Inner Sailing (Twiname)

Today I will be reading from the holy bible of ski instruction.
Timothy Gallwey's first two "Inner" books were on Tennis before moving on to its application in skiing.
Naturally, parallels (ha, ha) can be made in sailing.


Inner Skiing
Timothy Gallwey & Bob Kriegel
Randall House, NY 1977


- "Breakthroughs in (sailing) or in any other activity virtually never happen when we plan them, and therefore they usually seem accidental. But they don't happen by chance. On the (water) they occur when we are so engrossed that we are no longer thinking about the next turn or the last one. In fact, breakthroughs appear only when we stop thinking."

- "Basic fear: The loss of the familiar
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."

Note: The fear factor in sailing may be down somewhat but make no mistake, it exists. It comes in many forms, and may not always be of the physical variety. We must recognize it, control it, and get beyond it.

INNER SKIING has an excellent concept of the SELF 1 and the SELF 2 that must be shared and appreciated.
Relax; don't be afraid; perhaps it may lead to a breakthrough.


Self 1 and Self 2:

Listen to the thoughts that stream through your mind as you (sail). Most minds are active with a flow of instructions about how to do this and how to avoid doing that-- Self criticism, self-analysis, worries, fears and doubts. In many cases the chatter is continuous and often less than friendly. Step back for a moment and attend to these voices. Who is instructing, criticizing, and doubting whom? A person might answer, "I'm just talking to myself". Fine, but who is the "I" and who is the "myself"? Clearly they have different identities, or else they wouldn't be conversing. There would be no need for a conversation if there was only one party, because the one speaking would already know what was going to be said and so have no need to say it. That's why when we're at one with ourselves there is no internal dialogue and we experience inner peace. In following the Inner Game approach, the voice doing all the talking, judging, worrying and doubting is the Self 1, and that it is instructing Self 2, the body that performs the actions. Self 1 is the ego mind that has to be in control, so it tells you how or how not to (sail), that you are hopeless or great, that you are better than Joe, but not as good as Jim, and so forth.
Although Self 1 may sound as if it is the expert in (sailing) and everything else, through experience we soon discover that we perform best when we are thinking least. During breakthrough (races) Self 1 is in a rare state of quiet. Control shifts to the nonverbal innate guidance system within our bodies, and our actions are directed silently. Self 1 is sometimes embarrassed and humbled by the recognition that we (sail) best when we are “out of our minds,” but more often it resists admitting that it isn’t really important to our success, and that over-conceptualizing---- indeed, any conscious thought at all---- interferes with the expression of our highest capabilities.
Once we understand that it is the mind—Self 1—and its collection of self concepts, doubts and fears accumulated over a lifetime of which cause breakdowns and prevents optimal (sailing), we can stop blaming our equipment, other people, (wind) conditions and (waves). When Self 1 is in a quiet state, our awareness increases and we discover Self 2, that part of us that can respond to any situation instantaneously with its fullest capabilities. Self 2, our innate potential, already exists within each of us; we catch a glimpse of it every time we experience a breakthrough. Hence the main objective of the Inner Game is to free ourselves of whatever inner obstacles prevent Self 2’s fullest expression and development.

Who is Self 2?

Think of all he actions that must be performed simply to turn your skis: Shifting weight to the outside leg, bending the
knee and ankle forward and laterally to increase edge control, moving your shoulder, your arm and hand to plant your
pole, shifting your weight by stepping onto the uphill ski---and countless other movements too numerous and subtle to
describe. Any movement we make in skiing—or anything else, for that matter—requires literally hundreds of
instantaneous instructions from the nervous system to different muscle groups in our bodies. Who is doing all of this?
Whoever, it is certainly a lot more sophisticated and competent than a nagging Self 1 who, thinking it is in control, keeps
yelling, “bend your knees, stupid!” Just who is being stupid?


Who is Self 1?

Self 1 is an extremely complex character who plays a lot of different roles. Some of these are:

The Instructor: Constantly telling you everything you should be doing.

Helpless Harry: The opposite of the instructor, Helpless doesn’t trust you to be able to do anything for yourself. He always foresees problems, and wants to ask
for help, advice or information, whether you need it or not.

Flashy Red: Not as concerned about how well you (sail) as with how well you look.

The Competitor: Always trying to compare your (sailing) with someone’s else’s.

Fearful: Obsessed with falling and failing, and is afraid of bruising both your body and your ego.

Fearless: He loves risk and hates (being) under control.

The Klutz: Convinced when God was handing out coordination, you dropped it. What frightens Klutz the most is having a
good (race) when (coach) is watching.

The Critic: Has something negative to say about everything you do. Even if a turn is 99 percent perfect, he’ll focus on
the 1 percent error.


Taming Self 1

Self 1 is stronger than we think, and not easy to silence. The process of regaining your mastery over Self 1 starts with the simple recognition of its existence. Yet we must also realize that Self 1 is not who we really are. When we observe the thoughts and the roles of the mind, we know that we and the thoughts are different. By observing Self 1 non-judgmentally, we no longer identify with it; we simply watch it. As soon as I see Flashy Fred for who he is, I can separate myself from him and can choose to refocus my attention on my (sailing). Separating Self 1 is like being aware that a dream, while it is still going on, is only a dream; as a result, the illusion no longer has the same power or control over us.


Trusting Self 2

The Inner Game approach to releasing our potential involves two basic steps: quieting Self 1 and trusting Self 2---which is to say, quieting the mind and trusting the body. These two skills go hand in hand, and each is necessary in order to achieve success. The reason Self 1 is so active is that it doesn’t trust the abilities of the body. Trusting Self 2 means allowing it to control the actions of the body. This doesn’t mean that if a beginner (sailor) trusts his body he will immediately (sail) like an expert; what it does mean is letting the body do what it already can and trusting that it will learn how to do what it can’t yet do.
Why should we trust Self 2? Simply because it is more trustworthy than Self 1 in terms of both performance and ability to learn. Another word for trusting Self 2 is confidence, which is nothing more than Self 1’s recognition of the amazing abilities of Self 2. It is commonly recognized that confidence is essential to high-level performance, but not so commonly understood is how we come by this elusive quality. Trusting our own potential is at once an act of will and a process. When we don’t trust ourselves to learn from experience, we seriously hamper our development. We will never learn whether or not Self 2 is reliable unless we allow it to take control, and if we allow Self 1 to reassert itself every time we make a mistake, we will never discover Self 2’s ability to correct itself. Regaining confidence is Self 2 takes time, but the process can’t even begin unless we decide to trust it and give it a chance to show what it can do.