The Inner Game Podcast

Performance Profile: https://join.theinnergame.app/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=performance_profile&utm_content=ep06

Founding Coaches: https://www.theinnergame.app/founding-coaches?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=founding_coaches&utm_content=ep06
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Want to trust yourself under pressure? Take the free Inner Game Performance Profile: https://join.theinnergame.app/the-gap

Coaches: help shape the next version of The Inner Game with Tim Gallwey and Bob Bowman. The founding coaches cohort gets full access and a private community. Application only: https://www.theinnergame.app/founding-coaches

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Matthew Futterman has covered tennis for 25 years, at the Star-Ledger, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Athletic. In 2021, after Naomi Osaka said there was "just no happiness out here," he wrote a story and headlined it himself: Why are tennis players so miserable? That question became his book, The Cruelest Game.

He went looking for the secret codes the greats use to survive a sport that eats so many of its best players. The biggest lesson he found: there are no secrets.

In this episode he explains why even Novak Djokovic has doubts, why your best game only shows up a handful of times in a career, what finally changed for Madison Keys when she gave herself permission to lose, why Ash Barty walked away at 25, and the exercise from the coach behind Andre Agassi and Ash Barty that you can do tonight.

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The Cruelest Game: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/746451/the-cruelest-game-by-matthew-futterman/

Audio/Listen only:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inner-game/id6818346372
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0g48LMGmub7fZPSFC5RUqk

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Follow Matt:
X: https://x.com/MattFutterman
IG: https://www.instagram.com/mattfutt1/

Follow The Inner Game:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinnergame/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_inner_game
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinnergame74
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-inner-game-app
Website: https://www.theinnergame.app

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00:00 Intro: Even Djokovic Has Doubts
01:57 Self-Talk and the Secret Codes of the Greats
02:53 Osaka, Barty and Why Tennis Stars Walk Away
05:07 There Are No Secret Codes
06:50 Even the Greatest Player Ever Has a Weakness
07:36 Sabalenka's New Self-Talk (and Her Coach From Jiu-Jitsu)
08:14 Does Rafael Nadal Have an Inner Voice?
10:31 "Why Are Tennis Players So Miserable?"
13:30 Rublev, Tsitsipas and Tennis's Red Flags
16:08 Money, Cameras and the Pressure of the Modern Tour
18:34 The Outer Voices Got Louder: Phones, Trolls and Gamblers
23:40 What Watching Great Tennis Does to You
25:33 Tennis as Self-Expression
28:30 Focus on What's Next
29:42 What Are Players Telling Themselves?
31:22 Madison Keys and Permission to Lose
35:55 Why the Greats Go Down Swinging
38:28 The Harder You Try, the Worse It Gets
40:17 Is Joy Part of the Code?
40:43 Your Best Game Only Shows Up a Handful of Times
41:38 What's Your Average? Winning Without Your Best
43:34 Performance = Potential − Interference: Matt's Interference
44:28 The Two Words Djokovic Tries to Avoid
45:21 The Ice Towel: How Djokovic Stays Present
48:47 Who Are You Beyond Your Results?
49:40 The Exercise You Can Do Tonight

Want to trust yourself under pressure? Take the free Inner Game Performance Profile: https://join.theinnergame.app/ utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=performance_profile&utm_content=ep05

Coaches: help shape the next version of The Inner Game with Tim Gallwey and Bob Bowman. The founding coaches cohort gets full access and a private community. Application only: https://theinnergame.app/founding-coaches?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=founding_coaches&utm_content=ep05

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Noah Neiman co-founded Rumble, the boxing gym where more than 1.5 million people have taken a class. Before that, he was a 220-pound 13-year-old with ADHD who had been kicked out of two schools, an accountant calling his mom from the office bathroom, and a man who woke up in a hospital bed after nearly overdosing at a Super Bowl party. He calls it the worst moment of his life, and the best.

Not long after, he swerved his car toward a half-hung jiu-jitsu sign in Pittsburgh, walked up to the owner and asked to join before the gym had even opened.

In this episode he explains what actually got him through the panic attacks that followed, why a therapist's advice to punch a pillow sent him to a boxing gym, why he wouldn't trade his darkest day for $1 billion, how his dog Oz got him out of bed, and the voice that still asks him, "Am I washed?" Partway through, he explains why I got fewer skips the harder I tried to skip a rock.

