Since I returned from the Southern California Vision54 trip I’ve been going over my old notes and blogs to see if I have wavered in the type of practice that I put in on a typical day and in some ways it has changed, although 90 percent of it is still similar in structure and point.  One thing that has helped the learning curve quite a bit along the way is this notion of Desirable Difficulties and Challenge Point.  These two concepts are somewhat similar in that they both are designed to make sure what you are doing is optimally challenging for learning.  They both also fit well with the new practice ideas I gathered through Vision54, namely to go farther away from repetitive hitting practice and continue to migrate towards practicing more like an actual competition.

While I was in San Diego I got a chance to have dinner with Dr. Bob Bjork and his wife Dr. Elizabeth Bjork, who have become wonderful friends as well as good resources over the past couple of years.  They are two of the researchers behind Desirable Difficulties.  In a nutshell:

Imagine a scenario in which a teacher has students practice different examples of a single type of math problem for an hour in class. By the end of the hour, it may seem—both to the teacher and to the students—that this type of math problem has been mastered. On a test two weeks later, however, the benefit may not be evident. In fact, much to the dismay of the teacher and the students, performance during training is not always representative of long-term learning. In contrast to the story told above, in which an easy training method was followed by poor performance later, imagine that the teacher had interleaved many different types of problems during in-class training drills. Recent research reveals that difficult training of this type produces higher scores on the test than the easier version described above (Rohrer & Taylor, 2007), and this is the kind of training that the Bjork Learning and Forgetting Lab believes enhances long-term learning.

There are, in fact, certain training conditions that are difficult and appear to impede performance during training but that yield greater long-term benefits than their easier training counterparts. R. A. Bjork (1994) dubbed these difficult but effective training conditions desirable difficulties. Other examples of desirable difficulties include spacing rather than massing repetitions of to-be-learned information, testing rather than re-studying information, and varying the conditions of practice instead of keeping them constant.

In a similar fashion, Dr. Mark Guadagnoli and Dr. Timothy Lee’s Challenge Point asserts:

The optimal challenge point represents the degree of functional task difficulty an individual of a specific skill level would need to optimize learning (Guadagnoli and Lee 2004). However, this learning depends on the amount of interpretable information. Therefore, although increases in task difficulty may increase learning potential, only so much is interpretable, and task performance is expected to decrease. Thus, an optimal challenge point exists when learning is maximized and detriment to performance in practice is minimized. With increased practice it is assumed that one’s information-processing capabilities will increase (Marteniuk 1976). Therefore, the optimal challenge point will change as the individual’s ability to use information changes, requiring further changes in functional difficulties in task to facilitate learning (Guadagnoli and Lee 2004).

There is a wealth of knowledge in those three paragraphs summing up the research of these wonderful Doctors.  For my practice, I pinpoint a weakness in the game and then create short challenges that are not too easy nor difficult to the point of frustration; more of a Goldilocks soup perfect.  For example, lately my scrambling has been less than optimal so I created a game around a large putting green where I have to get three up-and-downs in a row before I am allowed to move on.  What this does is forces me to practice in a similar manner to an actual game (one chip then one putt, not a bunch of chips in a row.  Also, always to a different target and with a consequence of having to drop three in a row before being able to move on).

This game incorporates a bit of the Challenge Point theory and the Desirable Difficulties.  It includes spacing instead of mass repetition and is, unfortunately :), difficult enough to force me to really concentrate.  As my chipping and putting improve and three up-and-downs in a row becomes too easy I can either up the number to four or I can increase the difficulty of each hole/lie/distance, etc.

No matter what you are doing, make sure it’s the right amount of challenge to engage your mind, that it is context specific and random enough to keep you on your toes.  Also, test yourself along the way to see how much you are absorbing.  For me, this last part is what tournament season is all about.  It is the time of the year where I can see what has been learned and absorbed since last season and it’s a wonderful way to see what I need to focus on next.

The practice possibilities are endless.  Whether alone or with someone, create a game and challenge yourself.  It’s fun to see how fast you can improve when you really have to.

As always, please check out and download the entire blog to date on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MTC0NJA

And please consider becoming a monthly “subscriber” to the blog here: Monthly Donations   Everything helps!  $3 or $9 a month isn’t too bad, eh?

In the past there have been a couple occasions where I planned out a specific change and then after working at it for a period of time (which I thought was substantial enough) I arrived at a place where I needed to play competitive golf and ended up reverting to older habits or getting stuck in the limbo that is half old half new, which typically results in golfing death, because I had not fully ingrained the new habit/change.

I recently found something in my swing, a new feel, that produces the shots that I have been gunning for.  Nice high slight draws and baby fades that start close in line with and finish at the target.  I’ve played a slinging draw for the past 6 or 7 months without really knowing why, but I finally realized that through a different feel in my wrists during the takeaway I can get the club more on plane.  Long story short, it’s good and I like it.

