I’ve just got back from a fantastic week of travelling in China. On the two 12-hour flights and four overnight train journeys I had plenty of time to read some books and thought I would share my views on them.

The first book I read was ‘The Talent Code’ by Daniel Coyle. This book is similar to one of my favorite books ‘Bounce’. The Talent Code attempts to identify what separates the elite performers in sport to the rest of the population. At times this book overlaps with the book Bounce, however it does add to some of the concepts in ‘Bounce” and discusses certain phenomena such as ignition and deep practice as well as a section on master coaching.

I did enjoy the book but my advice would be to read ‘Bounce’ first and then ‘The Talent Code’ becomes a complementary follow on.

The second book was recommended to me by Karl Morris, the book called ‘Willpower’ looks at the way modern life has changed in recent times and it states that willpower is now the most important trait to achieve success – whatever success means to you, i.e playing better golf, earning lots of money or anything else for that matter. The book is written by two academics and can get a little heavy at times so I found myself skipping some of the content and moving on to the personal stories from explorers, soldiers, addicts and parents which were insightful.

‘Willpower’ is certainly not a book to read before bed and unless you have a degree in psychology can be hard to follow, but there are some interesting tales mixed in there and I think it is worth a read.

The final book I read on my trip was Hank Haney’s ‘The Big Miss’. It details the years which Hank coached Tiger Woods and has received a lot of press regarding some of the comments Tiger has made in the past about some of the other players on the tour. It also offers some insights into the private life of Tiger that only a handful of people have ever truly seen. I was keen to read the book after Geoff Ogilvy recommend it to any other tour player because in his words he said it would make them a better golfer.

The book starts with Tiger contacting Hank to become his coach and moves through time until Hank resigned as Tiger’s coach following a disastrous warm up on the final day of The Masters. The book is written in a very defensive manor and would lead you to believe that Hank was getting, and still is under scrutiny from the golf critics for his work with Tiger. In the last chapter Hank feels the need to compare Tiger’s win percentages with that of when Butch Harmon was coaching him, in what seems a final attempt to fend off the critics.

So the big question will the book help you to become the next Tiger? The answer unfortunately is no, but it will keep you entertained for several hours and give you a glimpse into the life of Tiger Woods.