The last time I thought about skipping an event was the Iceberg Open at Rose City this April, but that wasn’t from bad play, rather it was because my back felt tweaked.  It was a two-man best ball so I didn’t want to let my partner, or myself, down and decided to play through the lower back pain.  It wasn’t the prettiest site and I had to make some huge changes in my swing to not have sharp pains, but made it through the 36-hole event and had a lot of fun despite the personal conditions.

But, that came with a price and the next day I knew that I should have probably skipped the second round, or at the very least the back 9.  It has been about six weeks since than and I have not been able to make a full swing, and for the first four weeks wasn’t even able to carry a bag or make a chip without pain.  The good news is the time away has been fruitful in that I am excited about getting back out there and have actually been dreaming about playing golf lately.  Also, I am starting to feel much better and think that I can return to practice relatively soon.

Today was supposed to be the first day of my favorite Portland area tournament.  It is a thee day event called the Royal Oaks Invitational Tournament (ROIT) and as the name suggests entries are by invitation only, which leads to a lot of the best golfers from the area participating.  You have to write a letter to the board listing your “golf resume” and based on that you are either let in or put on the waiting list for the years to come.  Last year was my first time playing in the event and it was a blast.  That is easily one of my favorite courses in the area and when they get the greens rolling fast it is a tough test.

I have been looking forward to this weekend for months and had many goals for the three days.  So, I had been laying low in order to maximize the healing process and six weeks after making my last full swing I finally went out and slowly approached hitting a ball.  I started with little chips and some putts then went out to 1/4 swings and worked up to 1/2 and then 3/4 swings.  I was feeling decent and my body was plenty warmed up, so I made a couple of full swings.  Immediately I could feel the same twinge of sharp pain in the lower right side of my back and shut it down for the day.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been leading up to the Iceberg, but it was the same spot.

I woke up this morning and could feel it when getting out of bed and doing random regular morning things like brushing teeth and putting on shoes.  I felt like I had reverted two weeks from just two full swings.  I got ready and my tee time wasn’t until 12:30 so I decided to go out to the back yard and make a few easy swings with an 8-iron and no ball.  Again a little pain, but I still wanted to play in the event.  I had to make a tough decision.

Around 11:15 this morning I realized that it was much more important to fully recover than to try and play as I knew that I would most likely have to WD on the first few holes even if I did give it a shot and with the adrenalin of the event I would probably end up overdoing the first few swings and reverting back to the beginning of my recovery process.  So, regretfully, I called in and withdrew from the event.

It was the most prudent decision, albeit one I did not want to have to make.  Still, give it some more time and fully heal before going out and doing more harm than good.  The good news is I felt fine chipping and putting so this week I can at least get back out and get the short game back in order. Kind of like starting back over from the beginning, I will start close to the hole and work my way back, doing just what the body tells me is okay to do.

Over and out.  Hopefully next post will concern actual golf endeavors and not just injury updates.  I suppose it’s all part of the same story, though.

Last week I attended a fun and truly inspiring event while passing through the Chicago area.  It started as a way to raise a few thousand dollars for a friend going through cancer treatment and 14 years later is a full-on charity golf fundraiser that raised $120,000 this year.  That money is going towards helping 9 families affected by cancer.

In total, the BTB Foundation has raised $750k helping 37 families over the past 14 years, which is an amazing feat considering it started with 30 people out on a golf course trying to help out a friend.  It’s a true grassroots event that has grown from those original golfers to selling out two 18-hole golf courses as well as a 500+ person banquet dinner later that evening.  Very impressive all around.  It is a true charity and community event where friends and families get together to help one another out.  Hearing everyones stories was touching to say the least.

