EXCLUSIVE: Cold play… Wales discover a chilling route to supreme fitness

|

UPDATED:

23:04 GMT, 5 November 2012

Over the past year, Wales have narrowly lost a World Cup semi-final in New Zealand and won a Six Nations Grand Slam.

Many suggest their improved form is down to the emphasis they put on a brutal training regime. Sportsmail spent a day at their punishing camp in Poland and decided to take the (icy) plunge.

6am: THE PATH TO HELL

It’s pitch black. A path laminated with ice leads through a snowy wood to Spala’s Centralny Osredek Sportu. It is a gargantuan, grey, Communist block from the 1950s with what look like giant Lego pieces attached to it in seemingly random formation. Within this complex lurks every conceivable apparatus used to torture athletes in the name of elite performance.

Life in the freezer: George North (above) and Jonathan Davies (below) leave the cryotherapy chamber

The conditions are Spartan, but tough stints in the cryotherapy chamber mean the coaches can cram in three times the usual volume of training on a given day. As team manager Alan Phillips puts it: ‘We try to break them but they keep coming back for more.’

6.30am: IN AT THE DEEP END

Wales’ head of physical conditioning Adam Beard has the team in the pool before 6.30. This session is called a ‘cardiovascular primer’. It is too exhausting to be considered a warm-up. Some players are asked to sprint on the spot while fully submerged to starve themselves of oxygen, others are doing timed lengths.

Imagine 30 huge men doing extreme aerobics in goggles and swimming hats. It is ideal exercise because it keeps their heavy upper-body weight off their feet while working them hard. Beard is a calm Australian who commands respect. ‘We’re not good swimmers here,’ he says, ‘but that’s no bad thing because the more inefficient they are in the pool, the harder they have to work.’

Dip in the pool: The players are put through their paces in the water

7am: FUEL STOP

The food is basic but the players have an endless supply of fruit, sports meals (think healthy Pot Noodle) and protein in every conceivable form. It is no gastronomic feast but it is fuel. The players are measured on everything from stiffness to energy to general mood, and that information is used by the medical staff and physios to tailor regimes and help prevent injury. ‘We know how long they sleep and how they feel,’ says Beard.

8.45am: COOL RUNNINGS

The thermometer hovers around freezing and piles of snow mark the corners of the pitch. Running specialist Frans Bosch works on sprint technique and running economy with the backs, before Shaun Edwards takes over for defensive drills. The session is meticulous and not one ball is dropped.

Beard says: ‘When rugby came into the professional age we borrowed from weightlifting and track and field. Now we’re trying to find our own way. We film everything and take stats on everything. Frans looks at movement in a different way. If you’re more efficient at movement, you use less energy.’

Dominant: Wales have emerged as the major force in the northern hemisphere of late

10.30am: CHAMBER PLOT

I accept an invitation to join the cryotherapy. I am given socks, gloves and a sweatband to prevent frostbite. All sweat must be wiped dry or you will burn (one player suffered frostbite on a particularly sensitive part of his body when he ‘forgot to shake’). You spend 30 seconds in a holding chamber at -70C to give your body a chance to adjust before entering the second chamber for two minutes and 30 seconds at -130C.

In Gdansk, where Wales went before the Six Nations, a machine extracts liquid nitrogen so the room remains clear. Here, the fog intensifies as it gets colder until you cannot see your nose. The players play ‘word association’ and if you make a mistake you have to crouch down where it is even colder.

When the time was up I was so disorientated I couldn’t find the door. The science is simple enough. In the extreme cold your body tries to protect vital organs by withdrawing blood from the limbs, taking lactic acid and muscle damage with it (as well as lancing pain and getting rid of inflammation). Once you’re out, 10 minutes on a static bike flushes your system clear five times faster than an ice bath.

No rest for the wicked: The players head back into the cryotherapy chamber

Beard makes the forwards do a 30-minute fitness session on the static bike straight after to gain the full benefit. Luckily, I play inside centre.

12pm: PORK WITH RICE AND TIPS

While the players are refuelling on rice, pork and vegetables, acting head coach Rob Howley explains the philosophy behind the punishment. ‘It is the opportunity to spend time with the players 24/7 and, as you can see, there’s not exactly much else to do. The players can be selfish and simply work on getting their bodies to the level the international game requires. You don’t get to spend 12 hours a day working on the finer points of your game at any other time.

‘As a coach, you need to see players under these conditions before you select them. You’d rather find out before a Test, so we manufacture those conditions here. This facility is unique. It allows us to put those players under pressure, not only from a physical perspective but mentally as well.’

1.30pm: DRILL BITS

A tactical session in the team room is followed by a gruelling but technical training session on the pitch that runs for precisely 41 minutes – the average length of time the ball is in play during a Test match. The session has been meticulously planned by Howley and Beard and there is a strict 30-second transfer between each drill. Things get heated at times, but quickly calm down. At the end, when players are doubled up in exhaustion, Beard delivers a one-word surprise: runways. Essentially a minute of sprinting, with a few ‘down-ups’, repeated six times.

Time to wrestle: The players move into the gym

Team-mates go up against positional rivals and the competition makes it torturous. It is a crude and cruel speed endurance test. Then the forwards head straight to the weights room.

3pm: GRUNT ’N’ GROAN

The forwards work with a mixture of heavy weights and medicine balls. It is short, hard, vein-popping work. Beard explains: ‘In the weights session we look at mechanical power under fatigue which is a key component of rugby. We try to replicate the ability to be able to perform explosive efforts and accelerate the body very quickly in whatever minute of the game.’

Wrestling is next — a key drill for rucking and mauling. Second rows Bradley Davies and Alun-Wyn Jones fight in a bout that produces world-class wedgies. Between fights they do abdominal work and lob heavy medicine balls at each other. Captain Sam Warburton takes on hooker Matthew Rees and the pair start grunting with exhaustion, producing a sound that has to be heard to be believed.

4pm: CHILLING OUT (AGAIN)

Cryotherapy: see above. And shiver.

6pm: THE MUNCH BUNCH

After dinner, Warburton sums up what distinguishes the training camps from the rest of the year: ‘All you have to do is turn up on time and train,’ he says. ‘Everything else is provided for you. You can be selfish and concentrate on yourself. The players like that. I get confidence in my game from putting in so much physical work.’

Pumping to the music: Next up is a weights session

7pm: PUMP UP THE MUSIC

The day’s final session is the most enjoyable: hypertrophy training (essentially weightlifting). There are 15 stations in the room and the players split into groups and choose which weights to do to pumping music. Jamie Roberts picks the track list while resident DJ Gethin Jenkins is in France.

Some work for 45 minutes or so, others stay longer. It is noted who stays and who leaves. This training does not increase power but, Beard explains, if you add mass and maintain speed that increases your momentum.

9pm: BEDTIME STORY

The players are spent. Beard is impressed. ‘When we first came here it was about us cracking the whip. “You have to do this, you have to do that”. Now the culture drives that. We have a liability board for those who aren’t training hard enough and the punishments are horrific. But nobody has come close to being on that list.

‘Before the World Cup we were fit enough to play but we weren’t fit enough to do the training the coaches wanted. We’ve provided that for the coaches and now we want to go to the next level. The technical and tactical should be what they focus on, not any physical limitation. We need to provide them with that platform, because if we don’t, we have failed them.’

Wales face Argentina, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia on consecutive weekends in the Dove Men Series at Millennium Stadium, starting with the Pumas (Saturday, KO 2.30pm). Tickets, starting at 10 for children and 25 for adults, are available at: www.wru.co.uk Tel: 08442 777888.