I meant to write this at the end of 2011, but it rings true every day so a bit late might not be a problem.

Thank you to everyone who supported The Plan in 2011.  I cannot believe how many amazing people reached out to encourage and support The Dan Plan over the past 12 months.  It’s truly a wonderful world we live in where perfect strangers will lend a hand or take time to write a positive email.  Just knowing that there are such great people on this planet is enough for me to continuously push onward.

This is a team effort and everything that is learned through The Dan Plan is, and always will be, public knowledge.  The purpose is to try and figure out what it takes to reach the highest levels so that anyone and everyone who wants to improve in any aspect of life can have a clearer picture of the cycles and phases along the road to success.  It is a learning experience for me and I hope to share that as best as I can.

This is little consolation for the overwhelming kindness that has been put forth over the past year, but is what I have to offer.  I cannot thank you enough.  I just wish that there was more that I could do.  You all deserve the best.

Thank you for the blog comments.  Thank you for the emails.  Thank you for the social media comments.  Thank you for the donations.  Thank you for being such great people.  Thank you for inspiring me every single day.  Thank you for making me smile.

Thank you for making me a better person.

Cheers to a brilliant 2011 and to an unlimited 2012.

Your friend,

Dan

Today, I realized that I actually had no clue how to pitch the ball.

I understand chips, bump-and-runs, bunker shots, and pitches greater than 30 yards, but it dawned on me that I didn’t have a solid understanding of what I need to be feeling in the short pitch shots.  If you don’t know what you are supposed to feel in golf you can get pretty lost on the course, or at least that is my experience.  I’ve found that before I can really start to hit any specific shot well I have to have an internal model of what I need the swing to feel like and I have one for a large variety of shots, but I just haven’t found my short pitch shot yet.

While practicing, I try a number of different things and some have better results than others, but I don’t have my go-to swing feeling picked out yet.  So, in a way, I don’t yet know how to pitch that ball.  Don’t get me wrong, I can get the ball on the green and usually within a one-putt distance from the hole, but it’s more of a “winging it” kind of stroke and far from solidly repeatable.  There is a lot of creativity when it comes to the short game in golf and you can’t have one single robotic swing for any distance, but I think that you need to build on a solid fundamental shot that you comprehend on a muscular level before you can really branch out and let the creativity flow on the course.

I’ve worked on this distance for a long time (Roughly 5-30 yards from the green), so it was a bit frustrating today to realize that I still don’t quite understand the mechanics for the shot.  But, this is exactly why I’m practicing and putting in the hours, to have realizations like this and then go out there and figure it out.  It could be something simple that clicks tomorrow and then I have a pitch in my memory banks, or it could take a year to really sink in.  Regardless, without knowing (and admitting to yourself) what you don’t know you’ll never know how to get better.  I’ve pitched the ball for countless hours, but I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t fully understood exactly what I need to be doing quite yet.

This next week is dedicated to you, Mr. Pitch Shot.

All things considered, I would say I have an average memory.  Usually, I can remember what I was thinking earlier in the day if it was remotely important, but there have been plenty of occasions where an “aha” moment in the morning is completely lost by the evening.  Most of the time it’s not a big deal, but when it comes to thoughts on the golf course I cannot afford to forget what I’ve learned that day.  So, utilizing a bit of technology, I email myself whenever I have a good realization or something that I want to keep in the memory banks down the road.  Then, in the evenings, I write all of those tips down.  There are probably hundreds of ways to make sure you remember something, but this tends to work for me.

Here are some emails I’ve sent myself from practice over the past two weeks:

Keep the wrist flat in the swing.

On pitches, turn shoulders don’t dip them.  Turn shoulders. Turn shoulders.

Unhood the putter and let the face lead striking up on the ball.

Look at the damn ball.  Especially when chipping, but all the time.  Just look at the ball, it’s not hard.

In full swing maintain control in right hand, when that hand slips you push it.  Also, move back some, when you hit inside you push it.

Stay more connected with your left shoulder because that’s how you keep all power connected, when you separate you lose that.

Always get back to square. This should be your mantra.

It’s all ball position with the 3 hybrid.  More back in the stance is push or slice and more forward is draw.  Just slight differences, but it can make a huge shot shape difference.

Don’t break wrists at chips, this is a recurring theme.  A slight hinge is okay, especially when the ball is buried.

Don’t get lazy, hold your right hand grip solid through swing, don’t let the club slip.

If the tee shot or 3-hybrid or any club is going left or screwing up in general, check to make sure my right shoulder isn’t open, close the right shoulder.

In putting, separate hands slightly and control aim of the club with the left hand.

Putt with shoulders and feel the twist in the stomach.

Don’t forget to hit the ball…

Hold the club with consistent pressure in chips and in all swings.

