A View From The Training Ground
Oh man alive! Its Friday morning, the morning after the night before. Last night was the first pre season training session of the year with Ware FC. I woke up on the Thursday and the calfs felt fine, I had breakfast (Fruit & Fibre of course) and then relaxed and kept my muscles warm. During the afternoon I was doing some studying and at 4pm I had a bowl full of pasta. I prayed over it so that it would turn into a magical bowl of energy (or perhaps drugs), but neither worked. I waited for the bus, it didnt turn up, so I got a taxi. I arrived in Hertford feeling nervous and slightly apethetic. I went to Waitrose and got a bottle of Lucozade for a sugar boost.
I was kinda horrified to read on the website during the day that Ware had appointed a fitness coach, great! I turned up at the Meads and saw the group gathered. Pleasantries were exchanged between players and I was introduced by the manager as "this is one of the fans, he's turned up to throw up". Nice to know he has confidence in me. I was pleased to look at Wolfy and Matty Allen (2 centre backs) and see that they had been living in McDonalds all summer and needed to work some off. Matt was very encouraging and stuck by me through most of the session. He's 33 and is now a first team coach as opposed to a player. So here's what happened during the session...
The Warm Up - this involved jogging round the Meads as a group doing different aspects such as side to side, opening the gate, closing the gate, backwards. I was feeling slightly worried still but coped ok with that and joked how I this was further than I thought I'd get (not sure if that was a joke or not). This was probably about a mile or just over. We then spent 5 minutes stretching out everything.
20 Minutes - This was a killer. For 45 seconds we had to sprint at 80%, then for the next 45 seconds we'd jog and then the next 45 sceonds we'd walk. This went on for 20 minutes. This was punishing and during this process I got lapped twice (the circuit was quite small though). My legs were feeling like jelly, I felt light headed and my mouth was incredibly dry. That was very tough and at one point I thought I was going to pass out / throw up. But I didnt, I survived. I did notice towards the end that my 80% was around about someone elses 50% though. But that will improve hopefully.
Ball Skills - Ok so this was not something that I was expecting to do. I was under the impression that this was JUST fitness and the ball was not required until August. I began to panic slightly that this was where I was going to get shown up. The coach told us to get into 4's and I was hoping that there would one person too many and I'd have to sit down for the rest of the session, but alas no! I was in the group with Matt, Wolfy and Joe Stevens (he's the fans favourite player and one of the most fit). We had to get into pairs in our 4's (I was with Matty), for the purpose of explaining it A and B were together and C and D were together. The pairs would take it in turn to do the running. C and D would stand about 50 yards apart and wait there. A and B would be doing the work. A would dribble the ball down the length of the pitch and then lay the ball into C he would lay the ball out to B who would turn and then dribble back up towards D. B would then lay the ball into D and D would pass out to C. Got it? Good. After 5 minutes the pairs would swap so that we'd do running in splits. The coach changed things during this, such as doing overlaps and sprints. I actually enjoyed this stuff and wasnt doing too bad! It was tough work but the energy you get from a football is immense!
Mini Games - This scared the crap out of me even more. In our 4's we would play another 4. This was like actually playing with the Ware team. My quality was less than others but the enthusiasm and learning was high. We lost the first, drew the second and third. I set up a couple of goals but also nutmegged by the manager!
Working on the Toes - for this we got into pairs (I was with someone who I didnt know). We stood opposite each other and one person would throw the ball to the other who alternate between left foot volleys and right foot volleys. The next stage was volleys off the laces, then we did jumping headers and then the exercises that near enough killed me... You had to volley, sit down, get up, volley, sit down, get up, etc... then the next one... header, down, press up, up, header, down, press up. Absolute agony!! that was so tough. We then had a little competition between pairs to see who could keep the ball up for the longest. We didnt come lost which was a miracle, last but one, but still not last though!!
Warm Down - This was a nice gentle jog round the Meads in order to relax the muscles. Matt Allen lead it so it was always going to be slightly easier! We would do side running, backwards running (Joe Stevens tried to trip me up and failed - loser!), and then stretch out gently.
