Sir John Whitmore, renowned tennis coach from the United Kingdom is indeed, playing the ‘inner game’.
Sample this: Did anyone teach you how to walk when you were a baby? No one did, and in life and sports, too, you learn by yourself what’s right for you and there are no hard and fast rules, how you do it as long as you do it right, your way. This is the simple and succinct advice that Whitmore gave to a bunch of starry-eyed, young tennis trainees at the Kinesis tennis courts.
“I am glad to find the kids at Kinesis train more freely than the ones in UK, where someone is always telling them what to do,” added Whitmore.
Whitmore, a former motor-racing champion on a short visit here, is the leading expert in the world on what’s known as the ‘Inner Game’ concept evolved by US Tennis coach Timothy Gallway, which allows a player, for that matter anyone, to discover inner strength and re-enforce one’s self-belief.
“Coaches should allow their wards to find themselves their motivations. Not everybody out there says, winning is more important, some would even say having fun on court is. So allow players to find their sense of motivation and let them achieve that freely on their own, without forcing their hand,” Whitmore opined.
“When they try to do something on their own, it may look stupid to you, but that’s your problem, they are only trying to figure it out how best to do it their way.
“Maybe when they realise, it doesn’t work, they may change the approach,” he added.
“A good coach asks questions. To learn something new, a player has to unlearn pre-conceived notions, which he has been taught over the years. Learning begins with freeing your mind,” he added.
