PLAY STATION

How Titans put a spring in their pre-season step

DON’T be surprised if Gold Coast are the NRL’s most agile team in 2018.

The Titans have embraced new-age training techniques under coach Garth Brennan and performance staff Hayden Knowles and Craig Catterick and it appears to be paying dividends.

The club have spent the pre-season utilising the neighbouring Jummps Indoor Trampoline Park at their Parkwood headquarters to build up the athleticism of their players.

Among those to impress have been gym-leading forward Jai Arrow, who has pulled off a double frontflip. The trampolining is part of Brennan and his staff’s initiative to individualise training programs.

“We spoke to each of them at the start of the year about different areas they need to work on,” Brennan said.

“We’ve got some guys on the field doing sprints, we’ve got some guys doing weights, we’ve got some guys at the trampoline centre working on their agility.”

The only problem? “Everyone wants to work on their agility now,” Brennan said.

“But they come out of that in a lather of sweat and work really hard at it.

“Some guys have said they want to work on their agility as they’re not flexible enough. We’ve got them doing somersaults and twists and landing awkwardly and handling that.”

Knowles added the trampolining training holds many benefits for both forwards and backs.

“Sure it is variety but it is also very deliberate from me,” he said.

“I want to have the most athletic guys in the competition and I’m only going to do things that can help that.”

It is also further evidence of what young lock Max King described as a “more enjoyable” training environment under Brennan.