Titans of Tennis
in the Zone
Damien Lafont
In my last article I outlined multiple components of the so-called "Zone" as described by top researchers and athletes in many sports. The article showed that there probably is no one Zone and the experience and the process of reaching it can be different for different performers (Click Here).
Now in this article let's narrow our focus and discuss the fundamental pillars of our understanding of the zone in tennis. These are the work of Tim Gallwey and the work of Dr. Jim Loehr.
We'll see that, as for other sports, each describes different aspects of the zone and different ways of approaching it. But, interestingly, together they provide an approach that fuses point play with the other critical aspects that surround it.
Tim Gallwey's seminal best selling book, The Inner Game of Tennis, published 40 years ago in 1974, virtually created the field of mental game studies in sport. His work is sometimes summarized as a simple message "watch the ball." However the work and its implications are far broader, complex, and powerful.
