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!

In a previous post, Dan had mentioned that we were examining what it might take for his game to make another leap forward. The incremental gains that Dan has made are impressive, but the pace is slower than it needs to be for Dan to be on a trajectory towards being at the level of a touring professional by 10,000 hours. I asked Dan if anyone had come forward with a concrete offer or plan to aid in his journey, but Dan said no offer had been received. I asked him if I might post this blog because I think it is important that the Dan Fans understand our predicament, and are encouraged to respond.

Dan has mentioned that one of his issues is that he can fix his swing with his coach Bruce, only for it to degrade five or six practice days away from the lesson. When Dan sees Bruce often, the swing slide can be arrested before it starts, and good habits are reinforced. Dan’s recent visit to Bruce in Palm Springs made Dan feel that his game had made the most progress in recent memory, probably because of the increased frequency for Bruce to “have eyes” on Dan.

Several months ago I heard Nick Faldo being interviewed on the Golf Channel by David Feherty. I’m particularly interested in Faldo since I met and spoke with him in 2008, prior to learning about The Dan Plan. In the interview with Feherty, Faldo was sketching out his early years in golf and mentioned that he had never touched a golf club until, just short of 14 years old, he was inspired by watching Jack Nicklaus in the 1971 Masters. Six years later he was the youngest player to appear in the Ryder Cup. I purchased Faldo’s autobiography since such amazing progress needed investigation. I read that after Faldo took up golf, little more than a year later he had a 5 handicap and was practicing every moment he was out of school. At 16 he left his high school and practiced full time. At 18, four years from never playing golf, Faldo won the English Amateur Champion.

Let’s analyze Faldo’s path – if we assume that during the 2 years Faldo was in high school, he was practicing 1000 hours a year, and once he left school, he explains that (British weather cooperating) he would practice for about 9 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. During that time he was an occasional carpet fitter, so we have to subtract a few hours for the days he was lugging carpets around, but it seems likely he might have practiced 2500 hours a year between 16 and 18 years old. After 4 and a half years, Faldo turned professional at 19 with maybe 8000 hours of logged practice and play. In his first year on the European tour, he finished 8th on the European Order of Merit, probably around the 10,000 hour mark.

So Dan’s 10,000 goal can be achieved, since Faldo has already done it, although Faldo had some advantages. The first was Faldo’s dedication to honing his skills – such deliberate practice was uncommon, even among professionals, so perhaps he had easier competition than a young player would face today. The second, and perhaps most important advantage was that he was under the daily care of the Club Professional at the club where he practiced. Of Ian Connelly, Faldo said, “I could not have had better care because it is my continuing belief that few, if any, teaching professionals in the world can compare with Ian Connelly in the art of nurturing young talent. He became my biggest fan and my sternest critic.” Faldo had “a professional” guiding him. In contrast, Dan is being guided by an amateur golfer with 3 years experience – himself. This is one of the biggest weaknesses of the program – Dan should not be advising Dan.

Dan’s coach, Bruce, does help with his swing and gives tips during their lessons, and I try to help with goals and strategy, but Dan needs more. He has to add someone to his team to be prescriptive in every aspect of his program, from what Dan should be practicing, swing analysis, how to practice, how long to practice, what he should be expected to achieve. Ideally this person would have already achieved success at the highest level, or been the coach of players that have had significant success, and not be shy on giving advice! The best scenario would be that Dan and this person should be co-located (Dan would be the one to re-locate!), so that they can have daily interactions to study development of swing, skills, course management, and game strategy. Perhaps Dan could be an assistant pro or, as somebody commented on the blog, join a University golf program. If there is a golf facility, University, or Golf Pro out there who is interested, please contact Dan. The solution is out there and I encourage qualified individuals to step up and volunteer to help this important experiment. What Dan is endeavoring to achieve is truly amazing, and the fact that he has been doing it with minimal substantive help, is both remarkable and unusual.

