Word: gallwey
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...both swing doctors and spiritual gurus on his return to top form is not unusual for a professional golfer; the debate over whether the game is best mastered through technical engineering or mental fine-tuning may be more pertinent to this sport than to any other. When Tim Gallwey published The Inner Game of Golf in 1979, in which he documented the division of a golfer's psyche into a "thinking" and a "feeling" self, he articulated what lovers of the game have long understood: there are two approaches to becoming a great golfer, and each appeals to a certain...
...surprise that when they are not berating their partners, hard-pressed tennis players of any gender tend to talk to themselves. The level of discourse is not high. It is also likely to be hortatory and derisive. "Watch the ball, dummy. Watch the ball!" According to Gallwey, such self-abuse is highly destructive. So is what he calls the "Oh-Oh Experience"?as in "Oh-Oh! Here comes a backhand." Gallwey pioneered "yoga tennis" (or Zennis, as some people call it). From his Inner Game Institute above Malibu Beach, Calif., he has urged hundreds of thousands of students...
...purposes of his instruction, the denigrating voice is designated as Self 1 (read ego), the natural body as Self 2 (read id). Unless you can shut Self 1 up or calm him down, Gallwey contends, Self 2 will be too nervous to play. To help Self 2 devote itself to tennis, Gallwey wisely offers practical exercises on how to relax and watch the ball. Among them: actually trying to see the ball's seams as it approaches; following its trajectory back and forth while imagining it is creating a huge linear, free-form painting in the air. Says...
Aspirant players who wish to improve their game or their court manners without benefit of Eastern philosophy are free (at $200 for five days' instruction, plus room and board) to try Gallwey's most eminent competition. By California standards, it is just down the road, at Coto de Caza near Laguna Beach, a 5,000-acre mission-cum-tennis college presided over by Vic Braden, 47. Though Braden bears a faint resemblance to a vest-pocket Buddha and has a graduate degree in psychology, his methods epitomize two current hopes of Western civilization?a sense of humor and trust...
...reaching and teaching. Of cheating and bleating. Of serving too fast. Of serving too slow. Of hitting the ball right at his female opponent. Of not hitting the ball right at his female opponent. Of bad tennis, bad sportsmanship and, above all, a bad mouth. Women who attend Gallwey's classes have no trouble recognizing the angry voice of Self 1: it is their husband. They are poor Self 2. Such descriptive phrases as "cow," "fat banana" and "pregnant elephant" can be heard on the most elegant courts. "Move your ass" appears to be a not infrequent admonition?...