Music, Art, Dance Summer Camp in the Hamptons, Lessons From a Book About Tennis

All of our arts camps and classes in Bridgehampton, NY - Rock Camp, Diving Into Art, Dance Intensive, Explore Ceramics, and Theater Workshop - are all about exploring each type of and having a whole lot of fun along the way. We want to inspire students and have them internalize how one can rise to new heights with curiosity, practice, and team work.

It’s also worth noting one’s positive attitude and headspace plays an important role when learning something new or improving upon what you already know. There is a book called the Inner Game of Tennis which dives into this. Bill Gates says of the book, “Groundbreaking . . . [ The Inner Game of Tennis is] the best book on tennis that I have ever read, and its profound advice applies to many other parts of life.”

How does this book about tennis apply to our arts camps and classes in the Hamptons? The Inner Game of Tennis basically says that to achieve greatness on the court there is an outer game and an inner game. The outer game would include things like technique, conditioning, strength, agility, etc…. The inner game is about calming any self-doubts, fears of embarrassment, doubt, lapses in focus, or having limiting assumptions.

So how does one go about winning the inner game when it comes to say music performance? At Rock Camp and in all our programs we make sure students understand:

  1. Come as You Are. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced artists, we are all learning (literally everyone). So just show up and with a can do attitude, we build from there.

  2. We Are All Human. Mistakes are made all the time on stage…all the time. What’s important is you recover from those mistakes in real time.

  3. With Knowledge and Practice Comes Confidence. You know those butterflies you feel before a performance? Well, they never really disappear, but something very cool happens when you starting gaining real skill and technique. That nervous energy transforms into a something that helps you and gives you momentum….it’s almost as if catch the wave and now you are riding it.



The inner game takes place within the mind of the player and is played against such obstacles as fear, self-doubt, lapses in focus, and limiting concepts or assumptions. The inner game is played to overcome the self-imposed obstacles that prevent an individual or team from accessing their full potential.