Five months before that incident I was invited to participate on Australia’s SBS Insight. It was late 2014 and at the time I was heads down focusing on The Dan Plan, a project about human potential, learning and the exploration of talent versus hard work.   It was a golf story, but it was much more than just golf.  The plan was to practice for 10,000 hours, starting from never having touched a golf club at the age of 30, to see how far it is possible to go in a completely new endeavor.

Back in 2014 I was healthy and happy and had gotten down to a low single digit handicap, placing me in the top few percent of all golfers on the planet.  That SBS program was about the idea of talent and whether it took “talent” to become great at something.  My position on the stage was to talk about my own journey and what I had learned about learning.  Others involved were coaches, athletes and sports psychologists.  It was a case of agreeing to disagree as some people firmly believe that in order to achieve greatness one needs to be born with a specific skill-set while others are in the camp that greatness is earned through countless hours of deliberate work.  I learned a lot on that trip to Australia and met some amazing people.

At the time I didn’t know where my journey would end, but was steadily moving along and loving the practice and progress.   About five months after the 2014 program aired I was out on the course making a routine swing when I felt something different in my lower back.  It was a strange and uncomfortable sensation, but it was more awkward than painful so I kept swinging away.  I was playing in a local two-day tournament and wanted to finish the final round.  With every swing there was a growing twinge but it wasn’t until that final hole described above where the full pain struck me.

Fast forward three years and numerous hours of rehab later and SBS Insight rings me out of the blue about coming back onto the show.  This go-around the producer pitches me on a story about dealing with failure.  I was taken aback a bit as I had not completely accepted that the project was finished, nor that it had been a failure.  But, after talking with her it came to light that the show was more concerning how we deal with setbacks and how we bounce back when things don’t go as expected.  I thought about it for a few days and realized that I had a lot to say and knew it was an important part of the journey to discuss openly.  For me, the concept of failure is much easier to deal with than regret and at the end of the day I knew I had given my all to The Dan Plan and did not have any regrets.  The future is still wide open and I am hopeful that one day I can pick up the clubs again and resume my practice routine, but in the meantime I can live knowing I gave it a shot and learned tremendously from the entire experience.  There is plenty that I would change if I did it all over again, but there was also plenty that went right and was learned along the way.

For me, regret would have far outweighed failure.  We can’t change regret, but failure is something we can learn from and helps us grow.  Taken with open eyes, failure can be a good thing.  And what is failure, anyway?  To be honest, failure is most likely the lack of learning from personal experiences.  If we learn, adapt and make changes we are never truly failing, but progressing through life. How’s that for a cheesy coach speech?  I don’t want to sound like I’m candy-coating any of this, but at the end of the day I needed to process, understand where I am in life and find a way to move forward.  I started this journey because I knew I would never forgive myself if I didn’t give it a try.   Seven years, and countless amazing times as well as more than a fair share of heartache, later and I have finally learned how to look back and appreciate the accomplishments along the way.  It took me a long time to get to this point as I process a little slower than some, but I am finally here and able to write this and close the chapter in my life that was The Dan Plan.

I wrote all of the above as an op-ed for SBS Insight to post prior to the new piece airing today, September 20, 2017.  When writing it I knew that I needed to post something on this site as it’s been literally years (or at least two month shy of two years).  The thing is, I have been trying to write something and have sat down at least once a month for the past 22 months, but haven’t been able to finish anything.

I was lost for a long time, coasting through life trying to figure out what my purpose was.  Since the injury I have had times of depression, elation, hope, doubt and confusion.  The first 12 months I was in what I call optimistic denial about the state of my lower back and dealt with it both by being proactive at times and sloughing off the severity at other times.  I would take a week off of even thinking about holding a golf club, filling my days with whatever I could occupy the time with (which far too often was taking advantage of the micro-breweries in Portland and watching movies rather than addressing my problems head on) and then would assume my back would feel better after 7 days being swing free, but, alas, one golf rotation back in the saddle and the pain slapped me across the face.

By early 2016 it was obvious to me that daily training was a distant pipe dream and my attention slowly began transitioning to a new company my neighbor and I had started as a hobby the previous year.  I’m not one to sit around for too long and when I could not golf I began playing with the idea of launching a craft beverage company with my neighbor Chris.  We started brewing recipes in his kitchen for fun and those formulations began to get some solid praise by our peers so we took them to a few of our bar and restaurant friends to try.  The response was encouraging and orders started to flow in.  What began as an evening hobby to take my mind off golf and act as an excuse for us to hang out slowly transitioned to a viable business.  In November 2015 we found a small production facility and decided to move out of his kitchen.  Before we knew it we were both working full time to fulfill orders and develop new recipes.  2016 saw steady growth and in early 2017 some investors approached us wanting to purchase a piece of the company and help us grow.  It has been an incredible process and I have applied a lot of what I learned throughout The Dan Plan to growing this business.  In particular, the realization that progress is not linear; sometimes momentum flows freely and other times it can take countless hours to see any results.  But, at the end of the day the trick is to keep working at it and maintain an open mind.  Just like in the golf swing, it’s far too easy to repeat the same flawed patterns in business.

