Amazon has more than 300 reviews of Lance Armstrong’s autobiography, It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. The reviewers consistently agree that this book is highly inspirational and full of hope.

There are too many messages and lessons in the book to cover them all in this article. However, there are three key strategies that are of particular relevance to the inner game of tennis. In essence, they can be captured by the statement, It’s not about the racquet.

The three key strategies are:

1. Do not let others limit your goals or your dreams

When Lance Armstrong was recovering from brain surgery and aggressive chemotherapy, there were many people who said that he would never ride again. Even one of his key sponsors dropped Lance because he believed that he could never recover from the devastation of cancer and the related treatment.

Lance refused to let others define his capacities or limit his goals and dreams. He was determined to not only ride again but to win the gruelling Tour de France for his first time. Lance Armstrong went on to win the Tour de France seven times!

Even when he was emaciated, exhausted and depleted, he still maintained his goals and dream. So the first strategy is to maintain your goals and dreams even in the face of opposition from well-meaning people.

2. Dig deep into your inner resources

Lance maintains that the key learning for him from his illness and survival is that we are better than we know. We totally underestimate our inner reserves and unrealized capacities because we do not test the power of our minds. It is often only in a crisis that these inner capacities emerge.

One key strategy of the inner game of tennis is to learn to dig deep into our inner resources and tap our unrealised potential. This requires will power, determination and a preparedness to win against all odds. Lance survived his cancer even though the doctors estimated that he had a 3% chance of survival, not great odds!

Here is another pertinent example. The press, globally and locally, decided at the start of the 2007 Australian Open Tennis Championship that Serena Williams had no chance of winning because she was overweight and unfit. They did not allow for her basic underlying fitness or her capacity to tap her incredible inner reserves. Her will power was so strong that her opponents often wilted in the face of her sheer determination even when they were leading in the match.

Hence, the second key strategy is to learn to tap your inner reserves by challenging the limits you impose on yourself.

3. Make every obstacle an opportunity

Lance Armstrong attributes this strategy to his mother who continuously reminded him, even as a child, that in every obstacle lay an opportunity to improve himself. In an interview after his first Tour de France win Lance stated that his illness created the opportunity to improve himself on many fronts. He claimed that his battle with cancer enabled him to become tougher and more patient as a competitive cyclist and more thoughtful, compassionate and responsible as a person, a father and life partner.

Hence, a third key strategy of the inner game of tennis is to improve your game and yourself through every obstacle you encounter.

The inner game of tennis is not about the racquet. It IS about YOU. It is about how you define your capacities and maintain your goals, how you access your inner resources and how you use obstacles to improve yourself and your tennis game.

Learn the Inner Game of Tennis from a professional tennis coach: Tennis Mind Game

To get Ron’s free e-book, Playing the Inner Game of Tennis, CLICK HERE

Copyright 2007 – Ron Passfield. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave the links active, do not edit the article in any way, give author name credit and follow all of the EzineArticles.com posted terms of service for Publishers.

If you want to really improve on your tennis skills, it might be the right time to invest in a good quality tennis racquet. The type that you choose will depend on the level that you are at and the type of money that you are willing and able to spend on your tennis practice equipment.

All racquets used to be made from only wood and there was very little choice. Nowadays there is so much on offer that you need to use specific criteria in order to narrow down your choices.

There are a few things that you need to consider when looking at the different types of tennis racquets that are currently available.

The most important thing you need to decide is how much you are willing to spend on this vital piece of tennis equipment. If you do a quick search online you may be very surprised to find what is actually available in the different price brackets. If you do not worry about things like brand names, you will find a whole host of designs to pick from.

If products from world famous sports companies like Nike and Wilson are important to you then using the internet is also a good way to find out if you can find the brand names that you like but at a cheaper price. Different online stores will set different prices so you could be lucky and find yourself a bargain.

If you are a beginner, you may want to opt for a racquet that has a larger head and is much lighter in weight. These two factors will improve your opportunities of hitting any tennis balls that come your way. Once you get better at the game, you can look at the heavier alternatives.

Spending time researching the best type of tennis racquet for your game will help you to make the right choice and buy the best tennis equipment suitable for you and your tennis game.

Find out more about choosing a good tennis racquet when looking for good quality Tennis practice equipment.

Babolat tennis racquets are specifically designed to suit the individual needs of a player and take into account aspects of play such as power, style and overall comfort. If you are looking to improve your game a Babolat tennis racquet may be just what you are searching for.

Babloat racquets cater for all levels of the game so it doesn’t matter if you are a total beginner, advanced at your game or somewhere in between – there will be a racquet perfect for you. Here are some details about just a few of the racquets on offer from Babolat.

The AeroPro Drive Cortex Junior or The Roddick Junior are both super racquets for a junior player starting to learn the game. The first of these two has been specifically designed to be aerodynamic in shape and its head heavy balance encourages heavy top spin as well as providing the player with a great deal of power.

As far as racquets for advanced level play go, a favorite of Rafael Nadal, the Babolat AeroPro Drive Cortex provides great spin potential as well as hitting powerfully. The cortex system gives the maximum of comfort to the player as it easily handles immense vibrations. For a player of say, 4.5, this is the ideal racquet to up their game a level.

Yet another favored racquet is the Roddick Pure Drive GT plus which is used by Andy Roddick. If you are a player with a medium swing style this racquet will give you the opportunity to use the power it creates to improve your spin skills and strengthen your baseline play.

When purchasing a Babolat tennis racquet at a discount price, it couldn’t be easier than buying on line. Nonetheless, you really do have to know and understand your needs when choosing your new racquet because if you don’t opt for the best racquet for your level, your game will not improve, it will only be hindered.

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When looking to buy the best tennis racquets that you can afford, the last thing that you want to have happen is to become the subject of a scam. There has been a scam perpetuated on eBay will tennis racquets.

Scam artists are becoming more and more clever. They will do their best to figure out new and innovative ways to sell you inferior products that are supposed to be higher quality merchandise. Here are the three things that you should do to avoid becoming the victim of this scam on eBay:

1. Avoid Unscrupulous Sellers – Don’t Buy if Comment Count is Low

Some seller will list items that are not what they say they are.  Not all people who are selling tennis racquets from are scam artists. But how can you tell? Since you can not easily decipher which business people are legitimate and which are not, just to be on the safe side, you should just avoid buying from sellers who do not have a significant number of comments.  Make sure your seller has had at least 20 successful selling transactions.

2. Read the Feedback

Counterfeit tennis racquet makers are getting better and better. In order to avoid buying a racquet that is an inferior copy posing as the real thing, read the comments of previous buyers. Buyers who have been conned will most certainly complain and leave negative feedback.

3. Buy From Trusted Sellers

As with feedback, you want to buy from a seller who has been in business for a long time, and has had many, positive transactions. Look for sellers who have had more than 250 transactions. You can see the number of transaction from the feedback section. 

Now you know how to avoid the becoming a victim of the eBay tennis racquet scam artists. 

If you would like to shop for tennis racquets… 

Click here to find the best tennis racquet.

http://besttennisracquet.com