Hearts' Tenerife training schedule laid out

Double sessions are planned but there will be an element of respite

The 26-man Hearts squad touching down in Tenerife today can expect a rigorous week’s work. The island is synonymous with relaxation, sunbathing and holiday fraternising, but there will be none of that for the Tynecastle players. They are there to prepare for the William Hill Premiership kick-off in a month’s time, followed by a demanding European campaign. Gruelling daily training sessions in searing Canarian heat will dominate the agenda throughout their stay.

Daytime temperatures will be touching 30 degrees next week and Hearts coaching staff are content to expose players to the elements. Intense warm-weather training provides experience of what they may encounter if drawn away to a southern-European side in a UEFA competition later this year. It is a key part of pre-season preparation. Double training sessions will be the norm to imbue the squad with base fitness for the 2024/25 campaign, although there will also be some rest time.

Although the trip does not include a friendly match as was initially planned, Hearts are confident they will see huge benefits from their week-long stay on the largest of the Canary Islands. Existing players will get to know six new signings at close quarters during the trip. “I've got some personal experience of being out there for training,” said head coach Steven Naismith. “It's got some benefits and some drawbacks. You find it harder to get a [friendly] game. We've managed to structure pre-season with getting so many bodies in earlier so that we can focus on the training and detail of what we want when we are away - without having that issue of trying to fit the game in and how much work you do before it.

“The conditions and the training complex we are going to are really good. The players will work really hard but there will be rest time for them as well. There is enough there to entertain the players and make them relax, rather than being stuck in a hotel room on your down time and waiting until the next session. They can go out and enjoy a meal or whatever closeby.”

Parts of the camp will mirror a European away match and force players to deal with similar challenges. “That's a part of it,” explained Naismith. “There's only so much you can do because you don't know here you will go in a European game. The structure is different but it definitely get players used to travelling, then feeling a bit leggy the next day. How are you going to make sure that, come match time, you've got rid of all that tiredness and you are ready to go? That's the details we can work on. With the heat, it will be roasting, probably hotter than most of have been through in a pre-season, which is a good thing for us.”

Naismith and his coaching staff devised a schedule to improve players’ stamina, speed, tactical awareness and general fitness. It is a programme as unforgiving as the blazing sun overhead, a necessary week-long workout designed to stand the squad in good stead for the next year. “We are travelling Thursday so that will be a rest day, Friday will be a double session, Saturday will be a double session, Sunday will be a long single session,” said Naismith. “The players will have Sunday afternoon off and then next week follows the same pattern.

“It's effectively five sessions squeezed into a really intense time, they will have a rest, and then there's a big block again. With the two sessions per day, the boys will work hard. However, they can be on the pitch and not work hard as long as we are getting detail in what we want to do in areas of the pitch. Being together is important. That was probably the biggest positive of last year's pre-season camp. It really got the new players comfortable around the group and we benefitted from that during the season for sure.”

Those who enjoy golfing should be able to sate their appetite for a round. Naismith is aware of the need to mix things up and allow players a certain amount of freedom whilst holed up for a week. “There will be an afternoon where they can do something like that. It's all factored in at the right times,” he said. “Through my career, you got given an inch and tried to take a mile but I think that's gone now. There is an understanding and a clear message.

“Gone are the days where you go on a training camp, you have really hard runs, but you've got a night out and a game. That's gone. We have a decent enough group. There is respect and trust. If we go out for a meal and somebody wants a glass of something with their dinner, they can have it. But they aren't going on the p*** and then the next day is wasted. That's not going to happen.”

Hearts training schedule in Tenerife is laid out - but players 'won't be going on the p***'