As Darlaston’s pre-season is well underway two thirds completed, 10 gruelling sessions have been meticulously planned by Sports Therapist Mike Howe and the management team, to ensure that the players are best prepared for when they kick a ball in anger for the first time two weeks tomorrow against Sporting Khalsa at RSA Academy on Tuesday 8th July at 8 pm.

The sessions so far have been conducted inside and out, “A hell of a lot of core work” said Mike Howe, “We have pretty much followed last season’s programme with a few tweaks, which proved to be very productive. Players dislike pre-season training, so we have to make it interesting and enjoyable, it should never be about just running, it’s about body conditioning, injury prevention as well as fitness.”

Mike added “When I sit down with Andy and discuss pre-season, I never get the time I think we should have before playing games, so we have to reach a compromise”. Manager Parkes view is that “The work that Mike does with the squad is invaluable, and his programme definitely works, apart from impact injures, I don’t recall last season, one muscle injury, that’s remarkable at our level It shows the players have brought into what we are trying to do with them not only now, but during warm-ups before games and training in the season, our injury record clearly shows the players are not just going through the motions.”

Having stood and watched some of the sessions I can certainly vouch for the effort everyone is putting in. It’s a critical time of the season for every player in the squad, existing players who are looking to retain their places in the starting XI, those same players are also extremely weary of the new players, who are working seriously hard on two fronts, they have never completed “such intense training sessions, they seemed to be timed to the minute, instructions are clear and concise so there is no confusion,” said a nameless player, he went to add “I have been at several clubs, and no one does the kind of training Darlaston does. The lads from last season know the routines and are only too willing to help the new lads get things right There is a fantastic team spirt within the group, when joining a new team most clubs are very cliquey, that’s certainly not the case here, everyone within the existing group have welcomed the new players, and they have settled in very quickly.”

Within that album are photos of some of the recent sessions, we look forward to seeing all the clubs supporters as the team starts to play games looking towards the season returning to the Premier Division for the first time for some years

For a selection of photos, please click Pre Season Update