I don’t think I could be where I am today without everything I learned from 2010 – 2015.  I am not in any way happy to have had to hang the clubs, but after having enough time to properly process everything I have come to realize that some things are out of our hands and it’s not about what you want to do in an ideal world, it’s about what you do with the circumstances that are presented.  I don’t have any regrets about how The Dan Plan ended, but I do have some regrets about how I dealt with the setback when it happened.  I could have been more proactive and responsive and open about everything.  Instead I held back and sat on the sideline hoping things would magically get better.  The thing about regret, though, is that it’s something that has already happened and, almost always, can’t be changed.  So, instead of spending another minute lingering on what I could or should have done, I am decisively looking towards the future.

The business is going well and I am excited to grow it and continue the learning journey that is life.  Perhaps one day I will be in the position to sell my portion and have the proper funds to resume The Dan Plan.  I suppose at that point it would be a more honest goal to reach the Senior Tour.  Whatever the future holds, it’s time to go out there and make it happen.  The sidelines just aren’t as much fun as being in the action and I spent too much time warming the bench while hoping my back would heal.  However, my true business goal is, because of this experience, to be able to one day give back tenfold the support and encouragement you all have provided for me along the way.  I wanted to inspire people through The Dan Plan and from the emails I have received along the way I can safely say that was a success.  The next goal is to go from an inspirational story to being in a position where I can offer support to others.  What is the point of business if not to be able to give back?

I apologize that this has taken me almost two years to write.  It was never my desire to change directions and hang up the sticks.  It was after having a heavy heart for a long time that I finally realized my own physical limitations and what I needed to do to move on in life.  I did not even admit to myself that this was over until earlier this year and even then it seemed like I had not fully accepted the reality of it all.

There is no way to properly thank everyone who has followed along since early 2010 when it all began.  I found a truly supportive and amazing community online and in golf and my life is forever better for the people I have met along the way.  Despite all the hardships and horrors that seem to happen daily, we still live in an amazingly encouraging and supportive world.  I have seen that first hand since my injury and thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you all.

Dan-

One more note.  Here is a bit about the background of the project.  I wrote this in 2014 right before being on SBS for the first time:

At the age of 30, I quit my day job as a photographer to test the 10,000 Hour Rule – Dr K. Anders Ericsson’s theory that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an over-achiever in any specific field. 

With almost no experience at all, I decided I’d try to become a professional golfer.  

The idea first arose on a road trip with my brother in Nebraska. We played a par 3 course and I was terrible – I’d never played before. We were standing around talking about talent versus hard work and we decided there’s no way to know what would be possible unless you totally dedicated yourself to something. 

It took nine months of thinking and a huge dip into my savings, but I decided to test out the theory. 

Golf seemed like the perfect vehicle for the test. It was a mix of physical and mental. It was objective and easy to track one’s progress as there is a world-wide handicapping system already established.   

I spoke with Dr Ericsson a handful of times in the beginning to figure out how to go about the daily routine. Originally, I figured I could practise for 10 hours a day, six days a week and get to the 10,000 hour mark in about 3.5 years, but after speaking with Ericsson about concentration levels and learning absorption, it was evident that this was going to be a much longer project.  

A typical day, then, would be between four and six hours of time literally standing over a ball engaged in practice along with a handful of extra curricular activities such as working out, watching film, reading about swing theory, meditation, etc. The days would be long, yet the hours counted towards the 10,000 would be few as only the time spent literally working with the ball would count.

I started in earnest on a cold-as-hell April day in Portland, Oregon. I wore jeans, running shoes and a bright yellow hooded rain jacket – it was clear I was a total novice. When I discussed my plan at the pro shop there were a few laughs and some jokes tossed around. 

I got to work putting from one foot away from the hole, for four hours. The plan was pretty simple: I would start from one foot away from the hole and stay there until I reached a specific proficiency, then move out to three feet and do the same, then five, 10, 20, 40 and so on until I had reached a PGA Tour average from all of those distances. 

I thought it would take a month or so to go through all of the putting distances, but it ended up being harder than I had imagined. After solely putting the ball for over four months, I finally made some progress and could move on to chipping, and so on.  

