It takes guts and determination to write a book, and I admire Jared for the effort required to make this one happen. It's hard enough just writing a blog, let alone a book.
I first came across Jared on Twitter/X. I found some of his ideas interesting and enjoyed the frankness with which he expressed them. He was offering what appeared to be good, simple, common-sense advice. As part of the promotion of his book, he was offering readers the potential to work with him for a year. You just had to contact him and commit to reading the book. I put myself forward, explained my background and arranged a video call. We had an interesting conversation and appeared to share some common ground. I agreed to read the book and get back in touch with my thoughts.
There’s plenty in the book that I liked and agreed with. He touched on some of the things I've been exploring with Stoicism and the Hedonic Treadmill for example. But when I finished the book, I was left wondering what he was actually trying to get at. The sub-title, “an explanation of the challenge”, provides a clue about what you're going to find though. Jared makes his views on the “improvement industry” very clear and repeats them often. I get where he's coming from with most of it. I understand his comments about the economic motivation of instructors, but the same argument could be applied to therapists, chiropractors and a whole host of other professions too. They all want you to keep going back! At times the book felt like a big cathartic rant about the industry, and that's a bit of a shame as it detracts from his message about resilience. There are nuggets of wisdom in here, but they can get lost in the noise. Having introduced themes like stoicism and the hedonic treadmill, he left me wanting more from both. But was that just due to my heightened interest in those areas?
I should remind you that I was reading this book with the thought of possibly working on my game with Jared and my views are influenced by that consideration. Ultimately, my disappointment was that I didn’t come away with a feel for what type of a teacher he would be or what working with him would be like. There wasn’t anything about how he would marry technical instruction and his philosophy into a holistic teaching experience. On that basis, there wasn't any ground for us to work together.
From a personal perspective, my route to becoming a better golfer combines applying a healthier philosophy when playing, while also seeking technical instruction to address skill shortages. I think one of the things Jared is trying to get at is that there are endless instructors out there telling you how to swing, but few that help you learn how to play. Combining the two is the secret sauce. Expectation management, gratitude and better self-talk (amongst other things) are all part of my philosophy change – for golf and life. While I've gotten better at applying those principles to my personal life, I still struggle to consistently bring them into my golf. Too often I still get caught up in the output rather than the process. However, this is a lifelong journey and it's not about quick fixes.
While this book didn't hit the right chord for me, there are some good bits in it and others may get more from it than I did. I continue to follow Jared on X and still enjoy reading his posts. He cares passionately about golf. He's a fellow traveller!
If you want to judge for yourself, then you can find Resilient Golf Improvement serialised on Spotify or Apple Podcasts by following these links.
留言