Carlos Carbonell Pascual

Carlos Carbonell Pascual is the current Maltese National Judo Coach. He has been the first Spanish judo coach to be in charge of another country’s [Judo team (Malta) and also the first Spanish coach to be awarded as an Elite Performance Judo Coach (Level 4).

Biography

Carlos Carbonell was born in Alcoy (Spain) on December 14, 1976. He began to practise judo in his primary school "Colegio San Roque y San Sebastián" in 1984. In 1987, he keeps on practising judo in the "Club de Judo Alcoy", in order to improve in this sport. At the age of 22, he decides to go to study the TAFAD in Elche (Spain) and he begins to train in the Judo Club of the Olympian champion Miriam Blasco (he represented this club for 3 years in the first division of the Spanish National League). In the year 2000, he receives the official diploma as a Judo Instructor from the Real Federación Española de Judo. In 2002, he decides to move to the United Kingdom following the recommendations from the Judo Club of Miriam Blasco. They advised him to go to the University of Bath which is the only university in which an athlete can combine his studies with the judo practice. He studied a degree, the Foundation Degree in Science in Sport (Sports Performance), with no precedents in the world regarding coach training. He studied with world champions and Olympian medalists as Kate Howey or Daniel Lascau as well as with some of the Sports Directors of the European Judo Union (EJU) (Russian president Vladimir Putin is Honorary President of the EJU).

At the end of 2006, the General Secretary of the EJU was looking for a coach for the judo team of his country, Malta, and in the University of Bath they thought that Carlos Carbonell was the right person to assume this position.

The General Secretariat of the EJU is one of the principal promotors for coaches to be trained at university level.