I don't understand what my dad means by inner game in the area of practice?

for any sport and even anything in life a zen buddhist approach can be taken or variations of it i agree with my dad completely on that, i agree that in sports especially an inner game is needed but he acts like you don't even have to practice that much at all to play, should i just ask him what he means in terms of amount of practice or does he just mean practice more efficiently and "feel and let things happen" as it says in books?