Put through my paces by Fabio Capello

That is exactly what happened at the Grove in Hertfordshire yesterday as the coaching staff responsible for putting John Terry and the rest of the squad through their paces provided a group of journalists with a first hand look at what goes on in an international team training session.

Organised by team sponsor Vauxhall, Franco Baldini, Italo Galbiati, Massimo Neri, Christian Lattanzio and Franco Tancredi conducted an enjoyable and eye-opening experience that exposed the yawning chasm between writing about your country and playing for it.

All of us expected to be stretched but what struck most about the warm up was just how much stretching is involved.

Although it is probably common practice in any professional setup, the amount of stretching to loosen the limbs felt a well-drilled exercise based at least in part upon a deep-rooted fear of unleashing the wrath of clubs by injuring one of their players in a routine exercise.

So, start by stretching. Run around the pitch. Stop and stretch again. A bit more running, a lot more stretching. I probably grew an extra inch in height by the end of the warm up - and as you can see from the picture with Fabio, my Peter Crouch comparisons are stature-based - so I didn't need it.

On with possession drills. Possession is king. Just ask the Spanish. But the Italians know it too and tight two-touch drills expanded into a larger square with a game where five successful passes equalled a goal. They could be as simple as you like but needed to be consecutive.

Were goals actually awarded like this, Xavi and Andres Iniesta would be more prolific than Lionel Messi in a park game.

Baldini's enthusiasm was boundless and the session was light-hearted, entertaining and often relentless.

And then the training game began. Capello appeared shortly after kick-off rubbing his hands in glee at the chance to pass judgement on those who do so on his England management.

Each misplaced pass or wild shot (and there were plenty of both) was seemingly greeted with a wry smile and a thought of in one instance an utterance of "I'll remember that."

Largely thanks to Baldini - a former Bari and Bologna player - and his endless energy, the orange bibs, of which I was a part, secured a victory before a penalty shoot-out in which some missed and some scored (thankfully, I was in the latter group).

Then came the handshake with Fabio. There was no England cap in the other hand for me. Then again, Baldini is normally the one that rings the player to let him know so it could still be coming. Or maybe not.