Here is the physical state of The Dan Plan as taken on January 1, 2013:

Dan Plan: Physical Performance Statistics

Along with these tests, Shawn performed a Titleist Functional Screening which helps identify any potential physical limitations in my swing as well pinpoint areas that could contribute to painful movement.  Here are the results of that screening:

Titleist Functional Screen:

Findings:  limited lat., upper thoracic, and shoulder mobility.

That sums up the state of my physical condition both strength wise and mobility wise.  It will be interesting to see where these numbers are at come mid Spring after a full series of workouts.

For more info about Shawn Dailey and his clinic please visit: http://www.therapeuticassociates.com/locations/oregon/portlandvancouver/lake-oswego/lofitt/

Dan asked me this question several weeks ago and we have been working on a lot of golf relevant exercises and drills to help him work towards reaching PGA level swing speeds.  Dan is like most golfers who are addicted to the sport so he reads a lot and watches a lot of Golf Channel.  This is great but there is a lot of confusing information and even more conflicting opinions out there.  I kept my answer as simple as I know how:

Dan, to increase swing speed you have to:

1.       Have an efficient and consistent swing. (most important)

a. How do I know if my swing is efficient?…  3-D testing is objective and not someone’s opinion so I prefer it.

b. Work with a Golf Pro on your swing… this is what they devote their lives to!

2.       Know what your bodies strengths, weakness, and restrictions are!  No two bodies are alike and our bodies change as we age.  We don’t all look like Dustin Johnson or have Rory’s swing.

3.       Golf Physics: Swing Speed  =  Rotational Velocity  (yes… that is different than linear velocity)

a.  Power = (force x distance) / time.    Force = Mass x acceleration,   Speed = Distance/time,  Mass = Golf club,  Acceleration = ability to move golf club quickly, Distance= Swing arch length (top to bottom), Speed =  time it takes to move the club rotationally from top of the back swing to impact.

b.  SO…  If we can increase Dan’s Power we should be able to increase his swing speed since the Mass (golf club) stays the same!!!

4.        Dan’s Power Plan:  Olympic Lifts, strength lifting/training, plyometrics/neural training, rotational speed/strength, core stability/endurance, functional golf drills, dynamic warm up, dynamic recovery (including nutrition as prescribed by an RD) and corrective activities/exercises.

While working on increasing Dan’s power we must keep in mind that Dan’s body is unique so we need to provide a program that is tailored to helping his body become more powerful in a safe way that also addresses some swing faults or potential injuries while making sure he can do the power based exercises with correct form and functional exercises that relates to golf/his body.  We do this by TESTING his body first then laying out a plan…  “Dan’s Power Plan”.

Dan’s Power Plan is a comprehensive off season performance driven strength and conditioning program that is Golf Relevant.  That is a mouth full!  It is important to note that his program is golf relevant so it is different than what a different athlete would do and is tailored to his physical and swing needs.  We have 8-10 weeks to make Dan more powerful.

For more info about Shawn, please check out his site here:  http://www.therapeuticassociates.com/locations/oregon/portlandvancouver/lake-oswego/lofitt/

Out of curiosity, as I typed that last sentence I was wondering how many days I have been on The Dan Plan, so I added it up and today is exactly the 1,000th day.  What a funny coincidence that is.  And what an interesting milestone.

That’s great!  One thousand days in the right direction.  3,714 training hours over that time span, which averages to 3 hours 43 minutes per day working solely on golf specific improvement.  That doesn’t take anything else into account, just the time that I have put in specifically and deliberately working with a golf club/ball.  I’m pretty proud of that number.  Considering it’s averaged over 1,000 days I think 3.714 hours a day is pretty darn good.  Dr. K Anders Ericsson says you maximize the amount you can learn/absorb with about 4 hours of deliberate practice a day.  I’m going at a good pace.

And, everything still seems so fresh and new.  Just today I was thinking that right now is a huge transition in the project and that I honestly feel that it all starts (for real) today.  There was a massive learning curve obtaining a minimum level of skills necessary to make it to the next level and I think that phase has completed.  That’s not to say that I am a pro, by any means, but that my knowledge of the skill set that I am acquiring has morphed from non-existent to competent over the past 999 days.  It has taken a lot of time and plenty of trials, efforts and failures, but I am ready to enter the next stage of the learning process.  Now is the time to take the broad ideas that I have learned to date and focus them into fine tuning my swing and game.

Today is a birth; a new beginning; the next chapter in The Dan Plan.

Also, the team that I have been working with is starting to really come together.  Today I went for a full physical assessment screening with PT Shawn Dailey to get a new set of baseline physical data that we are then going to improve upon with a rigorous workout schedule over the next 8 weeks.  What we did was similar to the TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) screening and there will be more on that, including my numbers, as soon as he processes everything and fine tunes the workouts.  The winter is a great time to build strength and I’m excited to be on the brink of an 7-8 week program with Shawn.