By February 2011 I was starting to “play” some golf from about 30 metres off the putting green and the goal was to make everything in three strokes. I worked at it daily and continued the push away from the hole.  

I added clubs slowly through the year and at the end 2011 I finally got a full set. I’ve since fallen for the sport completely and it has basically consumed my life. If I’m not on the course, I’m thinking about the last round I had or whatever I need to work on.

It’s been four years since I started testing the 10,00 Hour Theory and I’m now approaching the 5100 hour mark. Doing the math, I’ve got four more years until I’ve completed the full 10,000 hours and have reached my ultimate goal of competing in a PGA tournament.

I believe the theory is working – right now my handicap is 3.3, putting me in the top 4.5 per cent of the 26 million golfers in the US. 

The word “talent” gets thrown around too much. There are certain genetic predispositions that make specific endeavours more viable for certain people. Those born with 90 per cent fast-twitch muscles may have an easier ability to get to a certain level in running, for example, but that’s not the same as “talent”. People think it’s a magical thing that makes someone good at something right off the bat. There has to be a hard work component to success. 

What makes someone “talented” is a single-mindedness to push through the lows and to allow themselves to change and grow. Hard work is being able to change and get better at what you’re passionate about, which is why I’m in this for the long haul. In four years’ time, I don’t think there’ll be a difference between me and a pro golfer.

Thank you all again, from the bottom of my heart.  I don’t know if it makes sense to continue to write on this site or not, but will give it some thought and perhaps keep the blog running, just with a new plot line…

I had the good fortune of being invited to participate in the 1st Scientific Conference on Motor Skill Acquisition at Kisakallio in Finland.  I was by far the most differently qualified speaker at the conference, but think that my insight from a practitioners point of view was a valuable contribution and while I hope the attendees and presenters gained something from my experiences, I know that I absorbed years worth of knowledge in the few days spent in the Finnish woods.

And we were definitely in the woods.  Finland has 11 facilities similar to Kisakallio, which is a sports learning and training center established by the Finnish government in the 1950s to promote sport, health and the advancement of training.  They specifically built them outside of cities so the people there could focus on their work without the interruptions of many modern-world things, which is a great idea in my opinion.  People of all ages attend camps, from young children to professional athletes.  The food is good, the air is good, the facilities are good, the lake is beautiful, and the sauna is hot.  You can train and relax and then be fresh to train the next day.  Even with the sun setting around 3:30pm it’s the perfect place to practice.  (I can only imagine what it is like in the summer when the days are bright almost 24 hours a day.)

The conference was a three day event with about 12 keynote speakers and a handful of shorter presentations.  If it was possible to sum it up into a general theme then nonlinear pedagogy would be the topic of the week.  Basically, there were a lot of studies about optimizing learning/skill acquisition as well as on coaching and the potential negative effects of early specialization.

The presenters were from all over the world; from Australia and Asia to the US and Canada and across mainland Europe and the UK.  Some of them have more years in professional research than I have had on this planet (and I’m not taking about you Côté) and the collective knowledge bank at Kisakallio this week was astounding.  Speaking of that, some of the most enlightening moments came from relaxed conversation when everyone was able to gather and share thoughts.  This is one of the more valuable aspects of conferences: behind the scenes chatter and collaborations.

The best thing, to me, about this group was the overall sense of curiosity.  Perhaps it is because many are professors and always asking “why,” or perhaps this is why all of these people have been successful in their respective fields, but you get the feeling that everyone is constantly searching for answers and open to new possibilities.  (The only exception to this were the English blokes who just can’t seem to grasp the fact that American football is better than soccer.  I kid, I kid)

What I am taking away from the conference is a greater understanding of how we humans learn and improve.  It wasn’t the first time I had heard/read about nonlinear pedagogy, but it was broken down with research that allowed for an easy understanding of just how important it is.  The grossly simplified idea is that instead of specializing at an early age (for example kids focussing solely on soccer or basketball starting at 6 or 7 years old) learning is improved when there are a variety of activities participated in.  Also, burnout is reduced, certain injuries can be prevented or postponed and dropout in the activity is lowered.

I think too often there is an idea that we need to do just one sport (or musical instrument or academic subject and so on) early on in order to become elite in that field. What the research has found, though, is that in order to get to the most advanced stages in a skill you are greatly aided by utilizing crossover activities.  For example, balance and body control are very important in most sports, and if you ask Federer about this “elegant” approach to tennis he says that he developed a lot of the skills that helped to make him one of the best ever by skiing, playing soccer, and participating in all types of sports.  He directly attributes the way he plays tennis to activities which might not clearly relate in any specific way.

