BRADENTON, Florida – For FC Cincinnati, preseason training means living in environments constituted almost exclusively of soccer for weeks at a time.

FC Cincinnati opened preseason at the University of Cincinnati in January and is now in the second week of its two-week stay at IMG Academy, a renowned destination sports training facility and boarding school.

After four days back in Cincinnati next week, the club will continue preseason with a 10-day leg in Charleston, South Carolina.

These days are the formative days of FC Cincinnati's inaugural MLS team, and all of these environments are designed to emphasize soccer and team building.

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From sunup to sundown, FC Cincinnati's players are bombarded with soccer-related activities and chores.

The sip of a beverage, a bite of food, 10 extra minutes of sleep – all of it happens within the framework of maximizing athletic performance and increasing each individual's chances of making an impact on the team.

But even in the heavily regimented preseason environment, there's room for a kind of fun and camaraderie that only elite athletes can know, as FC Cincinnati second-year defender Blake Smith explained to The Enquirer.

And, yes, a lot of that camaraderie centers around PlayStation consoles.

Smith walked The Enquirer through a typical day of the preseason as experienced by the FC Cincinnati players. Some of the experiences he described are exactly what you'd expect, while other parts seem mundane and some of it just sounds wacky.

Ultimately, it's what the current group of 31 FC Cincinnati players are experiencing each day.

► 7:50 a.m. - 8:50 a.m. – Wakeup/breakfast: 7:50 a.m. or 8 a.m. might seem like a late start time to some working professionals that have to get kids out the door in the morning for school and be punctual for that 9 a.m. office meeting, but not for professional athletes in a preseason environment.

For Smith, he needs to gather as much restful sleep as possible to last throughout his busy day.

Once he gets moving, Smith said his breakfasts typically consist of eggs, either scrambled or in omelet form. On Monday, he also enjoyed oatmeal, yogurt, and coffee.

"Nothing too heavy," Smith said. "Just enough to get you through training."

► 8:50 a.m. - 9:35 a.m. – Walk to IMG Academy Soccer Complex, get dressed for training: FC Cincinnati players need to be at the property's soccer complex an hour before training so they can don their training gear, lace up their boots, and receive any pre-training treatment they need.

On Monday, an hour early for training meant getting to the complex around 9 a.m.

From the newly-constructed on-campus Legacy Hotel, it's approximately a quarter-mile walk for the players, coaches, and staff to the soccer complex. The walk is a nice way to get yourself stirring prior to training.

The clock is really ticking by this point in the day, too, Smith indicated. The players need to be out on the practice fields about 30 minutes before training starts, and the fields are another couple hundred yards beyond the soccer complex, which houses the team's locker room. Some practice fields are closer, but FC Cincinnati's two borrowed fields are a decent hike.

One the players are dressed and prepared, they'll head to the field for 25 minutes or so of unstructured warmup time: Keep-away games, jogging, and stretching are mainstay activities.

Then, its time for practice. On Monday, that meant an intense, nearly two-hour-long session of applying advanced soccer principles and high-level physical activity (10 a.m to 11:45 a.m.)

►Noon/afternoon hours – Shower, eat lunch, downtime before the second session: FC Cincinnati's schedule varies by day, but generally speaking, the team is given about 90 minutes to shower off after the first (or only) practice session and eat lunch, Smith said.

"You go back, grab some food," Smith said. "Usually they have some pasta, chicken, beef, veggies. You just need to make sure you're eating appropriately and getting the right amount of liquids because we're out here sweating a lot."

Downtime prior to the day's second session, whether that's an on-field practice session or a gym session such as the team had Monday, usually takes the form of a nap. Activities tend to ramp up again around 3 p.m. if the team returns to the practice field. For video or gym sessions, those have tended to start a little later.

► Dinner to bedtime – Much like the post-morning training routine, players have time to shower or clean themselves up prior to dinner following the second session of the day.

Most players know better than to stay up too late, but there are some lighthearted moments prior to bed. This is a key period for getting to know one another, Smith said.

Smith's roommate at the Legacy Hotel is Corben Bone. They didn't choose to be roommates, but their personalities are very compatible, so it's worked well at IMG.

One of the PlayStation 4 consoles that made it down to IMG belongs to Smith. Some of his teammates like to congregate and play EA Sports FIFA '19 but Smith sticks with Fortnite, an online game.

"Corben doesn't play Fortnite," Smith said. "So it's just a little 'me' time. I haven't played FIFA in so long. I'm addicted to Fortnite, but there's a group of guys that think they're the best at FIFA. They're always wagering on who is the best. For me, Corben and I will watch a movie before bed. Get our little roomie movie time in.

"And then we do it all over again the next day."