FootSail Ltd, a local company run by Richard and Robert Calderon and Stefan Dupres will be hosting the Javier Mallo Sports conditioning, nutrition and trauma Seminar at the National Sports Centre north field pavilion next month.

Javier Mallo and his wife, Dr Elena Isla, who work in sports science in Spain, will present the seminar on June 11, 12 and 13, a total of 15 lecture hours involving eight theory classes and two practical classes over two and a half days.

The seminar is geared towards team sport coaches, PE teachers, trainers, physiotherapists and anyone with a keen interest in sports conditioning, nutrition and trauma. The maximum number of participants will be 40 and the cost for the seminar is $250.

Mallo has a PhD in Sports Science and Physical Education and MSc in high performance sports. He served as fitness coach at Real Madrid FC from 2013-2021, after previously working at Manchester City (2011-2013) and Atletico Madrid from 2009 to 2013.

Isla, who has an MSc in medicine, specialises in sports traumatology and reconditioning in football, is the club doctor at Real Madrid Academy.

Richard Calderon, one half of the outstanding footballing twins who played for North Village and Bermuda, says the seminar will be a great benefit to those who participate. How youngsters are coached has changed significantly to how it was done when he was a young footballer.

“As a child growing up in the late 1950s, 60s there weren’t many things that kept me from going outside to play,” Calderon explained.

“We had two TV stations, neither of which provided stimulating programming, and the one football game of the week was aired midweek at a time that most children had to be in their beds. We didn’t have electronic games, computers, twitter and Instagram, and access to live and taped football matches from all of the best leagues in the world.

“We were forced to entertain ourselves and we did. We played, and the games that we played outside of the hours spent playing football included hopscotch, skip rope, wheelbarrow races, piggyback rides, climbing trees. And we swam all day in the summer.”

Calderon added: “It’s important to note that during this period, organised league football didn’t start until the age of twelve and no club had any form of youth football programme for children under the age of twelve.

“And whilst the BFA leagues today also start at U-13, most if not all clubs have teams starting at the age bracket of U-5. They have structured training sessions for children of these ages and in many cases kids as young as five are in training sessions a few times a week and will play competitive matches.”

Calderon still believes that children playing sports in their yards and on open fields is good for their development.

“What I don’t see these days are children playing in their yards or in alleyways or parking lots or on open fields,” he pointed out.

“The only time that I see children playing these days is in structured environments. I might add that ingenuity is often stifled as a result.

“For me, if children aren’t developing their muscle groups through unstructured playing and if young athletes don’t have proper diets minus, French fries, chips and soda, then this has to be incorporated in the weekly session plans of youth coaches.

“And whilst there are some who would beg to differ, my unscientific polling of top coaches on this island and conditioning coaches indicate that conditioning and nutrition are the weakest part of our player development programmes.”

Calderon’s first exposure to a scientific approach to conditioning and sports nutrition was while working as a marketing manager for a small sports nutrition company in Northern California and later in Houston, Texas.

“Our biggest clients were college and professional teams and included being in spring training camps for top baseball teams and supporting college programmes and athletes in a wide range of sports,” he explained.

“Our consulting exercise physiologists included top folks like Mackie Shilstone and Dr Tudor Bompa. In quick time I realised that I knew absolutely nothing about what was required to prepare top athletes for competition and simultaneously avoid the interruptions of pain from muscle injuries, etc.

“Had I known that balancing the strength of your quads to your hamstring was important, I could have possibly avoided a grade 2 hamstring injury a few weeks prior to Bermuda’s National Team heading to Colombia for CAC Games, and not watch my brother return to Bermuda with a bronze medal!”

He added: “Yes, I was very fast and physically fit, but I truly didn’t have a clue if what we were doing in our sessions and on my own helped or hurt my body. Watching these two experts work confirmed that I didn’t have a clue.”

“We entered into US soccer market and I convinced my company and Tudor to create a skeleton periodization training programme, at no cost, for Bermudian teams but the response wasn’t positive so I moved on.

“Many years later we, the Bermuda Football Foundation, brought Tudor to Bermuda for a 2-day seminar and offered it to the local sporting community with emphasis placed on football. We had a lukewarm response from local football coaches with only the usual suspects in attendance; the ones that have had extremely successful careers at both club and the national level.”

“Fast forward to three (3) years ago, we, FootSail Ltd, reached out to Javier Mallo who was the conditioning coach at Real Madrid at the time and who spent 8 seasons with Real Madrid after previously working with Manchester City and Atletico Madrid.”

Calderon is hopeful local coaches and trainers will be receptive to what Mallo and Esla will present in the seminar.

“Once again, our aim was to introduce structured conditioning training in every club in Bermuda and help develop footballers/athletes,” he stressed.

“After two years of Covid-19 related interruptions, Javier and his wife Elena Isla, the club doctor for Real Madrid Academy, head of the medical department for Spanish Basketball and a professor with the Spanish Football Association, will deliver a 15 hour, 2 ½ day seminar with theoretical and practical sessions.

“The plan is for Javier to continue working with those in attendance who are serious about fully understanding periodization training. The work will continue online with a second visit in June 2023.

“I’m happy to state that some of the island’s very best coaches have signed on as well as top conditioning coaches, physiotherapists and PE teachers.”

The cost of the seminar is $250 per participant, with payment non-refundable within 45 days of the seminar start date.