Telling our bodies how to do something is not the most effective way to improve performance. p5
The quality of my teaching and of my students' performance took a major step forward the day I realized the extent of the disrupting effects of overinstruction. p5
Three inner game skills: Concentration, Confidence, Willpower. p12
I observed that the one doing the talking, whom I named Self 1, thought he knew all about how to play and was supervising Self 2, the one who had to hit the ball. In fact, Self 1 not only gave Self 2 instructions ,but criticized him for past errors, warned him of probable future ones, and harangued him whenever he made a mistake. It was easy to see that the primary feeling in the relationship b/w these two selves was mistrust. Self 1 didn't trust Self 2 to hit the ball, and precisely to the extent that he lacked trust, he would try to force Self 2 to conform to his verbal instructions. I noticed that when I had more confidence in my ability to hit a shot, there was a corresponding decrease in instructions from Self 1, and that Self 2 would perform amazingly well without him. When I was on a streak, there was no talk in my head at all. p19
I found that in order to decrease interference and increase performance, it wasn't necessary to analyze why doubt, fear, judgement and lapses in concentration occurred; it was sufficient to recognize their intrusion, and then concentrate the mind on something real in the immediate environment. p19
When the mind is concentrated and absorbed in what it is doing, interference is minimized and the brain is able to function closer to potential. Once Self 1 was focused in a concentration exercise, his interference with Self 2 decreased significantly, and performance instantly improved. p20
Forget about trying to get the ball back over the net, and just play "bounce-hit." Gradually it would become obvious to the student and me that the more he focused on the concentration exercise and forgot about trying for correct form, the better his tennis became. p21
I realized that there were two basic reasons for the success of hte bounce-hit exercise. First it is interesting enough to absorb the attention of Self 1, distracting him from his normal interference patters with Self 2. Secondly, the added concentration on the ball gave Self 2 better feedback, enabling him to perform his eye-body-coordination task better. Students who practiced the exercise conscientiously attained a state of mind that improved their technique automatically and made their tennis seem effortless. I called this state "relaxed concentration" because the mind was alert and focused, yet not tense, and the body moved with an economy of effort that gave the impression of ease. p21
To keep Self 1 focused on the club and away from the process of controlling it, I conceived the following concentration exercise. Keeping my attention on the feel of the club head, I would say the word "back" the instant I felt the club head reach its furthest extention at the completion of the backswing. I would simply sense its position without worrying at all whether it was accurate. Then I would say the word "hit" the instant the club face met the ball. "Back-hit" kept me in touch with the club head throughout the arc, and was exacting enough that Self 1 couldn't easily do the exercise while issuing commands at the same time. p23
After a brief period of practicing back0hit or da-da-da your concentration will probably improve, and so your swing will be freer and you will get better results. At the first sign of success, be careful! Don't start thinking that these are magic words, and that whenever you say them the ball will go where you wish. Remember that if it works, its not the words that make it work, but improved concentration. Remember that the words are simply an aid to concentration and that its the concentration that helps. Every time you succeed in blocking out Self 1 and allow Self 2 to hit the ball, you will get better results. But you have to make the effort every time; relaxed concentration is easy, but it has to be constant and continuous. Techniques to help gain that concentration are only as effective as your steady use of them. "Relaxed concentration." p26
BOBBY JONES: "The golf swing is a most complicated combination of muscular actions, too complex to be controlled by objective conscious mental effort. Consequently, we must rely a good deal upon the instinctive (Self 2) reactions acquired by long practice. It has been my experience that the more completely we can depend upon this instinct - the more thoroughly we can divest the subjective mind of conscious control - the more perfectly can we execute our shots. That intense concentration upon results, to the absolute exclusion of all thoughts as to method, is the secret of a good shot. Few great shots are played when the mind is fixed on the position of the feet, the behavior of the left arm, etc." p27
Doubt is the fundamental cause of error in sports. p37
The effects of self doubt can be minimized if we attempt to see what it is. It tends to strengthen as the challenge increases. p42
In short, "trying" is essentially compensation for mistrust in ourselves, and generally leads to poor performance. p44
SAM SNEAD: "The only thing wrong with your swing is what's wrong with most amateurs; you don't hit the ball with your practice swing." Something about the presence of the ball invites doubt.) p45
Whatever you're trying to do, don't. Don't try to do it and don't try not to do it. Simply don't try at all and see what happens. p47
