Mike Barwis

Mike Barwis is the current strength and conditioning coach for the Michigan Wolverines football team. The 2008 season was his first at the University of Michigan.

Background

Barwis joined Head Coach Rich Rodriguez at the University of Michigan in the winter of 2007 replacing Mike Gittleson as the strength and conditioning coach. Barwis was formerly employed as the strength and conditioning coach for the West Virginia Mountaineers. Mike Barwis was named director of strength and conditioning at West Virginia University, supervising the entire strength program for WVA athletics in May 2003. He had been previously employed as assistant strength and conditioning coach beginning in August 1998.

Mike Barwis has coached two National Strength and Conditioning (NSCA) All-Americans since 1999, and was one of 10 coaches to receive the 2002 Bronze Award from the NSCA certification commission.

Before becoming the strength and conditioning coach at West Virginia, he trained professional, Olympic, national and international competitors and medalists in wrestling, track and field, soccer, football, basketball, baseball, motocross, cycling and rifle.

Barwis received his undergraduate degree in exercise physiology from West Virginia University in 1996 and his master's degree in athletic coaching with an emphasis in strength and conditioning in 1998.

Barwis also has a background in the sport of mixed martial arts.

Philosophy

Barwis's training philosophy emphasizes the development of fast-twitch muscle fibers and flexibility and is "based on the clean-and-jerk movements of Olympic weight lifting, yoga, track-style stretching and nutrition."

According to an article published in the Detroit Free Press: "To Barwis, the key to football is change of direction. And the key to that is channeling energy from one part of your body to another. Rapidly. Without that, he said: 'Athletics are a waste. If I can put my body in the optimal position to generate the greatest force and power and to change direction in the quickest time, I don't always have to be the fastest player.'"

Barwis has claimed that "We're kind of the pioneers of the most progressive strength program in the country. We (West Virginia) were the strongest team in the country the last four years -- best conditioned, the fastest, most balanced, best body awareness, and most explosive." During his five year tenure, West Virginia produced eight draft picks including one 1st round pick and three 1st day picks.

Head Coach Rodriguez has stated that Barwis's role as strength and conditioning coach May Be more important to a football team than offensive or defensive coordinator. "In a lot of ways, it's even more critical because there are AbOUT five months where he has them by himself," WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. "He basically has them all summer, and there is a good bit in The Spring where he is in control and we can't have any contact with the players. He is an extension of the coaching staff, and we expect the same effort and same intensity in the weight room as we have on the field."

Barwis also states that the key to his training is the love and respect he has for his players. “In my opinion, a kid will never give you 110 percent unless he knows you love him and care about him,” Barwis said Tuesday afternoon during an interview inside the Milan Puskar Center. “That’s the bottom line. These kids know that they are my family and I love them. . . . “You have to respect somebody as much as they respect you to get them to do what you need them to do,” he added. “If you don’t truly care about a person, then you don’t truly have their best interests at heart.”

2008 Season

After Michigan upset then-ranked #9 Wisconsin on September 27, 2008, the Detroit Free Press reported that "when they were rallying and Wisconsin was wilting, the Michigan football team couldn't stop praising Barwis." Michigan won the game 27-25 after trailing by 19 points. "Every player noticed, even when things didn't click, that they were overwhelming Wisconsin." Moreover, "[t]he oppressive strength and conditioning program is paying dividends on the field. Michigan has appeared stronger in the second half of all four games than in the first half." The next week, however, the Wolverines failed to stop an Illinois rally that ended in a 42 to 20 rout. Michigan would lose another four straight games including an embarrassing loss to Toledo, the Wolverines first ever loss to a school from the Mid-American Conference. During this five game losing streak the Wolverines were outscored 114-27 in the second half. On November 15, after being outscored 14-0 in the second half, Michigan was defeated by Northwestern 21-14 which marked the 8th loss of the season for the Wolverines, the most losses ever recorded in the 129-year history of the program. Barwis and the Wolverines also failed to qualify for a bowl game for the first time since 1967. In the season's final game at Ohio State, Michigan was outscored 28-0 in the second half, falling to the Buckeyes 42-7. The Wolverines finished the season with a record of 3-9 (2-6 in Big Ten play).

2007-08 offseason

After being hired in December 2007, Barwis and Head Coach Rich Rodriguez "took one look at Michigan's weight room in December and decided to gut it. It was outdated for their needs. Six weeks and more than $1 million later, there were machines in the building that a layman would never recognize." Above the door to the workout room, a sign was posted saying "Through these doors walks the best-conditioned, hardest-working team in America."

