I totally agree. And that’s one of the reasons I’ve been personally a bit disappointed in Be A Player. Enjoyed the interview on the pod, so I grabbed the book. But other than a few good nuggets, imo too much of the book consists of player X was playing poorly, came to us, started playing better. Ok, that’s cool I guess…? 10-15 pages of actual applicable insight is about right.
We picked up a single at my home course one time and I was having a great round. Was going to finish in the mid 70s barring a detonation on 18. The guy we picked up needed par to break 90.
I’m standing on the tee box and after I blasted one up the right side he comes up to me and grabs my hands and goes “this is what I’d like to see you do…”
I was pissed, yanked my hands away and said “don’t fucking touch me man. I don’t need any tips on how to hit a 200 yard slice.”
I’ve never had an experience like that in my life and I’ll never forget it. Was about as mad as I’ve ever been on the course.
Agree the book is 10 pages of info… crammed into 150 pages.
The stuff about “play 9 holes without ever caring where the ball goes”, or play 9 holes just thinking about not crushing a potato chip in your teeth
A little too touchy feely for me
I did like the idea of the think box… then the swing box. But I heard Gary McCord describe the same thing in a different way 25 years ago
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Literally had this experience so many times…
Not to take away how shitty that is for you - it totally sucks!
I’m working hard to finish this audiobook.
I don’t think this devalues their book, though. I think people get screwed here when they assume/hope that mental game books/teaching is always reinventing the wheel. In reality, the best mental coaches are the simplest and help students get there.
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The “uninvited lesson” from a stranger must happen to women dramatically more than men. I base this opinion simply from driving range observations over the past 50 years.
Even if the only take away/s from this book are what I have from the first two chapters (which is improving my general outlook/not taking the game too seriously so as it impacts negatively/being grateful to be out there, and then the Balance/Tempo/Tension “mantra” that helped me move from left-brain to right-brain whilst addressing the ball), then it’ll be worth it. The last two rounds have been some of my better results, and I’ve barely practised recently with a 6 month at home.
I just dove into the book this week. After reading the Balance/Temp/Tension chapter I am really looking forward to getting back on the course tomorrow. I played 45 holes on Saturday with one of the 9 holes being my best of the year, and the others being probably my worst of the year. Felt like the BTT was written just for me after this weekends rounds.
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The part about not having any technical or swing-related thoughts whilst over the ball was very much a light bulb moment for me. A couple of times I noticed it trying to creep in, but that BTT thought was a really good way of being able to push it to one side and remind myself to “stay athletic”. Hope it works out for you this week.
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