I Just Want to Get Stronger: Part I

The Bryson Effect

In 2020, Bryson DeChambeau transcended golf and entered the greater sporting lexicon. His position on the greater sporting stage was confirmed by his position on the cover of Sports Illustrated in late October, a place only 7 other golfers have made it to in the last 10 years (Cat, Brooks, Sergio, Jordan, Rory, Bubba, and Arnie Palmie). Getting to this status is "big" for any golfer, for sure, but it's the stuff beyond golf that got him to both the cover as well as the forefront of golf discussion.

Here's some of the stuff Bryson has done in the past year to garner interest:

-Gained 30lbs from Fall '19 to Winter '19, and another 20lbs (to get to 240lbs) in Spring '20.

-Continued his obsession with physics

-Called out fellow golfer Brooks Koepka, saying Brooksy "didn't have any abs." And he did it while playing video games on Twitch.

-Won 2 tournaments, including the US Open

-Released several videos, including a 15 minute b-role based vid that includes cleaning his pool, driving his Bentley, watching Fox News, and cooking bacon (shirtless)

-A lot of exasperated yelling (grunting?)

-Literally my favourite Instagram post (https://www.instagram.com/p/CCheVzjjLMi/?hl=en)

-Attacked fire ants (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpIvdJBYIsk)

-After a flat performance at The Masters, he proclaimed the sentence that doubles as the title for this post. Okay, I can't actually confirm if he said that or not, but you would totally believe he did.

Here's how I would distill the above bullets:

1) Bryson DeChambeau is a major dweeb

2) Bryson DeChambeau's ultimate goal is to play his best golf (I think)

I can definitely confirm that Bryson wants to be cool, but scans as dweeby. The support for this is all the videos he posts involving working out, driving expensive cars, and even chirping his peers. He's essentially the bully from your high school all grown up and generally just tries too hard. It's like Bryson is acting how he thinks a jock acts. He's a dweeb in Tiger Woods clothing and seems to be fooling the greater sporting world.

In addition to trying and failing to be cool, Bryson has an obsession with having people think he's interesting. There are obvious surface things, like the constant physics talk (which may all be bogus, but I digress), and the Hogan cap. There are also articles that will tell you that Bryson, despite being right-handed, gives autographs left-handed and backwards. This, unlike the science and cap, is defining evidence showing that Bryson is going to do something different just because it's different and people will think he's "eccentric."

All of the above is extremely dweeby, but it's also an indicator of how he trains as a golfer. Bryson is willing to go all in on anything, even if no one else is doing it, with the hope that it will make him better. Again, there are several examples in golf that prove this out. Bryson has single-length irons. He has also adopted several putting strategies (all of which are weird and lack swag, some of which are against the spirit of rules but don't technically break them) and most recently, has taken part in extreme training regimes and excessive weight gain all to help him swing faster and hit the ball farther. In some of his missions, like putting and swing speed, he has seen great improvement that has correlated to better golf. For other things, like the irons, it's unknown whether it's doing something positive for him or not.

FIGURE 1: Bryson DeChambeau using the arm-lock style of putting, in which the putter grip is up against his forearm, thereby limiting the effect of nervy hands.

Aside: The single-length irons may prove to be a precursor of how Bryson's career plays out. Is he truly results driven, or is he most interested in doing the most wacky thing where results are only secondary. His wedge play is usually not very good and the longer clubs are often pointed to as the problem. As for the weight gain, is it the best thing to do to promote a long career? Probably not! I think he IS results-driven, but he will need to be nuanced in how he trains and what strategies he uses. Balance and moderation are two things Thicc boi probably struggles with and he will need to be careful to not completely wreck his potential.

I would like to close this part of the post by saying that Bryson is not necessarily interesting because of how he tells you he's different as a guy (different hat, likes math, etc). He is interesting because he lacks a governor, if you will, to regulate how far down rabbit holes he travels with certain interests. This obsessive nature is part of (some peoples) human condition. Do I like Bryson? Of course having never met him, I can only assume that, no, I don't think I would necessarily find him enjoyable to hang out and shoot the shit/clean the pool with. That said, I can't help myself but to cheer for him in big spots! But why?

I'm currently reading I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined) by Chuck Klosterman and I find myself drawing comparisons to ideas the author describes. Klosterman compares and contrasts Kanye West, someone he admires, to LeBron James, someone he does not. Klosterman, however, feels an underlying want for Kanye to fail and for LeBron to succeed. So, like my distaste for Bryson, why does this inverse make sense? For me, it is partly the chaos factor. Say Bryson goes and shoots -30 at the Masters this April. Does Bryson dis previous scoring records and the people that held them? Does Augusta put in separate rules for it's own course like a limited distance golf ball? (Many are saying that Bryson half-desecrating the game will catalyze change in equipment regulations that, I believe, will ultimately benefit the game and those that play it, but that's a story for another time). Will they have a jacket big enough?? Okay, Cabrera and Hefty Lefty won the tournament, so they can probably figure that out. But still, THINK OF THE MEMES ALONE.

In addition to the chaos, I can cheer for Bryson because I have nothing in common with him and therefore do not feel jealousy. This is precisely why Klosterman wants to see LeBron succeed despite not "liking" him. It's because, to Klosterman, LeBron is a basketball player that doesn't do a lot for pop-culture in the same way Chuck does (ideas, writing, conversation, etc.). Kanye, on the other hand, is a leading pop culture icon, particularly at the time of him writing the book. Kanye is interesting to Chuck, and so he feels jealousy towards him. Bryson, like the instructional book he revels in, is a Golfing Machine, and is closer to idiot than genius (as much as the media would want you to believe the inverse). He is using golf to get paid and not much else. Bryson, for all I hope, continues winning, being a villain we love to hate, and is the catalyst for chaos and change. Even if he does, I will not be threatened by Bryson in any way, not even by his Fortnite prowess.

How this Relate to Me, Cont.

To summarize,

Bryson = Dweeb, but, more importantly:

Bryson = passionate about growth (not making the easy joke here).

This has been a big takeaway for me during Bryson's arrival. On the macro level, he is showing how person betterment comes from discomfort. Sometimes, you need to take some big steps to improve. On the micro level, he is 100% instilling how important distance is for any golfer. If you ask many prominent swing coaches, course management gurus, even pros and caddies, they will tell you that, if you are learning golf, it's swing speed that is key; you can figure out where it's going later. And so, like Bryson, starting this spring, I will be doing some over speed training in an attempt to hit the ball farther with the ultimate goal of playing my best golf.

In the coming weeks, I will describe the concept of over-speed training, who uses it (golfers and others), and how I will be implementing the concept in relation to the golf swing.