Today, I trained like a diesel engine.  It took a while to really warm up and for a while there I thought I’d never get up to speed, but once I got going I ended up putting in a straight six hours morning, then a workout, then an hour of my cognitive training and, finally, topped it off with an hour out at Broadmoor in the evening.  All in all, it was one of the best training days I’ve had so far and it felt good to hit the grindstone.

I also got an email from Christopher (CS) about our lesson later this week.  CS said he couldn’t do Thursday, but was free Friday, so we rescheduled for then.  He also said that at least one club will be ready for me by then.  I don’t even know what CS has in store for “next,” but can assume it’s either a chipper or a nine iron, both of which are very exciting!    As he says, I’m going to “begin my adventure of hitting the golf ball in the air.”

What a brave new world this weekend shall bring!

On another positive note, I should cross the 300 hour line tomorrow.  After 300 hours of putting, I feel in a lot of ways that I’ve made no progress..  But, when I really stop to think about it (or watch a few of my putts) I realize that I’m worlds better than when I started April 15.  No matter, we’ve got a long road ahead and a lot of time to perfect the new putting swing, as well as find a swing for the rest of the clubs!

Here’s looking forward to Friday!

I decided to take the weekend off this week since it is my birthday and a bit of a mental and physical break would probably do me some good right about now.  Looking back at The Plan since it began April 15, I’m really happy with the amount of training I have been able to put in and the progress I’ve made thus far.  Looking ahead, I’d like to think that come June 27, 2011, I will have finished 2,000 hours of training.  At least.  It’s a bit of a lofty goal seeing as 2,000 hours is what a full-time (40 hours a week) employee does in a year and I’m only counting the hours that I’m literally golfing (breaks don’t count, neither does driving to and fro, workouts, my daily  hour of cognitive exercises nor does reading about or researching golf swings) .  But, if I can get in an average of 32.7 hours a week then I’ll successfully be at 2,000.  To sum it up, I’m going to try and get in six hours a day for five days every week and then about two or three on my sixth day; all of those hours will, by definition of deliberate practice, have to be with full concentration, too.

And this means…  Not a whole lot has changed, but I think it is refreshing and important to step aside and evaluate your progress in life from time to time.  It seems easy to do this around New Year’s, but seeing as I have a June birthday, I might as well take some notes every six months or so to make sure I’m heading in the right direction.  I’m excited to see what 2,000 hours of deliberate practice does to my golf game over the next year and think that 31-years-old is going to be a great age to do some golfing!

For now, time to step aside for the next 36 hours, take a mental vacation, eat some cake and perhaps do a bit of yard work if the time allows..

Was a great day out at Heron this morning.  pulled a 5.5 hour session all in all and felt like I made some good progress on my new putting swing.  It’s coming along a bit quicker than the last few times I made a major adjustment and I couldn’t be happier about that!

The only negative aspect about today is that I have not been able to sleep much for the past few nights.  Not sure why, but during summer I find it very difficult to get anything outside of shallow 30 minute intervals of sleep.  Perhaps it’s my body reacting to finally getting some vitamin D from the sun, or perhaps I have a bit of plant in my genetics, but for whatever reason no matter how exhausted I get throughout the day, come night time there’s not much of a chance of sleep.  But, on the positive side of that, once I’m outside and working, I generally have plenty of energy..  Today was not one of those energized days, however, and I thought a bit about cutting practice short around noon, but then realized that when I am playing tournaments around the country in a couple of years I will probably almost always be tired from something and it’s good practice to learn how to push through and perform under any condition.

Since I have 5.5 training hours and a workout in the bag today, I think it’s time to try and take a nap.  I’m pretty exhausted, but would like to go back out this evening, just going to see if I can rest up a bit first..

Think the new swing that I am trying to adopt has finally started to make itself known.  Today was a tough day out there.  Not sure if it was the swing or my concentration level, but I really was not able to make anything and my mind was not in the game.  So, I only did a morning session out at Heron, then headed in for a workout and down to see Darren for our weekly meeting.  By the time I got home I knew that it would not be productive to head back out to the course, so instead worked on some things around the house and got ready for a lesson with CS tomorrow out at Pumpkin.

It all will come in due time; some days are better than others, and some days you just need to call it quits!  Time to refresh and approach it anew in the morning..

And this week, that’s going to be especially true.  I went out to see Christopher (CS) at Pumpkin for our weekly meeting and we focussed a lot on my mechanics, or lack thereof..  Basically, thus far I’ve been putting like a madman.  A very subdued madman, for sure, but a madman nonetheless.  I have no consistent pattern to my swing, and really have just been focussed on my stance for the first two months of The Plan.  So, just when I was getting comfortable with my stance, it’s time to focus on my mechanics for the next couple of weeks.

