The shoot was quick, too.  I basically just taught the TV host how to hit a golf ball as he had zero experience in the sport (a la Dan 2010) and then told a quick summary of my story to date while we played a couple holes of the St Jörgen Golf Club.  I love when these things go well as my journalism background likes to get things correct the first time and be efficient.

Afterwords I had 48 hours to explore and reflect on the trip as well as the past few weeks.

Walking around Gothenburg I was reminded how important it is to have an extremely strong sense of self belief in your vision.  I’m not exactly sure why that thought came to mind while exploring the 17th century neighborhood of Haga Nygata, but I suppose when exposed to the countless options of this world it can be easy to have a wandering mind. It’s important to have a bit of that old fashioned tunnel vision to keep the train moving along.

For me it is also important to step back and appreciate everything that my work has accomplished both on and off the course to date.  Never would I have imagined that I would get flown to both Australia and Europe in a single year to make an appearance.  It’s important for me to relish these experiences as there are a lot of things that have been foregone over the past 4 years in order to get to where I currently am.  Short term (or even longer term) sacrifices lead to the long term payout.  This is true with just about everything in life, not just one man’s chosen path or his golf game.

So relish I did and I had a great time during the trip.  In a way it felt like an end-of-the-summer vacation and seeing as I only golfed a few times and didn’t get much practice in it might as well have been my annual time off.  When I returned I felt refreshed and ready to get back at it, too.  It took about an hour to warm up the body as 15 hours on a plane does no wonders for your golf game, but once I get the swing back on line I hit some good shots, including birdying my first hole back in the states, which is a great sign of things to come.  Of the 9 holes I played I birdied 3 of them and felt good rolling the ball.

Now that I am back and refreshed I am ready to make the next push of the Plan.  The first step is to meet with Michael Neff again and get my clubs better fit for my current swing.  He texted me while away and said he had it figured out and would tell me in person when we were on a range.  We shall meet early this week and I am excited to hear what he has “discovered.”  I have no clue, but trust that he knows what he is doing and will set the sticks accordingly.

The next step is to decide which clubs to play with that new configuration.  I have been hitting my Titleist set for 20 months and still like them, but have a call with Titleist and two other club manufacturers in the near future (i.e. this week).  I have been offered similar deals to what a typical club pro might get (14 clubs, hats, gloves and balls) from three manufactures right now and need to decide whether it makes any sense to try out something new or to stick with what I have.  It’s a good problem to have.

On a side note, here is a story from a Swiss newspaper about my time over there:

The link:  http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sport/weitere/Spielt-er-2018-gegen-Tiger-Woods/story/22975901

As you can see, I’m decked out in my Titleist, Vokey and FJ gear.  Like the world’s cheapest billboard.  I truly appreciate the gear that I have gotten to date and think I have repaid everyone who has sent it in media and social media outreach.  Seems to be a fair trade in my opinion.

Perhaps it’s time to start adjusting the tone and approach of the blog in order to expand the reach and truly inspire instead of just telling my own story.  The original idea of telling my story seems to be getting stale and I think the more useful information would be to tell the story of what research and findings people across the globe are currently discovering that can help us all improve.  I have met a number of these people and think that focussing more on their work, albeit through my training eyes, is a better approach for both myself and every potential blog reader out there.  It is time to seriously step back and scrutinize the path this blog has travelled down and figure out where it needs to go for my own sanity and the readers’ sake.  I’m not saying that my training or practice will be different, just that I will focus more of this site on human performance in general while entangling it with one person’s expeditions.

At any rate, this wasn’t supposed to be a blog about shifting directions; rather my aim was to talk about the Europe trip and about what comes next, although I suppose the jet lagged mind wanders when wide awake at 4am and what I worry about during those middle-night times is often how to continue funding this expedition.  Mountaineers and explorers have similar issues, although once they finally raise funds and set off their concerns shift from funding to survival.  I suppose I have a leg up in that respect as it is very unlikely that getting lost or an avalanche will be my demise.   Everything has it’s plusses and minuses.

Perhaps that is the point.  You can travel the world and see all of the amazing people doing their amazing work stuffs and fantasize about what their lives may be like but at the end of the day you have to trust your heart compass is pointing you in the right direction.  Without that faith all is quickly lost.

There are countless ways to get from here to there, just pick one and stick to it.  That, in a nutshell, is talent.

And now I shall force upon you a photo slideshow of my 11 days in Europe.  You knew it was coming and like the good relatives you are you will do me a kind and take a look.  Perhaps pretend you just found this in a thrift store laptop 100 years from now and are trying to create a novel around it about the lives of those involved.  Or feel free to skip it.

