Mike Martin-Bench
Shawn Zobel @ShawnZobel_DHQ
Close 36 reps for Michigan's Mike Martin
2:05 PM - 26 Feb 12 via UberSocial for BlackBerry · Details Reply Retweet Favorite
Dude has to be disappointed with "only" 36 reps. He and everyone else figured he would challenge for the combine record. Molk wins the battle. Still a fantastic job for Mike!
February 26th, 2012 at 4:17 PM ^
February 26th, 2012 at 4:24 PM ^
Molk measured in at below 6'1''. I'm sure a fair amount of teams will be scared away by that number alone.
February 26th, 2012 at 4:37 PM ^
Yeah. Way to go, Molk. Way to not be taller.
February 26th, 2012 at 7:24 PM ^
to crank out atleast 50 next year, dat dude is swoll.
February 26th, 2012 at 9:35 PM ^
There's a certain coach in New England who has made quite the living on developing players with less than stellar measurables.
February 26th, 2012 at 5:31 PM ^
Our UofM guys still stack up very nicely. Martin was tied with BYU's Loni Fangupo for second among the DLs (third overall, after Molk's 41, I believe) with 36.
Memphis DL Dontair Poe put up 44. Best this year. NFL.com article here.
February 26th, 2012 at 4:18 PM ^
to think there was an injury or he was just tuckered out. There is no way 36 is his best or even close to what he can do. Feel bad for him his one and only real goal was to go for 50 plus reps. Well your still the man Mike
February 26th, 2012 at 5:45 PM ^
Uh... somehow I doubt that's Mike Martin's "one and only real goal".
February 26th, 2012 at 6:35 PM ^
it was his only goal he said in public. He was in an interview where he stated I dont wanna talk about my combine goals other than getting 50 plus reps on bench press.
February 26th, 2012 at 4:19 PM ^
We know he could have done better. In fact he has. I feel bad for him, it may have cost him some money. :(
February 26th, 2012 at 4:26 PM ^
no him not being as good as Worthy cost him money
February 26th, 2012 at 4:24 PM ^
Im not too familiar with pro days... but any bench pressing events to improve their numbers?
February 26th, 2012 at 4:24 PM ^
That doesnt make any sense to me. I understand him perhaps not getting the record but to fall that short of even his recent personal best tells me something was very wrong. He was either injured or his training routine did not have him prepared properly.
He'll have a Pro-day in Ann Arbor soon won't he? If so I would assume he'll have a chance to up that number but man...what a shocker after all the talk of him hitting 50. Not that 36 is bad by any means but it's SO far off what he was saying he'd do I'm more than a bit surprised.
February 26th, 2012 at 4:36 PM ^
It might not have been a physical thing, could have been phycholgical. regardless, 36 reps at 2 1/4 is no small feet. He'll have another chance at the pro-day as well.
February 26th, 2012 at 5:15 PM ^
Dude does have big feet.
February 26th, 2012 at 5:26 PM ^
complained of sliding around on the bench after his effort and I'm wondering if the same thing happen to Mike?
February 26th, 2012 at 5:30 PM ^
February 26th, 2012 at 6:04 PM ^
barwis was a big part of the reason he was in reach of 50 reps in the first place. after "only" doing 36 his training regime "makes no sense?"
maybe you should be the new s&c coach
February 26th, 2012 at 6:06 PM ^
That is not that bad of a schedule for a pro athlete. Boxers train a lot longer and more regularly getting ready for a fight. And so do countless other pro athletes preparing for big events. I would also bet most high school wrestlers train more than that and I know for a fact that division one wrestlers train more than that. Given the performance by Molk, I doubt you can blame this on Barwis. This could be as much about it being on day 5 and not getting sleep leading up to it, as Molk noted in his interview these guys don't get much chance to sleep while at the combine.
On another note, I had never actually seen any numbers on what he had done with 225 previously. We all saw him bench 500, but no numbers on what he was doing with 225. Is it possible that 50 reps was just a pipe dream and 36 really is a good number for him? Love to see what the other DTs were doing, that might be telling.
