Today felt a little better than yesterday, but still on the lower side energy wise.  I woke up a bit late (my wake-up times have slowly shifted from 6:30 to 7:30 over the past month) and decided to go down to Rose City on Marijke’s recommendation for a bit of scenery change.  It was nice down there, got two solid hours in and then ran for a quick bite to eat at Bakery Bar, before going back to find the greens had filled out with a gaggle of retired gentlemen, so only got in twenty minutes before i realized that I would not be able to get a hole any time soon, so went to Broadmoor where it was MUCH slower and I got a good two hours in.  Broadmoor had a few retirees putting around, but by no means near the number at Rose City.  I find it pretty funny that outside of me, the average age at a golf course before noon is somewhere in the neighborhood of 68.  I can’t wait, actually, until I can play a full round and join a men’s club and get to go out hitting with some of these guys.  The stories I overhear are sometimes hilarious and I think I can learn a lot from their collective years (perhaps not in golf, but life in general..).  And, they curse like teenage sailors and tuck their pants into their socks.  There is a lot I could learn here.

Was planning on going back out later on, but after I went on a jog and did my Synergy Center exercises it was getting late and I was hungry, so decided to make dinner and relax instead.  Did not get to go out to Pumpkin today like usual because Christopher is in Dallas doing some consulting work with Nike.  He’s coming back tomorrow, so we are planning on meeting up this Saturday, which is good because I have a few questions about my daily routine.  the biggest question is how to keep my daily routine competitive, keeping away the potential monotony of doing the same exercises every day.  Got to keep focused somehow!

Was a full and energized morning.  I spent five hours out at Heron Lakes and the time seemed to just fly by.  I have a full bag of “games” now, which keeps me much more entertained than when I started and had just two different skills I practiced (over and over..)

Now I’m all over the greens in my new found games.  Here’s a list of what I do on any given day:

Three-foot putts:  An oldie but a goodie, I putt from six places around the hole that are each three feet away and count the number I get out of 102 putts (it’s 102 because that’s 17 complete circles of six, I could have stopped at 100 or have putted from five places, but from three feet it just makes sense to have 6 spots for some reason).

Five-foot putts:  Just like the three-footers, but two feet further away.  In this one, I putt from five different spots, totaling 100 putts a round.  I try and do two full rounds of these a day.

six-foot call shot:  This one consists of four spots 6 feet away from the hole.  I putt from each position for five minutes and “call” which part of the hole I am going to make it in.  There are five parts of the hole:  far left, left center, center, right center and far right.  I also call the speed that the ball drops in at, whether it is slow, normal or I nuke it in.

10 foot measurement:  Here I place two coins ten feet apart and from one end to the other, measuring how far the ball lands away from the coin.  I putt ten balls from one side and then putt ten back the other direction.

20 foot game:  I putt from four places twenty feet away from the hole.  The goal is to get as close to the hole as possible and within a “success” zone of three feet.  If I am in front of the hole and within three feet, I get .5 points, if I am past the hole and within the distance, 1 point, if I sink the putt, 1.5 points and if I am not within 3 feet I get zero points.  I putt 20 balls during this game and count up my score.

20 random:  This game is a little less precise.  I putt 20 balls from 20 random spots towards one hole and then measure how far away the ball lands.  My ultimate goal on this one is to get every putt within a certain distance, starting with 3 feet and then moving closer as I get better at the game.

Outside of those, I have a couple putting aids that I use to make sure my stance is correct and my hitting is straight, but that is the gist of a day in the life of The Dan PLan!

The good thing about a little rain, you get a putting green to yourself!

The morning started out good and well, was off to a fantastic start of almost a PR in the three-foot game, until I choked on the last two rounds (saw that I could get 98 out of 102, one better than I’ve putted thus far)..  but, still got 95 out of 102.  My concentration was in cruise control and I felt like I could practice all day.  But, in an instant, I hit an energy wall and could not focus for the life of my by 10:30.  I felt exhausted, so decided to leave and do an early workout before a call with Dr. Len Hill at noon.

