THE SYDNEY Swans’ earliest start to pre-season training in seven years is already reaping rewards, with the majority of players taking part in every session.

Swans assistant coach Peter Berbakov said that as a whole, the playing group was the fittest he had seen in his six years at the club.

“From a list perspective, we’ve got lots of guys out there and not only that, they’re doing the entire session,” he said.

“There’s not guys being pulled out after 20 minutes or 30 minutes - they’re lasting for the whole session. It’s a real bonus for us to be able to get the conditioning into them and also the volume of skills.

“That’s how you’re going to improve - doing the repetition. The longer they’re out there and the longer they stay out there, the faster they’ll improve.”

The bulk of pre-season training to date has involved gruelling running sessions at Lakeside Oval, Centennial Park and a particularly taxing day spent on the sand dunes at Kurnell.

Berbakov said the early fitness base achieved by the players would be crucial to a productive pre-season.

“Some of the young kids have been flogged for four weeks now, so it’s a terrific foundation for guys like Brett Meredith and Lewis Johnston,” he said.

“It just really allows them to focus on their skills and if we feel there needs to be a little bit of a top-up with their conditioning, we can do that quite easily.

“They certainly have given themselves a good chance to last out the year, because often you find there’s a bit of burnout if you’ve had a late start.”

With the month-long block of running completed, the Swans’ focus now turns to skills work - much to the relief of the players.

Decision making drills and defensive pressure will be the main priorities in the next three weeks, before senior coach Paul Roos begins working through the club’s game plan for 2010.

“At the moment, the main concentration is on the physical conditioning, the preparedness to be able to train at a good intensity and obviously getting as much recovery as they can in order to be able to back it up,” Berbakov said.

“There’s not a huge amount of meetings going on right now but once Roosy comes on board, he’ll really ramp up the game plan stuff.

“From there, training will probably be a bit more stop-start as we really focus in on how we want to play.”