Jaylen Brown Turned to Laird Hamilton for Extreme Training Method That Pushed His Limits

When Jaylen Brown talks about leveling up, he’s not just hitting the weight room. He’s going deeper, literally. The Boston Celtics star, who recently fell under the spotlight after Brandon Ingram’s postgame moment, has been chasing an edge that most players won’t even touch, blending skill work with extreme conditioning.

That edge comes from discomfort. Real discomfort. The kind that forces your body and mind to react under pressure. Brown has leaned into unconventional methods before, but this one’s on a different level, built around breath control, panic resistance, and pushing past limits most athletes never test.

Per Ramona Shelburne, on April 9, Jaylen Brown linked up with big-wave legend Laird Hamilton back in 2023 to train using XPT (Extreme Performance Training). The sessions involve lifting heavy weights underwater, around 12 feet deep, forcing explosive movement back to the surface while controlling oxygen.

“They use heavy weights to help sink you under the water, simulating the conditions of getting sucked under a wave. The goal is to learn how to release as much air as efficiently as possible as you sink, so you have energy to jump back up out of the water and fill with as much air as possible.”