Rebounding defender Easton Wood said the spirited one-on-one match ups were friendly but heated, with no teammate bowing down easily.
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“Boxing has really cranked up – we have started to do sparring with head shots which we have never done before,” Wood said.
In between ducking and weaving, the players also spent time out this week evolving their range of movement in their gym programs.
“We are working really hard through our functional range which is really going to transfer out onto the ground,” he said.
“So with our dead lifts and squats and that sort of thing we are getting much lower and getting into a much more functional position.”
Wood said that while running was still on the agenda, the focus had shifted to speed rather than distance and endurance, as the Christmas break approaches.
“It’s been good this week, the running is sort of coming down to more speed sort of stuff which I enjoy,” he said.
“…The heat certainly makes a difference towards the end of the session, it certainly bites at you.”
Efficiency has also been in the forefront of the team’s minds this pre-season, with the 23-year-old defender buoyed by the improvement in drills in the past few weeks.
“[The Coaches] have really ramped up the skills side of thing this pre-season… in terms of quality,” he said.
“We are getting measured each week on our efficiency and that has been quite eye opening actually – it has been a good focus for us.
“It is an area we need to improve a lot and I think we have so far over the few weeks.
“The coaches have been pretty ruthless on that, so it can make it interesting.”