For the actual golfing event, the format was all about having fun and there were random contests on every hole.  I happened to be one of those contests and drove around both courses in a golf cart challenging people to different shots during their rounds.  It might be a putt, chip, approach or tee shot; whatever it was if the player beat me they won a winner pin and if they lost there was a loser pin.  Tom and Bill made the pins, which I thought were pretty funny and great:

It was one of the best golfing days I have had to date as everyone was having a great time, I was fortunate enough to meet most of the participants, and they had everything from bouncy castles to air horns during swings to cheerleaders and even things like this:

Needless to say, it was a great day and all for a good cause.  Tom and Bill have a great way about them and have, with the help of many people to date, created an awesome annual event.  I will most definitely be there next year to participate in the 15th anniversary tournament and will do my best to beat Tom and Bill:

Their goal for the 15th anniversary is to cross the million dollar mark for money raised to date.  An incredible feet.  This is one of the great ways in which golf can be utilized.  It’s perfect for charity outings and these types of events happen all over the world.  I would encourage everyone who enjoys playing golf to find at least one fundraiser a year to participate in.  Not hard to find at least one and at the end of the day you have helped raise money for a good cause while also getting to play a round of golf.  It’s a win-win.

I want to thank Tom and Bill, as well as Dennis McKinnon (aka Silky D, who has been partnering up with BTB for the past five years and who was also on the 1985 Super Bowl winning Chicago Bears.  Great guy and lots of fun to hang out with.) for letting me join in on the fun.  You guys are amazing!  I would also like to thank all of the participants this year.  It was a pleasure to get to know a bunch of you and I appreciate the warm welcome and fun day.

The only unfortunate part of the day was that I still, even after 3 full weeks of no swings at all, was unable to come close to making a full swing.  I could putt and chip and hit half shots, but a full swing felt exactly as it had three weeks earlier when I last played a round.  I figured that amount of time off and all of the treatment I had received at the skilled hands of Shawn and Seth would have made a big difference, but the back was still unable to support a full swing without sharp pain in the right hip area.

With that amount of rest time and treatment resulting in feeling no different, I knew it was most likely not a muscular or tendon issue.  Or, if it was, it was more serious than I had imagined.  A few people recommended getting an MRI and I talked with my sister about that on my next stop in Atlanta.  She is a doctor as well as an accomplished marathon runner and we chatted about everything I had been doing to heal the spot as well as what it was feeling like and she had some ideas of what it may be.

During her running career she had a couple of stress fractures that were misdiagnosed at first and resulted in her being sidelined for a couple to a few months.  How my injury feels is very similar to what she was describing and now I am fairly convinced that a stress fracture is the culprit.  The best way to find out for sure is to get a bone scan, which is much cheaper than an MRI, but she suggested to hold off on that and rest it for a couple more weeks to see if things start to improve.  If it is a stress fracture the only “cure” is rest anyway so that’s the first step.  She told me to try and not do anything that causes pain in that area as pain could signal things getting worse.  The good news is that only rotational things hurt and day-to-day activities do not trigger the spot.  The bad news is that I have to hold off even longer before getting back to practice.  It is a frustrating place to be in, but it is what it is.

After Atlanta I drove down to Hilton Head with my parents and had planned on a number of rounds and practice sessions while on the island, but had to postpone those until the next trip.  It was nice in a way as I had all day to catch up with the folks and that’s not a bad place to rest a back.

Yesterday I began my trip back to Portland with a stop in LA.  The plan, again, was to meet up with Dr. Bob Bjork for a round near UCLA and then to play Friday and Saturday with other friends before heading back to Portland.  Those rounds will have to wait until the next time.  Another good sign, though, was that while walking through the airport with my bag yesterday my back felt so much better than when flying out of Chicago.  In the Chicago airport if I put my shoulder back on either shoulder I could barely walk without sharp pains and even sitting on the flight to Atlanta was uncomfortable.  So, progress is being made with rest as treatment.

My favorite event of the year, the Royal Oaks Invitational Tournament, is from June 5-7 back in Portland.  I signed up two months ago and have already paid for the tournament and very much hope to play, but only time will tell.  From now until June 4 I will avoid full swings and slowly start to get back to chipping and putting and then on June 4 will have to see how it goes.  If I still can’t swing I will have to withdraw, but fingers crossed it’s pain free and I can play.  It would be a shame to miss the event.

