Timothy Gallwey Quotes

Confucius is quoted as saying that when he was young he tried to please his parents, later to please his friends, and still later to please his wise teachers. Finally, he learned to please himself. That’s when he discovered the inner wisdom that has had such a profound effect on Chinese culture.

letting go of judgments does not mean ignoring errors. It simply means seeing events as they are and not adding anything to them.

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.

Winning is overcoming obstacles to reach a goal, but the value in winning is only as great as the value of the goal reached.

Focus means keeping the mind now and here.

Here and now are the only place and time when one ever enjoys himself or accomplishes anything. Most of our suffering takes place when we allow our minds to imagine the future or mull over the past.

Pogo was right when he proclaimed, “I have met the enemy, and it is us.

The player of the inner game comes to value the art of relaxed concentration above all other skills; he discovers a true basis for self-confidence; and he learns that the secret to winning any game lies in not trying too hard.

The first step is to forget all the ideas you may have in your mind about what is wrong with it as it is. Erase all your previous ideas and begin serving without exercising any conscious control over your stroke. Observe your serve freshly, as it is now.

Read this simple analogy and see if an alternative to the judging process doesn’t begin to emerge. When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as “rootless and stemless.” We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed. When it first shoots up out of the earth, we don’t condemn it as immature and underdeveloped; nor do we criticize the buds for not being open when they appear. We stand in wonder at the process taking place and give the plant the care it needs at each stage of its development. The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change; yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is. Similarly, the errors we make can be seen as an important part of the developing process. In its process of developing, our tennis game gains a great deal from errors. Even slumps are part of the process. They are not “bad” events, but they seem to endure endlessly as long as we call them bad and identify with them. Like a good gardener who knows when the soil needs alkali and when acid, the competent tennis pro should be able to help the development of your game.

played against such obstacles as lapses in concentration, nervousness, self-doubt and self-condemnation.

Again focus your attention on the can; then let the serve serve itself.

He aims at the kind of spontaneous performance which occurs only when the mind is calm and seems at one with the body, which finds its own surprising ways to surpass its own limits again and again. Moreover, while overcoming the common hang-ups of competition, the player of the inner game uncovers a will to win which unlocks all his energy and which is never discouraged by losing.

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

Letting it happen is not making it happen. It is not trying hard.