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Audio/Listen only:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inner-game/id6818346372
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0g48LMGmub7fZPSFC5RUqk

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Follow Noah:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noahneiman/

Follow The Inner Game:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinnergame/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_inner_game
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinnergame74
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-inner-game-app
Website: https://www.theinnergame.app

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00:00 Intro: The Worst and Best Moment of My Life
02:13 If You Knew What You Were Getting Into, You'd Never Do It
05:49 Why Trying Harder Gets You Fewer Skips
08:23 Train So You Don't Have to Think (LeBron, Bruce Lee, Bamboo)
11:09 ADHD, Panic Attacks and the Power of Physical Effort
13:33 Pete Carroll on Self-Talk: Everyone Needs a Coach
15:40 220 Pounds, ADHD and Kicked Out of Two Schools
18:53 Our Default Is Negative: Poise Under Pressure From Jiu-Jitsu
22:06 Told to Punch a Pillow, He Found a Boxing Gym
23:49 From the Heavy Bag to 1.5 Million Rumble Classes
25:57 Strength, Bags and Street Defense: Building The Pack
31:35 Jiu-Jitsu, College and the Accounting Job He Hated
33:51 New York Nightlife, the 2008 Crash and Going Home
35:58 Rock Bottom: Waking Up in the Hospital
38:35 The Jiu-Jitsu Sign That Changed His Life
41:47 "If You Don't Feed It, It Won't Grow": Beating Panic
42:39 $7 in the Bank and a 9 P.M. Class at Barry's
47:45 Building Rumble With Eugene Remm
49:18 Selling Rumble: The Blessing and the Curse of an Exit
51:35 Oz, the Dog Who Got Him Out of Bed
54:11 Why The Pack Is Named After a Three-Headed Dog
58:07 "Am I Washed?" The Self-Talk He Still Fights
1:00:29 Why He Wouldn't Trade His Darkest Day for $1 Billion
1:01:51 Marketing a Gym in 2026 vs. 2017
1:03:43 Why People Are Craving In-Person Connection
1:06:55 Tim Gallwey's Dark Night and the 13-Year-Old Guru
1:09:31 Only When You've Lost Everything Are You Free

Want to trust yourself under pressure? Take the free Inner Game Performance Profile: https://join.theinnergame.app/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=performance_profile&utm_content=ep04

Coaches: help shape the next version of The Inner Game with Tim Gallwey and Bob Bowman. The founding coaches cohort gets full access and a private community. Application only: https://theinnergame.app/founding-coaches?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=founding_coaches&utm_content=ep04

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Zach Allen wasn't a first-round pick. Today he's a Denver Broncos defensive lineman, a 2025 first-team All-Pro, and he has led the NFL in quarterback hits two years running. After he signed a $102 million extension, offenses had a game plan for him for the first time, and for four weeks, in his words, he was losing his mind. Then a coach told him three words: less is more.

He picked up The Inner Game of Tennis because Tom Brady called it one of his favorite books of all time, and looking back, it explained his best games, including one he played sick on no sleep.

In this episode he explains the ten-minute exercise behind his best year yet, why he films every rep and watches it as a mirror instead of judging it in the moment, why he never writes "don't" in his notes, the perspective trick he learned from J.J. Watt, and, partway through, he coaches me out of my own rut.

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Audio/Listen only:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inner-game/id6818346372
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0g48LMGmub7fZPSFC5RUqk

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Follow The Inner Game:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinnergame/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_inner_game
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinnergame74
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-inner-game-app
Website: https://www.theinnergame.app

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00:00 Intro: Pressing After a $102 Million Contract
01:42 Why an All-Pro Picked Up Tom Brady's Favorite Book
02:04 Sick, No Sleep, Best Game: How to Play Out of Your Head
04:23 Tim Gallwey's Untold Story: Why Coaches Over-Explain
06:10 Game Film as a Mirror (and Peyton Manning's Lesson for Coaches)
08:42 Calm on Game Day, Worked Up All Week
10:10 Why He Never Writes "Don't" and How He Resets on the Sideline
12:53 Jiu-Jitsu, Tennis and Rick Rubin: The Same Lesson
15:15 The NFL Roller Coaster: Best in the World to Getting Cut
16:18 What Tom Brady Knows That Talented Quarterbacks Don't
17:24 The Inner Game for a Team: When to Correct a Mistake
19:13 When the Stakes Are High: How to Get Back on Track
21:15 The 10-Minute Thursday Exercise Behind His Best Year
21:55 "Less Is More": Pressing After the Big Contract
24:15 Why Athletes Don't Open Up to Team Psychologists
26:55 The Best of the Best Demand to Be Coached
27:31 Pressure Is a Privilege: J.J. Watt's "You Would Kill for This"
29:40 Zach Coaches the Host
30:35 Not a First-Round Pick: Brick by Brick
32:14 Discipline Comes From "Disciple"

Want to trust yourself under pressure? Take the free Inner Game Performance Profile: https://join.theinnergame.app/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=performance_profile&utm_content=ep03

Coaches: help shape the next version of The Inner Game with Tim Gallwey and Bob Bowman. The founding coaches cohort gets full access and a private community. Application only: https://theinnergame.app/founding-coaches?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=founding_coaches&utm_content=ep03

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Brad Stulberg was a triathlete with a power meter, a heart-rate monitor and a race-day problem: methodical in training, nothing on the day. Then a coach gave him The Inner Game of Tennis. He never turned pro. He became a writer instead, and he says he still writes the way that book taught him to race. Today he coaches pro athletes, surgeons and founders on the mental side of their craft, and his book The Way of Excellence is the closest thing I've read to a modern evolution of the Inner Game.

