MUTTER those two words if you dare. Pre-season. It used to be enough to make a seasoned semi-pro consider an early retirement.
The knowing look of the fearful footballer pitching up in early July gave the game away. “Have you left the footballs inside, gaffer?” the team scamp would venture, trying his luck on the first day back. Rarely do they get as much as a response. Everyone knew what was coming.
The close season has always been thought of as a period where players would prefer to hibernate, showing their face once the friendly games got more serious.
Garry Haylock, the former Hayes & Yeading and Farnborough manager, doesn’t subscribe to that theory – and is about to prove why.
Haylock has created what he is calling a ‘pre pre season training camp’ as, in his words, he believes there are footballers among us that have the passion to better themselves, and put their bodies at his mercy to show it.
His west London camp is football specific training that the 43-year-old is convinced will ensure players are sent back to their clubs – or on trial looking for pastures new – in perfect condition.
Haylock is putting on specially designed sessions three times a week for those that want the 2014-15 season to be theirs – and the hard work starts as soon as May 3 at Bedfont & Feltham‘s Orchard home.
He explained: “This is for a number of people. Players that have perhaps spent some of this season injured, and want to hit the ground running in July, or perhaps those that want to better themselves.
“I am a huge believer in football being about attitude, attitude and attitude. Your manager can give you the rest. This is for players that want to get fit, rather than have eight weeks off.
“Gone are the days when any manager out there will accept players coming back overweight. I remember reading Graeme Souness’ autobiography – he had to hide in the corner from Jack Charlton because he was carrying too much!
“It’s important too for players that haven’t got themselves a club. As a manager, would I look at any player that came down on trial to my club that wasn’t in shape? Not a chance. It sends out all the wrong messages to not be ultra fit when you are trying to sell yourself to a club.
“If you take your football seriously, or if you want to push on and be the very best you can then my advice is to give this a go and give yourself the best possible head start. This is about people wanting to better themselves, and I know they are out there.”
But this won’t be a case of Haylock barking orders as he sends his group on a five-mile run around the roads of nearby Heathrow airport.
His strategy is training around the game – trying to improve speed and the turn, using muscles that perhaps haven’t been used before to enhance a players’ performance and their look.
He added: “Let’s get this straight, this is not run until you drop. This isn’t the pre-season of old – it’s not cardio, it’s strengthening work, resistance bands, core work, sprint work. A lot of what I’m putting on is about speed and how to improve it.
“I’m giving what I was taught out in Greece as a player. I did this and came back two yards quicker. People were asking me if I was on drugs! The difference was incredible, it’s the way they train out there.
“Now I want to share what I have learned over the years and see this idea really take off.
“I am a passionate believer in taking the game seriously and I know players out there shame my view.”