And if Nick Faldo is reading and feels inclined to help, Nick, we hope to hear from you soon!

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.

You may have heard executives bemoaning that their projects would have gone better if they hadn’t been unlucky; “…And then the contracts took much longer to finalize, and then we had to raise additional capital, and then we lost the chief strategist, I mean, who could have foreseen that!” But being truthful, these are completely typical of corporate project. The executive that deludes himself otherwise is not taking responsibility. (Unfortunately I see a lot of them…)

There may be many reasons why a golfer scored poorly; a lost or water ball, he caught the ball a bit fat, grass was wet, lost concentration, wasn’t committed to the shot. All are common but shouldn’t be used as excuses unless the reason would not normally be experienced on a golf course. When your playing partner goes psycho, throws you into the lake, steals your clubs, forcing you to complete the round with the only clubs available, those of a 12 year old girl, then that’s an acceptable excuse! A sudden breeze, a bobbling ball on a green, or a ball that hits the last branch of the tree – All part of golf, and your score.

Dan is not the first golfer I have teamed with and the lesson learned from those earlier golfers is, “The score is what it is”. There can be no reasoning that the score is not a true representation, and but for a few lucky breaks, a “truer” score would have been posted.

Dan has averaged 81 over the tournament. The target for 4000 hours was 77. 82 was the target for the average score at 3000 hours. We can hope that Dan is a bit better than the score reflects but we can’t plan for that. So far the program has been mostly working on the ethos, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” There has been constant improvement and refinement but it wasn’t necessary to transform anything. So now we have to come up with a way to approach practice that will yield better results. Trying to squeeze greater performance from a fairly sophisticated program will not be easy. Dan is now working with the team to develop the ideas on how accelerate improvement. The most obvious issue is the one highlighted by Dan during his most recent tournament, that he hasn’t a driver and three wood that he is happy with, and the remedy hopefully lies at the Titleist facility in California. At the same time, his practice off the tee sorely needs attention, something he will work extensively over the next two weeks. In addition, his GIR has been poor even on his better days with the driver, so both long and mid ball both need attention.

I was tempted to say that we have to plan the transformation from 81 to a catch-up number of 76 by 4400 hours.  However, one maxim from running such programs is to not set yourself for failure before you start. To find 5 strokes in 400 hours -that is a tall order, and there is no evidence that it is possible, so the first thing is to see what is possible. We need to see how much Dan can improve in 200 hours when he has had to pivot to the weakest parts of his game, measure and then work out what needs to be the strategy based on those results. Whatever we need to do, we need to do it quickly. There are very few scenarios where Dan can make it to the PGA Tour if he can’t hit the metrics.

Even if Dan was to go into his next tournament in mid-April and shoot an average 77, would that mean all was fine and to stop planning and fixing, or average his 81 with the new 77 and come up with 79, still 2 strokes short of the 77 target. I think the latter. His last three rounds have been a bit better, averaging 79.3, but taken over the last 10 rounds (which is what we should be measuring) it is 81.7.

We welcome the ideas, both current and historical, from the community. All comments are read, and all advice is considered. For instance, the “Kickstarter” idea mentioned is of course how we should have approached the funding for the golf clinic. I myself think that the answer isn’t with the Golf 54 ladies – I read about other golfers going there and having a great time and becoming more energized and confident, but it hasn’t transformed their game. What does work is continuing work grooving the swing, while focusing on your weakest areas. The whole ethos of the 10,000 hours approach is that there are no short cuts, just the discipline of hard work. There is nothing that gives you more confidence than being able to strike the ball beautifully.

Unsolicited, three days ago Stuart emailed me a guest blog piece encouraging followers to reach out and help.  I thought about whether or not to post it for a couple of days and have decided that it’s best to let Stuart say what he has to say.  All of the support to date has been amazing and kept the project floating and I truly appreciate everything.  This is a team effort and I am lucky to have such an awesome one pushing me along.

