To any passer-by, the two-storey brick exterior looks like any other on the street.But, step inside this Dallas home and you’ll quickly discover that what’s inside is actually quite extraordinary.The house belongs to Chris Como, coach to Bryson DeChambeau. Behind that unassuming exterior, Como has built a home-made laboratory that is helping fuel a transformation that has captivated the world of golf.
Golf in lockdown
With the world careering towards a lockdown in March, Como was at the Players Championship in Florida, working with DeChambeau and another of his pupils, Emiliano Grillo, when news of the tournament’s cancellation came.Boarding a hastily arranged flight back to his base in Dallas, Como began to stew on an idea that had been incubating in his mind for years.”I always thought it would be really cool to take some technology that I’d used in grad school and do a deep measurement of what the body is doing during the golf swing by creating a kind of, multi-sport lab for research at home.”By the time Como touched down in Dallas, his mind was made up.”I went to my apartment, gave my notice to vacate, called up a realtor and I’m like: ‘Help me find a place with a really tall ceiling.'”We found a place with some high ceilings so we could shoot some basketball three-point shots … We then basically built a biomechanics lab, in my living room — which is badass.”I’m clearly not married because I’m not sure if the theoretical wife would have let me put this together,.”
Living room laboratory
The beating heart of Como’s “living room lab” is a Gears 3D motion capture system — a sophisticated set of cameras circling the room which records every movement of the user, and generates a 3D computer model of the action. It allows Como to analyze the smallest imperfection or change in motion and correct or plan accordingly.To supplement the data collected by the Gears system, Como also has GASP force plates — to measure the force being applied through each foot during a swing — and a K-Vest, a lightweight, portable device that provides additional data on the movement of the upper body during an action.With the lockdown limiting access to golf clubs and practice facilities during the spring, Como’s lab became the base for DeChambeau to work on his game.”He would come over here and we would evolve the swing and just kept ramping up the club speed during that downtime.”Once things started getting going again, he was physically very different … his golf swing as well was, I wouldn’t say it was different from the swing that he developed with his childhood coach Mike Schy, but it was much more explosive,” Como explains.It’s not just DeChambeau taking advantage of the data on offer in Como’s living room.Dallas Mavericks star Seth Curry and Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn also took the opportunity presented by lockdown to have their respective jump and slap shots analyzed by Como — both players have since had a key role in post-lockdown playoff runs.