If you stop and think about it for a while it makes sense.  By varying between a number of activities as a child you are exposed to a larger variety of different motion patterns (I’ll keep this sport specific, but it can be any type of development) and task assignments.  By changing from your main sport to an alternative one you learn a larger variety of motor skills, a lot of which can translate from the supplemental sport to your primary down the road.  This also helps focus as variety keeps us on our toes learning-wise.  As I personally have noticed, doing the same thing over and over (say 5 months of putting) makes it very easy to turn robotic and lose attention.

I have read a lot about interleaving and random practice in the past years, but this idea of nonlinear pedagogy takes it a step further in that I understand a bit better about how you can practice your main sport by not practicing that at all.  For me this is most evident in something like billiards.  I played a lot of pool as a child and when I am putting in golf I use the same visualization to read the break now as I used to read the combo shots in pool.  By playing that game growing up I learned a skill that can then translate to golf.  That’s not saying that I wouldn’t want to learn how to read and visualize on the putting green, but rather that playing target sports and pool helped my golf game improve down the road in a way that solely focussing on golf specific tasks might not have.  I know that I am taking a skill from billiards and applying it to golf.  There are countless examples that I can think of, too.  So many things contribute to who we are an how successful we become.

A lot of it comes down to engagement and fun, too.  By breaking up practice with other sports it’s easier to stay engaged.  Burnout and dropout can come from doing the same thing over and over for years.

Speaking of fun, another topic that was presented was the way in which people, especially children, learn during practice sessions.  There’s new research on the structure of practice based around when technical (think drills) practice should be implemented and how much of that structure, or lack thereof, optimizes how the brain absorbs knowledge.  To sum it up, the two extremes would be to have one group of kids doing a full practice of very structured drills focussing on a movement pattern such as kicking a corner kick or throwing a free-throw.  Over and over the kids are in line and take their turn kicking of throwing.  This was a popular model when I was learning soccer and basketball as a young kid.  The opposite of this would be free-play where the kids have an obstacle course and a ball and are allowed to create their own games and play.  What they found is that the more that free-play was introduced into practice the better the learning retention of the desired skill.

I’m over simplifying a lot in that last paragraph as I do not have the research in front of me while sitting at the Copenhagen airport, but my takeaway is that creativity and fun result in a better learning environment.  Mix that with playing a variety of sports (maybe starting to specialize around 14 or 15) and you have an all around athlete.  It mirrors the idea of an undergrad education, too.  We take a large variety of different subjects in order to round out our education and then once we find something interesting we focus more deeply in that subject.

Seems to make sense all around, but honestly I hadn’t thought much about it before hearing all of these presentations.   The next step is to teach coaches how to use these ideas in their own practices.  For me, I am going to start thinking about ways in which I can practice differently, be it by playing more things like Urban Golf or by creating all different types of fun and weird shots to make around a practice green or by branching out and doing things seemingly unrelated, but that are target and aim specific such as archery.  Actually, archery could be a great game for golf, you learn how to align and aim your body and consider the wind…

At the end of the day, it’s not 100 percent specific nor is it 100 percent non-specific training.  There is a mix of the two that each individual needs to figure out for themselves.

Boarding time, next stop Washington DC en route to Oregon.

The institute is an educational sports facility that offers 2-3 years study programs for Vocational Qualification in Physical Education.  They house about 200 students a year and most of them live there for the duration of their program.  Outside of that it is a training facility for individuals and teams.  Their main focus area in the past has been gymnastics and basketball, and they are the official Olympic training center for both rhythmic gymnastics and basketball.

And, they are expanding (due to being an official Olympic training center) this year to include beach volleyball and handball.  In addition to this they have a close collaboration with the Finnish Curling association, Finnish Icehockey federation, the Finnish Ringette association, and the Finnish canoeing and rowing federation. They also work with figure skaters, synchronized skating teams, floorball players, volleyball players and dancers.  Needless to say they have a lot going on and house coaches off all variety of skill-sets.

