Heading to Tallahassee
Today was the last practice before heading up to Tallahassee to attend and present at FSU’s SPEAR conference. I’m much more excited about hearing what everyone else there has to say than presenting myself, but at the same time it is a good opportunity to collect my thoughts and share exactly what The Dan Plan means to me.
So, I went out and put in 4 solid hours, that actually took about 5.5 due to some events that I’ll talk about in a second, and then hit the gym before coming back to the condo to gather my thoughts and pack up for the trip tomorrow.
The day started with meeting a fellow hard-core practicer, Juan, out at Mangrove Bay. He’s been on a mission to improve his game for the past five years since retirement and is quite an accomplished putter, as well as golfer. We chatted a bit about similarities and differences in how we keep track of our progress and he shared a few tips and games with me and then a photographer from the St Petersburg Times came out to snap a few photos.
He shot some images while I used the pitching area as well as when I headed over to the putting green. It was pretty funny being on the other side of the lens. For those of you who don’t know, I was a newspaper photographer for about 2 years back in 2004, so I’ve definitely spent lots of time behind the camera, but this was my first time being in front of it. It was fun.
Afterwords, I went back to putting and Juan noticed that my putter face was a bit closed, something that I’ve worked on for a while, but I guess it’s still an issue. When I get back to Portland I’ll have to have a good putting lesson/ fitting with Christopher, perhaps we will hit the SAM putting lab and see exactly what is going on. I think it helps when I align the putter not with the front face, but rather with the back of the club. It’s something to work on. There will always be something to work on, that’s golf for you.
Below is a link to this weekend’s conference in case you want to see who is speaking. I am leaving early tomorrow and plan on making it right before Dr. K Anders Ericsson’s talk. I’m definitely looking forward to hearing him speak and meeting him, and Dr. Len Hill, in person.
It will be my first time speaking in public, as well as the first time I’ve explained to a group of people “what is The Dan Plan.” I’m a bit interested in how I’m going to respond and what I’ll say..