A golf glove isn’t to protect your hand, it’s to allow for a lighter grip in that it acts almost like tape to the grip.  Wear one and you can hold the club with less pressure.

Feel like your hips are moving towards the target during the backswing of pitches.

Trust my eyes don’t line up club face, line up body in putting.

In putting a push is a loose left hand, hold tighter left hand.

Keep the pace with all clubs, it is all internal.

In putting, keep strong tree-like legs, firmly planted in greens so they don’t move.

The full swing is from long to in.  Stretch those arms out then pull them in through the swing.

Those are some examples of the type of thoughts I have during a practice session.  Nothing overly groundbreaking, but subtle aspects of the swing and putt that I want to make sure to internalize for the long run.

Thanks for reading!

I do this every day.  There’s nobody out there telling me I have to stay until closing time or that I need to be at the course by 8am every day; it’s all self regulated.  For some, this might be a problem as it leaves the door open for slacking off, for others the problem is not having someone to tell you it’s time to hang up the sticks for the night and go home to rest.  I think I fall much more in the latter group.

I’ve never had a problem wanting to practice.  Sure, there have been a few times when my mood was sour and it felt as if I would never learn whatever it is that I was trying to learn, but that’s a rare occasion, especially over the past year since I really hit my practicing stride.

I’ve learned a bit more about how I learn and have come to better understand how to pace myself.  This really is a marathon and if you push too hard at any specific point then it could slow you down in the long run.  But, if you lag behind for too long you’ll never catch up.  You need that fabled turtle pace: slow and steady wins the race.

Today was a good example of this.  I’m working on some great stuff that I am positive will immensely help me down the line, but it’s very different than what I have been doing so if my mind starts to wander from the task at hand and reverts to my old habits I’m not learning anything and am actually hindering the progress that I had made that day.  So, when adopting a completely new swing thought (or learning anything in life, really) it’s important to practice correctly, much more so than cramming in as many hours as possible.  It’s a blend of quality and quantity where the quality should be the leading factor on when you stop for the day.

I only put in 4 hours of practice today, but it was a good four hours.  I’m focussing on a few new things.  First is my pivot: to not sway my hips back in the backswing and to turn my hips keeping them on a level plane instead of dipping them.  Second is my wrist:  to keep my right wrist (I’m a lefty) flat at the top of the backswing instead of cupping it as I had been doing, this will help me keep the club face square at impact.  Third is my starting move of the downswing:  to power the swing with my glutes instead of my quads, this is the stronger way of attacking the ball.  Fourth is grip: to put less pressure on the club so I can generate some more lag through the swing.

That’s a lot of new stuff and after about 4 hours of practicing I felt the quality of my concentration lessening and I knew it was time to stop for the day.

The other benefit of stepping away is that your brain needs time to absorb what you are doing.  If you are learning something new, try it out for a while and then step away and allow yourself time to assimilate what you are learning.  I’m always amazed at how much I’ve learned in my sleep, it’s pretty awesome!  Practice for a while, sleep on it and then go back out there and I can almost guarantee that you will have a better grasp on it the next day.  Do this for a few days and it will start to click more and more.  Eventually, whatever you are trying to learn becomes second nature.  Just give it time, but also give yourself some time away.

This picture is about as exciting as I could make it.  Sometimes the excitement isn’t in the image but the function.  And despite the simplicity of these I haven’t been this excited since opening my first full set of golf clubs.

That’s right, orthotics!  But, not just any orthotics, these babies are custom made ones I got personally fit by PT Michael Martindale (he builds them for the Portland Trailblazers and pretty much any athlete that visits the Nike campus and has foot issues.).  I was introduced to Michael via my PT Shawn Dailey as I have bum big toes (thank you for the genetics mom) that don’t like to bend by the end of the day and have a few bone spurs on the base joint.  It’s really one of the only things that ever gets in the way of my training: by the end of a long day there have been a couple of times when I still wanted to train but the big toes were screaming to take a break.  I don’t like excuses, so I thought of having them cut off, but apparently you need toes for balance and you need balance for golf, so that wouldn’t have helped a thing.

Now, I’ve got these bad boys to adjust my gait and take pressure off of the little digits.  I’m breaking them in as I type and am excited to get out there and see how well they work.

Thank you Michael for getting these made!

On a related note (not really, I can’t think of much related to orthotics right now) I’ve come all the way to Atlanta to get a taste of home:

Nothing wrong with a bit of rain, but the thunder I’ve been hearing at night means there’s lightening near by.  The guy working at the cart shed at the club said only one person has been struck by lightening in the past 8 years.   If there’s an average of 100 golfers a day for 365 days over the past 8 years then that’s 292,000 golfers and 1 got struck by lightening.  I’ll take those odds.  But, if the thunder gets close you might just see me jumping for cover..

Time to break in some orthotics.