So now comes the implementation period.  I worked it on the range for about a week while slowly starting to venture out on the course and the results were increasingly encouraging.  Then I began to play 9 and eventually 18 holes with just the new feel in mind and the results kept coming in positively.  I still don’t have a great feel with my tee shot so I am missing a lot of fairways, but with the irons it is pretty comfortable.  A lot of the problem with my tee shot, too, is that I am used to aiming down the left side and slinging it back to the right, but now that I am playing a pretty straight shot I am ending up in a lot of trees out at Riverside.  I just need to learn to aim down the fairway and trust that it will go where it is supposed to.

I stuck with the new feel for a couple of rocky rounds and then progress showed itself in a nice little 73 yesterday that looked like this:

It was a funny round as I missed almost every fairway, but when I had a look at the green I was hitting it really well and close to the pin.  I missed three putts from about 5 feet and had an unplayable shot on the 18th which ended up as a bogey.  outside of that it was a solid round where the new swing was really starting to pay off.  I was pretty excited as it felt like effortless power and the ball flight was sweet.  My playing partner, who I had never played with before, commented about how good a round could have been had I been able to hit some decent tee shots.  It’s always great to have obvious flaws as you know exactly what you need to work on.  I have faith that with the new swing once I get a better understanding of impact positions with the longer clubs things are going to step up to the next level.

The next day, though, I struggled to “find” my new feel and it wasn’t until about the 9th hole where I started to realize exactly what I was wanting and needed to do.  The entire round I could have very easily reverted to my old swing and gotten around the course much better, but you have to give these things time and you have to be able to play through the crappy rounds in order to really find what you are looking for.

Today’s round was a much darker shade of good:

I technically hit more fairways than the day before, but my misses were much farther from the fairway and often in a spot where I could not get a good punch out.  And, the irons were not treating me like they had the day before as I could not quite find the new spots in the swing.  I hit a couple good shots, like the birdie on 17 from a 170 yard 7-iron that landed 2 feet from the hole and a few good saves for bogeys, but all in all the round was about sticking with the new regardless of the outcome as that will come with due diligence and time.

Both bad and good shots are part of learning and in a lot of ways we can improve more from sticking to our guns and working out the kinks during rounds like today’s.  There are a lot of bumps along the way; figuring out what you want to do and then sticking to it regardless of the immediate outcomes is the secret formula for improving.

As always, please check out and download the entire blog to date on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MTC0NJA

And please consider becoming a monthly “subscriber” to the blog here: Monthly Donations   Everything helps!  $3 or $9 a month isn’t too bad, eh?

Today a guy, Justin, came out from Golfing World (TV show that airs most everywhere except the US) to film a story and we talked a lot about how to improve in this game and what it takes to really make a concrete swing change.   We chatted and he filmed and after the piece was done we decided to work on the range for a while; or at least he decided to stick around until traffic abated and he happened to be a lefty so could actually borrow some clubs and hit with me.  It was great to have him there as we got along well and he’s been on the road for the past 5 years meeting countless golfers and had plenty of stories to tell.  There was a lot of golf to talk about and, judging by our swings, plenty to work on too.

As it happens, we both have been working on keeping the club more in front of the body during the swing and had a similar tendency of getting it trapped behind which then leads to a timing based swing and one that can break down in tourney play.  I told him the drills that I was putting in to try and remedy that and then we both set up cameras to see where we were and needed to be.  I took a few videos of my current drive swing and then a handful of them trying to capture the swing mechanics that I was striving for.  what I found was that no matter how different I felt like I was swinging my positions at the top were crazy similar.   Here is an image of my current swing (on the left) and then three totally different feels that I thought were very exaggerated:

We kind of both chuckled when I took these screen shots.  The one of the left is definitely flatter than the others, but all in all there really isn’t that much of a difference between any of them.  And, the three on the right are eerie in how similar they look despite my intention of having three completely different club paths and swing thoughts.  To me it felt like I was so far away from my current gamer swing that I didn’t even know if I would be able to hit the ball.  But alas, the picture tells a different, and more accurate, story.

The moral of the story?  No matter how much you might think you are changing something make sure you get appropriate feedback as golf-specific proprioception tends to be misleading without a good visual.

Over and out.  My current goal:  Simplify and improve my swing so that I can manage to hit more fairways under pressure.  I currently don’t hit the driver when I have to hit a fairway and I want that to change soon.  Going to put in the hours and get this swing back on a good plane.

