Inner Game of Tennis
TheCoachRecommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 months, 2015–2016
demo · general · evergreen · 2015–2016 on HN
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.
HN commenters use it as a vivid demonstration of learning by quieting the conscious mind, and recommend it alongside the book.
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3 comments from Hacker News
▶ 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.
Obligatory Inner Game of Tennis TV feature: ▶ this video and specifically related to keeping the eyes on the ball: ▶ this video
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.