RAMS strength and conditioning coach Daryl Watson is delighted with the state of the players following their return to pre-season training, writes Richard Ashton.

The Senior Squad are back in action following a month off, but Watson was impressed with how they have kept themselves ticking along during June’s down time.

He commented: “Joe (Southwell) and I are very, very pleased with the guys. We’ve seen all of the players bar a couple pass their 150s – the fitness tests we do for them – and strength-wise all the boys are looking in tip-top shape, and touchwood everyone seems to be in good health.

“We’re both really happy with them and with the attendance at the gym here, and also with the results we’ve seen since they’ve come back it shows they’ve been working really hard.”

He continued: “We did our best to keep the boys motivated during the month off – we sent them programmes to do – so even if they weren’t in the Rams gym itself, they were able to do stuff wherever they could do it.”

While the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted life for the past 16 months and put paid to last season’s National One campaign, a number of new players have still come on board and Watson said it has been enjoyable working with them.

He explained: “It’s usually quite a shock for them because a lot of them wouldn’t have the facilities we’re lucky enough to have here, and a lot wouldn’t have trained like we do where we programme them to do a lot of work to get maximum results.

“It’s always really nice to introduce someone who maybe hasn’t trained that way before and to give them something new and have them working as hard as possible.”

And with the Senior Squad now back in full training, Watson revealed how things will shape
up in the next few weeks.

He concluded: “We’ve got to be clever to balance the amount of on-field stuff they’ve got going on with the amount of stuff they’re doing in the gym, so we’re just working to keep the boys interested and we’ve got some new, exciting exercises lined up for them.

“We’ve given them some new programmes to help them continue with their strength stuff and hopefully get them as powerful as possible.

“Everyone’s buzzing and happy and it promises to be a really exciting year – it’s a really great environment to be involved in.”

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