Coventry City boss has started to train his players minds as well as their bodies in an attempt to instill a winning mentality into the team.
Boothroyd is a self confessed follower of sports psychology and is keen to utilise it alongside physical training to get the best out of his players.
“I am a curious mixture as a coach because I think sometimes you have to push people as far as you can and the sports science theory says you take people to a certain level, but I am a big believer in going beyond that because the most important part of the pre-season is training the minds to the expectation of what’s needed, and convincing people they can do a lot more than they think they can." said Bothroyd.
“The sports psychology side of the game is the most important thing because the bit between the players’ ears is the most important space on a football field and if we can get our players into a winning mind-set and into a performance mind set, when you have got 20 odd guys in your squad all focusing on one specific goal, but knowing they have their part to play in that, then I think you have got a really good chance of being successful.”
Boothroyd has made his own additions to the team, but now he has had a chance to meet and to see the existing players, he is excited at the prospect of working with them. One player that has attracted his attention is that of Carl Baker, who has already shown City fans glimpses of his raw talent in the few games he played for the Sky Blues last season'
Boothroyd praised Baker saying, “Carl is an exceptional talent who I am really looking forward to working with, but the thing about this job is that we have got a lot of good players who don’t know how good they can be, so I will be working very hard with them to make sure that they contribute to make sure we are better than perhaps what other people think they are."
“I am not going to throw the baby out with the bath water because there is an awful lot of good here already and that’s testament to the managers that have gone before, so all I will be doing is adding little bits and pieces that I think we need.
“I have seen a lot of talent on display and I think that with one or two additions to what we have got I think we can certainly push on and see if we can improve the club in general.”