And maybe take you up on the offer to chart my progress if it gets ‘interesting’ – like the lengths you’ve gone to with Dan’s.

Thing is I’m just setting out on my ‘plan’ but it was a few years in the planning hence starting at about the same time as Dan. But I couldn’t start right away as I had to:

- Get the finances sorted, this had to be in place before starting as I’m ‘counting’ on sponsorship after I prove myself at ‘mini’ tour level (in fact I kind of have a sponsor lined up in the unlikely event I get there….) but not before.
- Had one off lessons with literally 7 pros before I found I had to go to our national accademy to get the level of instruction I feel I’ll need (not necessarily a ‘slight’ on their instruction, maybe more the fact I just needed a pro who instructed players at the level I want to get to and one who I totally ‘clicked’ with)
- Needed to put the facilities in place hence the GC2 swing studio with video (face on and down the line) at home due to the weather we have here and the advantage the kit gives me.
- Getting used to competion, I’m playing in my club’s A squad this coming year so I’ll be playing matchplay matches against other club’s players regularly. It’s early days as I only really just got my initial handicap (3.5 USGA equivalent – I strike the ball pretty well, now I seriously need to learn how to score!)
- Lastly needed to be playing with players I can learn from and to that end have made a deal with a local young tour pro that she can use my GC2 and swing studio and in return we can practice together and go for practice rounds together – in fairness she said she ends up practicing alone a lot and so do I, so we may as well be keeping each other company in the drizzle when sensible golfers are inside. Her boyfriend is in the country next week, he’s also a tour pro having turned pro a couple of years ago off about plus 6 USGA equivalent, and she’s sugested we all go out for a round or 2 which I’ve agreed to as long as we play matchplay (no handicaps, obviously). I’ll get blown away (in a way I hope I do) but at least I’ll know what I’m aiming at.

Anyway, that’s my ‘plan’ and it’s only really just starting. While some may say “But that’s just unrealistic, not everyone can put that in place!” I’d say that I think that putting these aspects in place are ESSENTIAL for any plan like this to succeed (Finances, the right coach (not teaching pro – ‘coach’ we talk about fitness, mental game, golfing ‘life’….. as he teaches me how to swing the club), the right facilities, learning to perform under ‘pressure’, players to learn from and drive you forward. Yes, it may be ‘unrealistic’ to put in place what I have……. but then again if you want it enough you’ll find a way.

I don’t actually think Dan is doing a bad job and I think some forget he’s only a tad over half way through his 10,000 hours, half way through his plan, but I do think he could use a few ‘tweeks’ to get things moving again. Hope he doesn’t mind me saying but Dan and I are in contact off the forums/blogs reasonably often and we’re sharing ideas as to what we find helps us and what really doesn’t. I actually think he’s now putting a lot of what I’m talking about in place (Flightscope, more competitions which, to a certain extent, links with playing with better players, coaching (will let Dan add to that point if he chooses )…….. I think people who say his progess has stalled will hopefully find that by shoe horning in a few of these aspects into his plan at this point he can get things moving in the right direction. I fact I’m sure of it.

Anyway, Randall, stay in touch – I may be needing your graphing abilities in the future. I’ll be pretty easy – I’m a Cat 1 golfer in the UK so only rounds shot in competition count

Regarding the putting drills the simple answer is that 9 feet is how long my putting mat is. I don’t use it for want of a handy putting green, in those drills I don’t want break or a ‘blemish’ or bump on the green to come into the equation so I putt on a mat – if the putt is struck straight I want the ball to go in the hole. I’m not trying to read a putt, I’m practicing the stroke and trying to put a bit of ‘pressure’ into it by having to start again if I miss one. But I also putt pretty much daily for an hour or so on an actual putting green where I practice lag putting as well as medium length putts etc. I’m assuming Dan does something similar – you’re never ‘good enough’ at putting!

I’m curious, since you have had a problem with a low ball flight, have you considered just going to a higher lofted driver?

