The Inner Game of Tennis

The Inner Game of Tennis has a subtitle "The Classic Guide to the mental side of peak performance. Amazon

It's a discussion on what it means to be a good coach, on what to focus on and how to improve performance. Rather than saying what to do, getting a player to focus on what's most difficult will end up finding the correct technique in a way that's faster than just telling them what to do.

I first heard about this book while listening to the podcast "Against the Rules". I can't find the episode as the podcast is devoid of transcripts, but it was an interview with the author who discusses these techniques.

This chapter chracterises the "inner game" vs the "outer game" as being how we interact with ourselves when building up our game.

“the skill of mastering the art of effortless concentration is invaluable in whatever you set your mind to.”