Swansea City Ladies add Jack Spillets as strength and conditioning coach

Swansea City Ladies are delighted to announce the return of Jack Spillets, who has rejoined the club as strength and conditioning coach.

The 35-year-old previously held the role with the Swans between 2013 and 2017, and continued his career with work as a personal trainer; along with working with academy level football and rugby players as part of his job as lecturer and strength and conditioning coach at Bridgend College.

His return will improve the Swans' strength and conditioning provision, with players able to make the most of tailored gym sessions with the aim of improving their overall fitness and conditioning, while a focus on strengthening ligaments and muscle will provide the best chance of injury prevention.

“It’s really good to be back," said Spillets.

"I’ve got fond memories from when I was here previously, so when Ian (Owen, general manager) and Ceri [Philips, Swans head coach] phoned me up to see if I was interested in coming back, it was a no-brainer to be honest.

“I started my strength and conditioning coaching career with the club so it was an obvious choice for me.

“I started with the club while I was at university, I was looking for some work experience, I was interested in physical training, I was introduced to the manager and it started from there really.

“After that, I’ve worked in gyms that dealt with a lot of local athletes and kept my hand in strength and conditioning, as well as some personal training.

“I’ve ended up working with academy level football and rugby players at Bridgend College, which is where I am now, working with 16 to 18-year-old academy-level athletes.

“Pre-season is probably the most important phase we get as strength and conditioning coaches because it’s the only time we can be a little bit selfish.

“We are never going to get this much contact with the players, and as much time as I have now, because as soon as games come in and training intensity ramps up, coaches want more time with their players.

“We are looking to work on strength primarily. Female footballers are at more risk of ligament and muscle injury, so we’re going to look at football specific strengths, looking at hips, hamstrings, knees and ankles to make those areas stronger and more resilient.

“We’re going to do some speed work as well, faster players are better players when it comes to football and we’ll look at that top-end fitness, the players are already generally fit anyway, so we are just looking at topping up fitness.”