Strength and Conditioning Coach & Personal Trainer
www.sampepys.com
04/08/2026
The Journey To The World Cup….
A twelve month project.
Monitoring, intervening and some good old fashioned communication.
Ranking fifth best defender in your maiden World Cup at the age of 20 is very impressive.
Great work Luc.
02/08/2026
Preventing A Breakdown In Pre Season…
It all starts in the off season.
Getting the loading into the system is paramount.
What you do (or don’t do) on the pitch and in the gym can identity itself later on.
Get the work in, reduce likelihood of a breakdown.
Return To Play….
Pleasure being part of the process helping get Ty back up to full speed….
And this guy does not lack speed by any means.
27/07/2026
Pre Season….
Great to see some of the guys continuing where they left off.
Not long until the new season is upon us.
Smashing It This Season….
Well that may well be the case.
However, not if you follow the same approach and expect a different outcome.
This is very common with how some injuries manifest - same approach, same outcome.
Or if you came into pre season off the back of sub optimal loading….
Not enough focus on getting some good mechanical load into the system and just spent most of your sessions ball striking 👀
It just sets you up to fail before the season has even started.
One thing that was apparent about all the players that we worked with over the off season - they did something different to what they’d usually do (or were existing clients).
The process rewards those who seek.
Baseline Testing….
Baseline metrics tell us exactly where each athlete is at, so the schedule meets them there.
Then we retest mid-week.
Why?
Because training load leaves fingerprints on the nervous system. Comparing mid-week numbers to baseline shows us how each player is actually absorbing the work.
Some players need the volume pulled back. Some can handle more. The data decides, not the schedule.
Off-season camp - powered by data, driven by standards.
13/07/2026
Your Next Injury Already Happened….
The biggest predictor of your next injury?
Your last one.
The deficit, the asymmetry, the compensation - still there! Waiting for minute 78 of a congested fixture week.
Available players aren’t lucky.
They’ve found what’s hiding and fixed it. That’s the gap between a 25 game season and a 45 game one.
Assess. Address. Stay on the pitch.
For a full audit of your current approach, click on the link in bio, select performance pathway and answer the questions.
13/07/2026
Your Next Injury Already Happened….
The biggest predictor of your next injury?
Your last one.
The deficit, the asymmetry, the compensation - still there! Waiting for minute 78 of a congested fixture week.
Available players aren’t lucky.
They’ve found what’s hiding and fixed it. That’s the gap between a 25 game season and a 45 game one.
Assess. Address. Stay on the pitch.
For a full audit of your current approach, DM me the word “INJURY”
Managing Overuses….
Overuse injuries spilling over into the off season and the following pre season are common.
On camp, we may have a week or two weeks with a player.
The key….
Ensuring that the demands on pitch, and how they’re being managed, are aligned with our off pitch strategies to help tackle the ongoing problem.
The overarching aim is to apply the load meticulously on pitch while still providing a basis to strengthen the tissue off the pitch.
performance
Forces On The Calves…
Your calves take a beating every time you sprint - here’s why that matters.
At top speed, ground contact lasts less than 0.1 seconds. In that split second, forces of 3–5x bodyweight travel through the foot and ankle and the calf complex.
The soleus alone can experience forces of up to 8x bodyweight during sprinting. It’s one of the hardest-working muscles, yet one of the most under-trained.
If your calves can’t absorb and return that force, two things happen:
🔴 You leak speed - energy that should propel you forward gets lost at ground contact.
🔴 The load goes elsewhere - Achilles, plantar fascia, even up the chain to the hamstrings.
This is why we don’t just “do calf raises.” We build calf capacity progressively - heavy isometrics, tempo work, then fast, stiff contacts that mirror sprint demands.
Availability starts from the ground up. Literally.