Ep. 14 - Sean Brawley and The Inner Game

Sean Brawley is a former Top 150 world ranked tennis professional who competed at the highest level of the game including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. After the tennis tour, Sean met and began working closely with Tim Gallwey, the author of The Inner Game series of books including the classic, The Inner Game of Tennis. Sean is the first certified Inner Game coach in the world. He has facilitated numerous Inner Game of Tennis and Golf workshops in the past 20 years. In 1997, Sean helped Gallwey revise the tennis and golf books and in 2008 organized the first ever Inner Game coaching conference. In 2012, Sean co-founded the Inner Game School of Coaching with Gallwey and served as the lead facilitator. As a facilitator and coach, he has custom designed highly unique, experiential programs for many well-known organizations such as GE, ITT, Union Bank, the New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners and the U.S. Tennis Association. Sean was the primary mental coach for the USC football team for 9 years and helped Pete Carroll and the Trojans win 2 national championships.

Links:

Bounce-Hit - https://seanbrawley.mykajabi.com/single-greatest-exercise-for-tennis

Sean's TED Talk on the Power of Focus - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QkHv7pKHBc&t

Sean's interviews with Wilson's top players (registration required) - https://wdt.wilson.com/w-club/

Interview highlights:

2:41 - Sean describes his introduction to tennis

9:00 - College tennis at USC and playing alongside top collegiate players

10:57 - Transitioning to the professional tour and travelling to play the Grand Slams and other tournaments around the world

15:44 - The pressures of competing as a professional tennis player

19:24 - Meeting and working with Tim Gallwey

25:50 - Teaching tennis based on the "Inner Game"

33:49 - Focusing on solely what's most critical to aid tennis development

34:51 - Bounce-Hit

41:55 - Identifying and focusing on the most critical aspects of any new skill while teaching and coaching

48:14 - The most common pitfalls and roadblocks that interfere with the "natural" learning process

52:28 - Mindfulness meditation and its impact on awareness

57:03 - The patterns and insights that emerged from interviewing Wilson's top players such as Roger Federer and Venus Williams on the "Inner Game"

1:11:20 - Working with USC Football