Forever Faster Training Series: Arsenal's new fitness coach promises changes

Theo Walcott could only watch in amazement as his record fell. Arsenal has a new sprint king. 

Hector Bellerin is only 19 years old, but he's made a name for himself during Arsenal's preseason campaign. We knew the former Barcelona defender was fast, but Walcott confirmed Bellerin is Arsenal's fastest player during a fan question-and-answer session. 

When the England international was asked who would win in a race, himself or Gunner legend Thierry Henry, Walcott let the cat out of the bag. 

“Me!" Walcott joked. "Thierry is in his 30s now so I would be very disappointed if I didn’t beat him. I beat his sprint record, which Hector [Bellerin] has now broken.”

Henry set the club record in the 40-meter sprint with a time of 4.82 seconds, but Walcott broke that with a time of 4.42 seconds in 2009. 

Now Bellerin is the new record holder, and it'll be up to new fitness coach Shad Forsythe to ensure Arsenal's latest speed merchant remains fit during the Premier League campaign. 

Forsythe served as the performance manager of Germany's national team since 2004 before being lured away by the Gunners this summer. 

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger vowed to find out why his players, which included stars like Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Özil and Jack Wilshere last season, continued to miss more games than their Premier League rivals. 

Forsythe was chosen to change that, and the early reviews of his work with Arsenal are positive. 

“He would not be here if I was not impressed,” said Wenger, during an interview with The Guardian's Amy Lawrence. “We are trying to be as good as we can everywhere. We might still bring somebody else in to be as accurate as possible and preventative as well. We can still improve in some departments to prepare better.”

Lawrence spoke with the trainer's mentor, Mark Verstegen, who explained his protege's commitment to making sure Arsenal's players maintain their speed, their physicality and their fitness throughout the harrowing campaign that is the Premier League season. 

"If someone’s hip is locked up it doesn’t mean they can’t play – but in time that is going to give a higher incidence of groin issues, lower-back issues. So we want to address those things and clean them up. It’s like running a virus scan on the human operating system and getting those movement patterns cleaned up. How rapidly can we make that happen? It could be a singular session all the way to weeks and months, until we get that cleaned up. And then we maintain it. Otherwise this person is going to continue to have issues. So what we need to do is say, we are not just going to swap out the tire that blew, but structurally we need to reduce the pressure that blew the tire.

“Arsenal are getting a guy who is driven by high values. Shad genuinely cares and will work extremely hard player by player, peer to peer, to help execute the vision Mr. Wenger has laid out. It is going to take a lot of time and a lot of hard work. But I think it’s a great match and a great choice.”

It seems the players have bought into the plan as well. 

“He’s brought new ideas in which has helped so far," said defender Kieran Gibbs, speaking to Lawrence. 

The potential benefits of Forsythe's arrival are huge. Arsenal, blessed with talent few teams in the Premier League can match, can challenge for the league title if their best players remain healthy. It appears the pieces are in place to ensure that can happen.