The Dan Plan - 10,000 Hours to Become a Pro Golfer (Dan McLaughlin)

[golfbarefoot]

The Beatles are the perfect example of 10000 theory. Read the book, "Outliers" very interesting. The DanPlan thing is a little strange though. He stated he never touched a club before, he literally got one club, a putter and began there. So why would he even choose golf if he's never even swung a club and he's 30 years old? Hmm The funniest thing he said in his interview was that the meanest people towards his project were online Internet forums... With anonymous users... Other people he said are supportive. He literally said that.

[Lihu]

The Beatles are the perfect example of 10000 theory. Read the book, "Outliers" very interesting. The DanPlan thing is a little strange though. He stated he never touched a club before, he literally got one club, a putter and began there. So why would he even choose golf if he's never even swung a club and he's 30 years old? Hmm The funniest thing he said in his interview was that the meanest people towards his project were online Internet forums... With anonymous users... Other people he said are supportive. He literally said that.

Sounds like us. :-)

[flopster]

Sounds like us.

The Beatles are the perfect example of 10000 theory. Read the book, "Outliers" very interesting.

The DanPlan thing is a little strange though. He stated he never touched a club before, he literally got one club, a putter and began there.

So why would he even choose golf if he's never even swung a club and he's 30 years old? Hmm

The funniest thing he said in his interview was that the meanest people towards his project were online Internet forums... With anonymous users... Other people he said are supportive. He literally said that.

Dan...you mad? I know the truth hurts but if t's the truth then it can't be hate.

[nevets88]

Dan...you mad? I know the truth hurts but if t's the truth then it can't be hate.

If I were a hater I'd say straight out your plan is dumb I hope you fail and make a fool out of yourself and that's mild I'm not even cursing. The comments I put up are tough, but they're grounded in reality and I wished him well. Some of his blanket statements are critical of the way things have been done. Of course there's going to be criticism thrown his way. As for enjoying the ride we're not seeing much of the learning process. That's the part I'd enjoy. The swing progression. There's not much of that on his YT channel. What about a vlog of one of those tournaments he was in? We should see the bad with the good, no? I'm not making any money off my to mildly put it, less than optimal swings I've put up here, and I and many here have posted way more swings in a year than Dan Plan has for 4 years. And like I said, to me it's not if he gets there, I'm not holding him to the goal, I've criticized it but I don't think it's a failure if he doesn't make it. It's how he gets there. I just wanna see how good someone can get using the best training methods. Like @iacas said anyone with good info and some talent should get pretty far.

[RFKFREAK]

Sounds like us.

Dan...you mad? I know the truth hurts but if t's the truth then it can't be hate.

Ahh, it's always easy to say internet forums are where the haters are found.

I guess he feels it's good for his image to have haters so people can feel sorry for him and give him some attention or money.

[MS256]

At a "fun" level, you're right, but what you say applies to any sport.

Top level sprinters run 100m in a little less than 10 seconds. Many high school sprinters run in a little over 10 seconds. This is not much difference.

You might drive a ball 220 yards, a pro 280. Not a huge difference, but the net result is something like 25 strokes per round. A little over 1 per hole, if you are a 20 HI.

This is a difference between a million dollar game and a casual weekend round.

It doesn't seem like a lot, but it is very significant.

There's a fine line in all sports between the very best and those that are just pretty good. Often not even enough of a gap on each side of that line for an observer to see the difference.

That fine line might as well be a brick wall for many athletes because they will never get over it no matter how hard they try.

I've seen it too many times to count. A kid comfortably hits a 90 mph fastball with little movement and/or poor arm motion on change of speed pitches. He routinely goes between 2 for 4 and 3 for 4 with a homer. He goes up a level where the fastball is now 92 with some movement and/or better arm motion on change of speeds and he routinely goes between 0 for 4 or 1 for 4 with little power.

The fans in the stands at the lower level think he's a "can't miss prospect" because they can't see the difference.

It's like Mike Shannon used to say when John Tudor was pitching and throwing changeup after changeup and striking out Major League hitters.

"I know you guys watching from home think you could hit that pitch. You would be wrong."

