Hearts of Oak: Observations from Kim Grant’s first training sessions

Head coach and technical director of Accra Hearts of Oak Kim Grant officially started training the team last Saturday in Pobiman.

The sessions under the watch of the former Elmina Sharks director continued at the beginning of this week and there are few observations made most of whom are quiet different from the training methods previous coaches.

“His first training sessions are quiet different from the previous coach’s. I’m always here at the training and I know the details of Hearts of Oak training styles.” Alex told Silver FM.

“You could see the seriousness of the coach (Grant). He is everywhere giving instruction and teaching the players” the observer told FootballmadeinGhana.com. in a separate interview.

Fully in charge of the drills

Grant makes sure he oversees all the drills. The Hearts of Oak players are put into groups just after the routine stretching exercises of every training session in most clubs.

“He is fully in charge of everything. He passes the ball, he is teaching them I must say.” Alex recounted to this website.

Seth Hoffman – the former interim head coach – has not left. He is present at training but it is Grant that runs the show, fully.

High intensity

Ernest Sowah, Christopher Boney, Benjamin Agyare are some of the Hearts of Oak players to publicly admit the hardness and intensity of Grant’s training methodology.

“He is killing us.” the players joked.

Playing from the back

Grant wants his team to play from the back and in his first training session he made this philosophy clear. It is a major reason why he sanctioned the purchase of free agent Richmond Ayi from WAFA – a club that represent Grant’s philosophy of conducting play from the defence and Ayi is a priceless asset in this regard whilst Sowah, Benjamin Mensah are not poor footballers.