OKDIARIO INTERVIEW
The head of Spain’s medical services attends to OKDIARIO
Claudio Vázquez tells us the recovery secrets that the National Team has
With a smile on his face he arrives Claudio Vazquez Colomohead of medical services Spainto chat with OKDIARIO in the press center of Donaueschingen Only two days before the round of 16 of the Euro Cup against Georgia. Specialist in Sports Traumatology and Orthopedic Surgery, he has been in the Federation for 10 years. After going through different youth categories, beach soccer and women’s soccer, since January 2023 he has been in charge of the men’s soccer team.
Claudio Vazquez account to OKDIARIO In this exciting talk why Spain is the envy of this Eurocup of Germany and why the concentration of The Spanish team is NASA in this tournament. An endless number of sports recovery secrets that are revealed at the halfway point of this Eurocupsince the Spanish team arrived on German soil on June 9.
«We, within the concentration, manage a group of healthy players, that is, it is different from a club. So the strategies vary a little, especially in short tournaments. The recovery that always takes place between games is very important, with trips, planes, buses and what we call for people who don’t know it, invisible training. There is the field training, which is what they are playing every day. QBut there is a training that we call invisible, which is the training that cannot be seen. It is training where fundamentally the most important thing is sleep, rest and nutrition“, he began by pointing out Claudio Vazquez.
“We have a nutritionist who creates individual profiles, she knows where there may be nutritional deficiencies to supplement them, not only during training camp, but also during matches. When there is muscle fatigue, we have bags prepared with the names of players to give them those small deficiencies they might have in order, above all, to optimise performance in a natural way. Just like in extra time,” continued the head of Spain’s medical services.
«Physiotherapy is also very important. Probably, within invisible training, the most important thing is physiotherapy“We have six physiotherapists who are phenomenal, who work with them every day, giving high-quality treatment and spending a lot of time with them,” he explained.
The hyperbaric chamber
«And then we also have another section within the strategy to recover the player’s well-being, which in this case we have brought what is hyperbaric medicine, lto hyperbaric chamberwhich are a bit in fashion now. It is true that in that sense I am not aware of the other national teams. I think that up to now no one wears it. I think we are the only ones, unless there is a national team that says otherwise. It is true that there has been some colleague who has written to me privately,” he revealed. Claudio Vazquez.
«Hyperbaric medicine is widely used in the post-match and post-training recovery strategy. Because what we are trying to achieve is to get into a chamber where we normally breathe oxygen in the environment, but that multiplies by ten or by fifteen the level of oxygen in the air. What happens? That oxygen not only enters the lungs, it diffuses through the skin, muscles, bones, what we call the plasma level and that hyperoxygenation, what it really produces is an anti-inflammatory effect and it is a great bactericide. Traditionally, it was used for healing wounds, those that do not heal, those that become inflamed because the inflammation goes down a lot… And it is being seen that in sports medicine, after intense physical exercise, whether it is training or a match, hyperoxygenation causes muscle inflammation to decrease. That discomfort that we have after a match, that fatigue decreases and that increase in oxygen also causes a greater feeling of well-being and a probably faster recovery. We shorten those periods of fatigue, which is very important. As I have said before, in short tournaments where we play, travel, rest, play again… That is why hyperbaric is very important,” explained the doctor of Spain.
«We have also brought cryotherapy. They are cold therapies where a thermal shock is produced inside a machine, a very sudden drop in temperature and with that what we try is an increase in peripheral vasoconstriction, also a decrease in inflammation, endorphins are released… In the end we try different recovery strategies, such as phototherapy as well, which are therapies at a solar level, where what we try above all is to produce vasodilation that also helps to reduce this muscular inflammation. Therefore, the player demands it more and more. We have been working with them and it is not the first time they have used it. But it is true that when we are locked up here for a month, a month and a half, they get used to using it on a daily basis and they ask for it, they like it and apart from that it is something very comfortable. For example, hyperbaric medicine is when you get into the chamber and you are on your mobile phone, talking, watching a movie or even the most professional ones take pillows and blankets, and they take a nap. They notice it is comfortable to use,” he pointed out. Claudio Vazquez to OKDIARIO.
The envy of the Eurocup
“Within the strategy in a healthy player, if we can contribute a little more to the player’s performance or that he arrives, let’s say, in the best conditions so that the coach can later decide who he thinks is going to play,” he pointed out. Claudio in this exciting talk.
He also revealed all the logistics: «We have been working on this for several months on how we could fit it into the concentration camp. Where to take it and logically there is a plan, where we believe it can be best adapted. Near the physiotherapy room we have specific rooms for them. We also talked about the issue of transportation, how to transport it, so we also have it planned to practically finish the game in Mallorca and have everything already installed. But there is a background work in this where there are people who have arrived before. Before Spain arrived, everything was already set up. We have been studying for some time where we could put it, the best location as well as being close to the physiotherapy room and setting up an area to have our recovery room, independent of the physiotherapy room we had.
«I don’t know for sure if France has it or not. I don’t know. But I do know that some teammates have asked me ‘hey, how are you, how is it going’ because they hear it and they don’t have it. But I don’t know if maybe Denmark comes and they have it. I don’t know. But I can tell you that there are probably few teams that have what we have. There may be some. But we have come well equipped, we are happy with the work, the player is happy. This must be remembered as one more point, but in the end the player comes with brutal physical preparation. He is already very well prepared,» confessed the doctor of the team. Spain.
«We have to focus a lot, as he says Luis de la Fuentein recovery strategies, in that they arrive rested, in that they are treated by the physiotherapists, hyperbaric in this case, so that they can get back to a relatively medium training load and play. Then the recovery strategy, that invisible training, becomes very important,” this expert in sports recovery told us, among other aspects.
“Basic treatment is done off the field. Before a training session or a match they spend an hour or so working on it. And then, afterwards, we are with them again. We dedicate a lot of time to it because we believe it is very important,” he concluded. Claudio Vazquez In this first part of this report with the doctor of Spain.