Dr. Hill and I talked about my training so far and different ways to slowly move away from the hole, things I will talk with CS about tomorrow during out weekly lesson.

After the call, I ate a quick sandwich and then went down to see Darren, the Neural Cognitive Therapist, for our weekly meeting.  We talked about energy flows and how when training you can have highs and lows; I’m just amazed that there can be such a difference from one day to the next.  I’ve been keeping tabs on pretty much everything, from eating and sleeping to number of hours trained and mood, so hopefully a few months down the line I will be able to figure out why my energy ebbs or flows on certain days and how to maximize the amount I can concentrate on any given day.

Darren and I also talked shop about my progress in his program.  I felt I had prepared well for this meeting and he said that he could see some good progress as far as my eye tracking and in an exercise we do that deals with concentration with distractions.  For next week, I need to work on a bit of hand eye coordination, through a tossing exercise, and my timing/tempo in the balance exercises.  It’s been three weeks since we started working together and I’m already seeing some progress in my balance and eye tracking.  I’m excited to see how far these exercises take me in the coming year!

After leaving Darren’s I had some good energy so decided to go straight out to the course.  I drank an energy booster that Morgan gave me (an all natural type of Emergen-C called Phix) and all of a sudden had tons of energy (after drinking it I read the ingredients and it had a good bit of yerba maté caffiene..)  so, putted for another two hours before hunger overcame me and exhaustion set in yet again for the day.  Decided to call it a night around 6..

Monday morning blues (not emotionally, just the shirt color)

What a great way to start a week, putting my three-footers at a 91.5% average over the day.  I’m not sure if it was the good condition of Heron Lakes’ greens or if I was just spot on for the day, but it felt as if I couldn’t miss this little guys.  I also was pretty spot on in my ten foot measurement game and sank five out of 25 putts from random distances up to 25 feet away from the hole.  All in all, it was a great Monday.

I did feel pretty rusty first thing, though.  That stuck around until about 9:30 AM, so I think it is not so much a good idea to completely take the weekend off.  Talking with Dr. K Anders Ericsson and Dr. Len Hill last week their advice on when to take off and when to train was to just follow what my body/energy level says I should do and if I’m tired, take a break and if I feel I need an entire day off, take it.  So, going with that advice, I think that it’s very important to rest and fully recover, but at the same time I’m not sure if two full days off of golf is the right way to do it.  So, this weekend, I think I will try and practice my putting stance/swing at home for about 30 minutes both Saturday and Sunday to keep as “fresh” as possible..

Back to today.  It was a perfect day.  Besides getting a PR for the day in my putting, a couple people came up and introduced themselves to me, saying they were following along on the plan, something that is always encouraging!  It’s always great to meet people too and hear about their experience with the game.  As of right now, I’m pretty much one of the least experienced golfers you will find on a course on any given day, and a bit of story sharing about swing woes or successes is a welcome break from my daily grind.  And, the weather couldn’t be beat (at least until about 6:30 when the clouds decided to empty at once completely drenching anyone outside).  It was in the low 70s and overcast all day, with a bit of a nice cool breeze, the kind of weather that will be sorely missed come mid-August..

Morgan was out filming too, which I think helps me concentrate on putting in a weird way.  When I’m alone, I tend to have moments in the day when my mind completely wonders and I go five or ten minutes without concentrating on what I am doing, but when he is out there, I find that the camera’s presence seems to keep me focussed on what I am supposed to be doing.  I’m not sure, but I also think that having a cameraman and camera following me will also help with the nerves a bit when it comes to competition time, but I guess we will just have to wait and see about that.

