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Much of the Gold Coast SUNS skills work and team drills have been taking place in Arizona’s J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome, a multi-purpose sporting stadium located just a stones throw away from where the team are based at the Northern Arizona University.
Home to the NAU Lumberjacks football and basketball teams, the centres artificial surface provides a welcome respite from the icy conditions experienced once the team venture outdoors.
While they are dry and sheltered from the elements inside, the skydome is still a breath sapping environment with the playing surface located a dizzy 2127 metres above sea level.
Campbell Brown saying after almost a week at altitude, the conditions are clearly starting to test even the groups fittest players.
“After a couple of really, really tough testing days, the boys are quiet fatigued and the plan was to work hard during the morning and have half the day off and our ball work was good, nice and sharp and our voice was up which is something we are really trying to work on over here and then straight into interval running which was really very tough.”
“From now on in, I think it’s going to be more a mental challenge and I think you will see the boys grow mentally, enormously.”
The clubs medical and coaching team are in constant monitoring mode, ensuring the players are in the best possible condition to tackle each days new challenges.
“You wake up very dehydrated, right from the start your trying to drink as much water as you can and then once you start your physical exercising and the training, your mouth gets really dry and you notice that you are breathing much heavier for long periods of times and you fatigue much quicker.”
For many of the young GC SUNS players, the fatigue experienced during training is compounded by a lack of sleep, with the low oxygen levels, even during complete rest, making it hard for the boys to shut down and rest.
“It is a gradual process, I feel a lot better now, this is day ten for me, they do say that your first two or three days is ok and then days four, five you really struggle, that’s when it hits you, especially sleeping, it’s hard to get to sleep for some reason at altitude and so some of the guys have not been getting much sleep and then having to wake up and train on top of that, so it’s double fatigue in a way.”
Apart from the physical improvements, Campbell is confident the Arizona experience will bring the group even closer together as they prepare for the 2012 season.
“Naturally because we are spending so much time together and I think that because we are in a group, you don’t want to let your team mates down and I think that’s the whole point of it.”
“Your hurting, but you have got your seven or eight team mates beside you so you don’t want to drop and let them down."
“The benefits, we will see immediately when we get back to the Coast, but I think they will fly all the way through to the football season and we will be able to train at higher intensity for longer and naturally thats going to maker us a harder team to play against.”
Make sure you visit Goldcoastfc.com.au for all the latest, news, videos and photo galleries from the Gold Coast SUNS Arizona Altitude training camp.
