Werder’s third training camp ahead of the 2016/17 season will take place in Herzlake. The region, which is home to 4,000 people, is synonymous with one former Bremen head coach: Felix Magath. During his tenure the area was used by Magath for gruelling exercises. This year ball work is going to take precedence; however, it’s worth taking a look back at what used to happen in Lower Saxony.
Memories of Magath’s tenure (October 1998-April 1999) are painful for many players. In order to ensure that his side were fit for the second half of the season he brought the squad to Herzlake in January 1999. The work they put in there resulted in the nickname "Schmerzlake" (Painlake) developing. Christian Brand, who played for SVW back then, remembers the tough nature of the exercises, one of which saw the players “carry two medicine balls as they embarked on never-ending runs through the mountains.”
Andreas Herzog, who skippered the side back then, looks back on the sessions with a wry smile. “I thought that we’d be running for about an hour. As captain I was expected to be near the front. As the exercise continued and the run showed no sign of stopping, I started to slip behind and ended up getting hopelessly lost in the forest. I was exhausted,” recounts the Austrian. An hour and a half later Herzog and teammate Ailton returned to the hotel.
Current head coach Viktor Skripnik, who was also subjected to the camp during Magath’s time, is presumably not going to draw on the methods of his predecessor. Clemens Fritz & Co. will have already attended two training camps before this one. They travel to both Neuruppin (Brandenburg) and Zillertal (Austria) beforehand, meaning stamina and conditioning should have already been established.
