Training Camp 2008 Monday 14^th July

I think the lads could be forgiven a few of the Monday morning blues as they all came down for breakfast at 8.15am, a few of them had already visited the treatment room to get some strapping to their feet or to get their blisters tendered.

After breakfast it was time to set off to the training ground with Jack and all the kit to help the Gaffer, Flicker and Shanks set out their training areas before the lads arrive, I helped Flicker set out a beast of a fitness circuit that was really going to test the lads.

The training commenced promptly at 9.30am right after the Gaffer had spoken with the players and it was Nathan Stanton who again led the lads off on a gentle jog to ease the players in, after a couple of laps of the training ground he stopped the lads to do some stretching before completing a couple more laps.

To get the session going a little livelier the Gaffer and Flicker started with a money circle and it wasn't long before the banter started to flow. There were some familiar names that again had to open their wallets with Kallum Higginbottom, Raphale Evans and Rory McArdle all ten euros lighter.

Next up was the beast of a training circuit that Flicker had set up, which was a course about 60 yards in length, there were red poles at each end and on one side at 5 yard intervals was a yellow cone with a ball, opposite the yellow cones was another yellow cone about 5 yards in field, this was for the outward part of the course. On the return side of the course were hurdles, hoops, ladders, slalom poles and this was repeated.

The players were split in to two groups of 10 and one set of players were the servers who each had a ball and an instruction to either flat head, chest, volley, half volley and jump head and this was repeated.

The players started by some hurdling from a jump start and then on to some ladders before meeting the first server, once the first player had reached the first server the second player could then set off. After two timed circuits the teams change places and then the process is repeated.

There was a session of a SSG with two teams of 10 on a three quarter pitch and this lasted for 20 minutes each way. After the game there was a warm down session before heading up the hill to Guy Proctor in the gym.

Guy's session was all about conditioning and again working in two teams of 10 there is a circuit that is timed and utilises various pieces of gym equipment. Following the gym session it was in to the pool area and the dreaded ice baths.

Unfortunately the morning session threw up a couple of slight injuries, Joe Thompson and Nathan D'Laryea both got knocks and were to miss out on the evening session.

Joe will have a further assessment in the morning on a medial ligament problem and Nathan is due in the gym at 7.45am to have a little test with Andy Thorpe as he feels he should be fine tomorrow.

After lunch the lads were given rest and relaxation time and most chose to spend the rest time by the pool.

The evening session was put back to 6.45pm and the hotel catering staff advised accordingly not to prepare dinner for us until 9.30pm.

During the afternoon we were made aware of a problem with our game against Charlton Athletic, our tour organiser advised us that Charlton didn't want to travel over to Marbella for the game as they were only due to arrive late today. At one point there seemed to be an option to travel all the way over to where Charlton were staying near Cadiz rather than the original mid way point. This would have meant at least a 3 hour coach journey for us and obviously the same back and a 5pm kick off rather than the original 7pm kick off.

We felt more than a little bit let down by this situation, it was just not realistic in this environment to spend over 6 hours on a coach. We then had the opportunity to play Marbella at our training ground and this was a more satisfactory and practical outcome.

We were down on the training for 6.15pm setting up the evening session and the lads arrived in time for a 7pm start. Ben Muirhead was given the honour of leading the lads off on their warm up jog and stretching exercise.

Following the warm up the lads moved straight in to a session of the money circle, there was a slight variation on the circle this evening with three players in the middle. I didn't keep score myself but I am informed that 10 euros are departing the pockets of Tom Kennedy and Ben Muirhead.

The session then went in to small square about 20 yards by 20 yards with ball work and movement. The squares look busy with plenty of movement.

The ball specific session continued on a half sized pitch the width of the penalty areas and in three team of 7 plus the two goalkeepers. We had the support players around the edges who could play with either team on a two touch basis and there was no offside, the game was of 6 minute duration.

After the first game the teams rotate and the rotation is done twice. Later in the session the game is changed to include offside and the games are 12 minutes in duration. All throughout the session the Gaffer will stop play to analyse things that have just happened in the game and what he is looking for.

During the session the Thorpe twins came out of the gym and joined us on the training ground, both were doing quite a bit of running round the edge of the ground and the after the session had finished James Spencer was continuing his rehab by doing the same.

After dinner it was time for the final two new boys to get up on their chair and do their stuff. First up was Jon Shaw who thanked the Gaffer and Flicker for bringing him to the club. He went on to say that he had come from a club where they had spent the year fighting relegation and was looking forward to having a season at the top end of a table with Rochdale, he too finished with an "UP THE DALE".

Scott Wiseman was the final new boy to do a turn and he had chosen to do a song.His room mate Clark Keltie told us he had been practicing in the mirror for days in preparation for his big moment. Scott chose to sing Build Me Up Buttercup by The Temptations and all the lads joined in. Very interesting that these young lads keep going for the Golden Oldie songs.

 

That really was the end of our day. The Monday morning blues were soon shaken off this morning and the lads have had three tough sessions today and I am sure that when Paul Conway downloads the data from the polar belts he will discover them all in the red zone.