League: Lean, mean Warriors must make conditioning count

The Warriors have made big play of the fact their players are fitter this season and better prepared to run right through the 80 minutes of an NRL game.

It's a claim strength and conditioning coach Keir Hansen backs.

Hansen has overseen the last five pre-season build-ups under coaches Daniel Anderson and now Tony Kemp and asserts that the players are fitter aerobically and anaerobically than ever before.

Meanwhile the focus on strength conditioning has been cut back.

Skin-fold tests show the players are leaner and gym analysis suggests they are just as strong.

"We're blessed with a lot of big, strong athletes and we needed to find a way to help them get to a stage where they are not fading in the last 10 minutes of each half," Hansen said.

The change of focus began immediately after the last game of 2004 with setting of fitness goals.

The medical staff, Hansen and Kemp developed a plan and it was added to by incoming assistant coaches Ivan Cleary and Kevin Campion.

Campion and new captain Steve Price have both trained under the notoriously hard Billy Johnstone who was at the Bulldogs for years before shifting to North Queensland, and both rate the 2005 Warriors programme.

It went like this: Start, October 28, with 200/300/400 and 800m sprints; followed up in the next days with lots of touch and simulated game situations played out at speed; cross-training including hill and beach runs.

There were repeat sessions to gauge progress in the Auckland Domain, Bethells Beach and Cornwall Park. The players had three sessions with world surf lifesaving and ironman champ Cory Hutchings, with two weeks between each, Hutchings commenting on the phenomenal improvement, which came pre-and-post Christmas.

So clearly there was no over-indulging in the festive season.

A four-day camp at the Waiouru Army Base emphasised both fitness and strategic decision making under pressure, stress-oriented mental conditioning and confidence building.

Wrestler Ken Reinsfield has been at the club since November teaching technical skills that are expected to aid their tackle grapple and upper-body strength.

Certainly their body shape has changed. The players look less bulky up top. Hansen said the props and big backrow forwards were around the same weight as they were last year but many others are 1kg to 2kg lighter.

"We're confident the weight loss has come about through loss of fat rather than loss of muscle mass."

Hansen, who has a degree with masters in sports science and biomechanics and is studying for a doctorate, said the players had achieved the pre-season fitness goals set last October.

"The proof is in the pudding," he said, "it's all about transferring it to a game-day situation."

Amen.