Fitness Coach joins Micky’s backroom staff
Micky Mellon has bolstered his backroom staff with a dedicated fitness coach to work with the first team squad.
Andy Hodgen previously held the role at Fleetwood Town where he worked with Micky Mellon during the clubs rise from the Conference to the Football League.
He brings a whole host of ideas and experience to work alongside Town physio Chris Skitt to help develop and maintain the first team squad’s fitness, strength and health.
“I’m really excited about the challenge and after meeting all the staff I’m looking forward to what the season has in store”, said Andy.
“I’ve been working with Skitty quite intensively, as we’ve only had a short period of time since I came in, working on what we need to get ready for the season.
“It’s a very contagious staff, their attitude, ambition and personalities are spot on, I said after meeting them that this is just my cup of tea.
“Everyone has the same ambition, we want to go up. I think we will, I think we have all the right things in place, it feels right and is a club going places.”
“Working with Micky in the past I know what he wants and I know what I can bring to the coaching staff.
“The ideas I have and the ones that Skitty already wanted implementing, as well as the other ideas we have been mulling around will all go to help achieve a fit, strong side.
“Micky wants to play football and if we put the two together than I sure it will be an exciting season.”
The Fitness Coach role is one where a lot of the work goes on unseen from the eyes of the fans but its importance last throughout the season. Micky Mellon is a great believer in the Sports Science side of the game but also a believer in playing football in the right way, Andy added:”Micky is a great believer in hard word from his side but he also wants to play football.
“People sometimes think that if you got for a physical strong side then you will remove an element of nice visual football, but we are not about that.
“We are about being able to produce the physical requirements to play intensive football, press quickly, recover, overlapping runs, winning headers, defending strong, all things that me and Skitty are going to work towards to be consistent on the pitch and in the players.
“You have to look at the bigger picture, what are the tough times in the season, when are the games coming at you thick and hard, when do you have a bit of time to take a step back and do some more physical work or when do we need to take our foot off the gas and do some more maintence and preparation.
“Our main priority now is pre-season, we are really looking forward to it but we know it’s going to be tough. We know it’s going to be football specific, we are not about running up mountains because you’re not going to run up a mountain when the whistle goes.”
Having worked with Micky before Andy knows what the players can expect and what the manager will expect from them. He sees a lot of similarities in the ambition at Town with the one he saw at Fleetwood as they progressed through promotions:”I worked with Micky at Fleetwood where I was fitness coach under him.
“It was the Conference when I joined and the fitness part was very little, Micky brought me in and wanted me to come in and bring that part to life.
“I joined there at a good time and Micky wanted good tempo, hard work, fast playing and physical players.
“We then kicked on and had a great season, got promoted into league two and I then worked with Graham Alexander when Micky left.
“We had a few promotions there and a good time, it felt right to come here and I can see the ambition is similar to what I saw at Fleetwood and it was an easy decision to come to Shrewsbury.”