In a couple more hours the sun will come up, at which point practice is in the equation.  For now I will continue the mental process of organizing my goals for the rest of 2014 and then begin to think about the year to come.

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!

It’s not that it has been especially terrible.  After all, just about 5 or 6 inches of snow fell, which then froze over, keeping the streets dangerous to drive on for the past 3-4 days, but when you live in a city where this type of thing happens once every 5 years the infrastructure is not there to plow and keep things flowing.  Just yesterday most of the city got a warning message on their phones to stay off the roads:

That was a first for me.  The snow began to fall on Thursday and on Friday and Saturday I managed to walk about ten miles a day exploring the icy city, sledding, and enjoying a couple snow days. Then yesterday hit and the sidewalks/streets were so slick it was precarious even to walk to the corner store.  The majority of the day was spent held up inside without much news.  I did, though, have a good talk with Goal Guy Stuart last night.

Our talk was a bit of catching up as we hadn’t gotten on the horn for a few weeks, then we went into what the next chapter of The Dan Plan needs to be.

Stuart mentioned how a journey like mine can be broken into chapters and without figuring out what the next chapter should be one can continue wandering in the same direction without the appropriate steps towards the next breakthrough.  In a sense, this is how the dreaded plateau happens.

He asked me what had worked lately and I talked about how much I learned by seeing Bruce down in Palm Springs 2-3 times a week.  I feel like I made some critical breakthroughs in my game while in the desert and Stuart asked why I wasn’t still down there and what I needed to do to make it so I could work with my (or any high quality coach currently in Portland while Bruce is down in the desert until May) coach as much as I felt like I needed to.  We also talked about a few different people who’s success stories we could relate to my project and what they went through to make it.  A lot of it comes down to having a pair of eyes on your progress on a regular basis.

Bruce mentioned the same thing to me a couple months ago.  He said that the only way he saw this as a possibility was if I had a pair of eyes helping me stay on track.  He has told me a number of times that when I leave a lesson my swing is looking great and I am hitting the ball well, then I go and practice for 30 hours (with the best of intentions) just to revert to old habits.  It feels like a Sisyphean task at times.

Stuart encouraged me to write about this to see if anyone in the reader brain-trust had any ideas.  The simple solution is to get very wealthy so I can afford to spend the next 3 years under the near-constant eyes of a coach.  Well, not sure how “simple” that is, but the point is that in order to start that next chapter and make the continued push forward something needs to change.

This could be as simple as filming my practice daily and then posting it for my coach to offer advice.  Or perhaps moving somewhere warm where I could work on the range and be an understudy of a good coach.   Any ideas are appreciated.

I’m not sure how to start the next chapter of The Dan Plan, but after hearing the words of Bruce and Stuart I believe that something needs to change in my daily routine.  There is a way to accelerate progress and whatever it takes is what I need to be doing next.

For now, back to a bit of snow.  The course might open as soon as tomorrow.  Fingers crossed.

It makes more sense than just asking for donations as a lot of us already make our purchases on Amazon.  I have placed a widget on the side bar (over there  ———–>) with some of the things that I have enjoyed along the way and will continue to update that widget with new products as I find/review them.  The best part of that widget, though, is that if you click on it and purchase ANYTHING on Amazon, it doesn’t have to be one of the listed products, a small percent goes towards supporting The Plan.

If you enjoy following this journey and want to help in a way that gets you exactly what you want then just click on that Amazon link and shop away.

Thank you for considering going through this website when making your online purchases.

Happy Holidays!

I participated in, or a better description may be that I was the subject of, Portland State University’s “Capstone Program” this semester.   Capstone is a senior undergraduate class that spends an entire term examining a few small businesses and building a business plan for these.  The class breaks into groups of 8 and these students research one business and present their findings as a final presentation.  Yesterday the group focussing on The Dan Plan presented a handful of adjuncts, professors and me.

It was fascinating to watch.  They had dug deep into my website, read papers on Deliberate Practice, perused all of the articles that have run on my project to date and in general were spot on about what my intentions and goals are.  At times it felt a bit personal as they analyzed my progress and estimated the chances of making it onto the PGA Tour.  They even interviewed two long-time Tour golfers about their experiences both from a practice standpoint and about securing their own finances while trying to make the Tour.  (unfortunately they signed a confidentiality agreement with the Tour players so I didn’t get to know who they were.)

They broke down my project into 4 categories.

