Comments on: What is The Dan Plan?

By: Lee Roberts

Lee Roberts — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 08:16:07 +0000

Dan,

I wrote to you a couple of years into your journey. I told you about my experiences after taking up golf as an adult and about my slepticism regarding reaching your stated goal. I haven’t checked in awhile, but I looked at your site today, including your stats and progress in other areas. As a Gladwell fan and a golf nut, I wanted to see you succeed, but had my doubts, most of which I spelled out in my earlier correspondence.

With ~4000 hours to go and well past your original goal of completing 10,000 hours by 2016, it should be clear that you won’t ever be a competitive professional golfer. I know that you’ve been beset by injuries, and those alone may be what stopped this experiments in its tracks, but now you have another insurmountable object working against you: age. To have any shot at increasing your expertise Ina meaningful way, you’ll have to complete the remaining 4000 hours in the next 2-3 years, unlikely given your health.

I applaud you for giving it a try, but I’m afraid your golfing exploits, while continuing to be an incredible amount of fun (I hope) are not going to ever land you in the rarified air where experts reside. Unless you’re willing to begin using PEDs, your performance, like virtually everyone elses that hit 40, will level off and then begin to decline. Father Time takes no prisoners and strikes no deals.

Best of luck,

Lee

By: 10 000 timmar eller bra gener - vad är talang? - Meritmind

10 000 timmar eller bra gener - vad är talang? - Meritmind — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 08:07:03 +0000

[…] Teorin är dock långt ifrån fastslagen som fakta. Malcom Gladwell, författare och journalist, ger en mer nyanserad bild av 10 000-timmarsfenomenet i en artikel i The New Yorker. Andra studier visar att människor med större arbetsminne blir bättre pianister. Detta till trots fortsätter Ericsson sitt arbete med att hitta formeln för talang och bedriver just nu ett projekt där Dan, en man som i projektet beskrivs som en medelmåtta, sagt upp sig för att satsa 10 000 timmar på att bli golfproffs. […]

By: Masood Y

Masood Y — Sat, 20 May 2017 02:14:29 +0000

Hi Dan,

My golf coach mentioned you recently so I took a look at your website.

Good luck with the plan. I am sure you will succeed.

Michelangelo once said ‘if people saw how hard I worked, they wouldn’t be surprised when they saw my work’.

Hope your recovery is swift.

Cheers
Masood

By: Danny

Danny — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 21:14:56 +0000

Hi Dan,
What you are doing is what I have been saying for years and I only recently came across you last week after looking at the 10,000 rule. About a month ago I decided to quit my job and in April 2017 I will start my own journey towards becoming a darts professional. Anyway I wish you the best and know that you will make your goal if you just keep going so good luck!

By: Jonny

Jonny — Sun, 13 Nov 2016 09:35:19 +0000

Hi Dan. Great site and project. I stumbled across your site a couple of months back. I started the same thing back at the beginning of 2013, albeit I took up darts and on a part-time basis at 10-20 hours a week. A bit like you, whilst trying to cram in as much practice as possible, I have struggled with injury and additionally the mental side of the game of late. In contrast with yourself, this has been a private project. I didn’t want the extra pressure. Now, as I move to full-time practice of 30+ hours per week in the next few days, I was wondering if you could offer any advice to a fellow man-with-a-plan? If you were going to do it all over again, what would you do differently? Is there anyone you would bring into your team earlier? Would you have built in breaks/holidays? Would you have shifted your focus to physical/mental health at times? And is there any hints/tips that you think could be applied to darts? Thanks and good luck. Jonny 2,052.

By: The Importance of Genetics and Practice – FYSM 113: Sports

The Importance of Genetics and Practice – FYSM 113: Sports — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 21:49:04 +0000

[…] of practice. McLaughlin’s dedication and practice to the 10,000 hour rule became known as “The Dan Plan”, and his interesting journey is followed by many to this day. I’m not sure that I believe that […]

By: Damon Bryant

Damon Bryant — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 04:43:56 +0000

I appreciate what you are doing! You will empirically debunk Gladwell’s popular myth with your personal case-study. As you are coming to realize, it’s not 10,000 hours of deliberate practice that will make you an expert – even Dr. Ericsson acknowledges this. Gladwell got it wrong! Based upon my reading of Ericsson’s most recent work, Peak, and a few others, I think there are a few things missing, but you’ve pick up on a couple: perseverance and extra effort (i.e., Grit). Getting the most efficient mental representation is important as mentioned by Dr. Ericsson. Moreover, there is an ideal state for learning and skill acquisition. You must put yourself in this state while training in order to optimize the rate of skill acquisition and achieve expertise. A lot of experts acknowledge this state during training or in actual performances. I believe it’s not the number of hours of deliberate practice but both the quantity and quality of those hours. Let’s call it Zone time.

There must be a clear goal, immediate feedback, and challenge-skill balance; the last is the most critical in achieving this state: All of the practice tasks that you engage must have a 50% chance of success depending on your current skill-level. In biology, it is known as the optimal hormetic response (Arnt-Schultz’ Law) or the peak of the adaptive bi-phasic response. In psychology, it is also known as the Flow state. In psychometrics, this is mathematically defined as theta maximum in item-response theory in both unidimensional and multidimensional cases. In sports, we call it the “Zone.” Different fields have different names for it but it is the same underlying mechanism for achieving optimal outcomes. I hope this helps.