February 26th, 2012 at 6:16 PM ^
where he benched 225 35 times after doing multiple reps of 400+ pounds. Both he and Molk trained together and talked about how they do the 225 lift at the end of lifting. 35 has to be really disappointing for him.
February 26th, 2012 at 6:34 PM ^
Boxing are a lot different in terms of the demands of the sports. Preparing for a combine isn't about being conditioned and preparing for the demands of a competition like wrestlers and boxers do. You don't need to break someone down for combine tests the same way you do during preseason or even in season conditioning. It's about being your strongest and fastest for those days at the combine. It's very possible keeping that rigorous of a schedule could have overtrained them. I've defended Barwis before but he has a reputation for overtraining his athletes.
February 26th, 2012 at 7:07 PM ^
Where does he have this reputation at? Besides RR haters on blogs. Boxers, wrestlers and olympic athletes all have the same goal, to peak at the right time. You can't be overtrained in any competition. I doubt they came in overtrained at all. But we will see more tomorrow.
February 26th, 2012 at 8:12 PM ^
who are actually in the Strength and Conditioning profession share this view. You won't see many strength coaches have continuous sessions like Barwis did without a peaking phase where volume is tapered down leading up to competition. In track and field, for instance, workouts are very high volume at the beginning of the season and then toward the end of the season are tapered down so that the runners have recovery time to make sure they're fresh for the most important meets of the year. You must let the CNS recover in order to have optimal performance. I've also heard that when Barwis was with M, players would be sore from lifting on game days. That should not happen. Yes you can lift hard during the season, but the volume needs to be much lower. Some athletes, albeit very few of them, can handle what would cause most people to overtrain. Brandon Graham pulled a hamstring when he was running in the combine. He also ran a much slower time than the time that was reported when he was in combine training with Barwis. Molk puts up 41 after hitting 39 reps after working sets when with Barwis. Martin only manages 36 when he states that he believes he can break the record, and I don't think he would say that without knowing he could do it. Don't get me wrong, 36 reps is still very impressive, as were Molk's 41, but all evidence just seems to point to these players working with him not peaking when they should be, but instead getting hurt and performing below what they know they can do.
February 26th, 2012 at 8:52 PM ^
"all evidence just sems to point to these players working with him not peaking"
except of course molk putting up the best numbers of any olineman.
maybe it's just that sometimes guys have it that day and sometimes they don't. i'm guessing the strength coach at OSU isn't terrible and yet Mike Adams, one of the top OTs, can only get 17 reps or whatever. wes welker catches wide open passes almost all of the time. billy cundiff makes 30 yard field goals almost all of the time.
sometimes guys just don't quite get done what they want/expect to get done.
February 27th, 2012 at 9:37 AM ^
The guy at Ohio didn't do combine prep for him. He was just hired from Florida and is one of the best in the business. The majority of college strength coaches don't do combine training. The elite players go to places like Athlete Performance, Parisi Speed School, Velocity in Cali or Florida, IMG in Florida and places like that. These places are the best of the best and provide everything from nutrition to visual training to position drills/training.
February 26th, 2012 at 9:15 PM ^
They are number 2 and 3 at the combine, if that is over training than I guess more guys should get some of that. Plus, I would note the schedule you described was from last month, do you know what they did in the last week or two? I know they have not trained with him since Tuesday for sure as they had to travel to the combine.
I do like the "many people in the business comment, got any links for that? Because last I saw he was offered the biggest contract in division 1 by FSU. So yeah, people in the business must think he is a real train wreck.
February 26th, 2012 at 10:00 PM ^
If Inge can bat 250 and with some power, then Barwis is good. If not he sucks.
February 27th, 2012 at 8:43 AM ^
Anybody who is knowledgable in S&C will not dispute what the guy wrote about peaking. He said perhaps they didn't run a correct taper down to peak at the combine. When both MM and Molk had "disappointing" performances (according to their stated goals) and didn't hit massive PRs, you can probably bet something went wrong in their programming. I'll probably get banned for saying this (gasp), but maybe Barwis ended up hurting them on on this day.