You could also hit up on it a little more, as others have suggested, but if that adjustment is at all difficult, it’s really only slightly better than just using a more lofted head, anyway.

I’m thinking you might actually do best for now with something like a 12 degree 43″ driver, and just focus on hitting it square with the sweet spot (which is likely a bit high and towards the toe).

It just snowed last night into this morning, so I am still waiting for spring to go out and hit some golf balls, and to take some videos of my current swing that is now based on formulas.

If you are really curious, and interested in golf-science, the book “Search for the Perfect Swing” is a great starting point for the “formal” study of golf-science. It should be available from large libraries, as it is a classic of the golf-science genre. The original hard covered edition is a large format book published in the 1960′s by UK authors, who made a lot of statistical measurements, and high-speed photo’s and films of top level golfers in GB. It is an old book, so that many new findings and development have been made since.

No, they did not find the perfect swing, as you said that there is no such a thing, but they did showed that science can be practically used to improve the golf shot. The biggest influence on golf the book made is the proposal for perimeter weighting of the clubhead by using the physics Law of the Conservation of Angular Momentum in reverse, so to speak. By soldering extra weights behind both ends of the putter head, and other clubheads, they showed that the clubhead will twist less when off-center hits are made. This proposal by the book resulted in the craze of perimeter weighted golf clubs. Eventually, tennis rackets become perimeter weighted with tennis racket heads growing ever larger, which in return started the craze of giant-sized golf driver-heads.

The book lays outs the categories of approach to golf-science: using technical analysis to find out what makes the champions swing great, to show what occurs when the clubface contacts the ball, to gather setup, swing, and putting statistical data of top level golfers, and on improving club design.

The scientific formulas do work in a practical swing, when scientific formulas are properly tailored for the golf swing (including putting,) and when the formulas are applied to the swing correctly. For example, setting up with the arms, hands, and club closer to the body during the setup will significantly increase the downswing speed without needing any extra energy, nor any additional muscular force according to physics law of the conservation of angular momentum. According to the book by Ken Venturi (US Open winner, and long time US golf announcer on television,) he said Byron Nelson said that one cannot stand too close to the ball. Venturi wrote that most golfers stand too far from the ball. The physics law of the conservation of angular momentum can be used to support and explain why Venturi said what he said about not standing too far from the ball.

Many top most golfing champions have written extensive books and articles on golfing techniques they used to achieve golfing greatness (excepting for Sarazen.) It is not completely clear how these work, as often these swing descriptions contradict each other like some use close stances while other champions use open stances, some use weak grips, while others use strong grips, some stand very close to the ball, while others don’t, and so forth.

One way to make sense of the variations is to select the champions with similar build for use as instructional models. I guess one could select a champion who has a similar build as oneself to be a couch, unless such coaches can understand the needs of students with different builds. One could select a champion with similar mental approach to golf as oneself like a technically minded person may select Bobby Jones for instructional study. Jones said that he had seen tour golfers try to hit the ball in an impossible way. I guess it is like to swing up at the ball more, when a shut-faced driver is hitting the ball too low, when in reality swing up with a shut-face will encourage an even lower diving shot. In your case, you select multiple coaches: one for the long game, and another for the short game. And a third kind of coach of the swing simulator/analyzer machine for daily monitoring of the swing.

BTW, I am curious why daily practicing of putting is limited to no more than 9 feet putts, and not continuing with putting practice of 15, 20 and 25 feet putts. A player who can pour in a lot of the medium and long range putts, and who can hit other clubs long and true will leapfrog over a lot of the other top players. There are a lot of players who can hit long and even true in this world, but there are a lot fewer players who can hit long, true, and pour in a lot of medium and long range putts. The ideal (perfect?) swing(s) will hit long, true, pour in putts long and short, and get on par-fives in two, and be able to handle all kinds of winds in a repeating and consistent manner. This is the perfect swing.

