Review
Why is it that despite having had a hundred practice runs, a good night's sleep and even a decent breakfast, we foul up our big moment? Gallwey has been much vexed by the question since he missed a heartbreakingly easy volley on match point in the National Junior Tennis Championships at the age of 15. He has subsequently developed the theory of the 'inner game', namely that the self-imposed pscychological restrictions that we harbour must be addressed just as seriously as strategy or technique. We learn that we must restore the equilibrium between the conscious 'ego' (self 1) which criticizes and the subconscious (self 2) which acts. To correct that troublesome swing, serve or grace note we need to experience rather than analyse it; the rancorous voice of self 1 must be quietened so that we can trust in the 'silent intelligence of the body'. And it is in this state of relaxed concentration that we allow ourselves to succeed. In addition to The Inner Game of Tennis (1975) Gallwey has applied these principles to golf and to music (with Barry Green) and each is a ruminative account of letting it flow. (Kirkus UK)