Training alone lacks the intensity of a full-squad session. Training alone lacks the intensity of a full-squad session. Images: Warren Clarke

Getting warmer

“In our normal warm-up routine we start with glut exercises. We wrap a theraband around our ankles, then we’ll do ten lifts to the side, ten forward, ten back, walking forward, walking to the side etc. After that we pass the ball around, pretty relaxed, just mucking around. Then we’ll run two laps, very slowly, just to get the legs moving and the heart rate up. After that we do a light stretch, all the basic exercises – legs over, knees up, straight leg etc. Then we’ll do a couple of short sprints, not full pace but lifting

the heart rate. After that we get into groups of six, passing the ball around, staying on the move, no one’s allowed to be walking. Then we’ll do some squatting exercises and leg swings, just activating the leg muscles.”

Fast feet

“We do a lot of fast feet drills. We use ladders or mannequins or poles and you have to get through the course, in and out, like a slalom. All the courses are over 10 or 20 metres – really short, sharp, explosive. Sometimes we do a ‘fun’ fast feet exercise where a pair of players jog to the middle of four coloured mannequins and the trainer calls out a colour and one of you has to sprint to the coloured mannequin while your mate sprints to the opposite one. It’s about running and thinking at the same time. We particularly do a lot of fast feet work the day before a game. It’s all to get our feet moving in that final session.

“The coaches are trying to bring a lot of ballwork into these drills. When you think about it, it makes sense given we spend most of our time running with the ball at our feet. It’s important because it makes controlling the ball second nature in the game. At the moment they’re getting us to look ahead rather than looking down at our feet as we’re running through the courses with a ball. If people are going to be tackling us, we don’t want to be looking at our feet – we want to be watching who’s coming at us and from what angles.”

Drilled

“We work heaps of drills. Today, for example, we did an attacking-shape drill with shooting involved. We had two mannequins as central defenders and two strikers up. And we were practising playing one striker on the ball with the other striker doing a dummy and peeling around the side of the mannequins. It’s the old Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke trick where someone would play them in while the other would dummy and run around. We were working on that, getting our movement right at the edge of the box, playing it in firm, little touch to the other striker, he finishes just inside the box.

“Another drill we did today was to have two people on each sideline, they do a little one-two, and then we have two strikers in the middle who do a simple crossover. It’s all about working movement inside the box, making sure you hit the target. Those two drills will be going on at the same time, the team in two groups at opposite ends of the field. After 20 minutes we swap over. Once we’ve done both drills, we’ll normally go into a small-sided game, taking those skills we’ve been working on into a match scenario.”