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

[iacas]

11 minutes ago, JetFan1983 said:

This is a chapter of the Plan I think we all wish we could've seen, as readers. Shame. Was this around when he got hurt (April 2015)? If this was summer 2014 when you offered, then his radio silence is a pretty good indication he was mentally checking out already.

It was when he was injured, but he wasn't saying that he was injured at the time. He was just talking about an "annoying" thing or something.

[GolfLug]

5 hours ago, Pretzel said:

Fair enough. It just would feel quite a bit more honest than the crap he's slinging about trying to make the senior tour. Only 5 new players are given fully exempt status each year for the senior tour, and 7 given status when space is available. It's harder to make that tour than it is to make it onto the PGA, especially if you include the fact that Dan may now have a chronic injury related to golf if his posts are anything to go by.

I just would prefer an honest statement to a lie as transparent as a window.

You know, you have to think that at some point some start believing in their own shit. Our minds exists in a very relative realm. Just gotta wallow in it long enough and with a couple of admirers it becomes the whole truth. Lines between what is realistic and what is not blurs out and at some point even erases out completely.

It is actually no different a path of development that someone with actual talent takes to actual success.. just has the right stuff to back it up. Dan never stood a chance and I am not sure he knew it. The 10,000 hour theory holds true to a very relative level of success, say 70th percentile of something.

3 hours ago, iacas said:

I don't think he was gonna get to scratch.

And remember he was supposedly gonna spend a summer at Chautauqua with us?

Yupp, even considering your teaching chops, not within a shouting chance.  

[JetFan1983]

3 minutes ago, iacas said:

It was when he was injured, but he wasn't saying that he was injured at the time. He was just talking about an "annoying" thing or something.

OK, thanks. That's too bad. That would've been entertaining as hell to follow.

 

[nevets88]

If another person came around and did this "right", dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's would you follow? Because there are lots of instructors posting before and after results now. If someone came and provided extra detail, you would you give that much more time to some other dude's plan? 

[JetFan1983]

2 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

If another person came around and did this "right", dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's would you follow? Because there are lots of instructors posting before and after results now. If someone came and provided extra detail, you would you give that much more time to some other dude's plan? 

Well considering I sat through all of season two of the Haney Project, my standards are definitely low enough to watch season 2 of the Dan Plan... even though we know the inevitable outcome is failure. 

Perhaps we need to take this to the next level and do it like the Truman Show. Dan needs to have a son he can be a psycho sports dad to.

[nevets88]

All these people reality TVing their golf lessons. What I see in common is less than optimal instruction. They chose... poorly.  

[boogielicious]

I didn't follow this follow too much. I could see from comments by more experienced players that he fit into the "do it my way even though I don't know what I'm doing" mold. He also had a great ability to ignore sound advice. 

The whole saga just reminded me of one of the most profound proverbs in golf.

Spoiler

 

[Hardspoon]

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/the-dan-plan/536592/

[bkuehn1952]

 

30 minutes ago, Hardspoon said:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/the-dan-plan/536592/

Thanks. It appears Dan is never going to give closure to this folly.  The article is the only closure we are going to get.

[iacas]

54 minutes ago, bkuehn1952 said:

Thanks. It appears Dan is never going to give closure to this folly.  The article is the only closure we are going to get.

Well, we had the interview and the post mortem here on TST, too.

https://thesandtrap.com/b/throwing_darts/an_interview_with_the_dan_plan

https://thesandtrap.com/b/thrash_talk/post_mortem_on_the_dan_plan

[nevets88]

2 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

 

Thanks. It appears Dan is never going to give closure to this folly.  The article is the only closure we are going to get.

The article mentions closure:

Quote

Ericsson, for one, wants closure. He dreams of a foundation that would fund multiple Dans to devote themselves to excellence in different domains, mapping their steps for others. “For people in middle age, that sense some have that they’ve lost their chance is sad. If Dan could document his path more [that would give others] a trajectory.” Ericsson compares it to climbing a mountain: “The first person gets stuck but, over time, people figure out how to get to the top.”