Stuart has helped keep me on track in all of my goals and now is trying to get me back on line with my financial goals.  I appreciate everything he does as well as all of the readers out there.  The third anniversary of The Dan Plan is approaching, as is tournament season, and it’s going to be a great year.  Stay tuned for a lot of exciting stuff in 2013!

“””When Dan canvassed the community for what they would like additional detail on, there seemed to be two main themes: more video and more information about finances.

As part of the process of running The Dan Plan as a program, it means we get to make sure that all aspects of this journey are adequately monitored. In one of the first meetings I had with Dan I asked not just about his golfing progress but also fitness, mental strength, and finances. Regarding finances, it turns out Dan is a cheap date! He doesn’t need much but he does need some assistance to fund the long term stability of The Dan Plan.

Right now, there seems to be three avenues for funding this remarkable experiment.

• Direct donation
• Corporate sponsorship
• Speaking engagements

There may be other avenues to follow but these seem the three that best align with the overall aim of the program. That’s not to say that if “Dancing With The Stars” came calling, I’m guessing Dan might consider it!

Firstly, donations – There is a “Donate” button on the website where people can directly fund The Dan Plan. While you may think a $50 donation may not be great, this is a sizable funding help, especially if enough people were to contribute. $50 would almost fund the program for a day.

Corporate sponsorship – Dan is already in discussions with companies that might fund the program. Some companies have given equipment and support, but there has been little progress in direct funding.

Speaking Engagements – This can be quite lucrative. Ten years ago when I was consulting at a company they would get in “motivational speakers” through an agency that had a lot of interesting (though not necessarily famous) speakers on their books. I believe the lowest cost was about $7000 per engagement. The lower level workers got one of these speakers. However, the VPs and above got Lew Holtz, the former college football coach to raise their spirits. Holtz cost 10 times as much!

When you are looking for a job, the most important advice you will be (repeatedly) told is “Use your network”. The Network is incredibly powerful since it multiplies your effort out through so many channels. Now that I am trying to broaden the financial support for Dan’s journey, I’d like to ask this network for some help.  I would like to ask the community to think if there are opportunities that they can assist in getting “The Dan Plan” Corporate sponsorship or a Speaking engagement. I’ve tried myself; I know my old client has an annual sales kickoff to about 500 people and they always get in a keynote speaker to gin up the troops. They usually look for something a bit original (2012 was an artist that put on a good show) but this year they fell back on a fairly pedestrian choice. I think it is just hard to continually come up with an interesting speaker. That is where Dan comes in!  As we know, his story is interesting, motivational, and intriguing because it is still happening. I’ve asked this company to consider Dan for the 2014 Sales Kickoff. May happen, may not, and is why we need the network to provide as many opportunities as possible and hope that some will come to fruition.

I feel we are all passengers on this remarkable journey, and if we could extend ourselves for Dan, it will be enormously helpful in seeing this program go the distance. Please reach out to any corporate contacts that you know that might be interested in having Dan speak about the journey so far, the ethos of hard work, and the life lessons the Plan has taught him. Regarding corporate sponsorship, Dan’s story is only going to get bigger so getting in now might be a good tactical decision.  Perhaps sponsorship would include Dan coming to the company and doing some demo or clinic.

In fact, as I was writing this blog post I wondered how I could do more to advance the reach (and thereby finances) of The Dan Plan, so I just submitted Dan’s name to be a TED speaker! (TED is the globally famous organization that showcases the most interesting and innovative individuals that are out there.)

I hope “The Dan Army” gets some hits and Dan will be journeying to your company soon. Good luck!

