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

[bkuehn1952]

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Dan McLaughlin‏@thedanplan

@SherlockD2 just getting back into it. Have a couple rounds planned this week, first time for two rounds in a week for months. Good things!

 

 

6:14 PM - 3 Apr 2016

[nevets88]

Imho, bad info. I get a lot done at home, with a mirror, or even with video. Those short 5-10 minutes practicing the full swing add up. And there's the continuity of it, it's at home, so it's easy to do, so you do it, you keep reinforcing those feels.

 

[paininthenuts]

On 4/21/2011 at 0:43 PM, Fatgigi said:

interesting! if i were a millionaire with nothing else to do i would give it a go!

I have the hours in the day, but not the life span. Perhaps I will take up poker or modeling 

 

What is more interesting is the likelihood. It's my belief that there are several components before anyone can become good enough to be a pro. 

1) Practice

2) Coaching

3) Natural ability

4) Luck

Points 1 I have time for, but at my age it hurts to much. Point 2 I can't afford. Points 3 and 4, I have none.

Edited April 4, 2016 by paininthenuts

[RandallT]

Still no updates. Hmmmm.

Regarding the topic of making great athletes, here's a professor discussing the issue in his class. He puts up an open poll to his class and some hilarity ensues. There's a long period after he opens the poll that he's just saying "ok" as he scrolls through the answers streaming in. Then he has a decent riff on some of the answers. He didn't see perturbed at all by some of the spoof answers.

Deliberate practice made the list, but it seems like most answered with some form of genetics.

 

 

[nevets88]

Said he'll play, then radio silence.

[RFKFREAK]

Just out of curiosity, what was bad about his swing mechanics? 

Anyway, I'm not a fan of his and think, for the most part, that he's just trying to spin this as being a "success."

[DrvFrShow]

If Dan herniated a disc in his lower back, The Dan Plan is done.

[Faksakes]

Golf is hard. Anyone think his back injury is related to his brain?

[newtogolf]

8 hours ago, Faksakes said:

Golf is hard. Anyone think his back injury is related to his brain?

It could be, many people tend to avoid facing their shortfalls head on or making them public.  

When I was a personal trainer I'd have clients "disappear" for months at a time, only to find out they went off their diet and training program, gained weight and were embarrassed to show up until they lost the weight on their own.  Basically they decided that not showing up was a better alternative than admitting their  setback.  

Dan may have had a back injury and has since recovered but his swing is worse than it was and he's not comfortable with showcasing it or documenting the setback on his site so he's still claiming to be injured.    

[Lihu]

55 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

It could be, many people tend to avoid facing their shortfalls head on or making them public.  

When I was a personal trainer I'd have clients "disappear" for months at a time, only to find out they went off their diet and training program, gained weight and were embarrassed to show up until they lost the weight on their own.  Basically they decided that not showing up was a better alternative than admitting their  setback.  

Dan may have had a back injury and has since recovered but his swing is worse than it was and he's not comfortable with showcasing it or documenting the setback on his site so he's still claiming to be injured.    

 

It's also possible that he is still injured and can't swing as fast as he did before. Dan doesn't sound like the type of person who would not be comfortable showcasing his swing no matter what it looked like. He seemed to always think his swing looked pretty good anyway. Another thing is you can't really tell how well someone can score by their swing. You might possibly be able to tell the difference between a bogey and scratch, but not that accurately. We have some very decent swings from 14 to 20 handicaps on this site, and we also have terrible looking swings from 3 to 5 handicaps. Some people can simply manage their flaws better than others.

My guess is he'll just play rounds and start reporting them when he is no longer injured.

[DrvFrShow]

Even without the back injury, Dan didn't have the distance off the tee to make it on the tour. His driving distance was below the average PGA distance. Yes you can work out and all that, but after a certain age you're limited in what you can do. He's at the age when most professional golfers are at the end of their touring careers and he hasn't hit scratch. He peaked already and started his fall off. 

My guess is that Dan is done. He's approaching 40 and has a back problem. I think he's seen his plan has failed. 10,000 hours works if you don't have any set backs and have the athletic ability to do it. But the time clock is another matter. He'l start playing again when he's physically able to play again, but whether he enters tournaments or reports rounds is another matter.

Becoming a professional golfer these days requires one to start as a youth.