In this episode he explains why AI will make you good but never great, why there's no gold medal for the most complex routine, the one equation behind all growth, how his own coach fixed the job he'd started to resent in a single sentence, and the day he told his wife his brain was broken.

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Audio/Listen only:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inner-game/id6818346372
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0g48LMGmub7fZPSFC5RUqk

—

Follow The Inner Game:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinnergame/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_inner_game
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinnergame74
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-inner-game-app
Website: https://www.theinnergame.app

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00:00 Intro: Hustle Culture, Pseudo-Excellence and the 47-Step Routine
01:16 What Excellence Actually Means (Tim Gallwey + Brad Stulberg)
03:58 Great in Training, Bad on Race Day: How The Inner Game of Tennis Fixed His Performance
07:21 Flow State, Consistency and Creative Work: What Sport Teaches You
17:06 AI Is Ultra-Processed Food for Your Brain (How to Use AI Without Losing Your Edge)
27:41 Why Knowledge Work Burns You Out: Hard Work vs. Mindless Work
32:08 Stress + Rest = Growth: How to Train Hard Without Burning Out
34:11 Hustle Culture Is Pseudo-Excellence: Why Your Morning Routine Isn't Working
36:57 What a Mental Performance Coach Actually Does (and the One Sentence That Fixed His Burnout)
43:56 Work-Life Balance Doesn't Exist: The Minimum Effective Dose for Work and Family
46:50 Depression and OCD at 30: "Yesterday My Brain Was Fine" (and Tim Gallwey's Untold Story)
55:49 The Pursuit of Excellence: Result vs. Process (Excellence Is Not an Identity)
59:49 Overthinking, Self-Talk and Comparison: Performance = Potential + Interference
1:03:07 Youth Sports Are Broken: "Elite? Your Kid Is Eight"
1:07:07 Choose Excellence Over the Algorithm: Brad's Final Advice

Want to trust yourself under pressure? Take the free Inner Game Performance Profile: https://join.theinnergame.app/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=performance_profile&utm_content=ep02

Coaches: help shape the next version of The Inner Game with Tim Gallwey and Bob Bowman. The founding coaches cohort gets full access and a private community. Application only: https://theinnergame.app/founding-coaches?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=founding_coaches&utm_content=ep02

Pete Carroll was introduced to Tim Gallwey's work in 1973, as a graduate student who had just started coaching. He has used The Inner Game for more than 50 years since, through USC, a Super Bowl win in Seattle and five or six years teaching his program at Microsoft, and for most of that time he kept it to himself. In this episode he explains why, and partway through he catches me in the middle of my own negative self-talk.

A masterclass in coaching, self-talk and mental performance, from a head coach who won a Super Bowl.

He breaks down what he told himself in the two or three seconds after losing the Super Bowl, why he believes grit can be taught (and the phone call where he told Angela Duckworth so), and why, after all these years, he says he still needs to be coached up.

You'll learn how to prepare for the moments that might break you, how to stop choking under pressure, how to overcome adversity, and how to train the voice in your head before your next game, race or big moment.

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Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inner-game/id6818346372
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0g48LMGmub7fZPSFC5RUqk

—

Follow The Inner Game:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinnergame/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_inner_game
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinnergame74
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-inner-game-app
Website: https://www.theinnergame.app

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00:00 Why Pete Carroll Still Needs a Coach
01:01 How Pete Carroll Found The Inner Game in 1973
03:39 The Mental Method He Kept Secret From Football
05:12 The Order His Head Coach Gave Him (He Did It Anyway)
08:49 How to Take a Risk Without Acting Out of Fear
12:32 Pete Carroll's Biggest Heartbreak: Looking Like the Team Mascot
15:42 What Competition Really Means
21:26 Can Grit Be Taught? Pete Carroll vs Angela Duckworth
29:55 "I'm Either Gonna Die or Go to Jail": The Power of Vision
34:54 Self-Talk Is a Skill. Train It.
40:42 "Did You Just Hear Yourself?" Negative Self-Talk Caught Live
43:31 What Pete Carroll Told Himself After Losing the Super Bowl
46:02 P = P + I: Why the Voice Gets Louder Under Pressure
50:07 Why Everybody Needs a Coach (Even Pete Carroll)