W. Timothy Gallwey (born 1938 in San Francisco, California) is an author who has written a series of books in which he has set forth a new methodology for coaching and for the development of personal and professional excellence in a variety of fields, that he calls The Inner Game. Since he began writing in the 1970s, his books include The Inner Game of Tennis, The Inner Game of Golf, The Inner game of Music (with Barry Green), Inner Skiing and The Inner Game of Work. Gallweys seminal work is the The Inner Game of Tennis, with more than one million copies in print.[1] Besides sports, his training methods have been applied to the fields of business, health, and education.[1]

In 1960, Gallwey was captain of the Harvard University Tennis Team. In the 1970s he learned the meditation techniques of the Divine Light Missions Guru Maharaj Ji, which Gallwey said enhanced his powers of concentration in a manner that improved his game.[2] In a 1973 New York Times article he described his discovery of Maharaj Ji and his decision to live in an ashram and practice celibacy.[3] In 1997, Gallwey dedicated his book, The Inner Game of Tennis, to him.[4]

The inner game is based upon certain principles in which an individual uses non-judgmental observations of critical variables, with the purpose of being accurate about these observations. If the observations are accurate, the persons body will adjust and correct automatically to achieve best performance.[5] Gallwey was one of the first to demonstrate a comprehensive method of coaching that could be applied to many situations, and found himself lecturing more often to business leaders in the U.S. than to sports people.[6]

Tim Gallweys work went on to found the current movement in business coaching, life coaching and executive coaching. One of the most well known exponents of business coaching is Sir John Whitmore, who popularised Graham Alexanders and Alan Fines GROW model of the coaching process.[6]

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