Liam Manning sends pre-season warning to Bristol City squad as the Bronco lies in wait

Liam Manning has promised to “beast” Bristol City’s players as they return for pre-season after a six-week break with the prospect of the daunting Bronco Test lying ahead.

City’s first-team squad, minus those who have been involved in international football, returned to the High Performance Centre on Thursday for two days of testing to assess body fat, strength and general fitness levels before the real work begins next week.

Such are the physical demands of the modern game, and the internal requirements to meet a certain level of fitness before a ball is even kicked, players have been in training for several weeks over the off-season having been provided with individual programmes.

That said, Manning has still promised to work them hard over the period before the 2024/25 campaign kicks off with an away trip to Hull City on August 10. Part of that will be incorporating the Bronco Test into the summer schedule, with previous regimes favouring the Yo-Yo as a development from the famed Bleep Test.

The Bronco has been popularised within rugby union and works on similar principles to the Yo-Yo and bleep test in that participants continuously run three shuttles over increasing distances (20m, 40m, 60m) and are timed. Some coaches also incorporate a ball into the exercise to mimic the requirements within a game and having to sprint while in control over a variety of distances.

“I’m obsessed with planning so we’d planned every single session by the end of last season,” Manning said. “We’ll periodise it where, without getting too heavy, we’ll tactically work on different phases of the game every week and then we’ll align some of the physical running with it as well.

“The players come back in incredible shape now, they’ve already been in some of them because we run optional sessions for two weeks. They all get an individual programme, they know there are certain markers that they have to hit if they want to do the full training session. If they don’t hit them, then there may be extras.

“They’re so finely-tuned now. We put a lot of trust in them, which I think is important for how I work - giving them accountability to make sure they’re in the best condition possible. Thursday and Friday they’re testing, so sports science and the medical can have them for two days, to find out where they’re at.

“There are a few drills in it - we do a run called the Bronco, it’s run as hard as you can until you can’t run anymore, basically. They’ll do that and a lot in terms of agility, lunges and a range of movements, as well as the running bits.

“The whole thing is, can we get to the first game with as many in the best shape possible but as many available. Of course, there might be a few injuries along the way which is what we want to try and prevent, hence the screening, the testing is all to find out where they’re at and what level of risk they are.

“And then we beast them. We push them really hard. If you have a really solid pre-season, it does set you up for the year. If you have a bit-part pre-season, sometimes you pay the price, you can carry a hangover so we go really hard.”

City’s pre-season provides Manning with his first sustained block of days and weeks “on the grass”, to prepare the Robins for the forthcoming Championship campaign.

Fitness forms a major part of that, in not just tuning players’ bodies but ensuring as many stay fit for as long as possible throughout the campaign, but also, and equally as important, is the tactical and technical work which he managed to drip feed into the squad since taking over in November but such was the relentlessness of the schedule there was little time for continuous work.

Much of City’s squad from 2023/24 remains, plus new arrivals Josh Stokes and Max Bird, allowing for continuity and consistency of message, while Manning is now familiar with the various personalities and learning capabilities of the individuals in the dressing room.

But with the potential for four new faces to follow Stokes and Bird into the HPC, the squad will need time to blend, with a training camp in Portugal at the start of next month before the first friendly against Newport County on July 22.

“Fortunately we’re off to Portugal for a week for a training camp,” Manning added. “We go really hard on the principles of play and how we want to play.

“Hopefully, we’ll have some new faces in so you can accelerate the relationships, accelerate the culture. My wife thinks it’s a jolly-up but it’s definitely not, I can tell you that. We’ll have three-four sessions a day; we’ll train early in the morning, train in the afternoon, they’ll have gym in the afternoon and we do a lot of video work so we’ll do presentations in the evening.

“There’s a huge amount of work that goes into planning it but also executing it. I’m also massive on winning so the whole week is competitive. The players will be split into teams and certain activities will be targeted where there are points for the winning team. You practise winning every day.

"I know the lads, even when I used to work with eight-year-olds, you make it competitive, you get a response. You do the same with the 30-year-olds, you get the same response.

“And I think sometimes we go so hard on tactics we forget, actually, go and play to try and win - there’s a big element of that as well. That week will be uber-competitive and there will be a forfeit for the losing team at the end.”

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