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

[nevets88]

I don't understand how Dan can't afford instruction, I mean I would think 1 hour a week would be enough until he gets his index down low. So what does an average 1 hour session run? $100? So he can't afford $400 a month?

Golf is expensive. Green fees, range time, short game fees, regripping, tournament entry fees, transportation, balls, health club I think, etc... $400/month for a guy who's living on savings and barely any income. That's a lot of money. Despite his visibility, I doubt he's pulling in much income.

[garybbq]

So his plan is to be a PGA player and he doesn't have $400 a month for lessons ........

[Lihu]

So his plan is to be a PGA player and he doesn't have $400 a month for lessons ........

On of the many paradoxes with this plan.

[Big C]

So his plan is to be a PGA player and he doesn't have $400 a month for lessons ........

Purely speculation on my part, but my guess is that he assumed that by the halfway point, he would have drummed up enough sponsorship interest to sustain the second half of the plan.

Clearly, that is not happening.

[garybbq]

Purely speculation on my part, but my guess is that he assumed that by the halfway point, he would have drummed up enough sponsorship interest to sustain the second half of the plan. Clearly, that is not happening.

I still don't get how he can't come up with money for lessons, I'm sure any instructor would help him out with 10 mins here and there for a reasonable price.

[nevets88]

On of the many paradoxes with this plan.

I didn't expect him to make the tour - I think some people didn't either. But I hoped he would realize his full potential. Obviously, I think he could do better.

[flopster]

I didn't expect him to make the tour - I think some people didn't either. But I hoped he would realize his full potential. Obviously, I think he could do better.

I @pullfade ontact with Dan really shed a lot of light upon what is going on and reaffirms what some of us where saying is happening, Dan obviously lacks talent that's a given that will prevent him from being on even a mini tour let alone the PGA, he also is failing in how to improve by his reluctance to do the work that has to be done even if it means taking a couple steps backwards and staying off the course in order to get improvement to happen again. I think Dan feels like he's made significant improvements over the years and doesn't want to admit the swing he has right now is not very good and that he's at the end of the road with it. I think one thing his plan shows is no matter how  many hours you put in if the practice your doing is wrong then your just wasting time. I seriously doubt he's going to reach the 10,000 hours the lack of funds and little to no improvement he's seeing  will probably force him to give up.

[nevets88]

It's the old got a kink in the swing. Spend lots of time working with it, grove it so you can work with it, feels comfortable because you're not altering the swing that much. Versus get rid of the kink, feel uncomfortable, but remove the lower ceiling the kink puts you under. Both take a long time, but the latter requires change, which puts some people off.

[Lihu]

I @pullfade having actual contact with Dan really shed a lot of light upon what is going on and reaffirms what some of us where saying is happening, Dan obviously lacks talent that's a given that will prevent him from being on even a mini tour let alone the PGA, he also is failing in how to improve by his reluctance to do the work that has to be done even if it means taking a couple steps backwards and staying off the course in order to get improvement to happen again. I think Dan feels like he's made significant improvements over the years and doesn't want to admit the swing he has right now is not very good and that he's at the end of the road with it. I think one thing his plan shows is no matter how  many hours you put in if the practice your doing is wrong then your just wasting time. I seriously doubt he's going to reach the 10,000 hours the lack of funds and little to no improvement he's seeing  will probably force him to give up.

Gee, I didn't need this plan to tell me this.

On a serious note, about a year ago I hit anywhere from a hundred to a few hundred balls per day, and got pretty much nowhere. After seeing Mike and Dana a few times starting 9 months ago, the more I practice the better my shots. Now, if I hit anywhere from 100 to 400 balls per day, I feel invigorated after practice and not tired and worn out.

[Slice of Life]

Gee, I didn't need this plan to tell me this.

On a serious note, about a year ago I hit anywhere from a hundred to a few hundred balls per day, and got pretty much nowhere. After seeing Mike and Dana a few times starting 9 months ago, the more I practice the better my shots. Now, if I hit anywhere from 100 to 400 balls per day, I feel invigorated after practice and not tired and worn out.

Yeah, I've started practicing about 2-3 hours a day. And I only hit like 25-30 balls in that time frame.

[Lihu]

Yeah, I've started practicing about 2-3 hours a day. And I only hit like 25-30 balls in that time frame.

At one point, it took me a minute to get setup correctly. I would seemingly stand at setup for 40 seconds or even more at address. It would have taken an hour or more to hit 25 balls. I got the time down to 10-15 seconds, so I hit more balls. At the net, I don't move that much and I place the ball in the exact same position. The thing that takes the most time is drinking water or other beer like liquids. 2-3 hours seems a long time to hit 25 to 30 balls, do you take more than one practice swing?

[flopster]

Gee, I didn't need this plan to tell me this.

On a serious note, about a year ago I hit anywhere from a hundred to a few hundred balls per day, and got pretty much nowhere. After seeing Mike and Dana a few times starting 9 months ago, the more I practice the better my shots. Now, if I hit anywhere from 100 to 400 balls per day, I feel invigorated after practice and not tired and worn out.

