Michigan Football: Kevin Tolbert -- Profile

Posted at 6:00am — 1/16/2015

Michigan Wolverine Football: Kevin Tolbert — Profile

A Strong Man’s Strength Trainer

As expected, Kevin Tolbert has been officially announced as strength and conditioning coach at the University of Michigan. He is another in the line of coaches with previous associations to Coach Jim Harbaugh that have packed the bags and rejoined the Michigan legend in his quest to rebuild Michigan football into a top tier program.

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Coach Tolbert is not new to Harbaugh or Michigan. Tolbert has been the strength coach for the San Francisco 49’ers. He also had a stint at Stanford. But before all of that, Tolbert coached for eight years under then long-time strength and conditioning coach Mile Gittleson. Some of his original fame came from being at the University of Miami.

His military background clearly connects Tolbert with toughness and a simple focus of achieving results. He will not be confused with former Wolverine Mike Barwis, except that both are firmly immersed in helping athletes better themselves holistically.

CoachBT recently received this correspondence:
It is with great honor that I’d like to announce that the newest University of Michigan strength and conditioning coach is my good friend Kevin Tolbert!

Kevin’s first stint at UM was as an assistant back from 2001 to 2007 so I was lucky enough to work with him for the second half of my college career.

You will not find a better man or leader and as someone who “knows his stuff” about training, Kevin is second to none.

I’ve sent this out before but it certainly bears repeating: “For three and one half years, Kevin Tolbert served and fought in Beirut. His only “break,” which we often joke about, was entry into the Grenada conflict before returning immediately to the Mediterranean.

As Officer of The Deck, Lieutenant Tolbert ran sprints on the deck of the USS Independence. He brought his weights on board, fitting a bench, squat racks, and bar into a small hold just large enough to allow movement with the bar.

He would do squats, standing with the weight until the ship came level. He would squat and stand erect with the weight, as it shifted to one side. When the ship again reached “middle ground” he would dip down, continuing in this fashion until one or two sets of twenty to thirty reps were completed.

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Bench presses were more difficult. He would hold the bar at arm’s length until the ship was stable, complete the rep, hold the bar while the ship leaned to port or starboard, and complete another rep as the “flat point” was reached. Spotters were needed to hold the squat racks and bench steady, as much as for the safety provided while actually lifting.

The flight deck proved to be an excellent running site, despite the fact that duty and combat responsibilities often made it impossible to run until late into the night or hours prior to sunrise.

Fatigue, exacerbated by duty shifts sometimes stretching to entire days, had to be ignored if he intended to lift and run…”

That passage was written by Dr. Ken Leistner from The Steel Tip Newsletter, Vol 3, Number 12. (December 1987) Or, in other words: Just get it done.

That’s a philosophy that we can certainly get behind. Needless to say, we expect big things down at 1200 South State Street

Welcome back Kevin! Train hard, John Wood

If you’d like to know more about Kevin Tolbert, how he trained, and all 36 issues of the Steel Tip Newsletter, they are available right here:

Link: Kevin Tolbert

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