Didsbury Dave
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- 1 Feb 2007
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danburge82 said:The thing is we looked very unfit the other day. We didn't look like we were 8 days away from the season starting. I think we played too few games in pre-season, and this would have been a good game to improve match fitness ahead if Monday. Last season I was strongly opposed to the Int' friendlies at this time, but this year I'm very disappointed!mancitydreamteam said:England game called off. :) saves 7 players from playing a pointless friendly
-- Tue Aug 09, 2011 9:49 am --
I posted these in the "are we ready?" thread yesterday:
Plus I was alarmingly concerned about the level of match fitness we showed in the Community Shield! I couldn't believe the lack of speed off the mark, lack of recovery after sprints, lack of sharpness of control and in the mind, the lazy and lethargic sticking legs out to control the ball and lunges into tackles instead of quick steps on the toes to move quickly across the ground, the lack of movement around the pitch... we looked like we were in the middle of pre-season, not 8 days away from the start of the season!
I look back over pre-season and we played three American teams early on which would have been good work-outs in full match situations. But from there we had the Dublin tournament against a NorthernPremier/IsthmianLeague standard Airtricity XI and an Inter team bereft of first XI players and who were three weeks behind us in terms of pre-season; then yesterdays game at Wembley. For me, we needed another game in there against a fitter and sterner opposition. Or to have spread the Dublin tournament out over three days and played the first team Friday and Sunday (I don't see why the EDS had a game, they'd had a string of pre-season games themselves). I'm actually glad there are internationals this week as it's another game under the belts of the players, and I'm usually strongly opposed to this game in the week leading up to the start of the season!
I can't fathom how we'd be so unfit with 8 days to go. I was actually shocked! I know we're a slow and methodical team in the middle of the season but that took it to another level!I went to the training session on Wednesday and wanted to see some intense conditioning work. But all they did was a lap of the pitch jogging; flexibility; some warm-up drills; flexibility; some keep-ball in small groups; some keep-ball in larger groups; a full size XIvXI game; a half-pitch XIvXI game; then some flexibility and a warm-down. I thought it was a very very relaxed and un-intense session. I'm not saying all their sessions were like that last week but by the looks of yesterday...
There's still a week to go, and a week when you're at their level of fitness is a lot becaus ethey can fine tune certain things in just a few days (where the everyday man may take a month). I'm hoping Capello and the other Int' managers give them some hard training this week.I once worked for a Super League club. I also have good qualifications in Sports Studies, Personal Training and Sports Massage Therapy (I'm very tempted to do a Masters in Strength and Conditioning, but it's just the cost and the time - anyway...). I've also designed a pre-season training schedule for a mates footy team.
The last two weeks of pre-season training before the season starts are the hardest two weeks. They include highly intense training sessions. I'm talking going out to't hills and doing hill sprints [10 lots of 20 second sprints up very steep hills - some sports clubs, especially in American sports, have their own purpose built hills](until some are literally throwing up with legs BURNING!); 10 x 30 second track sprints (some still throw up, it's that intense); bleep tests; medium weight resistence training until failure and 1 rep max resistance sessions in the gym... as I say, not the early pre-season style, relaxed knock-about style session I witnessed last Wednesday at the Etihad. And if they're not doing intense sessions with Capello then they are wasting this final week of pre-season!
and a game with five days training and recovery before the season starts would have been perfect. As I say, I'm actually disappointed!
There's a very interesting thread to be started here but I can't be bothered with the abuse from the attack dogs.
It has been said that our training is long but lacks intensity. Did that show at weekend?
What really matters of course is how we look next week, not last week.