Inner Skiing: Revised Edition (Paperback)

by W. Timothy Gallwey (Author) "There is a magic in skiing when all is going well that transcends anything I have experienced in other sports..." (more)
Key Phrases: proving game, inner skiing, breakthrough run, Inner Game, Inner Skiing, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
While on the slopes, take advantage of your most powerful muscle. The authors teach skiers how to relax, concentrate, banish unnecessary fears--and enjoy themselves. This revised edition of the skiing classic will give you the self-confidence to excel on the slopes and beyond.

Product Description
A New, Completely Revised Edition of the Classic Guide to Better Skiing

Have you been searching for a way to overcome your fear, trust your instincts, and ski to your greatest potential? Inner Skiing will help you do all this and more. In this newly updated edition of the skiing classic, W. Timothy Gallwey and Robert Kriegel offer advice on and examples of how to gain the "inner" self-confidence needed to ski well and have fun on the slopes.

Inner Skiing will help you:
Focus on each step of a particular technique (like the parallel turn), then put it all together so that the motion seems effortless
Analyze your fears to distinguish between healthy fear and unnecessary fear that you can overcome
Achieve "breakthrough" runs in which you experience natural and coordinated movements
Move to the next level in your skiing ability and feel in control


Gallwey and Kriegel are two of the leading innovators in sports, and this new edition refines the techniques they have perfected over their long careers. Their easy-to-follow examples and anecdotes will help skiers of all abilities--from beginner to expert.

Inner Skiing will change the way you ski.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Random House; Revised edition (November 4, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679778276
• ISBN-13: 978-0679778271
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #89,927 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #7 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Outdoor Recreation > Skiing
  #42 in	Books > Sports > Winter Sports

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An effective and inspiring guide to freeing skiers from fear, November 25, 1998

By A Customer

I have been reading this book for about twenty years(first publication was November 1977); it was the first of two Inner Game books which, although differing in details, both transformed my attitude to and my performance in the sports I love. I was fortunate to have been given it by a patient who was an Inner Game instructor (or rather, facilitator). If Inner Skiing has only now (1997) become widely available, thanks to the Internet, a generation of British skiers has lost out; for years it has been available only in the USA and to members of Inner Game workshops. With examples from life and from Inner Skiing workshops which are encouraging, inspiring, and often emotionally touching, the book helps skiers of all standards to confront their fears and to tap into the mind's and the body's unconscious store of knowledge and skills; the fears of "flying", falling, speed, injury, failure, and the fear of looking stupid; the knowledge locked into Gallwey's Self 2, a Self which, he teaches us, is ours too. Where his Self 1 is trying, tense, unsure, scared and controlling, Self 2 is free, relaxed, effortless, powerful, and instinctive. Gallwey and his co-author Bob Kriegel, a more experienced skier than he and a psychologist, equip their readers with simple but highly effective keys to Self 2, enabling us increasingly to find in skiing the exhilaration of the breakthrough run, and unlocking the confidence without which the sport can be an exercise in anxiety. Most of us in the UK only get to ski once a year. I reread Inner Skiing annually as an essential pre-ski exercise, and if I don't read every word I never fail to take a dose of inspiration from the paragraph in the last chapter which begins "Inside us all is a mountain with no top and no bottom. The skiing there is perfect. The snow is made of pure peace and there is not a trace of Self 1 interference.................Skiing this inner mountain has the power to satisfy the human longing to know oneself and the reason for which one was born." You may guess from this that Timothy Gallwey's is the inner game of life, with applications far beyond the realms of sport, as his other writing attests. Dr. Basil Lee, London, England.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 26 years of skiing, 6 teaching, and this book is #1, February 10, 2002

By	Barak "barakr" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

I rad Inner Skiing about 6-7 years ago, and it changed my skiing life. Most everything written about skiing (and other sports, as far as I can tell) is about technique, tricks, how-to's and so on. Inner Skiing is about being a skier - about the fundamental relationship we have to the snow, the mountain, the skis and ourselves.

Discovering who I am as a skier (and what my fears, my doubts, my anxieties look like) have exploded this sport for me. This book works on the emotional, intellectual and physical levels - I use the discovery tools on myself, and with my students, and get incredible results.

Even if you don't ski, this book is great - I've used some of his approaches in many areas of my life. They're fun, they're doable, and they help me focus on what's really there, not what I imagine. And beyond that, they open up incredible opportunities to play, explore and have a great time on the slopes or off.

The earlier edition of the book poo-pood technique - I don't agree with that, and my sense is the book took a bit of a hit for that. There's things to learn about skiing, and taking lessons from a great instructor will make a huge difference whether it's your first day or you've been at it for decades. Nonetheless, I recommend this as book #1 for anyone who wants to ski, or who wants something more from their skiing. ANd for the instructors out there - read it!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transform your skiing, June 15, 2005

By	madbee (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inner Skiing (Hardcover)

Unlike most of the ski books I read, this book helped me zero in on my attitudes-- all the little mental numbers I did on myself while trying to improve or just enjoy skiing. It helped me focus on areas I had problems with, without heaping criticism on myself. It changed the way I learned by teaching me constructive things to replace that inner critic with. "You look so loose and relaxed," an instructor who had worked with me before commented. This book shows you how to allow yourself to learn unencumbered by fears. Things I read here helped me when I learned to inline skate, and pavement is a lot rougher than snow.