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.