The Inner Game of Tennis is about how to address the mental side of performance. It uses tennis as a metaphor, although frankly a lot of the examples are very much about tennis. The author's themes are things like fewer instructions = less overthinking, showing is better than telling, trusting oneself, no substitute for experience, and relaxed concentration. I liked the parts about competition bringing out the best in yourself and focusing on the next point, not the entire match.
The author's background is as a tennis player and coach, but he was written versions using other sports as the example. Tennis was the original book. It was actually written in 1974. It is impressive how much of what was written is still, and probably even more, true in today's world.
The book is reader friendly in that it is only about 130 pages and an easy read. I loved all the tennis examples, but if you're not a big tennis fan then you might skim over some parts. But the ending tied it all together very well, connecting the dots to life, work, or really anything. I especially think this is useful for middle school & high school athletes as well as coaches.
My rating for The Inner Game of Tennis: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!