The true professional keeps his goals high, without letting himself become so emotionally attached to them that he fears failure. His sense of his own value is independent of external results. He doesn't listen to self-doubt, nor does he perform by rote. He dances to the tune of his Self 2 intuitions. In this state of mind his attentiveness to detail is sharp and selective. He sees each situation as it is, not as he would have liked it to be, and nonjugementally he perceives in each situation opportunities to propel him toward his goal. The he gets more done than most, his acts seem relatively effortless. p49
This association had the same magical effect for me. I held in my mind the memory of tossing a tennis ball and felts so comfortable inside that I didn't steer. Ball after ball went straight toward the market. Only when I got sloppy with my technique or started thinking about my swing would accuracy desert me. p53
On the putting green, I had the best results by associating mentally with reaching in the hole and picking up the ball. For chipping, I liked thinking about the simple action of taking the stick out of the hole. p53
The association signals the mind to relax, but does not tell the body how to swing. It is effective in inducing a state of mind that is optimal for performing a physical action. p54
Hod do "do-instructions" incur doubt? How do you walk down a flight of stairs? How do you tie your shoe? How do you write your name? Think about one of these actions and see if you can come up with a set of instructions about how to perform it. Then try to do the action by following your own instructions. p60
The primary difficulty lies in our inability to translate any but the simplest verbal command into a bodily action. When asked to do more, we invite self-doubt because the brain cannot consciously control the body with words; that part of the brain that analyzes , conceptualizes and instructs us verbally is incapable of moving a muscle, and has only a limited capacity to communicate to the part of the brain that does control our physical behavior. p60
Fundamental to the Inner Game approach to teaching is a workable alternative to the do-instruction, one that engages the student in learning from experience and increases his self trust. Awareness Instruction is a command to the attention of the student rather than to his body. Instead of saying, "See if you can do this or that," it says, "See if you can see, feel, or hear what is happening right now and right here." For example, "Pay attention to the direction of the downswing." The back-hit exercise introduced in Chapter 2 involves an awareness instruction that requests that the student focus on the club, with special emphasis on its position at the back of the swing, and at its completion. None of these call for a change in behavior, but simply for heightened awareness of what is happening. p62
"See if you can feel whether the blade of your club is open, closed or square at impact" is also an awareness instruction, circumventing the doubt about doing it right by involving the pupil's mind in the process of simply noticing what is happening. The instructor might ask the student to shut his eyes, then arrange the club in different positions -open, square, and closed- until he can feel the difference in his hands while the club is motionless. The next step is the challenge to the student to see if he can feel the angle of the face at the moment of impact when the club is moving at normal speed. If the student thinks that this is a gimmick to help him to hit the ball square, his apt to try to do it right, and to be caught in the same trying mode as if he were simply told to make sure that his club was square at impact. But if he takes the awareness instruction for what it is - simply a request that he attempt to feel what is happening with the face, no matter what it is - then there is no question of right and wrong, the mind focuses on the experience and soon experiential learning will take place as he learns to differentiate the sensations of the different angles of the club face. p62-63
Awareness instructions are radically different from do-instructions, and tend to put the student in another frame of mind entirely. They engender a mode of learning that is free of doubt, frustration, and discouragement. They induce a national state of learning, which, once rediscovered, progresses organically and rapidly. Most important, they strengthen the student's faith in his own capacity to learn from experience; the instructor's role is only to help him in focusing on the most relevant parts of his experience. p63
The translation of this doubt-producing do-instruction into awareness instruction might sound like this: "Just swing the club without trying to do anything, but feel whether, on the downswing, it's moving from outside the ball - that is, further away from your body- to inside - closer to your body, or the other way around." Before beginning, the instructor might move the arms of the student from the outside to inside and then from inside to outside to give him a feel for the difference. As soon as he can distinguish between these two broad categories of movement while actually swinging, the student can be asked to distinguish more subtle changes. He might be asked to see if he can tell after each swing whether it was more or less inside out than the last. In this case, in order to pinpoint his focus more subtly on the swing, awareness can be heightened by the use of a rating scale. If a downswing that is square to the target line is Zero, a swing that is slightly inside out could be a +1... p63-64
The most difficult thing about awareness instructions is to realize that they work, when all your life you've believed only in do-instructions. p66
"Can you come within 6 inches of telling me where putt stops? No, don't try to sink it and don't try to miss it. Just putt toward the hole and see if you can tell by feel alone where it goes." p68