National captain Ricardo Gardener (left), assistant technical director Alfredo Montesso (centre) and assistant coach Theodore Whitmore watch in earnest as the Reggae Boyz test their speed and agility at a training camp at Grand Lido Braco in Trelawny yesterday. (Photo: Paul Reid)

BRACO, Trelawny - Jamaica's national technical director, Rene Simoes, says he is satisfied with the squad he has assembled at the SuperClubs' Grand Lido Braco training camp in preparation for a series of friendlies ahead of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers against the Bahamas next month.

The squad, which was joined by six English-based players who arrived in the island on Monday, went through a second day of testing under the watchful eyes of Brazilian sports physiologist, Rogerio Nevis, and members of the national coaching panel headed by Simoes.

The 24 players went through a number of speed drills including a series of six timed sprints of about 35 yards and also running around cones and between five-foot-high poles.

The times of each run was recorded using a suitcase-sized machine that was connected to two sensors at either end of the area used for the drills.

Simoes, who watched proceedings from a distance for most of the session testing for speed and agility, said they had quality players in the squad but it was still too early to say how they would play as a team.

"It is still too early," Simoes said, "but I think we have good players here; the quality is very good and it is a matter of chemistry and we won't know until we get them together, to live and train together."

Simoes said the camp would last all week until Saturday before they shift to the National Stadium to step up preparation for the games.

At Braco, Simoes says, he will get a chance to "look at some new players and new formations that we did not have time to do before and to test chemistry".

Assistant national technical director, Alfredo Montesso (left), and Brazillian sports physiologist, Rogerio Nevis, watch as a member of the Reggae Boyz squad goes through his paces during a training session at Grand Lido Braco in Trelawny yesterday. (Photo: Paul Reid)

According to the Brazilian, Nevis will be with the team for a week. The first three days will be taken up with the tests and the other four to read the test and prepare reports.

Nevis, who Simoes said is a specialist sports physiologist who worked with top Brazilian club Flamengo, will test the players "to see how fast they are; how they can improve resistance, velocity and strength; everything to do with physical fitness and conditioning, this is what we are testing now".

This is not the first time the national team would have gone though this testing, Simoes said. The previous occasion was during his first stint as technical director when it was executed during a training camp in Brazil at the Air Force Academy.

"We don't have the time to take these players to Brazil this time so we have to do it here," he told the Observer..

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