AFTER looking at fatigue last week, I thought I would take the chance to explain what I do when I am not on the ice to get myself ready for a game.

For myself, any training I’ll do to get stronger or fitter will be through the summer.

I will do a training programme through the summer that I have been doing for the last four years, which starts in April time.

The first stage is getting bigger and putting on weight that you lost through the season, then getting stronger and quicker in the final stage. That will finish just as I come into the season.

There is just the cardiovascular aspect, because hockey is a very anaerobic sport – you will be looking at a high heart rate for a short periods of time, so that is something you need to work on.

For all the other stuff that goes into it, you are using everything really - co-ordination, balance, every muscle group.

During the season, you are often finding it is less maintenance. Instead, you are just trying to deteriorate as little as possible because it is just about being prepared for the game.

Some weeks you might pick up a knock that you rest and then on other weeks, you’ll feel okay and you’ll go to the gym.

Obviously, we train near the weekend on Thursday and Friday, so there is a big opportunity to get into the gym early in the week if you feel up for it.

During the week, it would be rest usually on Monday and Tuesday, on the bike for half an hour and a stretch and maybe a bit of weight training on Wednesday and Thursday, and then on Friday, it would just be the bike again.

Then there are different things you do for warm-up on the match day. Some people play football but I just go in the gym and do a little light weight routine and then stretch and go on.

With most weekends we play two games and there is not too much you can do to recover fully because it is hard work playing the games back-to-back.

Obviously we are in quite a lucky situation where we play at home on the Saturday.

Often, playing a home game, you’ll be more of the aggressor whereas when you play an away game often you’ll find yourself sitting back a bit more and absorbing the pressure and counter-attacking.

That is obviously a better situation to be in when you are slightly fatigued from the day before.