DAVID Zaharakis' individual pre-season training camp to Boulder, Colorado in the United States has the Bomber confident he can rebound strongly from a disappointing 2015 season.

The midfielder revealed it was his decision to spend two weeks, by himself, in the world-renowned high-altitude training zone, located 40km northwest of Denver.

"I went over there for two weeks by myself and got away and did some training to make sure my body's right," Zaharakis said on Saturday morning.

"I didn't have a good year with injuries and form so I just wanted to give myself the best opportunity to perform next year."

The Bombers had previously been to the venue as a team starting in 2012 and Zaharakis felt training at that altitude – even paying out of his own pocket – would be beneficial for him.

"Because we'd been there before I knew the town and knew exactly where to train and the hikes to go on," he said.

"I got a program from our strength and conditioning coach (Paul Turk) to give me a rough idea for what I needed to do.

"I kept in contact with him (Turk) and had a program to follow and went and did it by myself which was good."

The rigorous training regime has helped him prepare for a change in pre-season training philosophy under new coach John Worsfold.

The Bombers have spent the first two weeks of training focusing on high-intensity combative work rather than the traditional long-distance running carried out by most clubs.

Zaharakis joined teammates for a wrestling and grappling session held at a beach in Albert Park.

"We also did it last Saturday, just getting the boys used to the body contact again and working on our tackling technique," Zaharakis said.

"It's good to get the body contact again because we've been 10 weeks out of the game. Come January and February when the games start, we need to have practised it at least four to five weeks beforehand.

"The first two weeks have been more high-intensity contact and we normally do long-distance stuff at this time of the year.

"Even yesterday at training and Wednesday, we had real combative sessions that we normally don't do this early.

"When you get into games, that's what most people struggle with, the high-intensity work, so the earlier you can do it in pre-season training, the better you'll become by January and February. The earlier you get the lactic acid work in, the better."

Zaharakis, who struggled with an ankle injury throughout 2015, said he was in far better shape leading into 2016.

"Last year I'd say was the worst year since I've been here because of the fact I was injured for much of the year and couldn't really string weeks of training together," he said.

"It was the most frustrating year I've had since I was 10 years old. I'm looking to rectify that and make a good start to the season."

The Bombers will use a team-bonding camp to Healesville next week to vote on leadership roles and decide whether Jobe Watson will retain the captaincy.

There has been recent talk that Dyson Heppell could take over to ease the burden on Watson.

"We'll review that all next week but Jobe's been a great leader for the last seven years at this footy club," Zaharakis said.

"Whether he wants it is up to him and whether we vote him in is up to the players so that'll go through next week."