On the swing side, I have been working with Michael Pinkey at TrackMan to learn how to best use the awesome machine and to know which stats need the most attention first.  Along with the help of Dr. K Anders Ericsson, we are going to take one data point at a time and systematically build a better swing that we can then demonstrate the on-course affect of making such changes.

To start, I am working on improving my attack angle to club path ratio.  Currently, I am all over the board with these numbers.  The best ball strikers have roughly a 3:1 ratio with the wedge, 2:1 with mid-irons and 1:1 with the driver.  That means that for a wedge, por ejemplo, your attack angle could be -4.5 and club path 1.5.  Once you get this ratio down the physics of the swing will all be in line and it will produce an easily repeatable swing.

I spent 1,000 days building a swing and learning about the game.  The next 1,000 days will be dedicated to fine tuning and learning to win and today is the first day of that next chapter.

Does that seem like a long time?  What else could you do in 1,000 days?

Also, I am curious as to what people want to know more about in these blogs.  More golf talk? More about finances? More off-course stuff including my life with Mary and the kids?  Less of anything?  Let me know and I’d love to write about it.  The best focus group is the audience

This isn’t always the easiest thing to do in golf.  The sport is pretty unique in that it requires an explosive physical effort followed by a few minutes of down time and then another split-second mass exertion.  It’s no wonder that almost every pro lives in a warm climate region.

Practicing through the winter brings some inherent dangers with it, but if you make sure you warm up and stay warm this shouldn’t be a problem.  That said, I came as close as I have to being truly injured for the first time this past week.  I’m not exactly sure what happened, but when I was working on the range Saturday I felt something odd in my left hip in the middle of a downswing.  After that swing it didn’t want to move normally so I went to work on some putting.  But, while carrying my bag to the putting green I could feel my hip twinge with every step.

Sunday morning it felt worse and ached when I sat down, stood up, walked or did just about anything.  I reached out to chiropractor Dr. Seth Alley that evening and scheduled an appointment with him on Monday.

Laying on his adjustment table, he could tell right away what had happened.  I had an anterior rotation of the right half of my pelvis which caused my right leg to be about 3/4 inch longer than the left, causing the discomfort.  This is a very common injury, especially in a sport like golf where one side of the body is used more than the other.  Seth adjusted me and then we talked about different ways to strengthen both sides of my body as well as ways to keep loose.  Here’s a short video of a couple stretches that will help warm up the hamstrings and psoas muscles (which basically embraces the side of the lumbar spine):

Today my lower back and hip still felt pretty tight, but as I stretched them out and the weather warmed up to about 39 (there was actually about an inch of snow this morning) things started to loosen up and feel better.  I think I got lucky this time and from now on I will be even more diligent in making sure that I not only warm up before practice, but make sure that my body is staying warm throughout my practice session.  It’s easy to take a 10 minute break and have your body completely cool off and then injure yourself with one big drive.  Stay warm, stay loose, stay injury free.

The road to 10,000 does not allow for lengths of downtime so I have to be extra careful through the winter to stay strong.

I also met with Physical Therapist Shawn Dailey this past Monday and we are planning out an entire new workout routine for 2013.  The first workout is scheduled for 9 AM January 1st.  Neither of us drink so we figure New Year’s day will be slow in his office and a good time for us to do some planning for the year.  It’s time to have a new workout routine and to amp up that aspect of The Dan Plan up.  Along with this, I will regularly post some videos of the workouts that we are doing instead of just typing them up for the site.  More to come about that soon.

PS.  What do you all think about the new blog format?  And, what about how the new comments look and function?

PPS. Stay connected to The Dan Plan by adding your email to the box on the right.  It will automatically send you an update with the latest blog entries once a week.  Thank you!

Please check out the new workout and give it a shot if you’re looking to improve your power!  The link is:  http://thedanplan.com/workout.php

With the risk of coming off a bit like a complainer: my body has hurt in just about every way possible over the past 13 months.  It comes in waves since the first week and I know what will happen now when a new part decides to take a turn in the carrousel of ache.  It starts with a sharp pain.  It’s usually a surprise and just comes on with no warning.   One day all is well, the next my left big toe will decide that it just feels like taking an “strike-cation”  (that’s an impromptu vacation for no specific reason).  Those last for a couple of days and generally get better as I warm up throughout the day.  After three or four days, it changes to a dull aching stiffness that needs to be well stretched and warmed up in the morning and evenings.  Then one morning, like the Australian houseguest that nobody really knew but stayed 10 days, it’s gone.  (was that a too detail-specific analogy?)  :)  This pattern repeats itself with a totally random body part ever month or so.  It’s one of the few things that I’ve come to count on since starting The Plan.

I really can’t blame the body part, I mean I’m honestly putting a good old-fashioned whooping on my body and everything needs a break here or there.  Since day one, these parts have gone on holiday at some point:  lower back, tendons on the bottom of the feet, both big toes, ankles, knees, right hip, upper back, right shoulder blade, right wrist, callus points on hands, hand and finger stiffness and the neck.  Outside of that, everything else has held up solidly.