I know that, it just puts a more obvious light upon it, what really struck me was there didn't really seem to be very much if any thorough research done prior to starting the journey, he basically began with a beginners mind set and that was more than obvious by spending hundreds of hours hitting 1 foot putts, it's like someone wanting to learn to be a power hitter in baseball bunting a baseball for the first 3 months completely useless practice. As far as the cost of instruction there are many ways to get help, one obviously is here with a swing thread video another would probably be through Oregon golf association probably has multiple FREE clinics throughout the summer that he could attend and get help. Right now Dan has too many basic things going wrong with his swing that if he had more than one experienced set of eyes to help would probably not cause problems but I get the impression Dan thinks he's got something going and he doesn't want too much advice though probably most of it is good.

[Slice of Life]

2-3 hours seems a long time to hit 25 to 30 balls, do you take more than one practice swing?

Yeah, depending on how I feel, I probably take 5-10 slow backswings and a couple slow follow-throughs to emphasize what I'm working on. Between that and making sure I address every shot like I'm on the course and hitting a ball that counts...takes time. Haha.

That and video taping most of the shots and watching back to make sure I'm not regressing and continuing to do what I need to do.

[Lihu]

Yeah, depending on how I feel, I probably take 5-10 slow backswings and a couple slow follow-throughs to emphasize what I'm working on. Between that and making sure I address every shot like I'm on the course and hitting a ball that counts...takes time. Haha. That and video taping most of the shots and watching back to make sure I'm not regressing and continuing to do what I need to do.

Yeah, filming takes a long time. It's a necessary evil to get better. ;-)

[nevets88]

Yeah, filming takes a long time. It's a necessary evil to get better.

It's not the act of videoing yourself that's time consuming. Setting up the tripod and camera and moving it from dtl and fo positions are pretty easy and quick - it's how much time you take to look at your video post swing and the time trying figure out what you did right and wrong and what to do to fix the wrong. And if you write notes on swings, that's even longer.

I also edit my videos on location, so cutting out the beginning and end, it takes awhile for my camera to finish the trim. I go back to the stall and work on my pieces w/o a ball while the camera trims. If my camera trimmed videos in the blink of an eye, that would probably cut 1/4 -1/3rd of the time I'm at the range. Currently, 60 balls, I'm on the range for about 2-3 hours.

I wish my Casio had a trim feature that lets you choose the beginning and end portion to trim in one go. Right now it's just beginning, end or middle.

I tried all sorts of ways of videoing myself. Taking only the last 10 swings. Taking every swing. Taking 3-5 swings in one video. Taking a couple of swings with video then a couple without. What works for me is to video about 1/2 my swings in one session, depending what I'm working on dtl or fo or both. When the camera is trimming, I use that time to do mirror work without the mirror. Also, I find it useful to have a library of swings on the smartphone and lesson videos as well. That way, you can do a side by side between the LCD on your camera and your smartphone.

There's really an art to using the camera effectively imho. And it varies for each person I would think. This is the kind of stuff I was hoping to read in his blog. And I haven't even talked about ISO, shutter speed, video tech aspects.

We have such amazing tech in our pockets. I think some people take it for granted.

[Slice of Life]

It's not the act of videoing yourself that's time consuming. Setting up the tripod and camera and moving it from dtl and fo positions are pretty easy and quick - it's how much time you take to look at your video post swing and the time trying figure out what you did right and wrong and what to do to fix the wrong. And if you write notes on swings, that's even longer.

I also edit my videos on location, so cutting out the beginning and end, it takes awhile for my camera to finish the trim. I go back to the stall and work on my pieces w/o a ball while the camera trims. If my camera trimmed videos in the blink of an eye, that would probably cut 1/4 -1/3rd of the time I'm at the range. Currently, 60 balls, I'm on the range for about 2-3 hours.

I wish my Casio had a trim feature that lets you choose the beginning and end portion to trim in one go. Right now it's just beginning, end or middle.

I tried all sorts of ways of videoing myself. Taking only the last 10 swings. Taking every swing. Taking 3-5 swings in one video. Taking a couple of swings with video then a couple without. What works for me is to video about 1/2 my swings in one session, depending what I'm working on dtl or fo or both. When the camera is trimming, I use that time to do mirror work without the mirror. Also, I find it useful to have a library of swings on the smartphone and lesson videos as well. That way, you can do a side by side between the LCD on your camera and your smartphone.

There's really an art to using the camera effectively imho. And it varies for each person I would think. This is the kind of stuff I was hoping to read in his blog.

Couldn't agree more. I'll watch the same swing back 3 or 4 times. Once I'll focus on what my head is doing, then my hips, then my shoulders, then the club...etc.,

[nevets88]

Also, I video swings without a ball, exaggerate or emphasize the priority piece. That sucks up time as well. Those I just erase or leave unedited. I have terrible god awful what I think is happening versus what's really happening FARS - feel ain't real syndrome and this really helps.

[Slice of Life]

Also, I video swings without a ball, exaggerate or emphasize the priority piece. That sucks up time as well. Those I just erase or leave unedited. I have terrible god awful what I think is happening versus what's really happening FARS - feel ain't real syndrome and this really helps.

Ah...see, I can't do that. I know my brain and body work differently when the ball is there, so I might as well keep it in place. Exaggeration and emphasis on priority pieces though...definitely.