8A — Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

A look inside Michigan’s lifting program with strength coach Jamie Priess

We see Michigan women’s 

basketball 
players 
knocking 

down shots, grabbing boards 
and drawing up plays. But the 
fans rarely get to witness the 
preparation that goes into the 
final spectacle. They don’t know 
about the daily lives consumed 
with practice, game planning 
and watching film.

People rarely think about the 

countless hours in the gym, and 
they certainly don’t consider 
how much time athletes spend 
in the weight room.

To establish a firmer grasp 

on the Wolverines’ strength 
and conditioning program, The 
Michigan Daily sat down with 
Jamie Preiss. This past summer, 
Preiss was named Michigan’s 
strength and conditioning coach 
after spending time with the 
wrestling, men’s gymnastics, 
men’s tennis, men’s lacrosse 
and volleyball teams. He also 
currently works with the men’s 
basketball program as well as 
men’s and women’s golf.

Take an inside look at how 

the 
self-proclaimed 
“hardest 

working 
team 
in 
America” 

prepares.

How 
strength 
and 

conditioning 
changes 

throughout the year:

The 
Michigan 
Daily: 

Throughout the year I’m sure 
the types of workouts you run 
the team through differ. So how 
do the workouts change from 
the offseason to in-season?

Jamie Preiss: Really it all 

kind of starts in the summer. 
So they go home and come back 
in June. We’ll do our testing 
and evals for a week, and then 
we spend all of July up until 
August training, and then we’ll 
test them again. So July through 
August we’re doing as much 
work as we can. We’re trying 
to get as strong as we can, and 
we’re trying to get in the best 
possible shape as we can.

TMD: So when you say 

“training,” 
specifically 
what 

kind of training do they go 
through?

JP: We do a lot of our main 

lifts like our power cleans, 
squat, bench and a lot of circuit 
training. We’ll do things like 
sled pushes, we’ll get the battle 
ropes out. I’ll also mix in some 
cardio – like some Airdyne 
workouts, (and) conditioning 
on the court, we’ll do basketball 
specific drills for agility and 
start and stop sort of things. 
We also do straight endurance, 
getting up and down the court 
as many times as 
we can.

TMD: 
To 

clarify, 
this 

is 
during 
the 

summer?

JP: 
Yeah, 

during 
the 

summer. 
We’ll 

go three times 
a week in the 
weight 
room 

– 
Monday, 

Wednesday (and) Friday. They 
aren’t on the court a lot, so I 
get a lot of time with them. The 
workouts are an hour to an hour 
and a half.

We usually reserve one day 

a week – usually on Fridays – 
where it’s full-on intensity. We 
work as hard as we can. We do 
team-oriented circuits where 
whatever team finishes first 
wins – it’s competitive. We 
want to try and keep things 
competitive in here and get 
them working as hard as they 
can.

TMD: That fits with the 

motto of the team.

JP: Yeah, their motto is 

the “hardest working team in 
America.” So we try and come 
in every single day in that 
offseason and work as hard as 
we can (in the weight room) 
because they don’t really need 
to work on basketball.

TMD: How does that change 

when the summer ends?

JP: Once you get into the fall, 

once they start playing more 
basketball, we kind of slow it 
down a little bit.

TMD: How often are they 

getting into the weight room 
once basketball picks up?

JP: We might get in (the 

weight room) three times a 
week in the fall, but it’s our 
general lifts — our squat, our 
bench, our power cleans. We 

might do a couple supersets. I’m 
not really crushing them. We 
want to try and keep them fresh 
for practice.

TMD: How does that change 

once the season starts?

JP: It depends on what kind 

of minutes they’re playing. A 
high-minute 
player, 
they’re 

going to lift once 
a week. We’re 
going to get our 
squat, bench and 
power clean out 
of the way early 
on in the week, 
and the next day 
is 
a 
recovery 

day. 
They’re 

stretching 
and 

foam 
rolling. 

We’ll do rehab 
kind of stuff with stretching and 
mobility.

TMD: 
And 
what 
about 

players that don’t see as much 
playing time?

JP: If they’re not playing a ton 

of minutes, we’ll do a little bit 
more lifting. Two days a week 
(of lifting) in season. And (how 
much you do) depends on what 
kind of player you are and where 
you’re at in your development.

TMD: In basketball, what 

lifts 
translate 
to 
the most 

success on the court?

JP: Definitely being able to 

squat, being able to put force 
into the ground. That allows you 
to jump higher. Having good 
leg strength (is important), so 
squatting, deadlifting, power 

cleans. Anything 
that will improve 
your lower body 
strength.

TMD: 
And 

what 
does 
an 

“active rest day” 
consist of?

JP: It’s like 

coming in and 
doing 
some 

mobility 
drills. 

I might do some 

dumbbell work with them, some 
foam rolling, balance drills and 
things like that. They do stuff in 
the training room. Making sure 
they’re doing something to get 
some blood flow.

Catering to different style 

players and different body 
types:

TMD: So how do workouts 

change 
between 
players? 
A 

player like Hallie Thome (6’5”) 
surely has a different workout 
plan than Katelynn Flaherty 
(5’7”).

JP: In season, the high-

minute 
players 

pretty much do 
the same thing. 
They do their day 
one lifts at the 
beginning of the 
week — squat, 
bench, 
power 

clean — and then 
it’s basically like, 
let’s keep them 
healthy.

Out of season, 

it depends on what each player 
needs to work on. Like Hallie 
Thome really needs to do a good 
job getting her legs stronger. Her 
squat numbers were equivalent 
to girls that were guards or much 
smaller than her. So we focused 
on getting her lower body strong 
and she bought in. She went up 
40 pounds in her back squat in 
six weeks of training over the 
summer. Her power clean went 
up 15 pounds too.

With Katelynn, it was more 

about just keeping her healthy, 
and she needed to build up her 
core strength because she was 
having some issues with her 
lower back in the summer.

For 
conditioning, 
each 

position group’s workout is 
a little different. But in the 
weight room, it’s really based 
on their individual needs. And I 
evaluate them in the summer to 
determine what they need.

On who excels:
TMD: Is there anyone that 

stands out in the weight room?

JP: Jillian (Dunston). There’s 

a record board (in the weight 
room) and she pretty much 
owns every record.

She holds program records 

for back squat (350 lbs), bench 
press (175) and power clean 
(170).

She has great energy and 

thinks it’s super important. 
When she comes in here she 
works as hard as she can. Just 

a great athlete. She’s strong, 
she’s the fastest, she can jump 
the highest, she has the best 
conditioning on the team – 
which is rare. A lot of times you 
don’t see the strongest kid being 
the best conditioned. She’s a 
specimen. She’s an absolute 
freak. She’s an unsung hero. 
What she brings in the weight 
room is a dream for us. She’s a 
leader for us.

TMD: Too bad she’s a senior.
JP: Yeah, we’re going to need 

to find someone moving forward 
that fills that role.

On freshmen coming in:
TMD: How do the freshmen 

acclimate to the training?

JP: We need to identify their 

strengths and weaknesses right 
off hand. What we do is we’ll 
go through a whole screening. 
There’s different tests we do 
to help us identify if they have 
weaknesses in certain areas.

The first week (they get to 

campus) they’ll do this. Before 
they even lift or practice, they 
do this testing. Injuries are 
so prevalent, especially in the 
knee, so we want to make sure 
they can squat properly, they 
can hip pinch properly, they can 
jump and land properly before 
we even send them out there.

TMD: Is the transition hard 

for a lot of athletes?

JP: With high school girl’s 

basketball, the biggest thing is 
knee injuries. Every girl that 
comes in here, they’ve probably 
had some sort of knee issue in 
high school. A 
lot of them just 
don’t 
work 
on 

strength. So we 
have to identify 
any red flags and 
then 
I’ll 
work 

with 
Melissa 

(Poherence) 
— our athletic 
trainer 
— 
to 

work them out.

TMD: 
I 

assume they all come in with 
different 
levels 
of 
lifting 

experience?

JP: Yeah, it depends on where 

you are at when you come in 
here. As they move along and 
when they’re ready, we start 

testing 
them. 
For 
example, 

(Deja) Church came in as a 
freshman, and I didn’t test 
her on everything right away 
because she just wasn’t there 
yet. It took a minute before we 
did something like a back squat 
and power clean test because 
she didn’t know how to do it. 
But 
freshman 

Priscilla 
(Smeenge) came 
in, and she had 
training she had 
a good (lifting) 
background, 
and I was able 
to test her on 
everything.

TMD: 
What 

kind of testing 
do you do?

JP: We do vertical jump, 

sprint test, lane and agility, 
power clean, squat and bench 
press.

Some of the technology the 

team implements:

JP: We use this Fit Life 

Trainer. What you do is you 
put these reaction lights on the 
wall and set up a timer. The 
lights go off randomly, and we’ll 
have them get in a defense slide 
position and slide back and 
forth. I usually have them go for 
20 seconds.

Another thing we use is 

the Catapult. They wear it in 
practice every day and in games. 
It’s a GPS unit that goes on their 
back and monitors player load. 
It’s a number that identifies 

how many times 
they’ve cut, how 
far they’ve run, 
contact and all 
these 
different 

variables 
that 

go into one final 
number — they 
call that score 
the player load.

A 
lot 
of 
it 

right now is just 
data 
collection. 

Our next step is how can we 
actually apply it? How we can 
manipulate training with it? 
The idea behind it is to be able 
to see trends. Things like, “do 
we have weeks where our player 
loads are super high and we 

have to take a day and come 
down a little bit?”

TMD: 
Do 
you 
find 
the 

Catapult the most useful piece 
of technology you use?

JP: Yeah, just because it gives 

us a number in practice. It tells 
us how much they’re doing, 
which is hard to kind of quantify 
without this.

Working with the coaches:
TMD: How often and how 

closely do you work with the 
coaching staff?

JP: Quite a bit. I work with 

(assistant) 
coach 
Melanie 

Moore — especially when I first 
got here — weekly. We talk all 
the time about what the girls 
needed individually, what she 
thought the pulse of the team 
was and what she wanted the 
pulse to be. We would literally 
go player by player and (discuss) 
what they needed individually 
and how they are improving.

TMD: What about head coach 

Kim Barnes Arico?

JP: I pop in and I talk to 

coach Arico as much as I can. 
We talk before practice, and we 
always try to make sure we’re 
on the same page. They think 
strength and conditioning is 
super important, so coach Arico 
is in here all the time wanting 
to know what we’re doing. She 
asks me things like, “What do 
you think of this player? Can we 
get this player’s conditioning 
better?” It’s always a back-and-
forth, we always try and be on 

the same page. I 
take what they 
say to heart, and 
I do what I can 
in (the weight 
room) 
to 
help 

improve them on 
the court. I think 
it’s a really good 
relationship. 
They’re 
super 

bought into what 
we’re doing.

TMD: How much are the 

basketball practices and the 
strength and condition sessions 
intertwined?

JP: So coach Arico utilizes 

practice to get them in good 
shape. 
It’s 
actually 
been 

pretty easy for me in my end 
in the condition area because 
she runs such a high intense 
practice. They’re not just doing 
basketball, she’ll work in sprint 
drills and things like that.

TMD: Since it is such a 

condition-based practice, does 
that allow you to focus more on 
developing strength?

JP: Yeah, for sure. In season, 

for the most part, I can work 
on getting them stronger. In 
the offseason, when they’re not 
doing as much on the court, 
that’s when I have to focus more 
on the conditioning.

On the stigma of women 

and lifting weights:

TMD: Do you find even in 

an athletic setting, there’s a 
difficulty in the stigma that 
society has created with women 
and lifting?

JP: Yeah, it is different with 

women. Usually, with guys, 
they want to lift, they like to 
put a bunch of weight on and 
try and lift as heavy as they can. 
You know, some girls (say), “I 
don’t want to get too big or too 
bulky.” (Part of it) is getting 
them to understand that just 
because you’re strong doesn’t 
necessarily mean you have to be 
super bulky.

That’s why I think Jillian 

Dunston is such a big part. She 
came in here, she lifted heavy 
and got after it. And the rest 
of the team kind of falls in line 
with that. Having her helped 
a lot. With this team, I haven’t 
come across any issues with 
that.

TMD: 
Do 
you 
think 

in 
women’s 
athletics 
the 

importance of weight training 
gets overlooked?

JP: For sure. More times 

than not you’ll get a female 
athlete come in and not have any 
training.

TMD: Do you see that in 

men’s sports?

JP: In men’s sports, more 

guys work out. And you see 
that in the injuries in women’s 
basketball, they just don’t work 
out (when they’re younger). In 
women’s sports, you get more 
girls that come in here and have 
never even stepped foot in a 
weight room.

So being able to get them to 

understand why they are doing 
it is a big part of what we do.

ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily

Senior forward Jillian Dunston has made an impression in her time at Michigan as being one of the hardest workers in the weight room for the Wolverines.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HUNTER SHARF

The Michigan women’s basketball team has to adjust to weight lifting in college because many have not done much of it in high school.

“It’s like 

coming in and 

doing some 

mobility drills.”

“Yeah, during 
the summer. 
We’ll go three 
times a week.”

“It depends on 
where you are 
at when you 
come in here.”

“Our next step 
is how can we 
actually apply 

it?”

HUNTER SHARF
Daily Sports Writer

