: Pay attention to what is happening. There is no doubt because there is no right way or wrong way, and there is no fear of failure because there is no externally implied standard for success. Yet the body learns because it is now free to focus on what feels good and to see for itself what works.”
― W. Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Golf

“Keep your head still throughout the swing. It’s imperative to keep it still. Keep working at it until you get it. 1. See if you sense any movement in your head during the swing. Notice whether there is more or less movement on each succeeding swing. 2. Early in the downswing, the right elbow should return to the right side. (Sam Snead) 2. During the next few swings, pay attention to your right elbow. Don’t try to change it in any way; just see if you can tell what it does, especially after you begin the downswing. Notice any changes in its position. 3. Keep your left arm straight. 3. Notice whether your left arm is straight”
― W. Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Golf