3/1 To Win
Captain Curtis Davies pens his thoughts following the first couple of days in Florida.
As day three of our pre-season trip to Florida comes to a close, I thought it would be a good time to give a little insight into the trip and the first few sessions with our new manager.
When the manager came in we spoke about his desire to play football, and from the outset he has been trying to get his ideas across to the lads through different passing drills and exercises. It’s being done in a laid back way in between different running drills but it’s planting the seed of what can be expected moving forward.
As always with pre-season there (unfortunately) will have to be some running involved. However, the old ideas of pre-seasons where players are basically run until they’re sick are long gone. We have a balanced way of integrating runs either into our football sessions or in between different drills. Having been given a programme to do in the off-season, most of the longer runs have been taken care of. The idea of the runs we do now are to gain that sharpness and power into the legs that you’ll require for playing games.
I’m sure from the club’s and the player’s social media pages you will have seen a few comments about the heat. We know this is part and parcel of pre-season but being out here with the humidity takes some adjustment. It also means that you have to adapt to the pitches being dryer than what we are normally used to at times and that’s difficult physically and mentally as you begin to question yourself after a bad touch etc. At this stage it’s important not to beat yourself up and to get through sessions unscathed but having felt like you’ve put it in. The touches and movements will come together in time.
With the first match on Wednesday, it’s the first test to see what level we are at. If the lads are anything like me they’ll be chomping at the bit to get that first taste of “proper” football. So, roll on Wednesday!
Curtis Davies
