Game, Set and Match
Every person has a tendency to enjoy things that are most likely appealing to his tastes, abilities, and inclinations. But often times, several factors may hamper the success of doing such things, especially if these are not innate in him.
However, as successful people often say, only those who take risks are those who are most likely to succeed. Trust in one’s self, coupled with determination and persistence, are the elements that would turn things magical. What seems to be difficult somehow becomes easy for a person. It is always a matter of looking at things in a positive perspective. Going out of one’s self is often advantageous for it is through this, that self-discovery happens—you are able to see your own weaknesses and strengths as a person. With strengths, you have to pursue them, and with weaknesses, you have to improve them.
Necessary for the realization of all these is man’s willingness to improve himself and achieve something for his own advantage and those who are part of his life. There is actually nothing to fear if one is determined to achieve success and happiness. It is a matter of conditioning the mind and let the inner and outer self—the mind and the heart—interplay with each other.
Everybody wants to be successful. We all want to be the person that gets noticed, and goes through life being strong and confident, no matter what comes their way.
“Inner Game of Music” by Barry Green, provides a comprehensive analysis of what helps and hinders our musical growth. The concept of “self 1” and “self 2” lays the foundation for most discussions—every musician involves two identities in terms of performance. On the one hand, Self 1 is logical, judgmental, and self-conscious. On the other hand, Self 2 is spontaneous and natural. We should apply techniques to be aware about self 2. Our goal is to let self 2 express the most, and reframe the impact of self 1.
The books “Inner Game of Tennis” by Timothy Gallwey and “Inner Game of Music” have something to do with anything that is natural. Both talk about our brain that is not as smart as we think it is, which refer to the essence of self 1. There is no way that our brains can think through all the small movements our body needs to do to react quickly. For example, hitting a coming ball with a tennis racket, or controlling our vocal chords to sing a song, or playing a fast–paced jig on a fiddle—to do these sorts of things, we need to stop thinking and to let our unconscious self, the self 2, take over and to trust it entirely. The minute we try to take control of the situation, we start faltering and messing up the music or miss hitting the ball. Instead, we have to let self 1 imagine how to do what we want to do, and then let self 2 do that.
Another concept reveals three aspects of training—will, trust, and awareness. There are many tips on how to increase will, trust and awareness. First, one has to believe in himself. He should have faith in his abilities. He should take total responsibility for his life and actions and have a general control over it. He should likewise embrace risk and uncertainty as opportunity to try and create something new and different that adds value to them.
The key idea of the book “Inner Game of Tennis” is that all of us are perfect. The only limitations that hinder us from achieving our full potential self are the limitations we place upon ourselves by being judgmental, unfocused and egocentric. The author illustrates this by saying that in us, there are 2 selves: Self 1, the teller, thinking and criticizer and Self 2, the doer. To achieve full potential, Self 2 needs to get freedom and some support from Self 1, otherwise it is stuck in its development. Self 1 should just be non–judgmental; observe, create image of success, be confident and let Self 2 to act. The cooperation between Self 1 and Self should be implemented such that Self 1 should focus and not block Self 2. In the context of tennis, one could watch the ball closely, listen to the ball, feel the shots and lastly, feel one’s own breathing.
Timothy Gallwey also gives an interesting perspective on winning derived from tennis. Instead of hoping that your opponent will make a mistake and do an average performance, you should hope he wouldn’t, so you would be faced with the greatest challenge that will allow you to grow the most. Moreover, even if you don’t play tennis or other sports in general, this book allows you to embrace its principles of letting go of mistakes and moving forward with knowledge and experience but not self–judgmental. These principles are wonderfully helpful in this grand game called life.
“Images are better than words, showing better than telling, too much instruction worse than none, and that trying often produces negative results.” This empowers our ability to imagine. We make picture of what happened, what is happening and what will happen while we are on the field of our expertise. Because of thinking too much, our body has the tendency to disobey what should be done in order to get great results. On the other hand, I did acquire great results because of my motivations. My coach always tells my teammates and I that we can only win if we practice harder than yesterday and always play like it will be our last. We should clear our minds, think only about the game, focus and work for every point. From my experiences and motivations, I would say that my games are always offered to God, my family and especially the team. I help my team to be physically and mentally tough before, during and after the game.
“Instead of seeing what was wrong with my backhand, I would just start observing, and later on, improvement seemed to happen on its own.” Being a player, I once experienced having body pains during one of my tournaments. I took it as a challenge to perform my best and thought that by giving my bodies more work, my mind will eventually overcome the pain. To my surprise, I felt relieved and relaxed after the game. Moreover, I can also connect this statement with problems I experienced before, during and after the game, which hinder me from performing well. For instance, every time I keep thinking of all the requirements I need to finish in school and sometimes when I have a fight with my girlfriend, I let my self 1 overpower my self 2.
I would like to explain further the similarities and differences of the books “Inner Game of Tennis” and “Inner Game of Music” by giving a brief description of my teammate Erj Gatdula who is also a drummer. According to Erj, being a drummer is not easy; he has to practice hard everyday and make sure to maintain focus all the time in order for him to be one of the best. Since Erj is also a tennis player, he knows all the similarities and differences of tennis and music. He said that maybe the only differences between tennis and music are the materials/instruments that we use, and the venue where we practice and compete. When it comes to similarities, almost everything is the same. In both tennis and music, we practice everyday, memorize pieces and game plans, generate strategies and techniques, improve stamina and endurance, maintain focus and concentration, and win tournaments. These are just some of the similarities in tennis and music but we can already see that many aspects are the same.
We should think and act naturally in both aspects—in music and sports, and bring out the best in us. We should taste the feeling. We should work hard to improve ourselves and continue to grow with our chosen career. We should think critically, study and learn (Self 1), in order to act and respond properly with the situation (Self 2). Being a tennis player, my way of improving my skills is to study critically my opponent’s techniques and how he plays. Then, I find ways on how to generate my techniques in order to win the game. I undergo training and practice routines to achieve success. Similar to me, Erj consistently practices and develops his skills in drums to be one the greatest drummers here in the Philippines.
Since there are more than 6 inner game books in different aspects with different authors, they will explain all the basic information, similarities and differences, advantages and disadvantages but still has one goal, and that is to help people get better and achieve greatness in every aspect.
*Article edited by Weedee Valenzeula & Ramon Nario.