I was going to make it a pdf download and ask people to contribute what they thought it was worth, but I thought if I put the book up on Amazon’s website it would be better formatted for all types of digital readers.  If this doesn’t work after a couple of months I may put a link to the pdf up as well, but for the time being please think about supporting The Dan Plan by purchasing the book here:

Amazon Unites States:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MTC0NJA

Amazon UK:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00MTC0NJA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00MTC0NJA

Amazon Germany: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00MTC0NJA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Amazon Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B00MTC0NJA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

And most any other country, email me if you want a specific link or search for “The Dan Plan”.

I wish to apologize in advance as a few external links did not translate to this format.  One of the most blaring absences are videos.  On a few occasions I talk about watching a video and it’s just a blank on the page.  Outside of that the content is whole.  I edited out about one third of the posts but there is still quite a bit of content, too much in a lot of ways.  Down the road at some point I will have a professional editor (or a well versed friend, or myself when the amount of time in a day magically doubles) take a gander at the content and polish it up.  For now, this is the story, more or less, word for word from the beginning.  I hope you enjoy and get some value out of the content.

For every book purchased from Amazon almost $5 goes to The Dan Plan.  Thank you for reading and please help spread the word to anyone potentially interested in seeing what it takes to make such a drastic change in one’s life.

Cheers!

The highs!

That photo, courtesy of my golfing companion of the day Blair, was taken right after dunking a gap wedge from 106 yards out for an eagle.  It was a crazy hole of a hooked hybrid off the tee, pushed 3-wood layup that bounced off a tree and then the wedge right into the bottom of the cup.  The hole round was rather elated as well with 3 birds and an eagle on the front alone.  It was one of those rounds where everything seemed to bounce the right way and putts held their lines.  A beautiful day, good company and really fun shots that did as told.

The next day couldn’t have been more different and for the life of me I could not get a tee shot to come close to a fairway nor could I figure out how to hit an iron shot.  I went from shooting in the low 70s one day to feeling like I have no idea what I am doing with my swing.  Those rounds were just one day apart, too.  It was simply crazy.   No photo of that, but if I had taken one it would have looked a bit like this:

But, I’ve been working hard on my Vision54 play boxes and had a few notes to jot down from both what I was doing during the good round as well as what was going on in the bad one and it was those notes, as well as a day off to process and rest, that got me back to playing better golf.  I just have to remember to keep this ball with me, the one that holed out for eagle:

And along with that I am starting a notebook collection of all the positive things this sport has done for me.  It’s having those on hand and being able to reflect upon them that help one get out of a funk on the course when and if that may happen.  We’ve all been there and I, for one, know that there isn’t much worse than letting a bad ball striking day get to you.  It’s just as bad as playing well is good (maybe worse).  I just have to remember that it’s all manifested in our own heads.  If we create it we can either change it or linger on it.

I have a few tournaments coming up and in order to prepare for them I am working on the course more right now.  But, I have also been fine tuning my short game distances.  Especially important is half swing wedge shots, which for one swing I have concreted my distances from 50-100 yards.  I shot a short video about how I practice these.  I didn’t mean for it to come off as an instructional video as there are tons of people out there who can tell you what to and not to do, but I do want to share it as it’s a bit about how I practice:

The next big tourney for me is the Oregon Mid-Am coming up August 23-24.  Lots to prepare and work on before that, but I am excited for another 2-day event coming up so soon.  In the meantime I’ll be collecting my positive swing thought notes and working on that short game as always.

After that tourney I am going to address the dynamic loft and how it has lost distance for me.  I’m already working on it a bit, but want to get in play mode for the next 10 days and then get back into swing adjustment/change mode.

The first topic was dynamic loft.  Since learning (or rather having it click as I “knew” what dynamic loft was, but didn’t quite comprehend the details of it until recently) about this aspect of the swing while at Pure Performance Labs in Sydney I had become very interested in how it affected ball flight and how I could change mine to optimize distance, spin and consistency.  Bruce was clear in how to lower my dynamic loft and instead of writing about it I figured I would shoot some video of him explaining it.  Bruce on dynamic loft:

Makes sense to me.  It’s not the best edited video in the world and shot on my phone, but the point gets across.  To compress the ball it is important to get some forward shaft lean.  I am not sure why, but I always thought that you only did that if you wanted to hit a knock down shot, and especially with the driver I thought you wanted to get the club head well in front of the hands at impact.  But, that was causing too much spin and a higher ball flight that was losing a lot of distance.

This is a good example of how you can, with the best intentions, work on something for a long time in this sport (or most anything) just to find out down the road that what you had been doing was not optimal.  I’ve been through this scenario countless times and it’s just part of the learning process.  It doesn’t bother me and, in fact, I get excited when I learn something new that I can work on that was completely contrary to what I had envisioned as the correct physics for the swing.  I feel like I have something super concrete to work on now during the technical section of my practice.