Stuart”””

I started reading Dan’s blog after a friend forwarded me the link. My friend knew I had worked with another professional golfer and would be interested in Dan’s story. Dan was still early on his journey (perhaps short of 2000 hours) but I immediately was impressed by the idea and hoped for its success. But as a performance consultant, I knew that hoping would not be enough and that I should check with Dan to see if he had someone helping him map his strategy, and goals and actions to deliver on the strategy. I vacillated for a while but about 3000 hours into Dan’s journey, I wrote him a note:

“Dan – I’m a performance manager in Corporate and I’ve been following you for a year or so. I’m a believer in the 10,000 hour idea so I hope you prove it. I’ve been debating whether I should contact you but have decided to at least send you this email. I’ve been wondering about your goals and planning. I know you have some because you mention them, so I hope you have broad goals written down for the next 7000 hours, all of which are tied to metrics. You have a final goal of playing on a PGA event, so all the goals would be mapped on that trajectory, but what does that mean for where you have to be at 8000 and 9000? (and 7500, 8500 and 9500!)”

I went on to say the specific type of help I might deliver, and happily, Dan was enthusiastic about discussing these issues, so we talked a few times and mapped out some broad goals and metrics for the future of the plan. We now talk regularly as we examine progress and determine the transformational actions needed for Dan to be ultimately successful.

The approach is based on getting as much data as can be gathered and then analyzing for weaknesses in key areas, whether that be mental, physical, financial, or golf skills. For instance, in the area of skills, Dan worked to improve his metric collection on such statistics as GIR (Greens in regulation), Driving distance, Driving accuracy, Putts per round, Putts per GIR, etc. For each skill we looked at what benchmark was set by an average PGA player, and made that the objective, and set a trajectory towards that metric. The premise is that if Dan met these benchmarks, he would eventually become a player with the skills of a regular PGA professional.

One example might be GIR, the single greatest (statistical) predictor of the final score on a round. In 2012 Justin Rose had the highest GIR percentage on tour at 70.34. The PGA professional 75^th on the ranking had a GIR of 66. This should be the target for Dan at about the 7000 hour mark. His goal for 4000 hours was 55%, and he has already reached it. The key to all this monitoring is that as long as Dan is tracking in line with the progress set out in advance, nothing needs to be done except keep on doing what he’s doing. There only needs to be an intervention when the stat is missed and then a clear strategy has to be formulated on how to reach the goal. While we know that this alone will not make Dan a regular player on the PGA Tour, it is just one area that we look at. On other entries in the blog, we can share more on the program.

Dan is an avid participant in the examination of all aspects of his game – he needs to be! I suspect that many of the professional golfers on tour have nowhere near as sophisticated a program as Dan has, and that will be why he will likely succeed. I’ve heard professional golfers confess to being perplexed to why their game has declined. I’m guessing if they entered into such a program, the cause of their woes would become fairly clear, and the resolution not far behind.

I’ll finish with the ultimate performance metric that was mapped for Dan for the next 7000 hours.

Dan’s progress is such that you have to benchmark on the most immediate metrics, since the man he was 3 months before bears no resemblance to the quality of the player in the present.  This means that the sampling size is smaller than would be ideal, but over the last 10 rounds, Dan currently is in line with the above goals. His average score, even in the worst of seasonal conditions, is 77, and he is still 300 hours away from the 4000 hour gate.

A program like Dan’s has never been attempted before so the goals are an educated guess, and while they may need modified slightly, we think will probably prove to be broadly in line with the ultimate goal of The Dan Plan. Steven Levitt, the “Freakonomics” economist that is monitoring Dan’s progress said at 2500 hours: “He is an 11 handicap, which means he is about 15-16 strokes per round away from being good enough for the PGA tour. That means he has to shave off about one stroke for every 500 hours of practice from here on out.  I suspect he can keep that rate of improvement for the next few thousand hours, but it will be a tough haul after that.”

We agree, so have a steeper rate of progress during the early years, and the stroke improvement tapering to one stoke less in every 1000 hours at the end of the Plan.

I’d be interested to hear some comments on the approach and the goals so please post your feedback in the comments section. Dan has asked me to regularly share with the community on efforts in this area so we will publish additional information in future blog posts.

Cheers,  Stuart.