At one part of the morning, I bet Morgan a coke that I could sink six putts in a row (I had just made 18, so figured I was a shoe-in for a free coke).  He took the bet and as certain as I was that I was going to make them all, I shanked the second putt.  That, unlike the rest of the morn, was not a good sign for my future as a competitive golfer.  But, not to fret, learning to deal with stress is going to be part of The Plan and hopefully through numerous competitions in the coming years I will learn how to remain unchanged whether it is a practice round or a meaningful game/bet..

Tomorrow I hope to go somewhere new.  Perhaps Rose City Golf or Colwood, have not tried either of their putting greens out and I think it’s time for a couple days away from Heron’s amazing greens.

wasn't a cloud in sight Friday!

Was a great, albeit long, week for The Dan Plan.  Made a lot of progress in my putting game, as well as in figuring out what the next few step in my training will be.  The week started off with super low energy on Monday and Tuesday, but that picked up a bit heading into Thursday.  Today, like every Friday so far, I was not able to go out for a full 6 hours, but instead found that I had putted, worked out, met coaches, did brain exercises, etc. enough for one week and wrapped it up after five hours out on the greens (it was also the first week without clouds and I found that being outside for 6-plus hours a day in the full sun can take some steam out of you!).

Speaking of sun, I posted on Facebook looking for a good combo of clothing and sunscreen to keep the sun from cancering my skin and people gave some good suggestions.  Just this week, I’ve managed to get quite the tan and that’s with SPF 30 applied at least twice a day, so I think it is going to be very important, perhaps life threateningly so, to have a good game plan around the sun.  I finally got a hat and my sister, a dermatologist, is mailing me some sunscreen to try out.  I think that it will also be good to find a few SPF long sleeve, yet breathable, shirts to wear through the summer.

Besides the sun, I also met a handful of people this week, including a few who had heard of the plan and said they thought it was a great story.  I can’t say enough how much I appreciate the support and how important it will be to have over the next few years!  Hopefully, I can gather a group of people during the coming months that would be willing to go out and putt around (or actually play one day!) on any given day.  I’ve found that putting by oneself for 6 hours a day leads to talking to oneself and I’d assume that leads to a general sense of craziness after too long of a time…   So, if anyone ever wants to play, I’m game!

CS thought it would be a good idea to start challenging people in little putting games and I agree.  It would at least simulate a bit of what I will feel in competition and couldn’t hurt as far as keeping it fresh.  I will post on the site soon where I will be at specific times and then if anyone wants, they can come out and play for fun or for lunch!

Earlier in the week CS and I talked with Dr. K Anders Ericsson and Dr. Len Hill (both experts in deliberate Practice and the acquisition of expert performance).  It was a good conversation about The Plan’s progress so far and how to push forward.  One idea that Dr. Ericsson had for when to know I am ready to move forward is to have a “graduation test.”  The test would comprise of hitting 25 balls from random spots, all different distances away, towards a hole and seeing how close I can come to the hole on average.  The way to “pass” the test would be to get, on average, all of my putts within a certain circle of the hole.  We’re not sure of what the distance should be or whether I should have obstacles or diversions during the test, but at least it’s a start for a goal as far as my putting is concerned.

My 3-footers have been getting closer on a daily basis too.  Except for Monday, I hit in the low 80% range all week.  I think if this trend keeps up, I should be ready for 5-footers in just another week or so.  Of course, I’d always refresh the 3-footers, but it would be nice to mix it up a bit!

That was the week, more or less.  It was a good one, but I’m exhausted now so am going to get a good meal in and have a relaxing weekend..

Met with Christopher today out at Pumpkin Ridge for a conference call with Dr. K Anders Ericsson and Dr. Len Hill.  The call went well, we discussed The Plan, my progress, theories on training, ways to know when I will be ready to move along, and other ideas concerning golf and deliberate practice.  They are invaluable resources to what I am trying to do and I truly appreciate them taking time out of their days to chat with Christopher and I.

I would like to write more in depth about the conversation, but it was a long day and I could use some sleep.  So, will have to call it quits for the night and write about it tomorrow..