Pre-season training is well underway at The Barnstaple Hotel in Devon and Boreham Wood manager Luke Garrard elated that the camp has already brought out the best in his players.
The 31-year-old also expressed his delight at the treatment given to them at the award winning hotel, explaining how it has allowed his players to concentrate on training.
The Barnstaple Hotel in Devon is part of the Brend Group and was the winner of AA’s ‘Hotel Group of the Year’ in 2015-2016.
“The hotel is superb,” Garrard asserted. “The lads are currently spread out across the indoor and outdoor swimming pools and saunas, the facilities are phenomenal, the staff cannot do enough for us.
“The three meals that they receive across the day work perfectly and give the boys everything they need to get a full recovery, as well as tasting superb.
“There are three or four people who greet us every single morning and lunchtime and they organise our meals, every single one of them goes above and beyond.
“And then, this evening when we go back we have got a huge menu of food to choose from; salmon fillet, steak, Piri Piri chicken, whatever you can think of, they litearlly cant do enough for us.”
With double sessions every single day, the Wood players and staff will be working incredibly hard across the week-long period, but the manager stated that after a lengthy spell away, they are enjoying the extra work.
He continued: “We had a twilight session yesterday when they arrived and then worked on a bit of baseline running, then they came in this morning for a tactical and technical session, so lots of ball work and specific drills.
“This afternoon we went over their stamina again, so they are very tired right now, but they will be ready to go again for tomorrow.
“Tomorrow we will start to work more on the team shape and specifics, while also going for another run; the lads are here to work and they know that, but they are loving it.”
As well as preparing the players for the season ahead, training camps also allow any new signings to integrate into the squad, something Garrard says began early on.
“In terms of the togetherness, the new lads and the youngsters all sang yesterday, so the camaraderie is already being set. So far it has been a very worthwhile experience and it will only get better.
“Angelo Balanta is really impressing me at the minute; Mark Ricketts, Tom Champion, Paul Benson and Keiran Murtagh all looks strong, as does Ricky Shakes, across the board the fitness levels are superb.”
The training camp at Barnstaple was organised through chairman Danny Hunter, whose long-term friendship with Managing Director John Brend has brought both the club and the hotel huge success.
The Brend Group have sponsored Boreham Wood for over five years now and in return receive advertising boards at Meadow Park, while the club are able to regularly stay at their award-winning hotels.
