Nicolay Hvidsten's Reviews > The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance

I bought this book twice. If that isn't a testament to its quality I don't know what is.

After I finished listening to the audio book version, I immediately gave amazon my money again in exchange for a physical copy. 'Why?' you ask? Because, quite frankly, it contains so much wisdom that it needs to be absorbed over time, and audio books aren't well suited for that purpose.

'But it's about tennis!' you might quibble, imaginary reader. 'How much wisdom could there possibly be?'

Ah, therein lies the trick! It actually isn't.

This book pretends to be about tennis, but is in reality about something else entirely. It's about connecting with your unconscious. Gallwey names this state of being self two (David Brooks names it Adam Two in the interesting, yet unsatisfactory The Road to Character, and many other thinkers have called it many other things throughout the ages), and uses the medium of tennis as a canvas for his ideas.

I find it incredibly fascinating how confusing these topics can be to the intellectual mind before it finally clicks and everything seems so obvious you cannot fathom how concepts like "letting go" and "non-judgement" didn't really mean anything to you before. This transition unfailingly comes through experience rather than logical reasoning, which I'm betting is the reason why it's so elusive.

I've read read Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lao Tzu, Frankl, and many less illustrious authors - but it was a book about tennis which finally made me stumble over the edge of understanding. Fancy that. Undoubtably, the mentioned authors pointed out to me that there was an edge in the first place, but I still find it remarkable.

Gallwey, much like Herrigel does in the magnificent Zen in the Art of Archery, discusses the familiar Buddhist concepts of letting go of judgement and negativity and observing thoughts and emotions, but through the lens of sport, which somehow finally made it make sense to me. If you've ever practiced a sport and truly felt 'in the zone' then this experience will be the anchor you need.

I'll be forever grateful for finding this book, and I suspect it'll be on my nightstand for many years to come.