“He’s The Perfect Prodigy For My Process”—How Bryson DeChambeau and Colorado’s Greg Roskopf Made History

Winners never stop working! Right after the big win, Bryson is here at MAT Headquarters getting back to training!! Simply stated: Bryson is an incredibly dedicated young athlete and we are so proud to be apart of his team! #muscleactivationtechniques #brysondechambeau #usopen pic.twitter.com/kIepSqPdEw

— Muscle Activation (@GRoskopfsMAT) September 22, 2020

And with the Masters on the horizon, Roskopf, the trainer for powerful U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau, says there’re further gains to be made.

By Anthony Cotton

Most of there golf-loving world watched live in slack-jawed amazement earlier this month as Bryson DeChambeau laid waste to Winged Foot Golf Club in winning the U.S. Open—but as it turns out, his trainer, Greg Roskopf, wasn’t among them.

That was because he had his own “major” championship to pursue.

“My wife Julie and I were playing in the couple’s club championship at Colorado Golf Club,” said Roskopf, the founder of Muscle Activations Technique in Englewood. “I was getting updates the whole time; when he eagled No. 9, I was like, ‘He’s gonna win this thing.'”

Coincidentially, at about that same time, the Roskopfs were also in contention for a title of their own; however, a five-putt on the back nine pretty much ended those dreams, leaving Greg to bask in the glory of his role in helping DeChambeau climb to the pinnacle of U.S. golf. That was literally brought home just days after the Open, when DeChambeau visited Colorado Golf Club, with the championship trophy in tow.

“He typically comes out about every three weeks, and we’d already had it on the schedule,” Roskopf said. “The last time he was out was after the Rocket Mortgage (Classic, the PGA TOUR event won by DeChambeau in July); I told him, ‘Any time you want to win a tournament, you just need to schedule a trip out here.

“He brings his trophy with him each time; he brought the one from the Rocket Mortgage and this time he brought the one from the U.S. Open—I think this one is a little bigger than the one from the Rocket Mortgage.”

DeChambeau has been the most talked about player in golf in 2020, largely because of his larger-than-life physique, the result of adding about 40 pounds since his collegiate days at Southern Methodist University. It was about that time that he met Roskopf, who knew about the player via mutual acquaintances. About three years ago, the pair began crafting the process that has led to DeChambeau’s massive success.

When he comes to Colorado, DeChambeau typically works for a couple of hours over the course of a couple of days, Roskopf said. Much of that time is spent on a disciplined program that runs through a series of exercises that isolates muscles and accentuates movements of the body in areas like spinal rotation and flexion.

“There are 43 specific movements in the human body; we skip some of them and really account for 21 of the main movements,” Roskopf says. “Every time he comes in here we go through all these specific exercises; we let them overload his system—actually shutting down and stressing the muscles. But then we reactivate them, and its like a vaccination, where it makes them stronger.”

In one of their first meetings, Roskopf says DeChambeau was only able to lift about 90 pounds for five repetitions on one of the exercises before his body shut down. Over the course of the day, Roskopf applied his uncle activation techniques to that area—by the end of his final session, DeChambeau was lifting 150 pounds.

“And it looked the same as he did when he was lifting 90 pounds, Roskopf said, “He had gotten that much stronger in just one day.”

As a result of their continued partnership, Roskopf says, DeChambeau has doubled his force output; with the resultant gains transferred directly into areas like clubhead and ball speed, it’s easy to see why DeChambeau has gone from averaging 295 yards off the tee in 2016 to a tour best 322 in 2020.

“I’ve never seen the type of changes that he’s seen over the last 18 months, while maintaining health,” he said. “When you improve muscle function, you improve range of motion while you’re increasing strength.”

And the scary thing is, Roskopf adds, is that there’s actually more gains out there to be had.

“He hasn’t even reached his potential yet,” Roskopf said. “We got to the point where we couldn’t use the majority of the weight machines we have because he was lifting the entire stack. We had a lag where he wasn’t getting stronger because we couldn’t add any weight.

“Now, we’ve been able to manipulate the equipment and we can load more and we should start to see those changes happen. It’s like, ‘Man, this could be huge; he could have another step in increased strength, which would transfer over to increased velocity.”

All of which just might be giving some folks down in Augusta, Georgia heart palpitations. After Tiger Woods overpowered Augusta National at The Masters back in 1997, officials at the club embarked on a series of adjustments, lengthening a number of holes in what became regarded as “Tiger-Proofing” the course.

When Hale Irwin won at Winged Foot in 1974, the havoc that was inflicted by the course led to that tournament forever being known as “The Massacre at Winged Foot.” Even when Geoff Ogilvy won the event there in 2006, it was with a winning score of five-over-par—DeChambeau finished at 6-under, the only player in the field to break par.

The thought of what he might do come November in the next major, on a course where length has always rules…suffice it to say, the prospects have the members of DeChambeau’s camp feeling downright giddy.

“That’s what everybody’s excited about,” Roskopf said. “Where he’s at right now, and how he’s hitting the ball, the common theme among everybody around him is, ‘We can’t wait for The Masters.'”

 

---

For more of the latest Colorado golf news, visit our NEWS & PROFILES PAGE.

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. CAG publishes eight issues annually and delivers daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram