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