Over and out for now.  Sorry for the long delay on posting, my mind has just not been on golf lately as I can’t do it and don’t like to think about what I am missing out on.  Sometimes it’s easier to change your focus rather than linger on something not currently possible.  As soon as I can swing again I will be back on here and social media.

Shawn and I have a lot of history together as he was the first person to set up workout routines for The Dan Plan as well as the first person to do a TPI screen on me.  We haven’t met up in a while as I have been physically healthy, but Shawn knows how my body functions, probably better than I know it myself, and I knew that he could figure out what was going on down there in my lower back.

During the first visit Shawn did a once-over on everything in and around the lower back and said that the joints were all moving pretty well, although my hip mobility was a little limited for some reason, especially on the right side.  He worked things out for a while and then we went through a simple workout routine so he could see how muscle groups were firing when isolated.  My core, for some reason, was a bit shaky and he said that could be from the pain in the lower back acting like a virus and interfering with how my neurological system controls the muscle groups.  He gave me some core exercises to work on in order to regain specific controls.

I felt a little better when I left, but later that day it was back to the normal strange sense of pain, even when just walking down the street or mowing the lawn.  I couldn’t pinpoint it, but there was just something off.  He had me take an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory (Aleve) twice a day for three days and wanted me to come back in on Friday.  The rest of Wednesday was a little tender, most likely from the muscles having been worked on by Shawn, and then Thursday I felt better, but knew that if I tried to swing a club the pain would immediately turn up again just where it had left off.  To be clear, the pain isn’t an 8 or 9 on a scale to ten, but what it was causing me to do was to bail in my swing in order to avoid it, which leads to unwanted swing changes and potentially could worsen with time.  It just felt like a tiny bolt of lightening at very specific points in the swing which when they happened made it feel like my right leg was going to collapse.  Perhaps my glutes were just not firing.  Wait, no, that’s not me, that was Tiger.

This has been lingering and not improving for about 3 weeks and I was starting to get a little worried as to the discovery of a potential cause.  It’s also just annoying as the weather has been amazing and all I want to do is get out to the course and hit some shots.

Then on Friday I went down to Shawn’s Lake Oswego office again and we did all sorts of different types of movements in order to exactly pinpoint where the culprit was located.  After we found that spot with the help of some slow golf swings, Shawn figured out it was a continuum distortion.  To get technical, a continuum distortion is an alteration of the transition zone between ligament, tendon, and other connective tissue and bone.  Basically, the ligament and/or tendon can get slightly pulled away from the bone which causes pain.

What I learned is that the connection between fascia and the bone is not static and the fascia transitions from rigid to flexible depending on which way calcium molecules need to flow.  this process gets interrupted during an injury like a sprain or some sort of larger tweak in the area and causes pain and limited movement.  A continuum disorder like the one Shawn found in my back is something that can either last a long time if not treated or shift back to normal on its own.  Mine has lasted a few weeks, so I’m not sure how long it might have taken to heal on its own and was amazed at how fast I started feeling better once Shawn manipulated it.

This is all part of something that I had never heard of before, but that Shawn is certified in:  Fascial Distortion Model.  This FDM method of treatment is relatively new, coming into the picture back in 1991 when an Osteopathic Physician, Dr. Stephen Typaldos “discovered” the method.  Over the last three days I have read the book on FDM and understand it at a rudimentary level as I am no doctor, but the method makes sense to me in it’s simplicity.  The trained FDM certified person finds the origin of pain in our tendons and joints and pushes hard on that spot getting the ligament and/or tendon back into it’s normal state of being.  Once that issue is resolved the body goes back to functioning as it should and the pain is gone.

