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iamben · 2021-05-23 · Original thread
If you haven't read it, "The Inner Game of Tennis" by W. Timothy Gallway (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inner-Game-Tennis-ultimate-performa...) is worth a go.

Whilst it's technically a tennis coaching book, the tennis is really just an example to explain bigger things.

Anyway, there's a great story in that book where he says something like "if you want to put someone off their game, compliment them on how strong their backhand [or whatever] is today. From then on they'll think about it before every stroke and destroy their own performance."