Pre-season training at Gullane

[foggy dewhurst 0]

being one of the old school and not into all this sports science stuff how would fellow fans feel about a weeks training at gullane to put a bit of meat on our players bones, to prepare then for the season ahead because it wont be tippy tappy football that will send us forward .

 

when the going gets tough the tough get going:rfc:

[chilledbear 16]

OK Jock

[the gunslinger 3,366]

I suspect the players work harder and are fitter now than they ever were at gullane.

[reaper 0]

I think the opposite is the obvious case.

[Darthter 542]

I suspect the players work harder and are fitter now than they ever were at gullane.

 

The technology may tell us that they are fitter....but going by what we've seen on the pitch, I think the report card would definitely read "must do better"

 

We have the latest technology & fitness science at our disposal, yet how many time last season did we look poor against part time teams, who probably train twice a week after they've finished work????

[calscot 0]

Don't think many people remember the mid 80s when not only were we poor under Wallace, many a game was rendered pedestrian by passback after passback to the keeper.

[Frankie 8,153]

Living nearby, I was down at Gullane last summer and watched Berwick train there one morning.

 

I'm not so sure how much it helps or hinders players running up and down deep dunes and it would probably have to be a regular thing as opposed to a one-off.

[der Berliner 3,255]

Honestly, I for one wouldn't mind if these highly paid chaps would get the occasional (sic!) fitness training by an army drill sergeant. Needs not to be SAS stuff, but to keep folk as fit as they ought to be for what the do.

[amms 0]

I've posted this before although I remember some didn't believe me. Gullane Sands and Murder Hill was entirely psychological, you get no fitter running up sand dunes than you do on a track, a cross country run or a stairmaster.

 

One of Wallace's much undervalued traits, indeed entirely dismissed by some, was psychology. This is the guy who eventually out-thought Jock Stein, his gruff, angry persona was a front for a much more thoughtful and considered trainer.

Celtic had Rangers beaten before the season began, there was very little between the sides in terms of talent and ability but they had the mental edge. They knew how to win leagues and we'd forgotten and Wallace knew they had the edge on us in terms of belief.

 

Murder Hill became our edge. Players ran until they were sick and then ran some more, Wallace told them that if they could beat Murder Hill they could beat anyone, that it made them fitter than every other team in the league, they'd have more stamina than the rest and they believed him. In reality if they'd ran any distance until they were sick it would have had the same effect on them physically but not psychologically.

 

Wallace tried the same at Leicester City and it worked, the players believed they were the fittest in the league. A young Gary Linekar bought every word of it and it wasn't until he joined Barcelona a few years later he discovered it was all in his head. But it gave him an edge, it had helped him become the player he did because he knew he could keep going all game because he thought he was fitter.

It's worth listening to Linekar's thoughts on Wallace, he speaks highly of him and in particular his man-management.

 

It's time someone reassessed Wallace's time at Rangers, there was much more to him than the 'jungle fighter' stuff.

[Gribz 743]

If I was Man City boss Id take those 200k a week players there to show them how lucky they are.