Motherwell planning how to get
● Head of sports science Andy Boles explains what Fir Park club are doing to prepare players for return to action
“The minute I hang up the boots I’ll never go for another run.”
Young Hearts defender Chris Hamilton’s tweet likely summed up the view of a lot of footballers in their current predicament. Since March, when football entered a shutdown, they have been incapable of doing their job, the thing they love. At the same time, they have been required to stay fit, ready for a return to action.
They have taken to the road, to the park or, if they have access, a treadmill to keep on top of their fitness.
What footballers have effectively been undergoing across the past couple of months is a prolonged off-season, Andy Boles, head of sports science at Motherwell, told The Scotsman.
The current campaign won’t be returning, but the new Premiership season will start behind closed doors on the weekend of 1 August provided Scotland is in phase two of its coronavirus recovery. Premiership clubs have also been given a targeted return date of 11 June for player training before the new campaign.
“That’s going to be a real- ly quick turnaround if we don’t think the guys can do a lot to start with,” said Boles, pictured right, who has previously worked at Hamilton Accies and Middlesbrough. “The next two or three weeks will be key for the players if they can do a lot of these different things, strike a ball, changing direction when they run. A lot of people underestimate the energy cost of chang- ing direction. If they can start to break that in now we can start at a higher level when we come back. I think, even if somebody has been working really, really, really hard, training every day, doing all the things we are asking them to do, you’re probably looking at more than four weeks because of all the decisions people have got to make in a game. It’s just impossible to condition that when you are working yourself. Working at that intensity of a game, even the resilience of being kicked a few times and not picking up injuries. I know that sounds unscientific but all these things make a difference.”
With players such as Allan Campbell and Liam Grimshaw, Motherwell have one of the fittest and professional squads in Scotland, which fits in with the identiand ty culture that manager Stephen Robinson has sought to construct at the club.
The Fir Park players have benefited from Boles’ knowledge, experience and preparation ahead of being placed on furlough. At their fingertips they have a “menu” of exercises
Club captain Peter Hartley and full-back Richard Tait are among the players leaving Motherwell this summer.
The club also confirmed goalkeeper Mark Gillespie would be departing as expected, along with midfielder Christian Ilic and forward Christy Manzinga, who both made a limited impact in their sole campaigns at Fir Park.
Striker Tony Watt signed a contract on Friday while the future of Charles Dunne is under discussion.
Centre-back Hartley made 65 appearances in three seasons while Tait played 142 times over four years. Gillespie was an ever-present last season but manager Stephen Robinson had
and programmes available to them, something which Boles has used to create his own Match Ready Fitness app which is used by elite footballers from the men’s and women’s previously confirmed Trevor Carson would be his No 1 next term after signing a new deal before the pandemic struck.
Dunne has not played since suffering a groin injury in August. A club statement read: “We have been discussing with Charles Dunne the possibility of a short-term deal, allowing him to get back to full fitness at the club before he is assessed over a potential longer contract.”
Goalkeeper Rohan Ferguson, who was on loan with Linfield last season, and 22-year-old defender Adam Livingstone are also departing while the loan spells of Rolando Aarons, Mikael Ndjoli and Mark O’hara have ended.
games as well as amateur players.
He said: “I already had programmes written for the offseason. I just had to adapt it, instead of it being four weeks, making it 12 weeks. Because of the furlough situation what we had to do was create lots of different types of runs. Almost give players a menu to choose what they want to do from that. We’ve got a really good group of players we can trust. We’ve worked really hard to work on the culture of that. Most of the players we can give a programme and trust they will do it and trust they understand it’s important. It probably all comes from the manager.
“A lot of guys traditionally might in the off-season go out and do a couple of runs on the road. What we’ve tried to do is create different runs which target different energy systems. We’re not trying to educate them as scientists but what we try to do is make sure they are hitting aerobic pathways, hitting some high-intensity work, they are hitting power and explosive work.