Hard stats

The next level of data collection is going to arrive on my doorstep this Thursday.

It’s beyond the next level, actually, it’s the big bad momma of statistical analysis; the best data collection system out there and I am super excited to begin working with it.

A TrackMan is coming.  What is it?  It’s a doppler radar based 3D ball monitoring system that looks like this:

And how does it work/what will it add to The Dan Plan?

As Stanford University Head Golf Coach Conrad Ray puts it, “in golf, it’s pretty easy to be good but tough to be great.  TrackMan helps you improve what really matters: tangible numbers, no guesswork, improving your awareness.”

That kind of sums up how I feel about this machine.  It’s going to take a lot of guess work out of my swing by allowing me to see exactly what is going on with both the golf ball and club; and not just at impact, but from the approach of the golf club all the way until the ball stops rolling.  When you are out on the range working by yourself it’s often hard to know exactly what is going on when you switch up something in your swing.  There is a ton of information that can be understood via watching the ball flight and by feeling the contact, but sometimes that is just not enough and when you spend as much time as I do making small adjustments to your swing it’s imperative to have as much knowledge as possible about what is going on.  TrackMan will provide this.

Once it is up and running and I figure out exactly how to utilize TrackMan as best as possible, the plan is to have a new section on The Dan Plan where I post my current TrackMan Combine score.  The combine consists of 60 shots hit to selected distances.  The TrackMan scores each shot on a scale of 0-100 based on the accuracy.  What’s cool is that the shots aren’t just distances, but it will also ask you to hit fades and draws, so it really demands that you step up and perform.  I can actually compare my scores with Tour Players too, so it’s another way for me to measure my current game and to see where strengths and weaknesses may lie.

Not only will I be able to notice minute changes in my swing and ball flight, be able to compete with anyone in the world via the Combine, and be able to see where my strengths/weaknesses are distance and shot-shape wise, but I will also be able to provide researchers with concrete data as to how my game changes with practice.  K. Anders Ericsson was particularly interested in me utilizing a TrackMan.  Here is an email he sent to the company:

       “””I am a professor at Florida State University and have been studying expert performance in many domains for over 30 years. We have been working with Dan McLaughlin (Dan Plan) from the beginning of his quest to become a professional golfer. Dan contacted me after reading some of my work on deliberate practice and expert performance, and we discussed what might be necessary for him to reach his goal. From an academic perspective, we are most interested in analyzing Dan’s progress and integrating it with the theoretical aspects of expert performance in golf and other domains.

 In order to measure his progress, we are trying to gather as much relevant data as possible to analyze the incremental effects of his practice activities. Dan has provided us with some of the measures that he obtained from the Trackman® measurement system, which as you know, is an excellent tool for measuring his longitudinal progress in golf.

 I’’d like to endorse Dan’s request to have a Trackman® system at his disposal for the remainder of his experiment in golf skill development project. Given the ability to objectively gauge his progress with real and accurate data, Dan and his coach will be able to better determine the steps needed to continue to make maximum use of deliberate practice methods in advancing his golfing performance.

Whether Dan succeeds in reaching a professional performance capability or not, the attempt is both an interesting scientific project and an intriguing human interest story. The data would be an excellent basis for Trackman’s® product evaluation and eventual public promotion, while also providing valuable information for the evaluation of expert performance development.

I appreciate your consideration.

Yours very truly,

K. Anders Ericsson, Ph.D. 

 Conradi Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology”””

For more information on TrackMan please visit:  http://trackman.dk

It will be up and running by the weekend and I hope to post my first Combine score by early next week.  Anyone anywhere can now directly compete with me…  This is going to be fun.