At a time when the margins between victory and defeat are becoming all the finer, the pressures and demands of the modern game have forced many teams to try and gain whatever advantage over the opposition they can. Certainly the field in which the greatest strides have been made is that of player fitness and conditioning, and Fulham can unquestionably claim to be in with the leading pack.
With the appointment of highly-regarded fitness coach, Steve Nance, the Whites outlined their ambitions to be one of the fittest sides in the league. Having trained several of Australia's leading Rugby side to success including Rugby League's Brisbane Broncos and the 1999 Rugby World Cup winning Wallabies - Nance’s credentials make for impressive reading.
And, as the players soon discovered following a series of gruelling training sessions, Fulham’s new fitness approach was designed with one thing in mind – getting results through hard work.
“I’m not here to be everyone’s friend. I’d like to be, but I’m not,” is Steve Nance’s simple philosophy. “You’ve got to have a policeman in any organisation. The strength and conditioning department is traditionally the one that cracks down on things because we know if we do things right, the players will perform better and we’ll get better results.”
Perhaps the most visible change in the Whites’ fitness approach has been the use of exercise bikes on the touchline – a practice widely used in both Rugby codes, yet not in football.
“People don’t like changing their ideas,” Nance explained. “Six or seven years ago, I’d never have used a bike on the sidelines. But that’s why it’s good to be open to different ideas. I don’t come from a football background so I don’t come with any ‘football baggage’ and I deliberately try not to come with just a Rugby background.
“You’ve only got to turn the TV on and look at any other sport. If you look at a game of Rugby League or Rugby Union in the southern hemisphere or even here in England – they’ll have three or four bikes on the sidelines.
“We try to look around and see what’s happening in other fields. My knowledge has improved drastically since I first came here.
"The things we try to bring in are things we know work well in other sports, they’re not drastic but we know that, for example, if a player gets on a bike as soon as they come off the field, they’re going to recover a lot better. It’s scientifically proven - it’s not what Steve Nance thinks.”
Yet whilst the bikes are the most noticeable change supporters would have noticed, Fulham’s fitness regime encompasses everything from strength, cardiovascular capacity and rest right down to the smallest nutritional details.
Nance explained, “We changed the nutritional side of things so the players don’t eat so much protein close to the game. It’s a tradition over here in English sport to eat chicken and fish, whilst it’s good to eat that, it’s not so good right before you play.
“We’ve eliminated eating a lot of other foods that aren’t valuable before you play. We’ve also done a fair bit on recovery drinks. Little things like that have added to the players’ wellness.”
The fitness challenge has been fought on two fronts this season – physical fitness and injury reduction. Opposition managers have already been quick to admit that Fulham are a side unlikely to be out-run or out-muscled and the stats in terms of injuries sustained speak for themselves.
“One of our main aims following last season was to reduce our injuries but also to build on what we’d started last season,” explained Nance. “What we achieved last year, in some areas, was great but it was disappointing in other areas. This season we’ve hit our goals but we can obviously do better – we’re not there yet.
“We’ve instigated a programme of injury prevention rather than cure – treating injuries before they happen rather than after. You can’t do anything about broken arms, broken jaws or injuries like Jimmy Bullard’s but we can address things like hamstring strains, groin injuries and quad tears – that’s what we’ve reduced.
“We strengthen the weakness before it occurs, if you can see a crack in the wall and you know that it’s going to keep occurring – as it does with certain injuries in football – then you try to do things to stop those cracks.
“One of the major injuries we had last season were hamstring problems. We had something like 24 occurrences. With nine weeks to go this season we’ve only had three – so that’s a large decrease.”
With across the board progress undoubtedly being made on the fitness front, Nance is not keen to rest on his laurels as he looked ahead to future targets. “Even through we have improved on last season, we can certainly improve further, we’re kidding ourselves if we think we’re there.”
