Dean Holden recently took his squad on a trip to the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich.
The Addicks completed a series of mental and physical exercises designed to build togetherness and leadership.
Holden said: “I’ve always had this idea of bringing the players and staff down to see what elite looks like and the standards of discipline that these guys set. We’ve done quite a bit of physical work and all in all it’s been really enjoyable. We’re really grateful to both Adam and Andy here for having us.
“It’s about building resilience and building team spirit. Everyone talks about team bonding but what is that? It’s getting a trust and a shared purpose between a group of people to go and achieve the result at the end of it. I’m quite big on doing different types of things to break the week up.
“It’s been really tough physically for the players, but they’ve learned a lot. It’s been really fascinating and it’s captivated everybody. We’ll definitely come back in pre-season for a couple of days. I’ve just been having a chat with Andy about some plans that he’s got for them, so that will be interesting let me tell you. This is just a taster!”
Ryan Inniss added: “The biggest thing I took from today was just hearing the lads, who I’ve been with for quite some time actually, give contrasting views on what they think leadership is and how it can be applied.
“We had a really positive, in-depth talk on leadership - the qualities that leaders show, how different people show different qualities and how you can apply them so it was brilliant.”
Regimental Sergeant Major, Warrant Officer Andy Ward commented: “It’s been a great day for community engagement but also the guys have been able to see exactly what happens this side of the wire - a part of the army life that actually you probably wouldn’t normally see.
“Second to that we’ve put the players through some team working and bonding exercises, so they’ve had some command tasks and they’ve completed the army’s annual fitness test with some excellent results all round.”
Fans can view a gallery of images from the day here.
Charlton return to The Valley on Saturday, March 11th to take on Accrington Stanley (3pm KO GMT). Click here to purchase your tickets.
(Transcription by Gregg Baxter)
