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Steve Walsh
Fitness First with Sale Sharks - week one
25/ 6/2008
WEEK one of our exclusive column with Sale Sharks' head of athletic performance, Steve Walsh ...
"THE first week is only tough if players haven't trained prior to coming in. When we finished five weeks ago we gave them a training programme and if they follow it they’ll be in good shape to carry on with the programme. You can always tell who has done the work and who hasn’t.
What we do in the first week is fitness test them. They are tests that I have done for the last 12 or 13 years with rugby league and rugby union teams. It is standardised so I can draw on what Jason Robinson or Andrew Farrell got, going back all those years to when they were at their best at Wigan right through, so we can draw on a number of players and see where they were then and where players are now.
I'm not faddish at all, I don't go for fads, everything has to be tried and tested.
What I've done this year is all the players have got to have push bikes - so we are doing our bit for the ozone! The players have to cycle to Sale Leisure Pool to swim and then they cycle back to Carrington.
We are doing a lot of training outside. I like to train in the environment so the fellas who failed their fitness tests on Monday are over running on the hills in Oldham on Tuesdays and onSaturday morning everybody does hill sprints.
Over the next few weeks the players will be working hard in the gym in the mornings. The training is centred around Olympic lifts, ‘prehab’, which is injury prevention, and the core exercises - using their own body weight - such as climbing ropes, chins and dips."
THE opinions expressed in this column are those of Steve Walsh and do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper or its editor.
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