Notts County boss Luke Williams is hoping to strike the perfect balance in his first pre-season as Notts County boss.
Williams was brought in to replace Ian Burchnall, who left for Forest Green Rovers, last month. Ryan Harley arrived as Williams' assistant manager at Meadow Lane as Notts target another assault on promotion from the National League back into the Football League at the fourth time of asking.
Williams left his position as Russell Martin's assistant at Championship side Swansea City to join Notts while Harley was most recently playing for Frome Town in Somerset. Notts have already signed six players and continue to work on bringing more through the door at Meadow Lane as they look to finally end their stay in the fifth tier. And how they get on in pre-season will determine how they set the tone for the start of the new season with double sessions ahead for his players and staff.
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"The logistics of when and where we train, because we need to train twice a day throughout the pre-season at least so there is a lot of planning around timings," Williams answered in reply to a question about pre-season plans. "Meal timing, meeting timings then the content of all the training.
"The content of all the meetings, so we try and maximise the time we have efficiently and all of that takes careful planning." Williams will be guided by his coaching staff and does not intend to 'run riot' as he calls it.
The aforementioned double sessions will be on the agenda to condition players for a gruelling National League campaign. "We have got really good staff here with experience - we are fortunate," Williams added.
"They know what they are talking about and we are not going to allow me and Ryan to run tiot and we do not want to do that. "We want to work within the remits of what is safe for the players.
"We do not want injured players and those who are burnt out by the time the League season starts. "But at the same time we do not want to waste a moment and we want to use all time appropriately and we believe in hard work.
"Hard work is not always just physical, it is often going through stuff on the training pitch that might not be physically challenging but you have to be present and concentrate. "We will work closely with the staff to make sure everything is appropriate and for the players' best interests but at the same time there is going to be plenty of work."
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