By Cherry Picker
June 27 2010

The club's international players are still scattered the four winds and won't be over their jet-lag for some time, but preparations for the new season are already well under way as Gloucester's fitness and conditioning experts go to work on the Kingsholm squad. And to bring the new season even closer, there are only days left if you want a bargain price on a season ticket. Many fans perhaps didn't even know that Glaws employ a "head of strength and conditioning," but they do - and Barney Allen and his colleagues are already hard at work aiming to present Bryan Redpath and the other coaches with a squad fit to play at their best when it all kicks off in September.
Using training programmes developed on the other side of what used to be the Iron Curtain, Allen told the club website: "We use a lot of their Olympic lifting programmes to try and develop our players into super strong, super powerful guys without carrying too much bulk.
"We monitor other sports as well. Obviously, weight lifting is one and we try and learn a lot from them and I've studied the NFL and the way they work quite a bit and we also learn from football for their running and injury prevention techniques."
Meanwhile, a nutritionist is used to keep the players' diets right, but one of the few things the preparation can't provide at the moment is the sort of muddy pitches and freezing weather they are likely to come up against in the middle of the season.
Conditions at the sun-kissed Hartpury College training base are currently a million miles away from Sale in February, and the same will apply when the squad goes for a week's pre-season training in Portugal.
But hopefully, the heavy going will arrive gradually and Glaws and the other GP clubs will hopefully get some good running rugby conditions in the first few weeks of the season before pitches go pear-shaped.
Meanwhile, the club says season ticket sales are going well, but early-bird bargain prices expire at the end of June, which is on Wednesday.

Season ticket deadline looms as players prepare

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 27/06/2010 12:26

Shedloads
27/06/2010 12:26

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Reply Quote Report

Message List Search Log In

Your Name:
Subject:

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net