Newcastle United head coach Steve Bruce has appointed a new strength and conditioning coach, Nick Grantham, according to The Chronicle.
The newspaper claims that Bruce has given Grantham the responsibility of improving his players’ physical state, while he’s also making improvements to the club’s gym.
Grantham has an extensive track record in the industry, having previously worked for Watford, Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion, England Rugby, the Chinese national team and the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Grantham is said to typically employ band walks, Romanian dead lifts, dumbbell shoulder presses, chin-ups, split squats and inverse pulls among other techniques.
OPINION
This is an interesting appointment from Bruce, and make no mistake about it. It’s clear from bringing Grantham in and from making alterations to the club gym that the new Magpies boss is keen to improve his players’ strength and fitness. We tend to think of strength and conditioning coaches as operating more in sports like boxing, mixed martial arts and American football. However, Grantham clearly has extensive experience of working in the football industry. Whether his influence will have any particular effect on Newcastle’s results over the course of the season remains to be seen, of course, but it’s never a bad thing to bring in extra help for your players. The Premier League is arguably the most physically demanding league in world football, and so it’s important that the Magpies are able to cope with each and every team they come up against. Bruce is clearly making sure that he covers all available bases, here.
