New High Performance Manager Stephen Schwerdt says the Gold Coast SUNS second training camp in Arizona will retain aspects of the 2011 camp, but will be modified to closely resemble training on the Gold Coast.

"It will be a little bit different to last year," said Schwerdt.

"Last year involved bike riding and hikes, which will be play a small part this year, but it will be a bit more focussed on actual training."

Schwerdt believes the Arizona camp will provide a significant advantage for the playing squad.

It is a real valuable two weeks where you have the players at your disposal for two weeks in a training environment.

"We will try and replicate much of the program we are doing here in Arizona."

"The benefit will be they are training at altitude, which will give them a huge kick start to their conditioning and preparation for when they return."

Schwerdt explained the advantages of training at high altitude compared to training at sea level.

"It puts the athlete under more stress to do the workload, it is about a 10-15% extra load to run at the same speed at sea level," he said.

"Two weeks training at altitude might be the equivalent of four weeks training back here."

Schwerdt says that getting the workload balance right in pre-season training is vital.

"Pre-season is hard because you are always on the edge in regards to how much you are doing, because being on the edge is where you get improvement," he said.

If you're not near the edge you are not getting improvement.

"That is going to be a big challenge for us to find that line and not overstepping it."

Whilst there will be minimal changes to training during the season, Schwerdt says there will be a definite change in the structure of the pre-season.

"Pre-season will be the big change for them," he said.

We will ask them to train for longer, in regards to the number of sessions they will do.

"They will generally do two or three sessions a day, except for their day off, and I imagine those sessions will be a bit more intense and longer in duration than what they have been exposed to previously."