The conference itself has a very broad focus, with speakers from all over the world gathering to talk skill acquisition and development.  For a better idea of the subjects that will be covered, here is the itinerary for the conference:

Wednesday 18.11.2015

12:30 Opening Ceremony
Principal of Sports Institute of Kisakallio: Asko Härkönen
Dean of the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä: Dr. Lasse Kannas
Head of the Research Institute for Olympic Sports: Dr Sami Kalaja
Chair: Dr Sami Kalaja
12.45 Professor Keith Davids – Learning design in sport: Implications of a nonlinear pedagogy
13.30 Professor Wolfgang Schöllhorn – Differential learning unifies motor learning theories
14.15 Jörg Ahmann – Enhancing the attacking technique in beachvolleyball with Differential learning
15.30 Richard Shuttleworth – Constraints-led coaching in team sports
17.00 Dinner
Chair: Professor Beatrix Vereijken
18.00 Professor Charles Hillman – The relation of physical activity and other health behaviors to childhood cognition, memory and achievement
18.45 Professor Janne Avela – Interaction between motor skill learning and brain plasticity changes
20.00 Welcome reception

Thursday 19.11.2015

8.00 Exhibition open
Chair: Dr Kaisu Mononen
9.00 Professor Jia Yi Chow – Nonlinear Pedagogy: An insight into pedagogical principles for effective learning in sport
9.45 Mark Upton: Assisting coaches and national programmes in the use of a constraints-based framework for athlete learning and development
10.30 Professor Geert Savelsbergh – Talent identification and development of young football players
11.15 Al Smith – The ecological dynamics of talent development
12.30 Lunch
Chair: Minna Blomqvist
13.30 Professor Duarte Araújo – The ecological dynamics of decision making in team ball sports
14.15 Professor Graham Kerr – Embedded design structures for enhancing perception-action linkages: using textured insoles to improve functional movement capabilities in different populations
15.30 Professor Beatrix Vereijken – Skill acquisition in children and adults: Balancing stability and flexibility
16.15 Exhibition
17.30 Possibilities for physical activity
19.30 Social evening

Friday 20.11.2015

8.00 Poster Interactive
8.30 Parallel sessions for oral presentations
Session 1: Cognitions and emotions Chair: Professor Geert Savelsbergh
Session 2: Motor Performance Chair: Professor Duarte Araujo
Chair: Jukka Hokka Kisakallio
10.30 Dan McLaughlin – ”The Dan Plan”
11.30 Break
Chair: Dr Marja Kokkonen
11.45 Professor Jean Côté – How to optimize competence and psycho-social development in youth sport through effective coaching
13.15 Closing words Professor Keith Davids

In addition to all of that, I will be arriving a few days early and will have the opportunity to talk, along with Finnish golf coaches Henri Salonen and Jukka Hokka.  Both of them are covering topics on how to train for golf and strength through the winter.

There will be a number of golf and strength coaches attending the conference and I have already been fortunate enough to set up meetings with a handful of them, from physical therapists and strength coaches to golf specific coaches.  It should prove to be an excellent learning experience as well as a great chance to share my own story.

Speaking of that, I have been working on my presentation for the past week and have found it rather insightful to go back through the blog and all of my personal notes.  Reminds me of all the things that I have been fortunate enough to experience as well as the good and bad times throughout the past five years.  I think it is important to reflect from time to time, and especially to do some deep reflection at least once a year.  The winter seems to be a good time for that.

The plan is to cover my own experience as well as talk about everything I have learned about learning.  There has been so many right and wrong paths that I have gone down since starting this and one of the most important things that I can do while sidelined is to share my experiences on both to those.  Hopefully I can help others in golf and, potentially, in learning.

I will do my best to capture as much as possible in video, photos and in words.  That reminds me, I need to clear off my phone so there is enough storage for the videos…

On a side note, there have been a couple new stories about The Dan Plan recently.  In particular this one from SUCCESS magazine:

http://www.success.com/article/the-10000-hour-theory-does-practice-make-perfect

Also, I found this video from August:

Back to preparing my talk.  More updates soon!

Little did I know there has been a league for it here in Portland for the past 12 years and it is actually something that officially happens around the world.  The origin is believed to date back to mid-1700s Scotland, but it’s hard to say who first might have played this fringe sport.

Urban golf was the game of the day and the way to play is with one club and a tennis ball.  There is a 13 hole course in the industrial section of downtown Portland and after meeting at a local brewery everyone set out to play a rainy Sunday round.  Here are some photos from the day:

It was a lot of fun and a refreshingly new way to approach the sport of golf.  This group only plays once a month or so, and it was the kind of fun and different outing that you want to do at least twice, so I will definitely be there next time.

Moving along…  Just a quick update on the back.  I went out and played 18 for the first time in about 3 weeks the other day.  It wasn’t too hard on the back during the round, but the next day I could tell that I would not be able to make a decent swing.  This realization essentially solidified my decision to take the winter off.  It’s not about getting through one round, rather I need to be in a place where I can play multiple days of competitive golf in a row.