SO that was it! The first session down. Very very tired! But very rewarding too. Wolfy gave me a lift to the station and basically said that that was nothing and there was much harder to come. Tuesday will be bad as my muscles will still be aching from last night. which is encouraging.
I was kinda horrified to read on the website during the day that Ware had appointed a fitness coach, great! I turned up at the Meads and saw the group gathered. Pleasantries were exchanged between players and I was introduced by the manager as "this is one of the fans, he's turned up to throw up". Nice to know he has confidence in me. I was pleased to look at Wolfy and Matty Allen (2 centre backs) and see that they had been living in McDonalds all summer and needed to work some off. Matt was very encouraging and stuck by me through most of the session. He's 33 and is now a first team coach as opposed to a player. So here's what happened during the session...
The Warm Up - this involved jogging round the Meads as a group doing different aspects such as side to side, opening the gate, closing the gate, backwards. I was feeling slightly worried still but coped ok with that and joked how I this was further than I thought I'd get (not sure if that was a joke or not). This was probably about a mile or just over. We then spent 5 minutes stretching out everything.
20 Minutes - This was a killer. For 45 seconds we had to sprint at 80%, then for the next 45 seconds we'd jog and then the next 45 sceonds we'd walk. This went on for 20 minutes. This was punishing and during this process I got lapped twice (the circuit was quite small though). My legs were feeling like jelly, I felt light headed and my mouth was incredibly dry. That was very tough and at one point I thought I was going to pass out / throw up. But I didnt, I survived. I did notice towards the end that my 80% was around about someone elses 50% though. But that will improve hopefully.
Ball Skills - Ok so this was not something that I was expecting to do. I was under the impression that this was JUST fitness and the ball was not required until August. I began to panic slightly that this was where I was going to get shown up. The coach told us to get into 4's and I was hoping that there would one person too many and I'd have to sit down for the rest of the session, but alas no! I was in the group with Matt, Wolfy and Joe Stevens (he's the fans favourite player and one of the most fit). We had to get into pairs in our 4's (I was with Matty), for the purpose of explaining it A and B were together and C and D were together. The pairs would take it in turn to do the running. C and D would stand about 50 yards apart and wait there. A and B would be doing the work. A would dribble the ball down the length of the pitch and then lay the ball into C he would lay the ball out to B who would turn and then dribble back up towards D. B would then lay the ball into D and D would pass out to C. Got it? Good. After 5 minutes the pairs would swap so that we'd do running in splits. The coach changed things during this, such as doing overlaps and sprints. I actually enjoyed this stuff and wasnt doing too bad! It was tough work but the energy you get from a football is immense!
Mini Games - This scared the crap out of me even more. In our 4's we would play another 4. This was like actually playing with the Ware team. My quality was less than others but the enthusiasm and learning was high. We lost the first, drew the second and third. I set up a couple of goals but also nutmegged by the manager!
Working on the Toes - for this we got into pairs (I was with someone who I didnt know). We stood opposite each other and one person would throw the ball to the other who alternate between left foot volleys and right foot volleys. The next stage was volleys off the laces, then we did jumping headers and then the exercises that near enough killed me... You had to volley, sit down, get up, volley, sit down, get up, etc... then the next one... header, down, press up, up, header, down, press up. Absolute agony!! that was so tough. We then had a little competition between pairs to see who could keep the ball up for the longest. We didnt come lost which was a miracle, last but one, but still not last though!!
Warm Down - This was a nice gentle jog round the Meads in order to relax the muscles. Matt Allen lead it so it was always going to be slightly easier! We would do side running, backwards running (Joe Stevens tried to trip me up and failed - loser!), and then stretch out gently.
SO that was it! The first session down. Very very tired! But very rewarding too. Wolfy gave me a lift to the station and basically said that that was nothing and there was much harder to come. Tuesday will be bad as my muscles will still be aching from last night. which is encouraging.
posted by Pete at 09:10
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