Chapter 108: Pre-season Training

Atletico Madrid had 10 players at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil this year, the fewest number of Champions League winners in recent years.....

But that's not a bad thing for Simeone, which means his players can get more rest to deal with the new season......... As well as allowing more players to have a full pre-season training.

On the first day of pre-season training, the players underwent a medical check-up. After a month and a half of vacation, many players have grown a circle of flesh around their waists.

Except for Li Qingshan!

His physical condition looks even better than at the end of the season, and it can be clearly seen that even during the holidays, Li Qingshan did not relax his requirements.

Simeone is of course very satisfied with this, Diego Costa has not returned despite participating in the World Cup, but the transfer negotiations between Atletico Madrid and Chelsea are still advancing, and Diego Costa has little hope of staying at Atletico Madrid this season. Therefore, the player that Atletico Madrid needs to rely on the most on the offensive side in the new season is Li Qingshan. Although he is ready to introduce two strikers in the transfer market to fill the gap after the departure of Diego Costa and Villa, the arrival of new signings still needs an adaptation period after all, so Li Qingshan's state largely determines the success or failure of Atletico Madrid's new season.

The Atletico Madrid players underwent a comprehensive medical check-up, and Simeone and his coaching team needed to collect data from the players in order to develop a pre-season training plan for the new season!

For coaches, pre-season training is the basis for determining the fitness status of a season, and the original intention of setting up pre-season training is to reserve enough physical strength for a long season of more than four months.

But pre-season is the hardest time for the players and not many players will enjoy it.

No matter which player he plays, no matter what level of league he plays in, what is their most profound impact on pre-season training, the unanimous answer of the players is - run, a lot of runs!

Li Qingshan participated in Atletico Madrid's pre-season training for the first time, and on the first day of training, he felt the extreme expansion of his heart and lungs........

When he wears a GPS watch on his arm that records the distance the players have run, and when he wears an athlete's heart rate monitor, which looks like a woman's underwear, all his real-time data is stored, and the coaching team evaluates the quality of the players' training on a daily basis.

The development of science and technology has made traditional sports such as football also enter the refined management. Based on these valid sports data, modern soccer coaches can design each training session and design different training sessions based on the different physical data of the players.

But in the ancient times when technology was not yet developed, and without these equipment, pre-season training was a torture for the players. Heavy and thunderous cross-country races, traditional coarse breakfasts, and the scene of sitting at the foot of a mountain smoking and resting are no longer possible in the current world of football.........

"This is the specific arrangement of each of you in the pre-season training, and in the subsequent training, all of you must strictly follow the plan in your own hands."

Pre-season training focuses on high-intensity interval training – the kind of training that requires players to perform explosive movements such as sprints, treaties and shots in a short period of time, again and again.

Once the season starts, it's hard for coaches to focus their training on physicality – players have to play and rest. So this is more than a month before the start of the season, and the coach has to plan carefully to ensure that the players are in the best shape before the new season starts.

Li Qingshan has experienced a pre-season training led by Lippi in Guangzhou Evergrande, but Lippi is still a relatively old-school training, and the training method is still different from that of a young coach like Simeone.

On the first day of training, Simeone gave everyone a profile.

"From today, there are six weeks of pre-season training and everyone has to take a closer look at the information you have – every player is different, it's a diet plan and a training plan that's tailored to you, and everything has to be done in a step-by-step manner until the Super Bowl on August 20th!"

Simeone stood on the training ground, standing in a circle among the players, and began the first pre-training speech of the new season's pre-season training!

From today onwards, the Atletico Madrid players will get a taste of what Simeone-style training is.

There's nothing new about Simeone's way of training, but if anything, it's more elaborate and rigorous!

The daily training content is actually very boring, and there is not much ball training in pre-season training, most of which are high-intensity sprint runs, switchback runs, and sprint runs.........

Use such high-intensity running to squeeze every drop of sweat out of the players, and reserve enough physical energy for the new season. Fitness is the key factor in winning a game – without fitness, no tactics, cohesion, player skills are useless.

Especially Simeone's team, his tactics need physical support.

In the final moments of the game, you can't win a game if you don't have enough fitness to make a tackle or make a cross against a defender.

Li Qingshan's training is particularly large, and it is obvious that Simeone has taken special care of him.

For example, in the 30-meter interval sprint, other players can go to rest after completing most of the 10 sets or so, while Li Qingshan has to complete 15 sets of training in the ridicule of his teammates, which is more than all other players.

Due to Li Qingshan's strong physical performance last season, Simeone's requirements for Li Qingshan have obviously risen to a higher level. Simeone even believes that through such high-intensity and reasonable physical training, Li Qingshan's physical fitness can be taken to a higher level!

Of course, no team will train in pre-season training, and the team will still arrange some warm-up games to let the players find the feeling of the game.

Their first warm-up match will be against Spanish Serie A side Manosia at Atletico Madrid's own training base on July 23.

Before this game, Atletico Madrid's first new signing, Mandzukic, also came to Madrid to draw with the team. Simeone's team has not weakened much in the new season.

Atletico Madrid will spend about 10 days in Spain, and on July 24, they will fly to the United States for a trip of more than 20 days.

If Simeone had to choose for himself, he would have chosen to stay in Spain and not go anywhere – the long flight would have had too much impact on the team's preparations.

But now after all, it is a commercial society, and it is difficult to avoid some commercial activities before each season.