Garry Monk is stood in the centre of the training pitch, far enough away from the players running around the perimeter so as not to be breathing down their neck but close enough to see everything and not miss a trick. “Boys, don’t wait for each other,” Swansea City’s manager says as Wayne Routledge, Nathan Dyer, Bafétimbi Gomis, André Ayew, Marvin Emnes, Modou Barrow and Eder open up into a sprint. It is just after 10am, a few rays of sunshine are breaking through the cloudy skies above and Swansea’s players are beginning to get a sweat on as pre-season training gets serious. “Push to the line, all the way,” Monk shouts. “Don’t sell yourselves short.” There are four double sessions a week during the start of pre-season and today is one of them. Training in the morning is fitness-orientated and the afternoon drills revolve around the ball. During the four-hour break in between each session many of the players get their head down at the training ground … in an inflatable hotel room. Monk gives the impression that he never sleeps – and not because he has three young children. The man who led Swansea to eighth place in the Premier League last season is a fiercely ambitious workaholic. He talks a lot about “accountability” and the importance of creating a working culture where there are no excuses for staff or players, and it is easy to see what he means. This is a club where they monitor sleep patterns at home to check their players are in the best condition to perform. They have even invested in a drone that films training sessions from above so that every angle is covered when they trawl back through the footage – as they do at the end of each day – and edit the clips to highlight what worked well and what could have been done better as part of their feedback to the players.
The full transcript , well worth a read imo. http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/jul/21/swansea-city-garry-monk-pre-season-fitness
fartlek sessions used to mean something else for me, think blazing saddles and beans But a great article, lots more into this training lark and pre season than what we think
