Just to praise Newsday....even though NE press release spelled Seale's name incorrectly, its good to see the journo corrected it and maybe did a little research.
N/East players fitness analysed
Wednesday, July 20 2011
GREGORY SEALE, who recently served as trainer of the Trinidad and Tobago football squad under coach Russell Latapy, and his Body Mechanics team recently conducted a five-hour session which featured an array of testing to determine the fitness levels of the North East Stars footballers.
Seale is a strength and conditioning coach who specialises in corrective exercises, but is also a licensed massage therapist and a movement skills coach.
The aim of the testing was to functionally screen a number of things, he said. We looked at flexibility as well as static and transitional postural imbalances to see how much this would impact on their movement efficiency.
Seale is a graduate of the Athletes Performance Four phase system, the world renowned performance education providers, and he is currently doing his Masters of Science in Human Movement specialising in Performance.
He continued, We looked at core strength, bi-lateral and uni-lateral power for explosive ability. Acceleration, absolute speed, agility and aerobic/anaerobic capacity completed the battery of tests. It is very important to get this data in order to properly plan the programme for these athletes.
The clubs Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brent Sancho pointed out, This is the starting point of every clubs preseason training. Its not cheap, and respect must go to our president Darryl Mahabir for recognising the importance of a constructed preseason training regime based on acquired in-depth information to determine individual needs.
The club is paying close attention to the importance of diet and nutrition. The players body composition was also tested in an effort to plan meals and supplementation based on their results, said Sancho. As professionals, the players must be shown the importance of a professional lifestyle away from the training pitch.
Kevin Harrison, Operations Director of the club, said, This really shows the level of professionalism being invoked at the club. This type of testing is essential to develop the maximum potential of footballers by identifying areas requiring improvement.
This is common practice at English clubs from Premiership to League Two and I am delighted that the club recognises the importance of this kind of intense personal development, he added. It shows how serious we are about competing at the highest level and our sights are firmly set on qualifying for CONCACAF via the Caribbean Cup.
Harrison also explained that the club would be supplying nutritional supplements to the players. Ideally, we would like to issue each player with a diet together with the required foods, and I am currently contacting stores and suppliers to enter into a partnership with the club as official nutritional suppliers to North East Stars.
Seale pointed out, I am very pleased to see DIRECTV North East Stars willing to make a commitment to developing their programme. So far it has been a pleasure to work with the staff and the footballers.
I am very impressed with the maturity of the players and their willingness to work no matter how insanely intense it gets.
Sancho, the ex-TT national defender, noted, Speaking from experience, I know this level of training is very intensive and very tough, but the rewards and improvements give a player added confidence and their performance increases noticeably.
One of the areas Im really looking for improvement is explosive acceleration. We have a number of pacey players but they need to increase speed over the first five yards. This is one area where Gregorys expertise is invaluable.
And the clubs long-standing midfielder Marc Leslie said, Were all a little daunted by the programme over the next two months, but we know we will be at our absolute peak of fitness for our first game.
Seale certainly knows his stuff and, together with the North East coaching staff, will ensure this is the best prepared North East Stars squad weve ever had. Im looking forward to improving my personal fitness and benefiting from the nutritional advice.
