Dynamo Kyiv fitness coach Vitalii Kulyba spoke about the team’s work during the first days of “White-Blues’” training camp in Turkey.
- Today the team trained on sand. What was the main goal of this session?
- With this sand training session our goal was to apply a certain workload and complete a specific volume of work but to change the type of load. During previous days players had already worked well - one day focused on running and the next day we emphasized more speed-strength training. Today we decided to introduce a different type of load while still completing a certain amount of work.
- First there was about 25 minutes of running followed by various exercises. What effect does this have? Does it help recovery?
- First of all running on sand is more energy-consuming because it’s an unstable surface but it also has its advantages and disadvantages. This type of load has a certain impact on the aerobic system and endurance. After the run we also did some exercises aimed at injury prevention and at developing specific muscles that footballers use while running on the pitch.
- How often can sand trainings be used during a training camp?
- In my opinion these sessions shouldn’t be used too often because they do have certain drawbacks. Sand is an unstable surface and this type of work affects tendons and ligaments. If players have issues with their Achilles tendons or knee joint instability it can aggravate these problems and cause some inflammation. That’s why we can use minimal sand loads to change the direction and type of work, slightly unload the nervous system and still complete a volume of aerobic training.
- Did you introduce something new in today’s session or were these standard exercises you usually use on sand?
- There were several new exercises. We now have a new athletics coach and today, after the run, he led the warm-up and introduced some exercises. So there was something new for players.
- A new functional training coach has joined the staff. What is the purpose of this and what should it bring?
- This coach has extensive experience working with track-and-field athletes as well as football teams. He can help develop players’ speed-strength qualities and also has experience in improving functional readiness. I hope he will greatly assist our work and bring significant benefits in the future.
- After the first-day testing head coach mentioned that players had done their individual work very well during the break and that the physical preparation program was adjusted accordingly during the camp…
- Yes, on the first day after arrival we conducted testing. Based on the results we can say that most of the players prepared well during holidays while they were on vacation and showed decent results. Some adjustments were indeed made - there won’t be such large volumes of work, instead there will be more specialized training. We’ll see how things progress from here.
