Top 40 W. Timothy Gallwey Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The player of the inner game comes to value the art of relaxed concentration above all other skills; he discovers a true basis for self-confidence; and he learns that the secret to winning any game lies in not trying too hard.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

2. “Fighting the mind does not work. What works best is learning to focus it.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

3. “Concentration is the act of focusing one’s attention. As the mind is allowed to focus on a single object, it stills. As the mind is kept in the present, it becomes calm. Concentration means keeping the mind now and here. Concentration is the supreme art because no art can be achieved without it, while with it, anything can be achieved.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

4. “For the teacher or coach, the question has to be how to give instructions in such a way as to help the natural learning process of the student and not interfere with it.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

5. “When the mind is free of any thought or judgment, it is still and acts like a mirror. Then and only then can we know things as they are.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

6. “When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as “rootless and stemless.” We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

7. “Letting it happen is not making it happen. It is not trying hard.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

8. “It’s difficult to have fun or to achieve concentration when your ego is engaged in what it thinks is a life-and-death struggle.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

9. “The development of inner skills is required, but it is interesting to note that if, while learning tennis, you begin to learn how to focus your attention and how to trust in yourself, you have learned something far more valuable than how to hit a forceful backhand. The.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

10. “Once you learn how to learn, you have only to discover what is worth learning. Summarized.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

11. “Again focus your attention on the can; then let the serve serve itself.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

12. “One caution about “the zone”: it cannot be controlled by Self 1. I have seen many articles that claim to provide a technique for “playing in the zone every time.” Forget it! This is a setup. It’s an age-old trap.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

13. “Anxiety is fear about what may happen in the future, and it occurs only when the mind is imagining what the future may bring. But when your attention is on the here and now, the actions which need to be done in the present have their best chance of being successfully accomplished, and as a result the future will become the best possible present. So.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

14. “Not assuming you already know is a powerful principle of focus. One.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

15. “Fear, which is probably the biggest obstacle to any learning process, is a repressive force. It exists in the mind, and almost always it is based on something that might happen in the future, rather than what is happening now. As.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

16. “But of course the instant I try to make myself relax, true relaxation vanishes, and in its place is a strange phenomenon called “trying to relax.” Relaxation happens only when allowed, not as a result of “trying” or “making.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

17. “The ability to focus the mind is the ability to not let it run away with you. It does not mean not to think – but to be the one who directs your own thinking.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

18. “But who said that I am to be measured by how well I do things? In fact, who said that I should be measured at all? Who indeed? What is required to disengage oneself from this trap is a clear knowledge that the value of a human being cannot be measured by performance – or by any other arbitrary measurement.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

19. “It is said that in breathing man recapitulates the rhythm of the universe. When the mind is fastened to the rhythm of breathing, it tends to become absorbed and calm. Whether on or off the court, I know of no better way to begin to deal with anxiety than to place the mind on one’s breathing process.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

20. “In a society that has become so oriented toward language as a way of representing truth, it is very possible to lose touch with your ability to feel and with it your ability to “remember” the shots themselves.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

21. “The problem is your people don’t know who they are,” I said emphatically. “Thus, they tend to identify themselves with their roles, their reputations, the company itself, and the current way of doing things. When the stability of any of these factors is threatened, their automatic response is to resist, and to resist as if they were protecting their own selves. Because they are protecting who they think they are, they do so with considerable force.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

22. “Relaxed concentration is the supreme art because no art can be achieved without it, while with it, much can be achieved. One cannot reach the limit of one’s potential in tennis or any endeavor without learning it; what is even more compelling is that tennis can be a marvelous medium through which skill in focus of mind can be developed. By learning to focus while playing tennis, one develops a skill that can heighten performance in every other aspect of life.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

23. “Alertness is a measure of how many nows you are alert to in a given period. The result is simple: you become more aware of what is going on as you learn to keep your attention in the now.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

24. “Attention is focused consciousness, and consciousness is that power of knowing.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

25. “If you are in any doubt, ask the pro to show you the motion, not tell you about it.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

26. “Forget should’s and experience is.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

27. “Winning is overcoming obstacles to reach a goal, but the value in winning is only as great as the value of the goal reached. Reaching the goal itself may not be as valuable as the experience that can come in making a supreme effort to overcome the obstacles involved. The process can be more rewarding than the victory itself.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

28. “It is Self 1’s mistrust of Self 2 which causes both the interference called “trying too hard” and that of too much self-instruction. The.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

29. “Negative judgment of the results of one’s efforts tends to make one try even harder; positive evaluation tends to make one try to force oneself into the same pattern on the next shot. Both positive and negative thinking inhibit spontaneity. THE.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

30. “I was beginning to learn what all good pros and students of tennis must learn: that images are better than words, showing better than telling, too much instruction worse than none, and that trying often produces negative results. One question perplexed me: What’s wrong with trying? What does it mean to try too hard? PLAYING.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

31. “I have found that when players break their habitual patterns, they can greatly extend the limits of their own style and explore subdued aspects of their personality.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

32. “Awareness of what is, without judgment, is relaxing, and is the best precondition for change.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

33. “He aims at the kind of spontaneous performance which occurs only when the mind is calm and seems at one with the body, which finds its own surprising ways to surpass its own limits again and again. Moreover, while overcoming the common hang-ups of competition, the player of the inner game uncovers a will to win which unlocks all his energy and which is never discouraged by losing. There.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

34. “Competition then becomes an interesting device in which each player, by making his maximum effort to win, gives the other the opportunity he desires to reach new levels of self-awareness.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

35. “Letting go of judgments, the art of creating images and “letting it happen” are three of the basic skills involved in the Inner Game.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

36. “Like a good gardener who knows when the soil needs alkali and when acid, the competent tennis pro should be able to help the development of your game.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

37. “As one achieves focus, the mind quiets. As the mind is kept in the present, it becomes calm. Focus means keeping the mind now and here.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

38. “But the basic strategy for increasing feel is consciously to switch games from a game of results to one of awareness. Usually, it is overconcern with results that leads to overcontrol and decreased feel, so change your goal to increasing awareness. Pick any awareness technique and increase your focus on whatever feel is there. Don’t judge it as good or bad; merely observe it. Feel will pick up immediately, and improved results will follow as a matter of course.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

39. “Uncomfortable without a standard for right and wrong, the judgmental mind makes up standards of its own. Meanwhile, attention is taken off what is and placed on the process of trying to do things right.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

40. “The foregoing has only one purpose: to encourage the reader to respect Self 2. This amazing instrument is what we have the effrontery to call “uncoordinated.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

41. “Only then does he have the chance to go beyond the limitations inherent in the various ego trips of Self 1 and to reach a new awareness of his true potential. Competition then becomes an interesting device in which each player, by making his maximum effort to win, gives the other the opportunity he desires to reach new levels of self-awareness.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

42. “Since the mind seems to have a will of its own, how can one learn to keep it in the present? By practice.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

43. “If a mother identifies with every fall of her child and takes personal pride in its every success, her self-image will be as unstable as her child’s balance. She finds stability when she realizes that she is not her child, and watches it with love and interest – but as a separate being.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

44. “To me it makes sense to build any system of instruction upon the best possible understanding of natural learning, the learning process you were born with.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

45. “Freedom from stress happens in proportion to our responsiveness to our true selves, allowing every moment possible to be an opportunity for Self 2 to be what it is and enjoy the process. As far as I can see, this is a lifelong learning process.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey

46. “First the mind judges the event, then groups events, then identifies with the combined event and finally judges itself.”

— W. Timothy Gallwey