The bit about guys being sore on game days is disturbing though. As stated, volume should be low during the season.
February 27th, 2012 at 8:42 AM ^
I'm a Barwis supporter and I think he does / did a great job with a lot of the guys, but that doesn't mean his methods are the best for everyone. The person who trained Hemingway obviously knew how to best prep him for the combine.
February 26th, 2012 at 8:02 PM ^
February 26th, 2012 at 8:53 PM ^
February 26th, 2012 at 4:25 PM ^
Did some of them not count?
February 26th, 2012 at 4:28 PM ^
February 26th, 2012 at 4:30 PM ^
The thread previously was David Molk but was replaced by Mike Martin. Why was the David Molk thread deleted?
February 26th, 2012 at 4:36 PM ^
It is not deleted for me bro:
February 26th, 2012 at 4:47 PM ^
February 26th, 2012 at 4:29 PM ^
who had 41
February 26th, 2012 at 4:29 PM ^
That's really just diappointing and sad to hear. I've been looking forward to how he'd perform like it was a Fall Saturday. On the bright side, I imagine he's going to be heading into the league with a chip on his shoulder next year..
February 26th, 2012 at 4:36 PM ^
Go tomorrow, Monday ?!?
February 26th, 2012 at 4:38 PM ^
the bench is usually the day before 40's and agility drills
February 26th, 2012 at 4:40 PM ^
Good to know. Thanks.
February 26th, 2012 at 4:41 PM ^
Hey, he's still twice as strong as the best OSU has to offer.
February 26th, 2012 at 4:51 PM ^
Will Johnson set some sort of lifting record and he never played one minute, even in exhibitions. MM is certainly strong enough to play; he has to prove he's good enough by making plays on the practice field and in games. Same with Molk. I think they can and will.
February 26th, 2012 at 5:13 PM ^
Long time reader, first time poster. I was under the impression the the DL workouts were going to be on Monday. There are no stats for this that I see on NFL website or any others.
This link confirms that DL workouts are in fact tomorrow.
http://www.nflcombine.net/players/schedule
I've been watching NFL network most of the afternoon and its QB/RB/WR day, have seen nothing from DL. So where did this number of 36 come from if he hasn't even lifted yet?
February 26th, 2012 at 5:16 PM ^
As far as I know the DL workout has not happened yet and there is no results for any DL on the NFL combine website. Maybe this was a workout? I don't know why he would be doing bench the day before he has to bench but that 36 is not official
February 26th, 2012 at 6:21 PM ^
On the same matter. Meals kindly pointed out to me that Bench Press is usually the day before Agility and 40 yd. dash workouts i.e. "Workout Day". I'm assuming this is why we knew Molk put up 41 reps. already, Friday evening.
February 27th, 2012 at 10:37 AM ^
My mistake. 36 reps is still pretty damn good. MM is a beast.
February 26th, 2012 at 5:22 PM ^
This link shows the results:
A DL out of Memphis did 44 reps. Still second overall (Molk) and tied for third (Martin) among this year's draftees is pretty damn good, especially when both Molk and Martin are considered undersized for their positions.
February 26th, 2012 at 5:27 PM ^
February 26th, 2012 at 8:26 PM ^
looking up Mike's page on NFL.COM it shows his strenghts (no pun intended) and weeknesses...his size and lack of pursuit/lateral mobility seem to be a huge knock. To me I would think amazing 'superhuman' strength might have been one fact that could have put him over the top or separate himself from other prospects...hard telling and I agree 36 is about 20 more than I'd do right now, but he doesn't have a lot of other things apparently that jump off the page. THAT'S NOT ME...that's the NFL scouting report...I love the heck out of the kid as a warrior and general badass as part of team 132. Have to say I expected a bit more, but I hope they see the type of kid and player he is, could become at the next level.
** REALLY?? OVERRATED? man...just screw this place...how dare I say anything contradictory to the 'brainwash'...what the fuck ever..out. For the mods, by all means remove my account...done waisting time with this stuff stating an opinion...peace.