Young at risk if they copy Dechambeau
Bryson Dechambeau should come with a health warning. It is time for the authorities – if not for the Incredible Bulk, himself – to flash up messages saying “do not try this at home”.
I am not talking about golfers attempting to emulate
Dechambeau’s 400-yard plus drives in their kitchens – although do watch out for the nutribullet on the backswing and the cafetiere on the follow-through – but those endeavouring to emulate his equally stunning routines in the gym.
And, namely, teenagers, who are watching Dechambeau’s seemingly daily workout videos on Instagram
and believing that they, too, will be able to reach ball speeds of 215mph and beyond if they embark on monster sessions in their sweat dens.
Their bodies are simply not yet ready – not when all that strain on the developing back is married with the wholly unnatural movements of the golf swing – and there is growing alarm at the number of youngsters suffering injuries that could not only affect their golfing future, but worse.
Certainly, Ian Poulter is concerned. He has seen his eldest son, Luke, emerge as a promising talent and come to understand the risks of prioritising HIITS and barbells above hits and giggles.
“Kids today are injuring themselves earlier and earlier because they are going at it harder and harder,” Poulter told me. “It’s not just Bryson, because the drive for length has been happening for years and kids clearly want to hit it as far as Tiger [Woods], Rory [Mcilroy] and Co.
“Luke is 16 [since turned 17] and I’ve made clear the need to build up slowly and for him to allow his body to fill out. One coach told me that two of his young golfers have injured themselves in the gym at a very young age. It is worrying. Education is necessary.”
Harley Smith is 16 and a prodigy. Last Friday, the Essex boy completed an unprecedented hat-trick when adding the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Championship to the England Under-18s and Under16s titles he won earlier this year. Smith is hot property, but fortunately in his father, Paul, he has a cautious parent. And just as fortunately, Harley is now receiving the proper physical advice.
“Two years ago, when I was 14, I got a stress fracture in my back,” Smith said. “I was doing Romanian dead lifts and I kept doing them and it didn’t hurt even though I’d already sustained the injury. But it was a fracture that went up and down so whenever I was getting into the ball it just kept crunching. One day I hit a shot and it hurt so much I had to walk off. I couldn’t play for four months. I hated that time and never want it to happen again.”
Thanks to England Golf, the ever-commendable governing body that has strength and conditioning coaches operating right down to regional level, Smith is working with Dr Dan Coughlan, who is a consultant for the European Tour.
A recent study with elite junior boys confirmed that resistance training for juniors is safe and also can lead to game improvement. “Furthermore, those who resistance train have a huge reduction in their injury risk,” Dr Coughlan said.
And therein lies the point. Of course, gym work can be beneficial for golfers of all ages and for youngsters should be actively encouraged. But only if it is supervised by experts and not if it is coming at them piecemeal and in sensationalist fashion from a smartphone.
“Bryson is 28 and was already big and developed and had the foundations,” Poulter said, “Yeah, he used the Covid break to pile on the bulk – but in a highly structured and scientific manner. When the Tour resumed, Bryson was hitting it immense distances and it was easy for kids to think they could do it as well if they went mad in the gym. That’s dangerous. It should be gradual, incremental and not suddenly about throwing 100lb dumbbells around.”
The information is out there; the juveniles outside the system just need pointing in the right direction. Perhaps Dechambeau’s social-media accounts, with his million-plus followers, would be a good place to start.