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

[acerimusdux]

The point I was making is that getting new irons and hitting them well should not change anything in the way he hits his driver. Unless, he is saying something like "Now that my irons are hitting so great, it's time to take my driver up a notch." I didn't really get that meaning from his post.

I think it goes back to how Dan started this whole process, starting with putter, then chipping, then working his way up. He was probably a decent iron player before he ever even tried to hit a driver, and hasn't yet really gotten comfortable with it.

[Big C]

Just curious, this does not sound like someone in the 5-10 handicap range. It seems like even a 13 handicap should be more consistent throughout their set of clubs. I don't hit my clubs all that well, but getting better at irons doesn't make my driver unwind like this. If anything, when I hit my irons better my driver gets better too. Thoughts?

If he's shooting a legit 80, then he's a 5-10 handicap in my book. Relative statements like "I couldn't make a putt to save my life" or "my driver deserted me" are fairly meaningless to me. If dan scores like a 5-10 handicap then that's what he is.

[flopster]

I think it goes back to how Dan started this whole process, starting with putter, then chipping, then working his way up. He was probably a decent iron player before he ever even tried to hit a driver, and hasn't yet really gotten comfortable with it.

You get comfortable with a club when you become more proficient with it, Dan has had issues with the driver that indicate lack of skill and coordination and an unwillingness to give up on what he thinks is good technique, particularly his early wrist cock and shut face just to name two off the top.

[Cardfather]

Last weekend I watched the last hour of the PNC FATHER/SON CHALLENGE. It got me thinking about who DanPlan needs to beat to get into a Web.com or PGA event.

Most of the pros sons have Web.com/PGA aspirations as well. They also have access to the best college golf programs, practice facilities, coaches and great players to talk with. Dad or golf coach constantly prepping and monitoring them. They can play in lots of tournaments against the best in the country. I think it was Shaun OMeara that stated what a wonderful opportunity it gave him to talk with Dave Stockton on improving his putting. Someone like DanPlan would just never be able to make these type of connections, until AFTER he was successful.

10,000 hours isn't even a magic number for a lot of these kids that have EVERY possible advantage. The practice hours of Qass Singh, Dru Love and Jason Langer are of much higher quality than DanPlan. Those guys are Dan's competition, I just can't see how he could ever surpass them. I also would like to see him remove those hours spent on short putts, it borders insanity to count that as quality time.

[RFKFREAK]

Yes, nearly 32kg over the last 12 months.

But this is the thing that frustrates me about Dan. Video footage is probably one of the easiest things to do these days but its few and far between AND I really want to see what kind of progress he is making through his experiment.

Regards

Mailman

Nice, congratz.

I'm on a similar path where I'm trying to lose 50 pounds by spring.

[nevets88]

[QUOTE name="flopster" url="/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours-to-become-a-pro-golfer-dan-mclaughlin/2268#post_1086716"]   Also looks like you lost weight? This can of course help in so many ways, flexibility, coordination , strength. [/QUOTE] Yes, nearly 32kg over the last 12 months. But this is the thing that frustrates me about Dan. Video footage is probably one of the easiest things to do these days but its few and far between AND I really want to see what kind of progress he is making through his experiment. Regards Mailman

I agree with you especially w/respect to showing and demonstrating what deliberate practice for him since that's one of the main points of his plan. His practice looks typical, nothing groundbreaking, probably "less" deliberate than videos found in this site. But the thing is his swing really hasn't changed much. And his videos, the angles are inconsistent. So, makes comparing a little harder. And a severe limitation of his plan is money, lack of which doesn't allow him nearly enough quality instruction.

[RandallT]

I agree with you especially w/respect to showing and demonstrating what deliberate practice for him since that's one of the main points of his plan. His practice looks typical, nothing groundbreaking, probably "less" deliberate than videos found in this site.

But the thing is his swing really hasn't changed much. And his videos, the angles are inconsistent. So, makes comparing a little harder.

And a severe limitation of his plan is money, lack of which doesn't allow him nearly enough quality instruction.

In hindsight, it sure is hard to miss a few things with The Dan Plan:

1. Despite lots of good talk, he never broke much ground regarding Deliberate Practice. I was hoping for a writeup of each session in his blog, rather than some of the more unstructured topics in his blog. He would have been better served just using his blog narrative to document what he did that day, and what his results were. And occasionally map it back to a larger plan or even a short term objective. As we reviewed now, we could see the key things he worked on over time... now it's mostly a mess of random thoughts.