Looking at my swing on CS’s computer screen, it’s pretty obvious what I should work on.  I have a tendency to pull the club back far on every putt and then slow the putter head down going into impact.  I also flare the club outward on my backswing and then swing in towards my front foot.  And..  I’ve been aiming the putter face slightly to the left and then correcting for that (or at least at times correcting) through the swing.  All of these things have been working fairly well to this point, but to get to the level I need to get to I will have to adjust to a more repeatable and solid stroke.

This week I have a bunch of new goals pertaining to my putting stroke.  First, I’m going to try and start with my putter floating instead of grounded.  I feel that it’s a bit easier to start fluidly when I do not have the putter grounded, so hopefully this will help with keeping my backstroke from flaring out.  Then, I’m going to work on the ratio of my backswing to my followthrough and try and put a bit more followthrough in as related to backswing instead of the other way around as it is now.  And finally, I need to work on making a bit more of a crescent shape during the swing.

After the first two hours of working on these things, I can tell it’s going to be a frustrating road ahead for these next few days.  This time, though, I’m going to enter the week knowing that my percentages are going to be much lower and just try to take it one hour at a time..  There’s just times when you gotta get worse before you can get better.

I think one day, down the line a bit, there will be a time where I either question what I’m doing or want to take a break from my practices, but today is not one of those days.  It’s Saturday, so is supposed to be my one day “off” from golfing during the week, but it’s taking all of my strength to not go out to the course and putt around a bit.  I have a very strong urge inside of me to get good at this and I know that in order to improve you need to have rest days, but I struggle much more with those than long workout days.  I guess this is a good thing!

So, instead of going out, I decided to watch a bit of the U.S. Open and I find it inspiring that an 18-year-old, Ryo Ishikawa, is up in the top five.  Watching the entire field play is less overwhelming than I thought it might be too.  It’s obvious that you have to play at an amazing level to make the cut (or in that sense, make it to the tournament.) but a lot of these guys are leaving putts a bit short or pulling/pushing them just as I would.  I’m not saying I’m anywhere near their playing level, but it’s just relieving to know that even the best can have a bad day.

Earlier, I had brunch with the PSU tennis coach, golf coach and a few other friends.  It was a great meal and good to talk with them all.  When the PSU golf season starts back up in September I hope to be able to play some putting games with them out at Heron Lakes where they happen to practice too.  And hey, who knows, perhaps I’ll be able to challenge them on some chipping games by then!

but…  as a friend said to me yesterday, “slow down there grasshopper…”  I needn’t think too far ahead, and instead just enjoy a nice day off before heading out to Pumpkin tomorrow to start a fresh week of training, with a clear mind and new sense of determination.

Okay, well, perhaps not ALMOST as exciting, but hey, putting is exciting to me!

Went down to see Darren at the Synergy Training Center yesterday for our weekly meeting.  He added a new twist to my cognitive training this week, as well as told me a bit about what is in store for the coming months.  I think that it is going to be a very important part of The Dan Plan and wish I could explain exactly what we do better, but instead encourage anyone interested to check out his new website and contact Darren directly.  It’s good stuff, and you can click the link on the top right of this blog section..

I put up a couple new videos today too.  One is a bit of a summary of where I feel I am at after two months of training, the other is from when my brother was in town for a week and we went out putting one day.

As far as training goes, my idea for a bootcamp week is kind of fizzling out.  One important (and perhaps the most important) idea that Dr. Ericsson’s research has found is that in order to progress in training you have to be 100% focussed on the task that you are performing.  Basically, they both, Dr. Ericsson and Dr. Hill, have said that if you can’t focus, walk away from the training and return when you are fresh of mind.  Christopher also said he thought the bootcamp might not be the best idea, but I wanted to see how much I could do in a week and so far I have gotten in more hours than any week previous, but after four hours today I knew it was time to call it a day.  So, I did three hours Sunday, seven Monday and Tuesday, four Wednesday and Thursday, and hopefully at least four tomorrow.  Not a bad week all in all!

Moving along step by step, before I know it I’ll be hauling around an entire set of clubs..

It was yet another day where you needed to put on sunblock underneath your rain gear..  A mix of showers and hot sun, but with a bit of lightning and thunder to mix it up.

Now that we got the weather out of the way, on to blogging about the day!

Today was great.  One of those days where I actually felt like this was all going to be possible; the type of day where I could tell I was improving.  With the past couple week’s plateau/wall in the past, I think it will be nice to relish in this new-found positiveness tonight and hopefully for the rest of the week.