 

[mailman]

When I watched some of Dans earlier videos for the first time the thing that stood out like dogs bollocks was the lack of athleticism (and natural talent). Even back then it was clear that he was going to be fighting an uphill battle.

Then there was the offers of help that he failed to take up (but I guess thats understandable given he had a clear vision in his mind how he wanted to approach this).

But yeah, its evident this was only going to end one way. You just can't do this kind of thing without some underlying natural ability and talent. I mean, have a look at something like X Factor when they play the back story of contestants.

More times than not the ones that excel are the ones with backstories where they excel at pretty much everything they do. Its almost as if people who are naturally talented have an inner voice that tells them to not waste time on things where they have little hope of success while those who are, for the want of better words, tragic don't have that little voice in their heads! :)

[golfdu]

I have this theory that it takes $100,000 to make it on Tour.

[nevets88]

Imho, how to make it on the professional golf circuit:

• A lot of talent
• A lot of perseverance
• A lot of money
• A lot of support - family, coaches, friends
• Some amount of luck

[Vinsk]

5 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Imho, how to make it on the professional golf circuit:

• A lot of talent
• A lot of perseverance
• A lot of money
• A lot of support - family, coaches, friends
• Some amount of luck

I agree. My cousin played on the PGA Tour back in the 80's. Guy was an awesome golfer. I watched his struggles and I feel for these guys...probably much more difficult today too. Just the stress involved in trying to play your best in a PGA tournament. And getting the money to travel and play in these tourneys, just a mess. He would get a sponsor every once in awhile, but that alone was stressful in that he knew he would want to pay them back (they were just personal loans from friends/family basically) so when he didn't make the cut...a deeper and deeper financial hole. He went to BYU and was Keith Clearwater's roommate (if you remember him). I think you're right for the vast majority of situations. Phenoms such as Tiger could probably have made it with talent alone...but that is rare.

[JetFan1983]

44 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Imho, how to make it on the professional golf circuit:

• A lot of talent
• A lot of perseverance
• A lot of money
• A lot of support - family, coaches, friends
• Some amount of luck

You forgot arguably the two most important ones:

1) starting as a small child

2) having an adult in your life who loves golf enough to take you with them to the range, course from a young age and encouraging your development in some meaningful way. I guess you covered this one though in "a lot of support," but still. 

[nevets88]

6 minutes ago, JetFan1983 said:

You forgot arguably the two most important ones:

1) starting as a small child

2) having an adult in your life who loves golf enough to take you with them to the range, course from a young age and encouraging your development in some meaningful way. I guess you covered this one though in "a lot of support," but still. 

Very true. I also left out an innate love of the game. You gotta love it because banging out all those balls can get old quick.

[JetFan1983]

11 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Very true. I also left out an innate love of the game. You gotta love it because banging all those balls can get boring quick.

Yea you either have a kid who loves it or you don't, but a clever parent IMO can convince some children on the fence about the game that it truly is worth it. Most parents are too stupid for that though.

Gotta start young tho. As the body grows and develops, it has to grow around the absurdity that is the golf swing. Take for example those crazy Kayan women who add metal rings to their necks in order to elongate them over time:

IMO, something similar occurs to the human body when golf is introduced and constantly nurtured during childhood. The body grows and adapts to it in ways someone who picks the game up at 35 will never, ever have. 

Critical. Critical towards learning because no one can grind at the range like a child's body can too. And as we know, being able to get up and play every day without pain is a critical component to improving. Starting young opens so many doors... and what about junior golf and all that? Learning how to compete against kids in your age group is another massive advantage. Junior golf, high school golf, college golf? Good luck picking this shit up at 30 and being able to hang with the thousands who have gone through those gauntlets and come out of them with a truckload of trophies behind them. 

Edited August 18, 2017 by JetFan1983