Shawn and I found my spot and he pressed it until a sense of relief rushed through my lower body.  The next day I felt great, but still rested and took it easier on his recommendation.  After having one day of no pain I was a bit excited and wanted to go out and see how it felt on the course.  The downfall was that on Sunday I woke up with pain in the same spot, but thought if I took it easy and warmed up well I could make some swings.  On the range it immediately hurt and then on the course I made it through one swing before realizing I needed to not play any longer.  It was disappointing, but Shawn had told me this may take some time so I did my best to be patient and walk away to rest it once again.

On Monday I woke up feeling better and had a match-play round that evening I wanted to participate in if possible.  After stretching and resting for most of the day I went to Riverside and warmed up with some swings.  I found that if I swung smoothly and evenly it didn’t seem to hurt and figured I could play the 9-hole match with easy swings.

The round lasted about 6 holes before it became uncomfortably painful and I knew it would just cause more damage to continue so I had to forfeit the round even though we were tied after 6.  It was disappointing to have to walk away, but in the bigger picture I know the more important thing is to make a full recovery and be able to play in the charity tourney in Chicago this coming Friday  (http://www.btbfoundation.org  check it out! should be a ton of fun).

The next day I was not able to get in to see Shawn, but did go up and chip and putt for a while, which felt good.  I couldn’t make a full swing and didn’t try more than one or two, but at least I was able to work the short game.

Later in the day I saw a doctor friend who specializes in the lower back and he was pretty adamant that it was a pinched nerve in my lower back.  He wrote me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and said I should feel better in a day or two as the swelling subsides.  I’m game for anything that may work so got it fulfilled and will see what happens.

Tomorrow I visit Shawn again and he will work on that spot.  I think that with the combo of the anti-inflammatory and Shawn’s expertise things are looking good moving forward.  Whatever it takes to get better and get back out there is what I will do.  This has been the first real set-back in the five years I have done this so I can’t complain too much.  Anyone who golfs knows how tough it can be on the body and a few weeks off to rest and recover is a small price to pay in the big picture.  That said, I can’t wait to get back out there and work on the game.  One day soon…

This past week I didn’t pick up a golf club, and it was the first time that has happened since September 2013.  But, it wasn’t by choice.  The back is just messed up and posting on my lead leg was not physically comfortable in the week leading up to that one; at times so bad that I either fell down in the follow through of a swing or had to walk forward after hitting the ball to not put any undue pressure on the lower back.

It started about two weeks ago when I felt some pinching on the lower right side of my back.  I took a few days off and rested and then came back to hit balls and try to play some holes.  That day I made it through roughly 14 holes before it was obvious that I needed to stop for the day.  I took another day off and then went back out and focussed on good posture and a strong core and made it through 18 holes, although the  last few were a bit off feeling.  I then took Friday, April 24, off to rest before a two-day two-man best ball tournament at Rose City over that weekend.

The tourney was fun, but a bit of a disaster on my part.  I couldn’t really find a tee swing and on Saturday anything longer than a 7-iron approach shot caused pain, and the wrong type of pain, if there is such a thing.  I was determined to help my partner out more on Sunday so iced and rested it that evening in preparation for our final round.  We did much better and managed to at least shoot even par on the day, but tee shots were still feeling physically alien to me the whole day and I knew I was in for some trouble after the round.  Throughout the day, every swing I made felt worse than the previous and a smarter me knew that I should pull out, although I was stubborn and determined to play better than Saturday.  We finished strong at 4-under for the back 9, but that stubbornness, I think, took a toll on my body.

I called chiropractor Dr. Seth Alley after the round and set up an appointment for Monday.  He has been amazing through the entire project and can always diagnose and fix whatever ailments my body has had to date, so I was excited to see him.

On Monday Seth, basically, said I was out of whack and my hips were out of line and the muscles through the back were all screwy.  (He of course used professional terms for everything, but I’m not one to remember the exact terms and don’t want to say the wrong thing, so will just stick with “it was messed up”).  He worked on the area for over an hour and was able to get close to moving some things around but needed to wait for the inflammation to go down before making any adjustments.  Two days later I went in again and visited Seth and this time he was able to straighten out my left side.