Out there today, I could imagine the entire 4-year Plan outlined in front of me.  Today was the two month anniversary of The Plan and I am slowly, but surely, becoming an decent putter.  With a few more months of putting (especially now that I have a stance down) I think it will be possible to become a good putter.  At that point, it’s time to pick up the next club and start from scratch with that.  After about six months of swinging practice, along with continuing putting, it should be possible to become a good ball striker.  so..  by this time next year, I could be an average to decent player, at which point I join every single men’s club in town and play competitive matches every day.  After a year of that, hit the road and enter as many tournaments as possible.  Year after that…..

Long story short.  It’s a lot easier to do the daily grind if I DON’T think about the road ahead and instead just concentrate on what the task at hand is, but on days like today where I feel good about where I am in The Plan, it’s fun to daydream about the possibilities in all of this.

I also played a nine-hole putting match with one of Christopher’s friends, Denny, today.  It was good to have some friendly competition and interesting how much a little bit of pressure can change your putting.  We were tied until the third hole where I shanked a two foot putt (liberally stated as two foot, it was more like 18 inches..).  He had some real solid skills, utilizing a forward press type swing, which I had yet to see someone use, but was interesting to watch.  My putting stroke is as neutral as I can get it, which is about all I can manage at this point.  Not sure what the future holds, but neutral is good for now!  We continued and he beat me by about 2 strokes, but I was happy with the game overall and, again, satisfied with where I am in my progress.

That said, I pushed on and made it a seven-hour day again today as part of my “bootcamp” week.  By the end, I knew it was time to break away because my vision was getting a bit blurry and the Lakers/Celtics game was starting..

By 6:30 this evening, I realized that a five hour morning practice, followed by a particularly intense workout and then back to the green for a two hour afternoon practice was a good enough start to a bootcamp week..

It was a nice one too, out at Heron Lakes.  I got there a bit late, but a Monday regular, Matt, was out there and ready to putt a game with me.  We started to play, but he had a tee time so we had to call it off this time, but I look forward to the challenge of putting with him next week.  I also met one of the greenskeepers out there who is starting a hypnotherapy practice and offered to give me free hypnotherapy.  It sounds very interesting and I can’t think of a reason not to do it.  He works with a lot of golfers and I can see the benefit of being able to calm the mind when playing.  Even today, I had a million things racing through my head as I tried to putt and was having a hard time breaking away and really just being in the moment.  Focus is crucial and if a bit of hypnotherapy would help enforce what I’m learning than I’m all for it, just have to run it by coach and the psychologists first to see if anyone will be stepping on anyone’s toes..

Outside of that, the weather was beautiful and almost all day I was the only one on the greens, so got to get in a bunch of 40 foot practice and all in all was putting pretty well.

Tomorrow I’m heading out to Rose City to change the view a bit and meet a friend of Christopher’s who is up for some putting challenges.

This photo from my phone doesn't do the view justice, but this is what Pumpkin Ridge is looking like right now. It's beautiful out there.

It’s been a great weekend full of sun, something that is quite unusual for the weekend of the Rose Parade, but very welcomed!

I went out to Pumpkin today, Sunday, to get an extra bit of practice in for the week.  The plan for this week was to do a bootcamp, but thinking about a typical day (I leave around 7:30 AM and finish up around 6:30 PM) I can’t really figure out how I would get more into one day, so am just going to add in Sunday and next Saturday this week.  I figure doing seven days in a row, taking one day off, and then doing seven in a row again will be enough of a bootcamp for the next two weeks..

While at Pumpkin I started by playing a little putting challenge with a fellow student of my coach.  We putted nine holes and Steve won by one stroke.  I had a chance to tie it all up on the last putt, but choked and so he took the honors of victory.  It’s great for me to get all the competitive experience I can possibly get, and these little games provide the first step of what I will encounter over the next four years.  The game is totally different when it matters!

For example..  When I got home, I turned on the TV and the St. Jude Classic was on the final hole.  Robert Garrigus had a 3-stroke lead heading into the final (72nd) hole.  One would figure it was over and click the tely off, but I watched and he triple bogeyed the final hole, resulting in a three way draw with Lee Westwood and Robert Karlsson.  The pressure was on and the final hole ended up costing him about $500,000.  I have no clue what that must feel like to be on the final hole with a possible victory in your hand, but I hope to one day soon!  For now, I’m just going to try and challenge anyone and everyone that is willing to play me and see if I can start building up those nerves!

Outside of that, the day was fairly standard.  I was having trouble with my aim and after three hours of adjusting and fidgeting with it I decided to call it a day and get a bit of rest before Monday comes knocking.