2. Other than using a handicap, he didn't use consistent measures for his progress. There were a few times he promised to keep track of certain stats that were better than FIR/GIR/Putts per round/etc. After a nice writeup about his epiphany, no follow through.  Similar with the TrackMan combines. It seemed he would periodically measure where his swing was with technology. As time went by, there was no further mention of it and then of course the technology was taken from him. The statistics page is way out of date (http://thedanplan.com/statistics-2/).

3. The videos started out full of optimism. Production values were high. As time went by, he became less and less enthused with showing his progress by video, presumably because of lack of results. The funding for quality videos dried up, and soon it became mostly selfies at the range. Here's one from over 2 years ago- he obviously had a cameraman then. He's since dropped the theme song and title segment, as well as other frills from his videos.

It's hard to escape the conclusion that The Dan Plan has all but fizzled out. I even used the past tense above sorta subconsciously. A bit sad, but pass the popcorn.

@nevets88 - is his swing still mostly the same now as in this early 2012 video? I'm not much for identifying key swing differences, but it looks better now. Surely a little bit, right?  But I get your point, and I'd even guess my swing has changed more than his in this same period of time. I can look at my archive of videos and instantly see the huge change in posture and hip turn. And I didn't even have a "PLAN"! I could probably cobble together notes from my practice sessions and videos and lay out a better discussion of deliberate practice than he has thus far. Thank goodness I'm too lazy to do that, or I'd have gotten myself into the same mess Dan has gotten himself into.

[Pretzel]

I posted the following in his blog a couple weeks ago:

Quote:

I was wondering what you and your instructor are working on currently in your swing. Are there any plans to show videos of the pieces you are fine tuning?

He hasn't responded to it, which I would take to mean that he isn't currently working on anything with any instructor. Kind of disappointing, especially when Evolvr would be a very budget-conscious way for him to improve his swing.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pretzel

I posted the following in his blog a couple weeks ago:

Quote:

I was wondering what you and your instructor are working on currently in your swing. Are there any plans to show videos of the pieces you are fine tuning?

He hasn't responded to it, which I would take to mean that he isn't currently working on anything with any instructor. Kind of disappointing, especially when Evolvr would be a very budget-conscious way for him to improve his swing.

Did you suggest Evolvr to him?

[Pretzel]

Did you suggest Evolvr to him?

Not yet, was looking too see if he was working on anything first.

[iacas]

Did you suggest Evolvr to him?

We'd accept him, but guys, seriously, we don't need anyone pimping for evolvr.

Though we have had Tour players going through evolvr, it's more about affordable, great instruction for people who can work at their own pace.

[nevets88]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nevets88

I agree with you especially w/respect to showing and demonstrating what deliberate practice for him since that's one of the main points of his plan. His practice looks typical, nothing groundbreaking, probably "less" deliberate than videos found in this site.

But the thing is his swing really hasn't changed much. And his videos, the angles are inconsistent. So, makes comparing a little harder.

And a severe limitation of his plan is money, lack of which doesn't allow him nearly enough quality instruction.

@nevets88- is his swing still mostly the same now as in this early 2012 video? I'm not much for identifying key swing differences, but it looks better now. Surely a little bit, right?  But I get your point, and I'd even guess my swing has changed more than his in this same period of time. I can look at my archive of videos and instantly see the huge change in posture and hip turn. And I didn't even have a "PLAN"! I could probably cobble together notes from my practice sessions and videos and lay out a better discussion of deliberate practice than he has thus far. Thank goodness I'm too lazy to do that, or I'd have gotten myself into the same mess Dan has gotten himself into.

@RandallT , there are subtle, minor differences but I'll repeat what I think @iacas said (if someone else did, then due credit to him, my memory is fuzzy), he doesn't turn. 2012 or now. It's like he wants to get the hip turn back done and over with ASAP.

[Pretzel]

@RandallT, there are subtle, minor differences but I'll repeat what I think @iacas said (if someone else did, then due credit to him, my memory is fuzzy), he doesn't turn. 2012 or now. It's like he wants to get the hip turn back done and over with ASAP.

Holy cow, his hips start creeping back forwards in the turn once his arm hits parallel in the backswing. That almost looks painful to do.

[nevets88]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nevets88

@RandallT, there are subtle, minor differences but I'll repeat what I think @iacas said (if someone else did, then due credit to him, my memory is fuzzy), he doesn't turn. 2012 or now. It's like he wants to get the hip turn back done and over with ASAP.

Holy cow, his hips start creeping back forwards in the turn once his arm hits parallel in the backswing. That almost looks painful to do.

If you bring up his swing and put it side by side with most pros, it'll be obvious the differential in hip turn. Maybe he's doing X factor or something.

