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Inner Game of Tennis

Name: Inner Game of Tennis
Description: A 1970 demonstration of W. Timothy Gallwey, author of The Inner Game of Tennis, teaching a complete beginner to play tennis in about ten minutes. He chats with her, feeds balls and gives positive feedback instead of instruction.

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2 HN users recommended this demo2 months2015–2016 score 2.5

Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN commenters use it as a vivid demonstration of learning by quieting the conscious mind, and recommend it alongside the book.

A 1970 demonstration of W. Timothy Gallwey, author of The Inner Game of Tennis, teaching a complete beginner to play tennis in about ten minutes. He chats with her, feeds balls and gives positive feedback instead of instruction.

“This video of Timothy Gallwey teaching a woman how to play tennis. In 5 minutes.” (HN, 2016)

1 strong recommendations · 1 recommendations · 1 citations · Demos

Education & learning Productivity & self-improvement Sports & athletics Demos Ideas, Learning & Language

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@andy_ppp Sep 2016 Strongly recommends

on HN thread The Inner Game of Everything: 1974 Tennis Book Is Still a Sensation

[this video] This video of Timothy Gallwey teaching a woman how to play tennis. In 5 minutes. The book is one of the best I've ever read (go get it now), it's about mental focus, improvement by not trying and about not judging your results. I was sitting in front of a really difficult problem earlier today but I kept persisting at it even though at points I got frustrated ("I'm not sure I'm smart enough to do this...") I managed to stop thinking for a bit and try again without understanding the code fully and it ended up working. I'm not saying being intuitive always works with programming but sometimes if you feel out of your depth it can really help push you through.

Gallwey teaches a woman tennis in five minutes.

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@leoc Nov 2015 Recommends

on HN thread How the 'Quiet Eye' Technique Makes Athletes More Coordinated

Obligatory Inner Game of Tennis TV feature: [this video] and specifically related to keeping the eyes on the ball: [this video]

TV feature on Inner Game of Tennis, including keeping eyes on ball.

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Citations, criticism and jokes

@deepnet May 2015 Cites it

on HN thread Consciousness Began When the Gods Stopped Speaking

Conversely the conscious mind can also make it harder to learn things. I refer to the "Inner Game of Tennis" by Tim Gallwey [this video] As a teacher he tries to distract the conscious mind so learning can take place.

Gallwey distracts the conscious mind so learning can occur.

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