New Strength Training Program
So I saw this tweet a little while ago...
January 19th, 2011 at 1:58 PM ^
I think part of the reason of the Barwis effect being viewed as a myth was it being misunderstood to begin with. Barwis had our guys ready to go on day 1 of the season and we looked better conditioned throughout the season than previous Michigan teams.
Barwis never promised to make freshmen play like seniors or be in better shape than OSU at the end of the season after everyone is in full swing.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:12 PM ^
What I was shocked to see was linemen without a gut overflowing from their pants. We've never been Mt Cody big, but my wife even commented last year that the linemen had small bellies.
January 19th, 2011 at 1:59 PM ^
I understand that the Barwis hype ran wild in the aftermath of his hiring. But the gains in strength and conditioning are not a "myth" as you can look at the weight lifting and fitness records of the guys during his training. You can ask any of the NFL players that have come back to train with him. It was his job to get the team physically ready to play football, it was someone elses to teach them how to play... Barwis did his part.
I understand the guy didn't "actually"create the universe, but why the big need to rip the guy apart, especially now??
Lets hope Wellman does just as good a job with the kids. No reason to think he won't.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:01 PM ^
I think many of us, including me, got a bit too caught up in the whole "eeeBarwis" stuff and started thinking that he could take marginally talented players and turn them into All-Americans all by himself. I'm really disappointed he's gone, but we weren't going to win a national championship in the weight room alone.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:05 PM ^
I can tell you that the "Barwis effect" was overrated. I'm not saying he was a bad S&C coach, I'm just saying the idea that swarmed around here that he was at such a higher level than other S&C coaches was false. There are many, many good S&C coaches, and each of them can only do so much as far as physical development, and believe me, all of them are intense. I don't think the new staff will be that much of a difference from the old staff as far as results, and almost all "modern" staffs do olympic style training.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:04 PM ^
When your kids are freshmen and sophs playing against juniors and seniors who have been in college-level S&C programs for an average of two more years than your guys have, JC himself isn't going to give them a physical advantage, especially in the fourth quarter.
Barwis should be congratulated for bringing modern training techniques to the University of Michigan. The upgrades and modernization were sorely needed. As for how it translated to performance on the field, his grade should be the same as RR's: incomplete.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:25 PM ^
I disagree. JC would bring the pain for 4 quarters.
January 19th, 2011 at 5:05 PM ^
15 WINS
22 INCOMPLETES
pfft
January 19th, 2011 at 2:22 PM ^
uh, what is that word? Ah, fans, thats it.
What I don't understand is why people feel a strange need to demean Barwis.
Some people are Blue. Some are only blue because they have been holding their breath. I find it interesting how many of the latter can not seem to make a positive statement.
January 19th, 2011 at 5:22 PM ^
What I don't understand is why people feel a strange need to demean Barwis
By "demean," do you mean squeal like a schoolgirl at the mention of his name and go on and on about how his methods gave us a secret advantage over everybody? The hype : criticism ratio on Barwis on this message board has been about 50 : 1.
January 19th, 2011 at 3:08 PM ^
The guys are tweeting that it's a long workout but not bad.
*EDIT That's what she said
January 19th, 2011 at 2:44 PM ^
This has already been posted on previous threads, but as long as its being discussed it deserves another look.
January 19th, 2011 at 3:20 PM ^
Was that Brady talking at about 50 seconds in?
What I heard: "You don't have the right to feel hurt. You don't have the right to feel tired. All you've got the right to do is play your (ass) off everyday. That's your right!"
January 19th, 2011 at 3:50 PM ^
This looks much more difficult than the strength exercises on the Nintendo Wii, and those kick my ass.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:53 PM ^
That is a 100 point comment. I need 99 others to help me out here.
January 19th, 2011 at 8:00 PM ^
That would be 200 points.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:09 PM ^
There's some ... interesting ... technique being displayed by a few athletes in that video, but that could be for lots of reasons. Any strength coach who likes tires and the prowler is off to a good start in my book. I wish I'd seem some Olympic lifts, but I'm sure we didn't see everything they do in that 2:00 clip.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:03 AM ^
I'm about to order a prowler. Those things are bad ass.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:45 PM ^
is a minor part of playing football. It's about "preparedness". S/C will not make someone a better football player, period. Like people have been saying, Barwis was highly overblown. There are other guys that are just as good, if not better than MB. One name that comes to mind is Buddy Morris at Pitt. Guy has been around forever, is very well respected and is intense as they get.
Having said that, I think the new staff looks pretty legit.
January 19th, 2011 at 3:20 PM ^
Saying that strength and conditioning isn't that important to football is like saying size, speed, and strength aren't important in football. You can be as prepared as possible, but if the other team is bigger, faster, and stronger, you won't have much of a chance.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:07 PM ^
it's a minor part of the game. Please dispute my claims, I would love to hear this. If S&C were so important, don't you think every single coach would find olympic S&C people? I can see making a case for lineman; sure strength is pretty important, but look at every other position. What's more important: learning scheme and actual football skills or strength?
And I hate to tell ya, but speed is generally a finite quantity. There are some things you can do to tweak it, but you're not going to get drastic differences in speed through S&C, sorry.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:44 PM ^
I responded to the sentence:
S/C will not make someone a better football player, period.
It seems to me that strength and conditioning are the base upon which football skills are built. I wasn't arguing that nobody else can do what Barwis does.
January 19th, 2011 at 3:34 PM ^
And all the uproar about his type of training was going to lead to less injuries....
Didnt seem to work that way. Not saying its his fault but hype is just hype.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:19 PM ^
I read absolutely nothing into that tweet, other than that Stonum is convinced he's in good shape.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:41 PM ^
Barwis....come on guys he deserves mad props for everything he did here. In particular Brock Mealer and what they did there. For those Anti Barwis, come on the guy followed Rich's instructions.... so when he told him he wanted lineman running ...., lifting .... and weighing about.... that is what barwis did....
Rich adjusted after the 09 season saying we have to get bigger....that is well documented..but they didn't get big enough....the same front guys got ran over...Mike Martin included....they weren't near big enough for a 3 man front....is that Barwis fault or Rich's fault? Imo Rich....he knew the front he was playing Mike Barwis trained them as instructed.
Get a top notch crew and some depth for coaches to work with on the field and everything is good.
BTW, S&C...come on 2006 team was a personal foul from being undefeated under gittleson's ancient method, 2005 team had 5 losses.... same method.. 9, 7 and 5 losses under barwis... off season commitment was 05 team issue, 08, 09 and 10 those teams just didn't have talent period.
January 19th, 2011 at 9:03 PM ^
Barwis was good, but wasn't superman. Given another year to get guys bigger? Who knows. Gittleson may have become stale (I don't know, some seem to think he did) yet he had alot of guys strong enough at the point of attack.
January 19th, 2011 at 5:33 PM ^
......I shall be interested to see the results of Wellmanation.
January 19th, 2011 at 6:39 PM ^
I think the most interesting thing (besides the Mealer work) was what Brawis did with the night of champions. I really hope this stays and becomes a Michigan tradition. I think it was a great recruiting tool.
P.S. I know that Night of Champions was RR's idea (or at least he seemed to get credit for it inthe media) but it was all about SC stuff so I think its a fair assumption Brawis took the lead on the competition events themselves.
EDIT: if not the lead, at least a large role