[RFKFREAK]

There's a fine line in all sports between the very best and those that are just pretty good. Often not even enough of a gap on each side of that line for an observer to see the difference.

That fine line might as well be a brick wall for many athletes because they will never get over it no matter how hard they try.

I've seen it too many times to count. A kid comfortably hits a 90 mph fastball with little movement and/or poor arm motion on change of speed pitches. He routinely goes between 2 for 4 and 3 for 4 with a homer. He goes up a level where the fastball is now 92 with some movement and/or better arm motion on change of speeds and he routinely goes between 0 for 4 or 1 for 4 with little power.

The fans in the stands at the lower level think he's a "can't miss prospect" because they can't see the difference.

It's like Mike Shannon used to say when John Tudor was pitching and throwing changeup after changeup and striking out Major League hitters.

"I know you guys watching from home think you could hit that pitch. You would be wrong."

Whoa, blast from the past - go go gadget 80's baseball!

[Lihu]

I think the main thing Dan's supporters don't understand is that there are thousands of golfers who are all pro level competing for the same positions he is, and they all would have shot 18 to 20 strokes better per round than he did in those tournaments. Mid-60s is pretty common on normal courses. If he got to a 3 in a few months and spent 6000 hours getting to a +3, he might have a chance to be one of these thousands of golfers. Still no guarantee. Then again, if he got to a 3 in that short a time, he would disprove his own theory.

[pullfade]

Results from the Oregon Stroke Play:

http://www.ghintpp.com/OregonGA/TPPOnlineScoring/ResultsStroke.aspx?id=351

Dan wouldn't dare enter this tournament, he could practice for 50,000 hours and he still wouldn't have a prayer of winning it, and it's a STATE AMATEUR TOURNAMENT.

[David in FL]

Results from the Oregon Stroke Play: [URL=http://www.ghintpp.com/OregonGA/TPPOnlineScoring/ResultsStroke.aspx?id=351]http://www.ghintpp.com/OregonGA/TPPOnlineScoring/ResultsStroke.aspx?id=351[/URL] Dan wouldn't dare enter this tournament, he could practice for 50,000 hours and he still wouldn't have a prayer of winning it, and it's a STATE AMATEUR TOURNAMENT.

He tried to qualify for the State Amateur back in June. Finished very near the bottom in his local qualifying round.

[pullfade]

Only reason he qualified is because of his vanity handicap.

[pullfade]

I should say, only reason he even got to play in a qualifying round was because of his vanity handicap.

[RandallT]

Looks like Dan played in his country club final major of the year:

Although there is no report on his blog since then about how he did in that tourney after the mental game prep, his GHIN lookup "Recent Scores" (not yet included in his current 4.1 handicap 8/1 revision) shows this.  I'm assuming this is from the Riverside tournament he mentions above:

Type	Date (M/YY)	Score	CR/Slope	Diff.
T	8/14	83	71.9/131	9.6

He's still unable to get below 80 in a tourney. He's got to be getting more and more frustrated. It shows in his blog topics. The only post since returning from Australia in early August is about the cost of golf in America (and the general decline of the sport). Not exactly relevant to the Dan Plan. http://thedanplan.com/the-cost-of-golf-in-america/

Still no details on how he is actually practicing, which as nevets points out, is a central focus of his effort. How is his "deliberate" practice different or better than what any of us do (or the 5 S's thread here on TST)?  Inquiring minds want to know.

[Grndslmhttr3]

I watched a video of him playing a practice round. It's hilarious how he tips his cap after putting out like he's on the PGA Tour.

[iacas]

I watched a video of him playing a practice round. It's hilarious how he tips his cap after putting out like he's on the PGA Tour.

Post the video here (not for the hat tipping).

[Grndslmhttr3]

Post the video here (not for the hat tipping).

[nevets88]

Originally Posted by Grndslmhttr3

Ah thanks. I've seen that, it's almost 2 years old - Jan 2013. Wish there was something more recent, like his tournament rounds. I dunno, his swing looks pretty much the same.

[David in FL]

Looks like a pretty pedestrian 7 or 8 hcp......