Sam Ricketts adds renowned human performance coach to his Shrewsbury Town backroom staff

Jon Pitts has joined the team to boost ‘human performance’ around Town’s Sundorne Castle training facility.

Formerly of Brentford, and prior to that Formula One’s Red Bull Racing, Pitts is currently the only new addition to join Ricketts in Shropshire, with the new Shrews boss was quick to make certain of his desire to keep successful caretaker duo Danny Coyne and Eric Ramsay in the dugout.

Not a member of the coaching staff, Ricketts will be looking to use Pitts to wring every drop out of his Town players as he looks to bring Shrewsbury further in touch with the modern game.

“I am always trying to get an added percent on somebody else,” said Ricketts as he was unveiled to the media at Sundorne Castle.

“I met Jon [Pitts] about 15 years ago. He was acting as a sport scientist and he has been for Brentford and a few other clubs. He was trying to get me as fit as he could and since then that has evolved into other areas.

“He is trying to improve everyone’s performance. Be that the performance of the staff or the performance of the players.

“This is not a coaching role and it is not a physical role, it is a little bit of everything.

“The mind is the biggest performance factor for anyone so if we can tap into different ways of getting our messages across to players or reading situations a little bit better then hopefully it will bear fruit in the long-run.

“I am not quite sure how you would describe Jon. I am a big believer in controlling only what you can control. I cannot stop an opponent from curling the ball into the top corner, but I can take control of pretty much everything else.

“What you practice, what you eat, your mentality going into games, your confidence levels. All of these things you can control and that gives you a better chance of winning the game.

“We always have to be pushing boundaries and this is just one way of doing that.”

Following the sacking of John Askey, Coyne and Ramsay helped to revitalise Town as they led the club on a run of five wins in six.

Ricketts has kept the pair in his immediate first team staff and admitted that more backroom appointments could follow, but not right away.

“There will be nothing imminently,” he said. “I am really happy with everyone who is here. I met all the staff, those who I did not meet yesterday, this morning.

“Listen, there are a really great bunch of people in there and equally as important they are really good at their jobs as well.

“I can see that there is some really good camaraderie amongst them and I want to keep that. I am looking forward to working with them all.”