I have a speaking trip scheduled for mid-November.  A handful of months ago the guys at the Kisakallio Sport Institute in Finland reached out about having me come and give a talk at their annual event.  I was honored and am very excited to head that way and share about my experiences to date.  Their website is:  http://www.kisakallio.fi/etusivu/english.html which has some info about the institute.  It is a non-profit sports based foundation located in Lohja, Finland, or about 30 minutes from Helsinki.

There will be two hours reserved one of the mornings for me to give an overview of my journey as well as answer any questions the audience may have.  After 5 years I have plenty to share so the time will be pretty easy to fill, will just need to make sure and have plenty of water on hand as I can’t remember the last time I talked for 2 hours…

Also, there will be a number of human performance experts, coaches, athletes and all different types there to compare notes with and absorb all of the knowledge at the event.  As I prepare my talk and throughout the event I will share any valuable information that I come across, and I am sure there will be plenty of that.

I will be over there from November 14th until the 22nd.  If anyone happens to live in the Helsinki or Lohja area please reach out.  It definitely won’t be golf season, but I am sure there are plenty of things to do in southern Finland.

I am very grateful to be a participant in this event and am excited to spend the next few days preparing a talk as well as getting to see some of Finland as I never thought I would have a chance to go over there.  I guess it’s hard to predict where life will take us.

I needed this time to allow some clarification in my own mind and I sincerely apologize for not posting anything in the interim, it’s just that I wasn’t sure what to say and the words didn’t want to come out in a cogent manner.

So much has happened over that time period, yet in some ways so little has changed.  My back has been improving steadily and there was one week where I was able to play three rounds of golf with minimal pain.  Then there are days where I swing a club once and it feels like I have reverted 3 or 4 weeks in my recovery.  It’s not a half full – half empty situation, it’s more as if the cup has sprung a small leak and water is flowing in haphazardly.

Most recently I was examined by Dave Oliver as he taught a seminar for the McKenzie Institute to a group of PTs here in Portland.  After talking about where I felt the discomfort and going through a series of movements, he suggested I do sets of back extension stretches.  Basically, I lie down on my stomach with my palms on the ground parallel with my shoulders and then push up until my elbows lock.  Once in that position I exhale and relax the back.  What this does is get my spine back into a neutral position.  He suggested that because the golf swing is done while bent over, and a lot of things we do in life are in that same position, the spine gradually gets out of line in the hips.  Then when repetitive high speed movements are added on top of the miss-aligned spine that is where the pain and tightness is created.  I am supposed to do these hourly on days where I don’t play golf as well as before and after any rounds or practice sessions.

Here is a small graphic of the move:

On days where I play a round or swing a club he has me doing a standing version of the same stretch throughout the round.  I put my hands on my lower back just above the glutes and lean back as far as I can pushing the spine back into position.

I did a set of 20 of these every hour the first day and then the standing ones after every swing on the golf course and it seemed to make a difference.  I could make fairly comfortable swings and felt pretty good through the round.  The next day I felt decent and continued the stretches.  I had another round scheduled for that day so did the same thing building up to the round and during the round.  I made it through about 13 holes and then hit a fat 3-wood that seemed to jar the back again.  After that I had to gingerly swing in order to not stoke the fire and kind of limped in for the remaining holes.  But as I continue to do the stretches I can feel my back getting itself situated which makes further strength building more realistic.  I think that with all of the advice I have received to date that a full recovery is not just realistic but inevitable as long as I stay the right path.

However, this whole thing has been very frustrating for a number of reasons.  Through these months the more I try to do the worse it seems to get, but then if I take 10 days completely off I feel like I have lost my touch with my wedges and irons and am, in a way, reverting.  I have been debating whether it is worse to try and continue as I currently have been or if I should take a chunk of time off completely.

Another reason it has been frustrating is financially.  Since I have only been able to play, on average, once a week I have been paying a lot per round to be a member of Riverside.  I made the decision to take a leave of absence from the club because I was out-of-pocket roughly $550 a month to get out there about 2 times (I tend to play other tracks almost as often as Riverside).  That’s some pricey rounds and until I know I am fully capable of returning to practice it just doesn’t make sense to be a member somewhere.  It was a very tough decision to make as I love the members out there, but if I am limited to a couple of times a month it makes more sense to just pay the guest fee.  I finalized this decision and parted from the club starting October 1.

The idea is that I can join a club again once things are completely solid.  I am hoping that this will be in the Spring and have basically decided to take a hiatus from the game until some time around April.

There is no happiness about this state and I have been in a bit of an existential crisis as of late; although once a concrete decision and plan formulated in my head the fog of stagnation has been slowly lifting.  My back is like the Arab that Meursault so curiously shot in The Stranger and for a few months I didn’t understand why it had to happen.  I kept assuming that one day it would just go away and life would return to normal and I would have my work to do as I have done for the previous years.  But, living in a world of anticipation takes a toll on us and it’s better to set a goal even if that means stepping back for a bit.