Strengths:  Client’s Passion, 1/2 way to goal, Family Support, Blog/Website reach, Support of Team, Statistics for 2+ years.

Weaknesses: Lack of Funds, No real product of service, Lack of business focus, Tentative Speaker, Handicap currently is 4, Lots of Travel Required

Opportunities:  Outside Sponsorship, Grants, Publishers/Producers, Private investor, Crowd Sourcing.

Threats: Another person doing the same thing, Likelihood of completion, Golf pros opinions, Tax implications for donations, Weather in Oregon.

That was their SWOT analysis and I think they hit on some good points, although I don’t totally agree with everything, but when you have an outside group break down your “business” you aren’t always going to agree with all points.

After this, they went into a few of the aspects and then took time to present what they thought was the best potential way to support the project through the second half of the 10,000 hours.  Through their research and interviews, they basically surmised that due to the competitive nature and large numbers of people trying to make the tour and looking for private and business sponsorships that that route was not the way to go.  They presented that while the project can have a few revenue streams when completed (book, documentary, public speaking, so on) that during the final 5k the best way to support the project to the point where I can financially finish the best bet was on crowd sourcing.

Before I go on, I want to say that the point of me chatting with PSU and the point of the project is not now, nor has it ever been, to make money.  If I was interested in making money I would have stuck with a job from the get go.  Unfortunately, though, there is a cost in pursuing something like this and it is important to be proactive in order to accomplish goals.  I like to analyze different opportunities and see if there is something that I am missing that could be a potential source of growth.

Back to PSU.  Their conclusion was that by growing the traffic on my site I could get to the point where the cost of the project is completely covered by revenue supported by ad clicks.  What they suggested was to use a website like Hubspot (which I had never heard about until yesterday) to drive more traffic to the site.  It’s an initial cost of $500 and then $200 a month to use this service, which is a lot of cash for me.  That’s more than half of what I spend monthly to be a member of a golf course where I can practice and play 6 days a week.

I will do some research on this service and comparable services and make a decision some time in the next couple of months.

It was a great presentation and there was much more to it, but those were the highlights.  If anyone runs or is starting a small business in Portland I would recommend checking out the Capstone Program.  Brain power is always a good thing.

I know what you’re going to say, but this isn’t a rebound.  Just because it’s only been a few days since the breakup doesn’t mean I can’t find a new partner.  This isn’t a one night stand, rather a new fling with staying power.  I’ve met a new course and it’s swept me off of my feet.  I promise that I wasn’t seeing this course while I was with CECC and it’s only by fortunate chance that the transition was made so quickly.

I have the tendency to land on my feet and after hearing the CECC news last Saturday I knew that I needed to figure something out and had a few ideas in the back of my head.  A couple months ago a friend invited me out to the course next door to CECC, Riverside Country Club, and I quite enjoyed their facilities.  I hadn’t thought much about it at the time, but after hearing the final verdict at CECC I called around to a few clubs to see what the costs would be to join and then got in touch with the membership lady at Riverside that afternoon.  They had a stellar deal going on which was hard to pass up so I talked with my family about it and decided that it made practical and financial sense to join.  Economically speaking, and judging by what I spent in June while not having a home course, being a member of a club is the only feasible way to financially make The Dan Plan work.

Sunday morning I went in to Riverside and officially joined.  Immediately afterwords I teed it up with a couple of members and despite the 95 degree day I had a blast running around my new home course.

Riverside has some similarities to CECC, but I am not interested in comparing the two.  In all honesty that would be like comparing apples to apples and it really comes down to personal taste.  Whether you like Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, Cortland or Braeburn is just a matter of personal preference, especially when the courses are literally next door to one another and were built the same year.  I’m sure, though, there are some massively differing opinions on the matter and members at each course would probably tell you conflicting views.  Personally, they are both awesome courses and provide some similar and some different challenges.

The practice facilities at Riverside are pretty similar to CECC too.  There is no par 3 course at Riverside which is something that I will miss, but they do have a cool chipping area where you can make up your own holes from zero to 130 yards with a few bunkers, and a couple different greens to hit to:

I was out there for about four hours yesterday and didn’t see another soul, just a quiet place to practice the short game.  I have a feeling this may be the spot where I spend a ton of time over the next few years.

The range is pretty cool, too.  On Mondays it was mats only, but a lot of days you hit off of the grass:

When you practice and play golf on a daily basis it can get expensive very quickly if you don’t have a range and course at hand.  I suppose it depends on what the course costs, but being an intermediate member at Riverside (under 40 years old) is cheaper than paying for two rounds at a local muni a week.  The main benefits aren’t just about cost, though, it’s about having that range, good putting greens, and the chipping area where you can work on the most important aspect of the game: the short game.

