National coach Theodore Whitmore - File

GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman

Enhancing their conditioning will be a key goal for Jamaica's Reggae Boyz, as they extend their preparation for the CONCACAF Gold Cup at a one-week training camp in the Cayman Islands.

This follows a training camp in Jamaica last week.

Sharpness, fitness

"It was very successful," head coach Theodore Whitmore said at a press conference shortly after their arrival, while pointing to the recent preparation in Jamaica. "We were working on a bit of sharpness, a bit of fitness. Most of the players who we want to use in the Gold Cup were really off holidaying, (so) after 30-40 minutes we weren't really getting anything."

Whitmore added: "So we were getting some conditioning and now we've come here, it's the same thing because when you reach the Gold Cup there's not a lot (that) you can do because you play games, travel. It's not like we're at one venue."

Jamaica begins their Gold Cup campaign with a match against Canada at the Home Depot Centre in Los Angeles next week Friday. They will play their second game in Columbus, Ohio, on July 7, then fly to Florida for their third and final first-round match on the 10th.

"We're going into a competition that there's no rest, there's no opportunity to recover to train to correct things," assistant coach Bradley Stewart noted after a training session yesterday evening at the George Town Primary School. "So you've to use the pre-camp situation to get everything concretised in terms of how the players understand their roles, the fitness levels, the general camaraderie inside of the team.

"Without this camp, it'd be difficult to have serious expectations that we're gonna get good results," stated Stewart, whose team is scheduled to another state for its next fixture should it advances past the first round.

The Jamaicans, who hustled out of bed in the wee hours for an early-morning flight, arrived in Grand Cayman shortly before 10 a.m. following a near 50-minute ride. Later in the evening, they got down to business, training on the newly laid astro turf at the primary school grounds.

warm-up routine

After Stewart took the team through its warm-up routine, Whitmore led the Boyz through a half-field drill and quarter-field scrimmage, limited to two touches, which provided opportunities to test their attacking skills, ball possession and movement, as well as defensive abilities.

While the players supported well and generally excelled at passing with possession, Whit-more did not seem altogether pleased with the combined defensive effort. Still, he was grateful for the training opportunity.

"Not how we really wanted it," he noted of the session. "The players looked a bit tired. But it's preparation for the Gold Cup, so we're heading in the right direction."

As a precautionary measure, key players Luton Shelton and Claude Davis took ice treatment for twinges playing on the unaccustomed surface.

It's a risk the team could do without as already its regular captain, Ricardo Gardner, was left in Jamaica to treat an injury. He is one of several senior players not to have made the trip, others being Marlon King, Jamal Campbell-Ryce and Ian Goodison.

Whitmore and head of the Jamaican football delegation, George Evans, had earlier explained their absence in a press conference, noting King and Campbell-Ryce were holidaying in England and Goodison's never had his passport, as his club, Tranmere Rovers, needed the travel document to renew his work permit.