Some have posted that it takes years to develop this level of swing, and to learn and to understand what such a swing is like. I don’t think the golf swing is that complicated, but it is not that simple either, as many aspects of the golf swing are counter to common sense. I think a great golf swing can be developed a lot faster, specially when golf-science is applied. I have seen in one case a hacker with a terrible swing developed a top level swing in less than ten minutes, when instructions based on practical golf-science were given to bring out the fair amounts of his natural abilities. In your case, it appears you are able to develop in a fairly short time a very effective swing by the daily use of an advanced golf simulator/analyzer installed at home, and by having two top level coaches, coupled with a fair degree of athleticism.

In regard to equipment I believe that yes winter is the time to tweak and try but here I also think this should be done with the best clubfitter that you can find and not by yourself with only limted options concerning shafts and heads.

Good luck Dan.

Manfred

Hey, I resemble that remark. Good to see you here, nosevi I can chart your progress too, mate!

I was really looking to see your swing as, like I said, when it comes to a golf swing it’s one thing to know the formulae, it’s a totally different thing to put them into practice. I wanted to know if you could put it into practice. What I mean is there doubtless is a formula for the perfect golf swing…….. but that’s assuming the perfect golfer is holding the club and as far as I know the perfect golfer doesn’t exist, unless you are that man?

Put another way, think of any aspect of the swing – stance, alignment, grip, length of swing, swing plane, tempo, anything you like. Now give me what the ‘book’ says you should do (and I’m sure you can ). I’ll tell you a golfer who is better than you, me, Dan or probably anyone else reading this blog who does it totally differently to what the ‘book’ says.

While knowing what the book says is interesting (to me at least) it’s really, truthfully and honestly not what Dan needs in order to move forwards. He needs to be working with someone who knows golf. And I don’t mean someone who knows golf like me or Dan know golf as relative ‘newbies’ to the sport, I don’t even mean the local pro down at the range, and I don’t mean knowing the ‘book’ answer for the perfect golf swing. I mean someone who coaches at a seriously high level.

I was at my club earlier today and my short game coach was out with one of his other ‘studes’ for an on course playing lesson. She plays on tour – I watched them for a few holes and it showed. Dan needs to take the plunge and find someone who is capable of coaching at that level. Swing wise that could be achieved ‘remotely’ ie via video and wouldn’t cost the earth but he needs to do it if he wants this plan to have any chance of some form of success (and personally I’d say playing successfully at web.com tour level would be a success).

I keep an eye on a particular thread about the Dan plan on a particular forum (if only to smile at Shorty’s comments – classic avatar, it’s just perfect! ) and someone with more time and patience than me has charted every single round Dan has posted to his GHIN, in his blog, on Golfshots etc. The graph shows the average score he is shooting today is exactly the same as 18 months ago. I’ll put it another way – progress towards his goal is not being made and hasn’t been for a year and a half. Unlike Shorty I don’t think it’s through lack of effort and I don’t actually think it’s through lack of ability. My thoughts are that the effort Dan is putting in is not being channeled in the right directions.

Now some of this may make it appear that I’m in some way trying to put Dan down or say he can’t make progress towards his goal. That’s simply not true. In fact I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to convince Dan to change a few things and have in fact invested a small amount of my own money to try to help that happen (if Dan wants to say how that’s fine but I’m not going to). I want Dan to succeed. Why? Simple – to show it can be done.

Last thing I think I should say and I seriously hope Dan reads it. I had a conversation with Dan where I tried to convince him to concentrate more on the golf, less on the blog (sorry to followers but it’s what he needs to do). It was a ‘throw away’ comment but Dan told me that what separates him from others who have tried is the blog. He was wrong, totally and utterly wrong. What would separate him, the only thing that would separate him, would be if he succeeds. If he fails the blog and the whole experiment is essentially pointless, entertaining but pointless – it proves absolutely nothing. ‘Guy sets out to show that through determination and hard work anything can be achieved…….. and fails.’ What would anyone learn from that, how would they be inspired?

Big year for both of us Dan – make it count, mate.

p.s. Get a good coach (just thought I’d add that in case I wasn’t clear previously.)