It was feeling better and I was hopeful to see him again on Friday to fix up the right side.  But then, unfortunately, my body decided to get exceedingly sick late Wednesday night with Norovirus and  I was bedridden all day Thursday and did not want to potentially spread that awful little bug so had to postpone the next adjustment until Monday.

I don’t want this to come off as a sob story, I’m totally fine and things happen to people.  We all get sick and get injured all the time, but I do want to explain why I have not practiced or played in over a week.  The flu was just a fluke and quickly passed and what I took from it was that having that was a great way to cleanse the system.  As soon as I was able to consume again I set a healthy base and have felt wonderful this past weekend and today.

At any rate, I went and saw Seth again today as the right side just will not simmer down. It literally feels like my hip is jammed inside itself.  He worked it out and told me to go and ice and then do some specific stretches later on as well as visit the range either later today or tomorrow to see how swinging a club feels.  I know it’s going to feel a little foreign as I have not hit a ball in a while, but as long as the pain has gone down and I can post up on my right side all will be well.

Injury is basically my only fear in all of this and I will do however much preventative work or rest I need to do to make sure something like this does not progress into a major injury.  It’s just part of the journey and something we all have to deal with in one way or another.

I wish I could say that I was on an amazing camping trip and taking a week off to hike and contemplate, but this year I think my “vacation” chose itself in the form of forced rest.

I am not very good at “taking it easy,” so this is something I have to be very deliberate about.  When I have some down time I tend to want to do something physical, even if it’s just heavy-ish yard work or moving furniture into my new place.  So, not being able to golf and not being able to lift heavy objects takes its toll on me.  But, like everything, this is a learning experience and I will do my best to do my best.

On a more pleasant note, I will be traveling some coming up for a combined golf and family visit trip.  The first stop will be in Chicago where I am participating in an exciting and fun fundraiser event called the Beat Tom and Bill Foundation.  Check it out here:  http://www.btbfoundation.org

This event is going to be a ton of fun and all of the money raised goes to a wonderful cause.  If anyone is in the Chicago area on May 15 you should come out and play some golf with us all!

No matter what, I will be back to 100 percent before then.  That is my goal and I expect to in full swing much sooner.

I thought a lot about what might be happening over the weekend as my back made it less than possible to actually go out and swing a club and with the index finger not wanting to bend properly I wasn’t able to grip a putter; so took a couple of days off.  While thinking I realized a lot of it was because of the lack of quality sleep over the past few weeks.

I recently moved back into my house in NE Portland after living elsewhere for the past 3 years and when I moved back in I was basically starting over furniture-wise.  I have a chair, desk, few odds and ends and some kitchen supplies, but what I did not own was a proper bed.  When I moved out in 2012 I sold mine and everywhere I have stayed since was furnished so there was never a need to purchase a bed.  I didn’t immediately know which type of what brand I wanted to get so decided to pick up a “decent” futon for the time being until I could find the right bed.  Finally, I found one last week and have ordered it and a good quality sleep should be arriving soon, but I think having tossed and turned on a rock hard futon for the past 3 weeks has taken a little toll on my body.

I was researching the restorative power of sleep and it totally makes sense that my body is not acting in a normal way and fixing these little issues as they arise.  Here is a little breakdown of what I found:

Stage 1

* Between being awake and falling asleep

* Light sleep

Stage 2

* Onset of sleep

* Becoming disengaged from surroundings

* Breathing and heart rate are regular

* Body temperature drops (so sleeping in a cool room is helpful)

Stages 3 and 4

* Deepest and most restorative sleep

* Blood pressure drops

* Breathing becomes slower

* Muscles are relaxed

* Blood supply to muscles increases

* Tissue growth and repair occurs

* Energy is restored

I am not getting into the stage 3 and 4 of sleep as the 2 inch futon mattress makes it hard to lie in the same position for more than about 30 minutes.  I used to wake up very refreshed and ready to go and have never had more than minor injury incidents along this journey, but all of a sudden it feels like everything is slowly breaking down.  This is an awful feeling and I never realized just how important sleep is.  I may be lying prone for 7-8 hours, but I’m not getting into the stage where my muscles are relaxing and tissue repair happens.

