Abstract
Sport psychology has been influenced by Zen Buddhism as can be seen by the way in which ideas from Zen were used by Timothy Gallwey in his popular Inner Game series. The root of this Zen influence is Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery. Herrigel was influenced by D.T. Suzuki, who popularised Zen Buddhism in the West. Zen has generally been adopted in an instrumental manner by sport psychology and is stripped of its metaphysical context. Drawing on Zen and other Eastern disciplines such as Yoga, however, Michael Murphy's Golf in the Kingdom has spurned a large following. Jeff Wallach's Beyond the Fairwayis noteworthy in its use of Zen not only for performance enhancement, but also for matters of life meaning such as the father-son relationship.
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