In the spring and summer of 2008, over thirty professional athletes trained with Barwis, including Larry Foote, who said he became "more explosive, faster and better-tuned as he heads into his seventh season in the NFL." The workouts, referred to by one newspaper as the "Barwis School of Pukitude," were attended by, among others, Braylon Edwards, Chris Perry, Jamar Adams, Steve Breaston, Victor Hobson, James Hall, Leon Hall, LaMarr Woodley, Mike Hart and Ryan Mundy. Hockey players Kevin Porter, Chad Kolarik and Matt Hunwick also trained with Barwis over the summer.

Barwis does not accept compensation for training the professional athletes. However, Barwis prepared "a three-inch-thick binder for the players as they head back to their professional life. The binders lay out every detail of every workout to get them through the rigors of an NFL, or NHL, season." "He trains them, he says, because the alums are part of the Michigan family, because it's good for the program, and because he wants them to be as good as they can be." According to Rodriguez , the professional athletes "now train with him diligently and they're definitely some of his biggest advocates."

Former WVU players Steve Slaton, Darius Reynaud and Johnny Dingle also made plans to work with Barwis in Ann Arbor prior to the NFL draft. "'Mike's like an uncle to us,' Dingle said. 'He's a nice friend to have, whatever you need Mike for, he'll do.'"

According to one article, "Barwis often conducts workouts while [his] wife watches and their 1-year-old son plays nearby in a portable crib."

Reputation

Newspapers and players often comment about Barwis's reputation. The Detroit Free Press reported: "Even before Barwis arrived in Ann Arbor [in December 2007], his reputation preceded him. His legend has only grown since." Likewise, ESPN Magazine wrote: "Football players, many outweighing Barwis by 100 pounds, speak in awe of the guy like he's some sort of Chuck Norris figure." Among other things, newspapers and players mention:

Barwis "doesn't sleep" and "rarely eats."

Barwis has a "raspy, Wolfman Jack voice," a "raspy drill sergeant's voice", is a "gravel-voiced man," "whose gravelly voice is straight out of central casting."

Barwis considers his players to be his family and frequently hugs them.

Barwis owned two pet wolves.

In 2000, "[f]ive wrestlers quit during warmups and one cried during practice . . . ."

Barwis is reluctant to talk about his mixed martial arts background. A former West Virginia wrestler swore he saw "the 195-pound Barwis force a 300-pound Mountaineer heavyweight to -- in MMA terms -- 'tap out.'"

According to a December 20, 2007, article in the Charleston Daily Mail of West Virginia, Barwis was once jumped by two basketball players, Patrick Beilein and Mike Gansey. "'We thought we could catch him off guard and go get him.' That was a mistake [Beilein said]. 'Bad idea,' Gansey said. 'We both jumped on him and you know how every part of his body is like a rock? He had me on his back and gently put me on the ground and gave me a neck strangle and blacked me out for like 20 seconds. No lie. All my teammates saw it and at the click of his fingers I was back to normal. Crazy, huh? But that showed how strong he was and all the stuff he can do - and nothing was wrong with me afterward.'" After this event, the rest of the basketball team decided to jump on Barwis. "'The whole team was lying on the ground a little later,' Beilein said."

WVU players swore that Barwis had "some sort of magical power in combating bad weather. 'It seems like every time it rains and we go out there and condition, the sun gods always smile upon Mike Barwis and it makes it a little worse for us,' center Dan Mozes said. . . . 'We say this about Barwis: 'When he walks on the field, the sun comes out and it's time for us to run,' said WVU safety Eric Wicks."

When Morgan Trent was asked "What's the craziest thing about Wolverines strength coach Mike Barwis?," Trent replied "That he's a former MMA fighter and can kill any one of us if he wanted to with one punch."

Personal

Barwis is a native of the Philadelphia area. He is married to the former Autumn Speck, and they have one son together, Raymond, who was born in May 2007. Autumn Barwis was an associate director in the strength and conditioning at West Virginia University.

In 2000, Mike Barwis hired Speck as an intern. According to an interview with the Dominion Post, a newspaper published in Morgantown, West Virginia, Mike explained:

"Autumn and I worked together for about seven years. We were best friends and obviously excellent co-workers. We had similar interests, the same drive, the same ambition, the same direction. We complement one another at work. We complement one another as friends.

"After a number of years we decided maybe it was time to do it outside of here. We really seemed to match up personality-wise, ambition-wise, directionwise and interest-wise.

"She was the first person I ever found that filled all the voids in my life. The things I was bad at, she was good at ... and she's not bad at anything." The couple married on July 1, 2006.

Athletic Strength and Power Podcast: Part One with Mike Barwis: http://www.athleticstrengthandpower.com/2008/07/asap-strength-1.html