[RandallT]

[QUOTE name="Pretzel" url="/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours-to-become-a-pro-golfer-dan-mclaughlin/2280_40#post_1087404"]   [QUOTE name="nevets88" url="/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours-to-become-a-pro-golfer-dan-mclaughlin/2286#post_1087375"] @RandallT , there are subtle, minor differences but I'll repeat what I think @iacas said (if someone else did, then due credit to him, my memory is fuzzy), he doesn't turn. 2012 or now. It's like he wants to get the hip turn back done and over with ASAP. [/QUOTE] Holy cow, his hips start creeping back forwards in the turn once his arm hits parallel in the backswing. That almost looks painful to do. [/QUOTE] If you bring up his swing and put it side by side with most pros, it'll be obvious the differential in hip turn. Maybe he's doing X factor or something.

I see what you guys are talking about. Incredible. He starts to straighten his back leg on the backswing (so far so good) but even before his arm is parallel to the ground his back leg is bending as though he is firing his hips. That seems like a big problem that would take a while to unlearn. I know he was very handsy in his takeaway for a long long time , and he had trouble unlearning that flaw. I'm not even sure he's gotten that fixed completely but it was noted by everyone. That would've been a great topic for deliberate practice: how to remove a specific flaw. What drills did he do? Did he use video? How often did he check his full swing video to see if his drills were paying off? He seemed to just wish it away by using swing thoughts- not use practice techniques. He was constantly surprised how hard it was to stop doing it. Has he even stopped? I think I still see his takeaway as awkward. Maybe it's not his priority piece tho? :)

[Lihu]

I see what you guys are talking about. Incredible. He starts to straighten his back leg on the backswing (so far so good) but even before his arm is parallel to the ground his back leg is bending as though he is firing his hips.

That seems like a big problem that would take a while to unlearn.

Why do you think this particular thing is harder to unlearn than, say, other swing flaws he might have?

[RFKFREAK]

In hindsight, it sure is hard to miss a few things with The Dan Plan:

1. Despite lots of good talk, he never broke much ground regarding Deliberate Practice. I was hoping for a writeup of each session in his blog, rather than some of the more unstructured topics in his blog. He would have been better served just using his blog narrative to document what he did that day, and what his results were. And occasionally map it back to a larger plan or even a short term objective. As we reviewed now, we could see the key things he worked on over time... now it's mostly a mess of random thoughts.

2. Other than using a handicap, he didn't use consistent measures for his progress. There were a few times he promised to keep track of certain stats that were better than FIR/GIR/Putts per round/etc. After a nice writeup about his epiphany, no follow through.  Similar with the TrackMan combines. It seemed he would periodically measure where his swing was with technology. As time went by, there was no further mention of it and then of course the technology was taken from him. The statistics page is way out of date (http://thedanplan.com/statistics-2/).

3. The videos started out full of optimism. Production values were high. As time went by, he became less and less enthused with showing his progress by video, presumably because of lack of results. The funding for quality videos dried up, and soon it became mostly selfies at the range. Here's one from over 2 years ago- he obviously had a cameraman then. He's since dropped the theme song and title segment, as well as other frills from his videos.

It's hard to escape the conclusion that The Dan Plan has all but fizzled out. I even used the past tense above sorta subconsciously. A bit sad, but pass the popcorn.

@nevets88- is his swing still mostly the same now as in this early 2012 video? I'm not much for identifying key swing differences, but it looks better now. Surely a little bit, right?  But I get your point, and I'd even guess my swing has changed more than his in this same period of time. I can look at my archive of videos and instantly see the huge change in posture and hip turn. And I didn't even have a "PLAN"! I could probably cobble together notes from my practice sessions and videos and lay out a better discussion of deliberate practice than he has thus far. Thank goodness I'm too lazy to do that, or I'd have gotten myself into the same mess Dan has gotten himself into.

When I watched that video I didn't realize that video was from 2 years ago.  I started thinking to myself how irresponsible it would be to spend money on such a production if he were really hard up on cash and that he had to have to someone donate their production skills to help him make that video.

[RandallT]

[QUOTE name="RandallT" url="/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours-to-become-a-pro-golfer-dan-mclaughlin/2286#post_1087464"] I see what you guys are talking about. Incredible. He starts to straighten his back leg on the backswing (so far so good) but even before his arm is parallel to the ground his back leg is bending as though he is firing his hips. That seems like a big problem that would take a while to unlearn. [/QUOTE] Why do you think this particular thing is harder to unlearn than, say, other swing flaws he might have?

From my experience, changing your body's natural tempo or rhythm is tough. He needs to fix a sequencing issue where he coordinate all parts of his body. That just seems tougher to me than something like addressing your posture or even calming your hands in a takeaway. Those are relatively static or targeted fixes. I could be wrong!