Speaking of practice, I spoke with the Vision54 ladies a few days ago about how to further structure practice and they clarified one thing for me.  Their research has shown that breaking practice into thirds is optimal.  1/3 technical, 1/3 essential playing skills and 1/3 simulation.   I had thought that the simulation section was something that was best done on the range visualizing a course that you were going to play or had played.  But, the clarity came when she explained that simulation was optimal on the course and it was supposed to be as close to and realistic to tournament golf as possible.  The simulation section of practice, then, could be utilizing your successful play boxes for 9 holes while something is one the line with whoever you are playing with.  It’s good to have clarity.

Off to practice the new swing aspects.  Not sure where yet as Riverside is closed today and tomorrow for the member guest.  I hear Heron Lakes is in mighty fine condition right now..

The last time I felt like I do today was during the Men’s Journal interview back in summer 2011.  I literally lost my voice half way through the day and had to resort to writing notes so that the journalist, Gavin, could get his questions answered.  In retrospect, It was a comical scene and we have managed to stay friends since that story.

Today is a good day to try and figure out the best ideas moving forward.  I have the entire afternoon to write, read and ponder on progress both past and future.  It’s a quiet day and a reflective one.

The first thoughts that came to mind when thinking about ways to continue to improve was chipping and putting, especially the latter.  Lately I have not felt my putting stroke and I have not been putting up to the standards I have set for myself.  Some of that is due to the fact that I have been working on the full swing for so long that a bit of the other aspects have suffered, and part of it is just a cyclical confidence issue.  When you are rolling it hot you don’t think about it and tend to drop a lot of putts.  Once you start missing you think about it more and get overly nit-picky about the stroke and focus too much on mechanics instead of just finding your line.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a bad roller of the rock nor am I in a putting funk, just have been missing a couple of putts per round that I think I should make and haven’t really been dropping anything outside of about 5 feet.  Some of this might be due to the fact that the greens on a lot of courses have been punched and sanded and some because my alignment is out of whack.  When I saw Bruce on Wednesday he noticed that my shoulders had gotten closed to my intended line so there is some concrete setup issues to unkink.  Outside of that, I must remember to continue to improve the basics even if my main focus has transitioned to a different part of the game.  In order to succeed all things must be improving, not just what you are focussing on that week.

It is important to have specific goals and you can’t always work on everything, but don’t allow yourself to lapse on anything in particular.  I’ve always had a goal of being one of the best putters in the game and there have been times when my putting was rock solid, but over the past few weeks my stats have gone south in that arena.  Now is a good opportunity to pick it back up and drop those birdies.

Yesterday I played in a 4 man tourney at Riverside.  When I woke up I didn’t want to play as I was feeling crappy, but I had signed up as part of a team and wasn’t going to cancel at the last minute.  With a head full of cough medicine and a belly full of what Riverside calls meatloaf we all went out and teed it up starting on a lightly rainy 17th hole.  As a team we played great, Eric had 4 birds, Mick 2, Tom 1 and me 1 and we pretty much ham and egged the entire day to shoot a good score on the 2 ball best ball (they take the best two balls for each hole out of the four of us).  There were only one or two holes where 2 of us didn’t get par or better and despite all shooting 78-84 we were second gross and first net for the event.  It was really just a fun round as the competition was as light as the Spring drizzle, but I was proud of the team for sticking to it and finishing strong.

Personally, I shot 78 with a couple of missed short putts and some chips that led to two-putts which were easily avoidable.  The short game woes may just have easily been from the swimming head as from lack of consistent chipping and putting drills over the past month.  It’s hard to say, but after each round I am upset with myself for not taking better advantage of some good opportunities. In particular, I never like leaving birdie chips/putts short of the hole and need to improve that.  At least give it a shot to drop.  And, I seriously need to focus on making 6-12 foot putts as I have had numerous birdie putts from that distance lately and far too few make the bottom of the cup.  It has been a long time since I had more than 2 birdies consistently in any single round and even though I have limited the number of bogeys or worse per round I am not scoring as well as I could be due to those situations.

Luckily there is a very easy solution to this:  work and work harder.  I need to rediscover my putting routines and spend more time on the greens, especially as my swing is starting to shape up better.

On a side note, the trip to NYC was postponed for 2-3 weeks.  We will be heading over there soon, but couldn’t do it this week due to some unforeseen conflicts.

Also, I have been testing the Game Golf tool lately and have a few rounds in there to share on the site.  But, I’m not exactly sure how to do that yet.  Will discuss with their tech people and post something soon.

Back to resting.  I want to get out tomorrow and work on putting and chipping so need this body in better shape than today.  One day down for rest is okay, anything more is unacceptable.