You just watched Bryson win the U.S. Open with a bulked-up frame and a bomber’s mentality. Now you’re sold on getting huge and adding yards to your game.
You’ve bought the protein, you’re planning your workouts and you know this is going to make you a better golfer. Right?
Not so fast.
While it’s great that you’re committed to improving your game for the long haul, there are a few things you need to know before just jumping into a Bryson-like fitness regimen.
In a recent interview with golf performance coach Joey “D” Diovisalvi, he said the average golfer needs to be completely honest with where they are physically before starting any fitness routine. For the pros, “this isn’t a hobby,” Diovisalvi said. “Average people are not professional athletes.”
Bryson DeChambeau has transformed himself. But will he also transform the game?
So check your idea that you can do what the top one percent of golfers do at the door. While we all like to think we can do whatever the pros do, we can’t. The main difference being, the pros have been building their swings and training their bodies to swing at maximum speeds for their entire lives while we average Joes have not.
Bryson was able to bulk up the way he did because he put in years of work, has his diet down to a science, and had a solid foundation for his swing before he started the process.
Use a pro’s swing as a template
As much as you want to go out and smash it off the tee like Bryson, or any other Tour pro, your body likely lacks the necessary mobility, flexibility, strength and/or stability to do so safely.
Diovisalvi recommends using a pro’s swing as a template for your own swing rather than trying to mimic a pro’s swing outright. He also suggests choosing what specifically about the pro’s swing you want to add to your own move.
If you want to swing like Bryson, you probably want more speed. To swing faster, you probably need to work on your mobility and your strength. Improved mobility will help your range of motion and give you the ability to get into better positions and strength will help you be more explosive.
Start small
Using what Diovisalvi calls “small screens” to assess where your body stands physically and where you need to improve will help you come up with a training program that will get you closer to your goal of swinging like Bryson, or your preferred Tour pro.
Once you’ve identified where you need to improve, you can build a program that will set you on a path to improving your swing. Like anything worth doing, this will take a lot of work, so don’t get discouraged if you’re not seeing immediate results. And whatever you do, don’t compare yourself to a Tour pro during this process — it’s not a fair comparison because everyone’s body is different, and you’re likely not playing, training or otherwise working on your body and game 24/7.
It all comes down to doing what’s right for your body and what will help you achieve your goal. If you don’t believe us, take it from Bryson.
“I’m doing what I think is right for my body,” Bryson said of his transformation. “Some people may want to lose weight. Some people may want to get more flexible. I just want them to know anything is possible if you work hard.”
In all honesty, you probably won’t ever get to the level of swinging it like Bryson or Dustin Johnson or Rory McIlroy, but with the right goals and progressions you can get closer to swinging like your favorite golfer.
The key is figuring out where you’re starting from and building a program that is right for your body. From there, hard work is all you need to start achieving your goals of swinging (somewhat) like a Tour pro.