Boss Graham Alexander's warning to Bantams on holiday

Graham Alexander wants his squad to switch off completely to recharge the batteries.

Individual training programmes will be sent out to keep them ticking over ahead of the June 24 return to Woodhouse Grove.

But Alexander hopes the players are putting their feet up – without letting themselves go.

“We want the players to rest,” he said. “There are no plans that have gone out to them yet because we don’t want them to jump the gun and start it early.

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“It’s important that they recover after a long season.

“But the diet, the discipline, the sleep, even on your holidays, have to be right.

“It’s about your integrity as a professional and understanding there’s no short cuts.”

City have now revealed the details of a pre-season programme which Alexander believes will be crucial if they are to carry on from the strong finish to the last campaign.

“It’s vital for players going into a full season that they get the majority of pre-season done.

“There are no real restrictions on us as in a quick return to play.

“We didn’t have an elongated season because of the play-offs. There’s a good chunk of time to have a proper break.

“Players need that and then there’s a good chunk to have an off-season programme and prepare them for pre-season.

“It’s not just the weeks of pre-season getting them ready but the four or five weeks leading up to that.

“It’s important the players understand that and I think they will.

“We had a good chat with them at the end of the season to emphasise how important it is to come back in the best shape.

“Once pre-season starts, it’s a real tough job to catch up with the rest of the squad if that’s the case.

“We always need a little bit of luck but I’m sure the players will prepare themselves in the best way possible to make sure they give themselves the best chance.”

Attitudes to staying in shape over the summer and maintaining fitness have changed over the years since Alexander’s playing days. Players coming back out of condition and overweight is very rare now.

“I remember lads would take six or seven weeks off and we didn’t live life like athletes,” he said. “I’m not talking about everyone but the majority.

Skipper Richie Smallwood smiles in pre-season training last year (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“Everyone was the same. Pre-season was used for getting fit and that’s why the sessions were so long and endurance-based.

“Nowadays, you can’t let yourself go. Do that and you’re behind already.

“Why do you want to come back in and give somebody else the jump on you in pre-season to get in the team?

“If we want to be at the top end and be successful, we have to do more than the opposition.

“That will be the mantra for us. We know about rest, recovery and regeneration from our own careers as players as well as coaches.

“But when we’re there to work, then we work hard.”

The approach to pre-season has become more scientific. Gone are the days when the footballs would not come out for the first week.

But the principles that Alexander and his coaching staff are determined to instil in the players remain the same.

“If I think about the first 10 years, it was a very different landscape to fitness work. There wasn’t as much information and knowledge as there is now.

“It was very much run, run, run a little bit more, be sick and then run a bit more.

“I’ll be honest. Where those days scientific? No. But they 100 per cent helped me play until I was 40.

“They gave me a great grounding of resilience and robustness going forward.

“There’s a lot more knowledge now but ultimately for all the science around it, there’s no short cut to being fit.

“It’s not in a supplement or in rest, it’s in hard work. There is no secret.

“There are different ways of getting there but ultimately it comes down to how hard the player wants to work and how he recovers in between sessions. That goes for the whole of the season.

“It’s vastly different from when I started but there are no excuses now for players because the information is there.

“It’s just down to them committing to the programme and we will work hard to make sure that happens.”

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