Yahoo News Pre pre-season starts as Stoke City players swap beach for gym
Groundsman in the final stages of preparations for a new season at Clayton Wood, Stoke City's training headquarters, and there is another sign that pre-season is just around the corner.
Players' social media posts are starting to turn from pool pics and beach shots to clips doing their own individual pre pre-season, working with private coaches to try to make sure they impress Steven Schumacher when they walk back through the door in Trent Vale on July 1.
Michael Rose has been out working with personal trainer Kevin Kelly in Glasgow, for example, and doing the kind of sessions he did for more than a month last summer to make sure he was ready to hit the ground running when he joined Stoke as a free agent in mid-July. He explained in a video for Kelly's website how that kind of work has helped him, touch wood, get on top of groin problems which had interrupted his time at Coventry City.
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"I started working with Kevin last summer when I was actually out of contract," he said. "I had run out of contract at Coventry and was going into the summer without a club. You know what it's like in the off-season, you're always doing your individual running and basic stuff but I thought I would need a lot more than that. I noticed that Kevin did a lot of pitch sessions and dribbling sessions and at my previous club I was having a lot of problems with groin injuries so I felt I needed to do a specific programme.
"It really benefitted me. I was always used to going to the gym, on the treadmill, doing straight leg running and stuff like that whereas this was a lot more specific to football and getting your body ready a lot better. In my case, I think I've managed to sort out the problem with my groins and I've played a lot of games at Stoke. Everything seems to be fine.
"It kind of mirrored an in-season football programme. When I did sign for Stoke my body wasn't a problem. At that point I think I'd done about five or six weeks with Kevin and I didn't seem to miss much even though I wasn't in a football environment. The pitch sessions were tough but if there was a day when I felt a bit sore I could tone it down. If I needed to push it a bit harder, I could do that as well.
"The programme I had been doing at the gym for my groins was very boring, just sitting there doing exercises. Kevin was perfect. He did everything by the time, by the reps and it was long days but I thought it was brilliant. It definitely helped me over the season, I feel really fit and strong. I didn't feel like I needed a couple of weeks to get up to speed.
"You can go away for the summer and switch off but when you do something like this it gets you into a routine instead of just doing your own thing, not knowing how much to do."
Andre Vidigal has posted clips of his work in the gym in Portugal while his teammates are also under starter's orders for the big return. Thirteen days until testing starts, 53 days until the season gets going.
Schumacher said recently: "Getting a pre-season with the group is so important – and don't forget as well that last season Stoke signed so many players late on in the window. You couldn’t be 100 per cent sure what was going on, what their pre-seasons looked like and where they were at physically. There were a lot of players who had not played in this country before and it was always going to take time anyway for them to settle in.
"Then when a new manager comes in in December and does something different again, it was always going to be a challenge.
"But this year, getting in on Day One in pre-season on July 1 is going to give us all an opportunity to build what we think is going to give us a chance to have success. Getting things right on the pitch is important, getting things right off the pitch is important and then the message going out to the fans is going to be so important too."
Key dates in pre-season
Wednesday, June 26: Fixture release date (9am)
Monday, July 1: Players return to Clayton Wood for pre-season training
Thursday, July 11: Chester FC vs Stoke City (7.45pm kick-off)
Saturday, July 13 to Friday, July 19: First team training camp in Cork
Wednesday, July 17: Cork City vs Stoke City (kick-off time TBC)
Tuesday, July 23: Crewe Alexandra v Stoke City (7.30pm kick-off)
Saturday, July 27: Stockport County vs Stoke City (2pm kick-off*)
Tuesday, July 30: Bolton Wanderers v Stoke City (7.30pm kick-off)
Saturday, August 3: Stoke City vs AZ Alkmaar (3pm kick-off)
Saturday, August 10: EFL Championship starts