So excited to get that new bed soon.  I can’t wait for a good night of sleep.

I’m playing in a two-day two-man best ball tournament this weekend, so I hope the bed arrives in the next day or two, but regardless I will take it light this week in preparation as right now I am not sure if my back would even hold up for 18 holes.  Last time I tried to play 18 was last Friday and after about 12 holes I couldn’t do anything except hit a weak fade.  Not going to work this weekend and I think a couple of light days will lead to a healthier body and that’s what I have to do right now to prepare.

It should be a fun little tournament.  It’s at a course called Rose City and I have played in it a couple of times before.  I don’t like two-man tourneys as much as individual, but it still puts pressure on the game and is always a good learning experience.  In some ways, there is actually more pressure from a team game as you don’t want to let your partner down and if they have a bad miss you know you have to carry the hole.

Over and out for now.  Will report on how much the bed helps as well as the weekend’s results soon.

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!

So cool.  The certification test was much harder than I thought and took me about an hour to answer 20 questions.  The test covered everything from diagnosing potential swing faults by watching videos of golfer’s swings to describing what potential swing characteristic someone may have based on physical limitations and how to improve upon those physical aspects.  After reading through the 220+ page manual a couple of times this past week I feel that I have a much firmer understanding of swing mechanics as well as new ways to improve upon my own swing.

I am getting a bit tired of hearing myself talk about golf specific swing stuff so won’t go into too much detail, but the biggest weakness that I see in myself is my right glute muscle not firing enough to post up properly late in the round.  It gets fatigued and I start losing posture while finishing my swing.  Knowing this and how to strengthen the muscle helps me become better at finishing rounds.  There’s nothing worse than playing 14 good holes just to fall apart at the end and the cause of this is usually either mental or physical fatigue (or in a lot of cases a bit too much beer  I’m safe from that syndrome, though, as I don’t drink at all).

If you don’t know the cause you can’t figure out how to fix it.  TPI addresses the physical swing and helps golfers pinpoint specifics to work on.  If you are around Portland I would love to get some practice in and do some free TPI Screenings.  Let me know and we can meet up at Heron or somewhere around town.  I’m new at this so it may take a little while to do one, but if you are willing to work with me we can figure out how to help you improve.

Speaking of improving, I had another lesson with Bruce Furman yesterday and it was an awesome one.  We have been focussing on the takeaway for a couple weeks now and it is looking better.  The next step is getting my head to move away with the backswing a bit during driver swings.  And, I am going to focus on building some swing speed.

For swing speed I am going to do a drill that the TPI guys told me during the two-day seminar in Seattle.  I asked TPI’s Lance Gill what was a good way to gain some speed and he told me to get a heavier driver and a lighter one.  Swing the heavy one ten times as hard as I can, then do that with the lighter driver and finish the drill with ten full swings with my gamer.  The heavy driver builds power, the light one speed and then your gamer translates those into your actual swing.

I have done that for a couple of days as well as some Jane Fonda-esque glute exercises.  I’ll stick to this routine for the next couple of weeks and see if there are any number changes on TrackMan.  Right now my driver is about 105-107mph when I go at it pretty decently.  That needs to be about 112 to really compete.

I suppose I ended up talking about my swing again   I promise that there is more to this than golf mechanics and will have some good juicy personal blogs soon.

There is so much happening with The Dan Plan at the moment, but all of it is up in the air.   Instead of talking about potentials I want to wait until things get concreted.  Soon there will be some big news.