Matt Springham, Brentford’s new Head of Conditioning, described the gym at Brentford’s training facility in Florida as the best he has ever delivered a session in.
Matt joined The Bees this summer to head up the conditioning department.
He has been in Florida with the First Team squad at the IMG Academy, in Bradenton, for a nine-day training camp.
The camp has seen the players work on the pitch and in the on-site gym and Matt, speaking to Bees Player, described it as “incredible”.
The players have been working in high temperatures and Matt said research indicated there would be a benefit when the Sky Bet Championship season starts.
“The gym is an incredible facility,” said Matt.
“It is one you very rarely see in the UK, it is a performance oriented strength and conditioning gym designed to cater for world class athletes.
“There are a number of international athletes training here.
“It is as good a facility as I have ever delivered a session in.
“There is a lot of research that exposing athletes to warm environments improves future performance in the heat.
“If the first few games are played in high temperatures I think we will have an advantage.”
Matt has worked at Watford and Brighton and Hove Albion before joining Brentford.
He said Brentford Manager Mark Warburton and the coaching staff had been receptive to ideas coming from the conditioning department, which also includes First Team Conditioning Coaches James Purdue and Tom Perryman.
“It has been very positive so far,” said Matt.
“The manager and coaches are very open to scientific input.
“We know the physical demands of professional football are growing every year.
“They have been receptive to the ideas we want to introduce from a science and conditioning perspective.
“The Medical Department has excellent staff.”
Matt spoke to Bees Player after the players conducted a speed test.
He explained what that was designed to measure.
“This morning we did a warm-up followed by a speed test,” said Matt.
“We did that to personalise their thresholds for our GPS data.
“Every player is monitored in training with a GPS tracker.
“We record total distance, number of sprints and many other metrics.
“Today was an appropriate day to test maximum speed so we can individualise training and quantify how hard they work in training.
“We did that early in the session.
“They did their tactical and technical work before we did a high intensity session to give them their metabolic stimulus for the day.”
Brentford used GPS monitors to measure players’ data from every training session.
“GPS has become critical to the way we work, in terms of how we structure training for teams on a daily and weekly basis to achieve short, medium and long-term goals,” added Matt.
“We do a lot of analysis of it.
“We need to see players hit the intensity we want them to hit without doing a volume that will lead to injury risk.
“We can plan to achieve what we want to achieve.”
Bees Player subscribers can see a full video interview with Matt Springham here.