The first 30 years of my life I never would have thought I would be a member of a country club, but now that I have become obsessed with golf and improving my golfing game I cannot see it any other way.  Don’t get me wrong, it is possible to improve one’s game at the local muni course (I still and will forever love practicing and playing at Heron Lakes) but for my goals and what I want to do on a daily basis a country club can optimize that experience.  I know Seve did it with a 5-iron on the beach, but I’m sure if he had access to a place like Riverside or CECC he would have been there every day honing those skills.

I am excited to have a new home and already feel that the change will be good as it’s a new environment to learn in and new people to challenge as well as no established tendencies or behaviors.  There is a lot to be excited about and a whole new world to start exploring.

I would like to thank CECC once again for everything that they provided and did for me over the past two years.  You are all amazing and I hope to see everyone again one day soon.  Again, I am not interested in comparing the two facilities and think that anyone interested should check them both out.  Every course and club has it’s pros and cons and it’s up to the individual to find the best fit.  I am excited about Riverside as I was about CECC when I first went out there.  You really can’t go wrong being a member at either course.

Not that there was anything that I omitted over the past two years, but one added benefit of being a paying member of a club is that I can freely talk about all of the aspects of country club life.  I didn’t grow up in anything like this and at times feel like a stranger in foreign lands but never wanted to step on anyone’s toes.  Having no affiliations with any club or products I can truly tell it as it is in the golfing world.  I will try and write my experiences at the new club like a travel guide to Mars.  The goal is to take you with my on this new journey.

Before that all begins, here is one more picture of the new home course: pushing my Clicgear up the 18th fairway.  Pretty nice view

Even so, large round numbers provide a good opportunity to reflect on where we’ve come and what lies ahead.  This number just happened to almost exactly land on the 3-year anniversary of the project, too.  It was three years ago that I left a cozy little work place and started standing in the rain for hours at a time attempting to roll a small ball into a 4.25 inch hole.  Here is a video of me from day one, absolutely the farthest (or is it furthest?) thing from an experienced golfer on this planet:

From there to here in roughly 4k hours:

Not exactly PGA Tour level, but you can definitely see a difference between those two videos.  I went from some random guy in blue jeans and a yellow rubber raincoat who literally didn’t know the difference between a gap wedge and a 6-iron to a golfer who can hold his own from the fairway or deep trouble.  I’m proud of that transformation and super excited to see what the next 4k brings.

Rather than reflecting too much on the past, I’d like to keep the eyes looking forward.

The immediate goal is to improve tee shots as that is by far the weakest link in my game at the moment.  The plan of attack is to build a feel for that stick by using a device my coach, Adrian, created in the swing lab and then head to the range to test out the feel with an actual driver  (interleaving that club so I am not hitting the driver more than once in a row and use a random second club to simulate how you would hit on an actual course).

Basically, the device is a lowered baseball tee with a wiffle ball on it and a wooden baseball bat that has been cut in half.  The point is to figure out what your arms and hands need to do to get the ball to come off the tee left, straight, right, high, low, etc. Since the bat is cut in half and you hit with the flat side you can see how the extension of the arms affects the ball flight.  Instead of learning with a driver in your hand you can improve your hand action and arm extension in a completely different context.

Some people call this thinking outside the box.  It’s Adrian creating new teaching methods to help demonstrate a concept in the game that I, and some of his other students, are struggling with and it is one of the reasons why I am working with him.

I will be grinding away in all aspects of the game and slowly but surely improving my driving game.  I will not stop working on it until it is one of my strengths and when that day comes it will be time to reevaluate my game and find the next weakness to focus on.

In other news, there is an article in the April 15th edition of Time Magazine about The Dan Plan that is very well written.  It’s a little bit about the science of practice and a little about my journey to date.  The photographer did a great job too and created a very fun photograph.  Here is a sneak peak of the story online now: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2140225,00.html

Also, the official Dan Plan store launches this week.  I’m very excited to have partnered up with a few great companies to finally bring some Dan Plan merchandise to the site.  The store is located here: http://thedanplan.com/dan-plan-store/  So far just the Jones golf bag and the Seamus head covers are available, but the Criquet shirts, Dagwood gloves and a few other items are coming soon.  It’s awesome to team up with some great companies to provide this gear!  Please email me if you have any questions.  All purchases provide funds for The Dan Plan to keep moving forward.

6,000 hours to go and it all starts right now.