What Can We Learn from Bryson DeChambeau's Approach?

What can we learn from Bryson DeChambeau’s approach?

Bryson DeChambeau is the 120th U.S Open Champion. There has been a lot of buzz around his new approach to the game this year: gaining 40 pounds and essentially trying to hit the ball as far as he can to make his approach shots easier.

Let’s start off by saying that Bryson has put all of his time and energy into this. This is his full time job, and for most of us, this approach is just not realistic. BUT, there are a few things we can take away from what he has done and apply it to our own training.

Here are some of Bryson’s most recent statistics:

• Competition Club Head Speed: 130mph
• Competition Ball Speed: 192
• Competition Average Driving Distance: 323 yards (up 20 yards from 302.5 last year)

The PGA Average Club Head Speed is around 113mph

Rory McIlroy Average: 119mph

Cameron Champ Average: 127mph

Matthew Wolff Average: 121mph

Now notice that we used the word Competition in each of these metrics. If you look around the internet, you will see videos of Bryson swinging the club at speeds well over 140 and even 150 mph.

But, during competition, he is not reaching these speeds. He has dialed in a speed that he feels he can still be accurate with. But how does he get comfortable swinging at 130mph?? He trains at speeds HIGHER than that.

This is one of the big takeaways from Bryson’s approach. We all want to swing the club faster and increase our driving distance. In reality, we are going to swing slower than our max on the course.

If you want to swing the club at 110mph, your actual max should be much higher than this. That way, you can swing the club at around 80-90% of your max and feel comfortable doing so. This will allow you to be more accurate and more controlled with your swing.

So, how do we improve our max speed? We TRAIN it! You should be incorporating exercises that are low rep, fast, and with MAXIMUM effort. Does your training routine include this? Are you even training at all for the golf swing?

Here is a video of a driver swing at 131mph: Link

It is safe to say that this is maximum effort, and even more safe to say that I would have no idea where this ball is flying off the tee. The point is, being able to swing at 131 makes swinging at 105-110 feel much more comfortable.

Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Power = Strength x Speed

So, we need to make sure that we have a baseline of strength before we try to create power. If we do not have a good foundation of strength, we are not going to be able to train power as effectively. As we are building strength, we should be performing sets of 6-12 reps based on the exercise. When we get to training power (incorporating speed), reps should be much lower, with full effort.

What does your training program look like? Do you want to swing the club faster? Give us a call!

Get in Touch:

(949) 409-1339
Kevin O’Connor, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS
TPI Medical 3 and Junior 2 Certified
Owner – Impact Physical Therapy and Performance
Physical Therapist – Laguna Hills, California
[email protected]