I can work on healing the back while also trying to continue swinging the golf club, but so far that has been like playing tug-of-war with myself.  On the contrary, I can step back for a few months, strengthen and improve the core through doing all of the exercises that PT Shawn Dailey gave me and the stretches that Dave Oliver prescribed and allow myself to fully recover.  During this time, I have realized, I can also save up more funds in order to continue the project correctly: with more expert coaching, tournament entry funds, travel expenses to see specialists, etc.  Not only is my back injured, but after 5 years of not working the bank account is holding on by a thread and some duct tape, so having these months to work and replenish the funds will be a good thing to do in order to realistically be able to complete the entire 10,000 hours.  I suppose that is the break in the clouds of all this.

Speaking of that, there are a ton of silver linings here.  Having to take some time off of something I have come to love is not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just a short break in a lifetime  of enjoyable moments.  This injury is a setback, for sure, but it’s impossible to not sit here and appreciate everything that golf and The Dan Plan has brought me.  I have changed as a human immensely since starting this project and golf has grown with me and become part of my persona.  I wouldn’t be who I am today if I had not set off on this journey and I am 100 percent positive that it has made me a better and happier person.  In a lot of ways perhaps that is why it is so hard to realize that I need to take some time away, so I tell myself that this is just a pause, not a death.

Again, I am sorry for the long delay, but it has been an incredibly tough decision and one that was impossible for me to take lightly.  I have been thinking about this all day every day and the conclusion was the last one that I wanted to reach; but after 5 months of snail’s pace improvement it is the only rational one that I could arrive at.  Since deciding what needs to be done I know that it will be easier to post more frequently about life on hiatus from one’s goals.  I have no clue what that will be like but I am sure there will be plenty to cover concerning what recovery and a sidelined life is like.

Last Wednesday I played 18 with a good friend at Riverside without any significant pain.  By about the 15th hole things started to get a little tight, but all in all it was a solid pain free performance and another encouraging sign.

The next day another fellow golfer texted me in the morning wanting to know if I was up for joining him for an afternoon 9.  I had woken up feeling pretty good (no pain when standing up for the first time or while doing normal stretches and exercises) so decided to go for it.  The day was a lot like the day before, but since it was just nine holes there wasn’t any tightening up of the lower back and I felt good through the whole round.  I was interested in continuing, but decided it best to leave on a good note instead of pushing it.  So, after 27 holes in 24 hours the back was doing pretty good.

Both or those rounds were during the afternoon when it was over 100 degrees.  That kind of weather can wear you down and be dehydrating, but the good thing is that I think it helps keeps the muscles loose.  Not sure if I could play 2 or 3 days in a row if it was 40 degrees out, so I’m thankful for an overly hot summer for at least one reason.

Same story about a friend’s text the next day.  It took me a while to decide this time, but eventually broke and agreed to play another afternoon round. This time it was at Heron Lakes and we were hoping to get a full 18 in.

Through the first 13 or 14 holes things were going well and Gerardo (I have teed it with him quite a bit and he knows my swing) noticed that my swing was starting to get back in shape.  He was there during a few of the last injured rounds I played he had seen, and acknowledge, the difference the pain was causing in my swing.  Back in April during the last round I would fall down every once in a while when the wrong something was tweaked in the follow through.  During this round he noticed that my swing was improving, but that I was still truncating the follow through to about three quarters as well as kind of bending at the waist with my right leg after impact.   I think that is a mental thing as it doesn’t really hurt right now, but my mind remembers the pain and until I can truly trust a pain free swing I think there will be some compensations.  It will just take some time to build that trust.

One good thing is that the ball is starting to go back on line.  For a while there the only thing I could manage was an over-the-top all arms slice.  Now I aim to the right thinking I’m going to slice the ball, but then it goes straight and even has a little draw here and there.  This is another thing that will take a little time to build the confidence needed to aim where I know the ball is going to go.  These are all good signs.

I am still not practicing, though, as the repetition of hitting balls is most likely the worst thing I can do right now.  Especially off of mats and Riverside has been mats only all summer due to the heat.

As for the exercises which people have asked about.  I have a short warm up in the morning where I get the blood flowing through dynamic stretching.  I don’t do much static stretching right now as what I want is painless mobility and I find dynamic warm ups help loosen up the muscles while getting the blood flowing.

After that I have a core workout with an exercise ball where I do a number of different exercises which I can’t remember the names of but were all part of a workout routine that PT Shawn Dailey built for me a few years back.  I also have thera bands and have a few resistance exercises which have been helping.  That is what I have been doing and I have seen progress so am sticking to it.

