About us/Sean Brawley

About Sean Brawley

Since 1990, I have been on a never-ending quest to discover the secrets of masterful coaching. As a former tennis professional who played at Wimbledon, and the French and U.S. Opens, I had an opportunity to work with some of the nation’s very best coaches. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, when I became a coach myself I discovered a profoundly different approach to learning and performance than that which had been generally advocated by the teaching establishment.

I am passionate about learning and am always working to stretch the limits of my knowledge and capabilities. Although I have read hundreds of books and attended numerous workshops on human learning and development, it has been my clients who have taught me how to become a masterful coach. This has been the key to my success and has lead me to develop a unique model which can be used by individuals, teams and organizations to achieve and sustain breakthroughs in performance…in a deeply meaningful way…in any field, and at any level of expertise.

In the past 15 years I have shared my secrets with some of the world’s best athletes, executives, sports teams and business organizations. My sports clients include the USC football team, New York Yankees and NFL Junior Player Development. My corporate clients include Union Bank of California, Seagate Technology, and Kaiser Permanente. I have had some great success stories.

What exactly do I do? My philosophy and coaching programs are based upon a profound belief in the potential of individuals and their innate ability to learn and grow, while also acknowledging that we all also have a natural tendency to get in our own way. High performance and accelerated learning are only possible, therefore, when we can learn the inner skills necessary—awareness, responsibility and trust--to overcome these inner obstacles. By learning these skills, we are able to more effectively coach ourselves and others to success.

In addition to my sports and corporate programs, I also frequently lecture and give keynote presentations. I have presented to such sports organizations as the US Tennis Association, USPTA, National Academy of Sports Medicine and the Intercollegiate Coaches Association, and to such business associations as the American Society of Training and Development, Professional Coaches and Mentors Association, Coach University and the International Coaches Federation.

The road to mastery in any field is complex and challenging, and difficult to achieve
without the help of a coach. I was aided on my journey by Tim Gallwey, author of The Inner Game series of books including the seminal classic The Inner Game of Tennis and most recently The Inner Game of Work. Gallwey is considered one of the pioneers of both sport psychology and corporate coaching. After several years of giving Inner Game workshops in tennis and golf I decided to strike out on my own. I am one of the very few master certified Inner Game coaches in the world and with my European partner, Nelson Artz, have published The Inner Game of Tennis in German.

I live in Santa Monica, California. I still play tennis, love movies, and like to explore comparative mythologies and etymology (word origins).