The Barnsley football team are currently in Spain for a preseason training camp. It’s an ideal opportunity to get everyone together without any distractions and to strengthen the bonds of the group as another season in the Championship beckons.
It was an early start as my alarm rang out at 2.45am, but it must have been an even earlier alarm call for head physio Craig Sedgwick as he was picking me up. Even at that early time there were others in the party that got to the airport before us so it’s been a very long day.
Now it wouldn’t be the first time someone has got the club’s name wrong, but when we were met by the coach driver in Spain it was a first to see this one - Bamsley. It certainly brought smiles to plenty of tired faces.
The training camp for the week is in a remote location, as you will have noticed from the photograph of the pitch, which adds to the ability to get the most out of a training camp with everything else put to one side.
Despite an early start to the day the players, after a few hours of rest at the hotel, took part in their first training session which was scheduled for 6pm. After last year’s incident when the water sprinklers gave me a drenching I was keen to avoid a repeat performance. Instead I plumped for a different error of judgement. Thinking that I would neatly trap a high ball from Micky Mellon I managed to misjudge it and I was upended. That’s the end of my contribution on the pitch.
The training session itself was not an intense one, although in the heat and from the sidelines it looked punishing enough. The 34ºC heat does add another dimension to these sessions and taking on fluids is an important aspect throughout the training schedule. Even in a less intense session such as today’s a player can easily lose a kilogram of weight within an hour. For all intents and purposes this evening’s training helped the players get the stiffness out of the players legs and the hard work will begin on Monday when they will be put through their paces with increased intensity.
Guy Proctor can track the performance of each player to see how they are performing and coping with the conditions
Look out for news and videos all week from Barnsley's training camp.
