COLCHESTER United’s head of sport science Kem Ismail says variety will be key for the club’s players over the coming weeks, as they prepare for the new League Two campaign.

The U’s squad reported back for fitness testing on Thursday and Friday, following their summer break with pre-season starting in earnest at Florence Park tomorrow.

Colchester’s players will be put through their paces over the coming weeks in the shape of training and pre-season friendlies, with their first warm-up match at Billericay Town on July 14.

The U’s are preparing for the big kick-off on August 7 and Ismail says no stone will be left unturned, in their build-up.

He said: “Pre-season is so important and the science shows that players who get through pre-season have vastly greater seasons compared to those who don’t get through pre-season.

“All of this is part of our preparation to try to make sure that we get as many of these lads through pre-season, up to match fitness and ready to go for that first game of the season, as soon as possible.

“We’ve started off with volume and we’re gradually going to decrease that volume and increase that intensity.

“We’ve got lots of different plans, different training days, different double sessions, different field based and gym based, we’ve got things on site and off site – we’ve got everything planned for the next four to six weeks really, in terms of how we want everything to go.

Gazette:

“It’s just a case of implementing it now and getting the buy-in from the lads.”

It was a new-look Colchester squad that returned this week, with seven new signings reporting for duty.

The U’s players undertook indoor strength, power and flexibility tests, in addition to a variety of sprint tests on the grass.

“We’re 100 per cent happy with the fitness levels of the players," said Ismail.

“It’s been a big change to the squad that we had, last year.

“A lot of faces in, a lot of faces out, different types of players – it’s all a big change but everyone has come in at a great level.

“It’s been good to see them all back in the building interacting and hopefully building those relationships for the season ahead.

“The way that pre-season works is that we look at an array of things – we don’t really look at just one thing.

“Part of it is looking at how they’re reporting back to us and checking what levels they are to see if we need to adapt the off-season programme a little bit, to make sure that we can get them up to match fitness sooner or later.

“We’re also checking for any injuries – or any potential injuries – or anything that some of the players may be a little bit more susceptible to.

“Some of it too is picking up some baseline data so that if any of the players pick up any little knocks or niggles throughout the year or throughout the season when we’re doing some of our wellness checks, we can report back to some of the stuff that we’ve collected so we know what a player should normally be able to do.

“If they’re way below it, then why are they way below it and is that something that we need to address?

“Some of it just testing that we do throughout the year and just trying to track them and check that they’re getting better.

“We’re not just trying to prepare players for matches – we’re trying to make sure that they’re getting better as well.”