[Jeremie Boop]

Not for nothing, but I almost feel like I would have had a better chance than Dan. Even if I started now I'd probably be able to surpass where he is in a shorter period of time. And I'm not particularly good. It's been awhile since I was in this thread but there was some discussion about how much higher his anti-handicap was and some question about how legitimate his actual handicap was at that point. Could be that I'm fooling myself about my potential or downplaying how good he is but looking at how much his handicap fluctuates seems strange. Especially since the most recent ones are from a year ago when he went from 3.9 on 3/15 to 5.5 on 4/15... I didn't see anything after that.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Jeremie Boop

[Lihu]

20 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

Not for nothing, but I almost feel like I would have had a better chance than Dan. Even if I started now I'd probably be able to surpass where he is in a shorter period of time. And I'm not particularly good. It's been awhile since I was in this thread but there was some discussion about how much higher his anti-handicap was and some question about how legitimate his actual handicap was at that point. Could be that I'm fooling myself about my potential or downplaying how good he is but looking at how much his handicap fluctuates seems strange. Especially since the most recent ones are from a year ago when he went from 3.9 on 3/15 to 5.5 on 4/15... I didn't see anything after that.

Going from a 3.9 to 5.5 is 1.6 strokes. That's not really a lot.

I'd guess even after all that's been said (including by me) and done that he probably did have a legitimate handicap. To the people who think he was an 8 to 10 handicap, I really can't imagine him playing as bad as me. . His driver swing speed was measured to about 106 which is faster than my average, and he has a combine score in the high 60s low 70s which puts him at better than scratch potential. Statistically, he's a much better golfer than I am right now. Maybe now that he's injured, I could beat him some of the time.

Combine score table:

[Jeremie Boop]

13 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Going from a 3.9 to 5.5 is 1.6 strokes. That's not really a lot.

I'd guess even after all that's been said (including by me) and done that he probably did have a legitimate handicap. To the people who think he was an 8 to 10 handicap, I really can't imagine him playing as bad as me. . His driver swing speed was measured to about 106 which is faster than my average, and he has a combine score in the high 60s low 70s which puts him at better than scratch potential. Statistically, he's a much better golfer than I am right now. Maybe now that he's injured, I could beat him some of the time.

Combine score table:

At that level a 1.6 change is a lot. I don't know that I've ever seen someone's HC move that much in 15 days except for people at my handicap or higher. Typically people who are lower move by .5 or less. Regardless, I went to his blog and he mentions a lot of scores there that are mid to upper 80s and I think I saw one up in the 90's. Those aren't scores I'd expect to see from someone who's a 3-6 handicap. Of course, I could be wrong because I rarely get a chance to golf with anyone with a HC that low.

[Lihu]

Just now, Jeremie Boop said:

At that level a 1.6 change is a lot. I don't know that I've ever seen someone's HC move that much in 15 days except for people at my handicap or higher. Typically people who are lower move by .5 or less. Regardless, I went to his blog and he mentions a lot of scores there that are mid to upper 80s and I think I saw one up in the 90's. Those aren't scores I'd expect to see from someone who's a 3-6 handicap. Of course, I could be wrong because I rarely get a chance to golf with anyone with a HC that low.

They're only human. . .

[Jeremie Boop]

2 minutes ago, Lihu said:

They're only human. . .

Sure, no argument from me there. But shooting an occasional mid-upper 80 and/or 90 is not what I'm talking about. I saw that about 1/2 of his scores were in the mid 80's or higher. Now, it could be that the courses he's posting those scores from are higher rated courses that would actually put his index more in line with what someone with his HC would score. That's a distinct possibility.

[Pretzel]

9 hours ago, Lihu said:

Maybe now that he's injured, I could beat him some of the time.

Based on his tournament scores, which are the only scores that we know were played strictly under the rules of golf with all strokes being counted, I would say you'd have a decent shot at beating him straight up before he was injured.

[Lihu]

29 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

Based on his tournament scores, which are the only scores that we know were played strictly under the rules of golf with all strokes being counted, I would say you'd have a decent shot at beating him straight up before he was injured.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I doubt I would do much better in tournaments relative to my handicap either. I am assuming that he plays by the rules in general as well.

My main advantages against him are not having trouble with 1/2" tree roots and the fact that I look up before trying to pitch onto a green from under a tree.