Pre-Season Update: Christmas break has been earnt

As the Titans pre-season 2021 draws to a close, many of the squad will enjoy a well-earned break and not too much Christmas pudding before returning in January with trials just around the corner.

We sat down with High Performance Manager, Klint Hoare to get an understanding of the journey so far.

How has the first part of pre-season been?

Pre-season block 1 all done and dusted after seven weeks with our trial and trainers and four or five weeks with our NRL squad.

It has been extensive and intensive and we have been looking to focus our work around football drills, scaffolding that with some small-sided games and trying to get our game metres per minute up.

What have you focused on so far?

Also around my areas of expertise of pushing their fitness levels up and exposing them to high-speed distance running along with some volume and we have accumulated some good volume in this pre-season block.

It has been challenging for them with the heat and humidity here on the Gold Coast but we have been really happy with them also.

Around the strength elements and weight loss focus we have got certain players who need to do both, we have had Jayden Campbell putting on weight this pre-season and then we have guys, who I wont name names, who are looking at targets to lose some body fat.

We didn't have too many red flags which is a great thing and we are in a good position to launch into the new year in really good shape for pre-season block two.

What does the next training block look like?

"Block 2 is about making it more specific. We have been more general in our fitness conditioning work and it has been about putting volume into them, combined with small-sided games, which will be really crucial come round 1.

What have you told the squad before they leave on break?

Let yourself relax, let yourself recuperate, it has been a pretty tough 4-7 weeks depending on when you came back and now it is time psychologically and physically to have a release valve, but you need to keep the wheels turning over still.

Has the new Fitstop gym aided pre-season?

To have Fitstop come onboard and see what they have done in the gym is awesome.

The setup and the workflow has been awesome, we have had up to 30 athletes using it at any one stage and the equipment from Alphasport has been first class.