If all goes well I should be able to get in a couple more rounds this week.  Just don’t want to push it as I would hate to revert to a month or two ago.  I definitely could feel it (not too bad, but present) both Saturday and Sunday after the three days of golf in a row. Even today, Monday, I could tell it was best to avoid swings so am waiting until tomorrow to give it another shot and see what happens.  One day, week, month at a time.

Thank you all for being patient with me, this is most definitely a frustrating period.  Just trying to see the silver in it all.

The course was Coto de Caza down near Newport Beach and it was a fun place to see if the back would hold up for 18 holes.  Going into the round I decided to show up about 2 hours early to make sure the warmup was slow and thorough.  The last thing I wanted to do was rush to a tee and make a cold swing.

I started with putts and worked up to chips and then through all of the clubs.  It was similar to how I started this entire journey, one foot from the hole and slowly working my way through all the distances.  This time it took about an hour, though, instead of the initial year of The Dan Plan.

Everything seemed in place through my half and three quarter swings and full swings with wedges up to 7 iron wasn’t locking the back up or causing any unnecessary pain, which is a great sign.  The long irons and woods were still slightly uncomfortable, but as long as I hit an armsie fade I could move the ball decently.  What I couldn’t do is try to clear the hips and drop the club in the slot for a draw swing.  Not sure why this is, but that movement is the one that is causing the pain to come back.  So, for the time being I will work on the fade and allow the stretches and core strength buildup to assist in my ability to eventually hit a draw, or hit with power for that matter.

My club speed is well down as I am not really trying to go after it and have been focussing on contact and tempo on the range and course.  I figure this is a good thing to focus on and when the strength returns to the back I will be able to amp it up and build on a tempo focussed base.  For now, though, I have lost three clubs of distance.  A lot of that is club speed, but some of it is also from coming over the top and hitting a glancing blow instead of solid inside-to-out contact.  After all my time on FlightScope and TrackMan over the years I can pretty easily tell what I am doing based on the ball flight, which is a good thing as it helps one to adjust during a round.

I met my golfing companion for the day and had a little lunch and then we were off.  It’s funny how you can meet someone for the first time on a golf course and by the end of the round you have become friends.  That’s one of the best things about this sport.  I’ve mentioned that before, but it always blows my mind at how much you can learn about someone over 18 holes.

We had a good time on an interesting desert-esque course.  There were a handful of blind shots and seeing as neither of us had ever been on the track it was an interesting experience hitting to where you thought was safe just to find a tucked away bunker.  The course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr and in some ways it reminded me of the first course I ever played, which was Heron Lakes here in Portland and also designed by Jones.

There were definitely some differences, though, between Portland and Southern California.  A lot less trees and more valleys. Here is the view from the first tee.  Not knowing the course or where to aim made it a tricky hole to start on…  There was way more room on the other side of the chasm than appears.

For the most part the back held up just fine.  As long as I didn’t separate my lower and upper body there wasn’t any pain and it was so much fun to be back out and playing a new course.  It can be easy to take this game for granted when you are out as much as I was over the past 5 years, but having a few months away has definitely helped me appreciate the beauty of the sport as well as the elegance of golf course design.  Just to be out in the sun on a long walk never knowing what the next shot might entail was thrilling.

Around the 14th hole I started to feel a little weakness in the lower back, but if I kept that fade shot up I was completely able to finish the round.

The next day my body told me that I had definitely hit a lot of shots, but it didn’t hurt to stand up or bend over, so lots of improvement there.  I think the best bet is to do a little every 2 or 3 days right now and focus on rehab in between.

When I got back to Portland I went out a couple times these past few days and messed around with the short game.  I’m not at a point where I can actually “practice” but rather I can get back into it slowly.   For example, I can’t work on my full or even half swing and also can’t putt for a long period of time, but I can chip balls at targets and work on distance control with the short game shots; mixing in some putting drills too.

On Tuesday I decided to join some guys and play 9 holes.  I tried a couple normal swings, but I could tell it wasn’t time for that yet, so stuck with the fade shot.  For the most part I could work the ball towards the hole, but if I was in a situation where I couldn’t move the ball right to left (trees down my right side blocking the green) I was stuck with having to layup.  This is kind of teaching me course management in a different light as most of the time I still got a par, or bogey at worse, with an up and down.  There is always a silver lining, just a matter of finding it out there.

The next day I knew I shouldn’t try and go to the course as I felt stiff.  But, every other day right now is a heck of a lot better than not at all just a few weeks ago.