Again, not complaining, it’s just a part of the shift from desk-jockey to regular exerciser; comes with the territory and I thought it was worth sharing.  When the body works through it’s initial shock of “what the heck are you doing to me!”, I think it’s ending up stronger and closer to the goal.

I started these workout with Shawn back in October and our plan is to continue like this until Spring where the course condition start to get better and I will be spending a LOT more time on the greens, at which point we will switch to “maintenance” workouts for the summer months.  For the record, I currently spend about 8 hours a week in the gym.

My challenge to you is: Follow this workout as best you can for 12 weeks, I PROMISE it will pay off and you will feel great for it!!

The Dan Plan weekly workouts: Winter to Spring, 2011

Developed by Shawn Dailey

Day 1 Functional Golf Strength

Day 2 Cardio (bike/elliptical/stair mill/ Run) x 45 min  (plyo Drills 2-3 sets) foam roll

Day 3 General Strength  (do 3 sets)

Day 4 Functional Golf Strength

Day 5 Cardio (bike/elliptical/stair mill or run) x 45 min  (plyo Drills 2-3 sets) foam roll

Day 6 Plyometrics 2-3 sets (one day during the weekend), Foam roll

Day 7 Off

Functional Golf Strength:

5 min warm-up on rowing machine

Dynamic Warm up:  Knee/ankle grab, two hand toe touch, lunch reach, lunge side-bend, Over/under hurdle, lunge pull arm across body, Lunge and point to sky

Exercises:

Heavy Medball throwing rotations against wall X 20 Forward (quickly)

X 20 Backward (over shoulder with straight arms)

Walking Medball Throw downs  X 20 forward

X 20 Backward

Ride rowing machine 2-min at moderate pace

Tri-plane Lunge w/ med ball x 5 each leg

Wave (with handles) x 5- 10 each side

Med ball X-touch against the wall x 10 each side

Ride rowing machine 2-min at moderate pace

Around the World 10LB Med ball circles on rocker board:

2-legs, around waist x 10 each direction (5-iron posture)

1-leg, around knees x 10 each direction (5 IP)

1-legs, around waist x 10 each direction (5IP)

10 LB Medball swing  (5-IP)  (use a golf ball for visualization)

20 each direction on 2 legs

15 each direction on each leg

Ride rowing machine 2 min

Single Leg Medball chest pass against a wall  X 20 each leg x each direction

Thrown one hand with crossed rotation

Throw two hands with hip external rotation

Band Exercises:

Single leg hip twist on one leg standing upright x 20 each direction/each leg

Single leg hip twist on two legs in 5-iron posture x 20 each direction

Shoulder/Core Stability:

Push Up Position: (hold onto 5lb weights with feet on rocker board or bosu)

Shoulder abduction X 10 each side (alternating)

Shoulder Flexion x 10 each side (alternating)

Shoulder External rotation x 10 (alternating )

Core:  Thera ball:

On back, marching (extend on leg at a time) x 20-30

Bridge with feet on ball x 20

Mt Climbers with elbows on ball x 20

Back on ball and torso twist x 20 each direction

Balance on hands/knees raise one arm x 10

Rope climb (on back) x 40

Plank with hip twist x 20-40

Red band around ankles with ball under torso:

Raise leg straight back x 20 each leg

Raise leg to side x 20 each leg

General Strength

5 min on rowing machine

Dynamic Warm up (see above)

Exercises:  Do 2-3 sets.

Elbow crushers (standing on rocker board) x 10-20

Biceps Curls (standing on rocker board) x 10-20

Squat w/ Shoulder Press (standing on rocker board) x 10-20

Triceps pull downs (on cables)  x 10-20

Lat Pull Down (on cables) x 10-20

Statue of liberty lunges x 20 each arm

Dead lift (2-legs) x 10

Bent over row (good posture) x 10-20 each leg

Single leg Dead lift X 10-15

Close grip Torso twist with cables x 10-20

Chop with cables x 10-20

Single arm cable row with torso twist X 10-20

Single arm cable punch w/twist X 10-20

Single Leg/ bent over/ hip twist x 10-20 each leg

Ankle Bands w/med ball:

Side step with a squat and push press X 10 each direction

Side Step with Dead lift x 10 each direction

Walking back wards with opposite torso twist X 20

Core:

Hip routine:  Straight Leg raises, lateral raises, and circles (see sheet)

Plyometrics:  ( do 2-3 rounds)  Doing three days per week.

• Straight throw downs with medicine ball 20 as fast as possible  Side to side as fast as possible x 20 with each leg forward.
• Squat Press Medicine ball Throws throws x 20
• 2-handed over head wall toss X 20 fast as possible
• Water bucket tosses 20 each direction
• R side wall throws x 20 as fast as possible
• Burpees x 20
• L  side wall throws x 20 as fast as possible

Dynamic stretch again

That’s it!