The Secret to Tom Brady’s SUPER-Performance
Each acclaimed in their sport by some to be the “best ever”, what does Tom Brady have in common with Billy Jean King, along with many other high achievers across the sports spectrum? They each credit Tim Gallwey and his Inner Game approach to sport and life as the source of their mental strength, when they needed it most, on sport’s global stage. What was the difference in Tom Brady’s performance in the NFC Championship Game against Aaron Rogers and the Green Bay Packers? What will be the difference in the 55th Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs, Brady’s 10th?
A stinging loss inspires a quest: how to not beat yourself or how to optimize performance?
Imagine that you are a teen competing in a national tennis tournament against the #1 tournament seed. You are winning and serving “match point” for the upset victory. Spectators are abuzz. You hit a slicing serve to your opponent’s backhand and he manages a weak return that barely clears the net. You charge the net with ample time to hit a “winner”. Incredibly, something goes wrong and the tennis ball lands on the top of the net cord and sits there, balancing for a seeming eternity, before falling back on your side of the net. Back to deuce – the beginning of the end of your “run” in this tournament. Your opponent wins the rest of his matches to become “National Champion”.
For the next 15 years, you relive and share this story with anyone who will listen. This unexpected failure is a mystery. You wonder if you tell this story enough times to enough people, someone might illuminate you on what happened. No one does. This is the story shared with me in 1968 by Tim Gallwey, Inner Game guru. The solving of this mystery would become Tim’s life work and the answers would be embraced by Tom Brady and other SUPER-Performers for decades to come.
Our paths cross
At the time, Tim and I were both members of the Mackinac College community on Mackinac Island, Michigan, an experimental college founded in the late 60’s. Tim is a member of the school’s Administration and I’m a student. Tim shares this story over dinner with me and a couple of other students. It will not be the last time I hear it. One might say that, at least part of Tim’s persona, is defined by this disturbing mystery.
Tim and I become friends and tennis remains an important part of his life. He has earlier captained the Harvard Tennis team and is Mackinac College’s tennis coach. While not at Tim’s level, I’m athlete-enough to be teamed with Tim as a co-Athletic Director at a national youth conference in New York the next summer. During “down” time, we play some one-on-one basketball. Continue reading…