.Only seven of the sixteen golfers from the Blume National School are returning this year. Their fundamental role is to guide the new students in their first steps in Madrid and León.

.The Madrid Centre of Excellence and the High Performance Centre in León are the places where the talent that these young golfers bring innately is forged.

Since 1989, the Blume National School has been going strong, helping young talents develop their full potential, which is considerable. Thirty-four years later, the school is still going strong, with Salvador Luna, its Director, at the helm, boasting excellent professionals in every area, brimming with enthusiasm, and, of course, the best possible ingredients: sixteen young men and women determined to develop as individuals and as golfers. The Blume formula, without a doubt, continues to be a winning one.

Partial renovation at both locations

As you know, the Blume National School has two locations: the Madrid branch, the older one, and the León branch, which has been operating since the 2014/15 academic year. In both, there is a constant flow of players each year, some arriving full of enthusiasm and others leaving with valuable lessons and experiences to continue their training in the United States, in some cases, or in our country, in others.

The Blume High-Performance Center in Madrid, the one we know and love, boasts four veteran players this season who have made significant leaps in their performance over the past year: Rocío Tejedo, Cloe Amión, and Balma Dávalos from Valencia, and Alba González from Galicia. It's been a fantastic year for all of them—just to give one example, Rocío, Cloe, and Alba were crowned European Under-18 Champions this summer—and now they're tasked with mentoring the five new players. While they may be newcomers, that doesn't mean they lack experience at the highest level of Spanish golf. These newcomers are Noa Terroba and Jorge Sánchez from Málaga, Lucía Valderrama from Valencia, Gonzalo Rodríguez from Ciudad Real, and Iván Enguita from Zaragoza.

They all come with impressive credentials. For example, Iván is the current Spanish Under-16 Champion, which isn't bad; Jorge played a key role in Andalusia's victory in the Spanish Armed Forces Under-18 Men's Championship, and Noa finished third in the Spanish Under-18 Championship, which was won by her new teammate, Cloe Amión. These achievements suggest we're looking at a very promising generation.

On the other side are the six colleagues who have left the School: Violeta Fernández-Tagle, Luis de Miñón, Curro Martínez, Álvaro Gómez de Linares, José Manuel Berenguel, and José Antonio Sintes. All of them have left their mark on the great history of Blume and on their classmates. Good luck in your new endeavors!

The state-of-the-art facilities of the Center of Excellence and the National Golf Center course are, as always, the setting where the players from the School train, in addition, of course, to the high school and the Joaquín Blume residence. It is in these four locations that the dreams of these nine golfers take root.

Three leave, three enter in León

There's also movement in León, where four new golfers have joined the field: Lucía Iraola from Gipuzkoa, Mónica del Valle from León, Clara Martínez from Castellón, and Ana Malcolm from the Canary Islands. They join veterans Santiago Juesas, Miguel Mora, and Alberto Baños. It's up to them to show the charms of a city like León to the four new players who have arrived to fill the spots left by David Dávila, Sara Moreno, and María Bastarrica. All three have made a magnificent impression during their two years in León.

The seven players who make up the 23/24 generation can expect days of exhaustive sports training in the best hands at the facilities of the High Performance Center of León and the León Golf Club - which in addition to a good course provides a practice field and a large putting green - and academic training at the Colegio Leonés, a center with more than one hundred years of history.

A team of professionals at the service of golfers

As is customary, the person in charge of the Blume National Schools is one of the most renowned golf coaches in Spain, Salva Luna. He does so from his position as a leading figure in golf instruction in Spain; it is no coincidence that the PGA of Europe awarded him The John Jacobs Award for Teaching and Coaching in 2014, a title that recognized him as the best golf coach on the continent.

He leads the team that manages the core principles guiding everything at the centers in Madrid and León. Kiko Luna, Álvaro Salto, Jorge García, and Alberto Díaz are the technical staff who work alongside Salva in the players' daily routines. Off-field coordination is handled by Laura Moreno in Madrid and Miriam Guerra in León. Thanks to them, the boys and girls can confidently tackle the demanding, yet exciting, schedules of study and sport that characterize the Academy.

At both locations, the psychological aspect is handled by experienced professionals such as Óscar del Río and José Lombo; and Paco Fernández and Álvaro Gil are responsible for providing students with the necessary tools to achieve optimal physical fitness. Overall coordination is the responsibility of Ignacio Gervás, Sports Director of the RFEG (Royal Spanish Golf Federation).

“This is my second family”

To understand what the Blume National School is all about, you only need to talk to one of its members. No one knows better than they do the camaraderie that develops over an entire year, sharing both good times and bad, on and off the course. Cloe Amión, now a regular student whose amateur career has taken off, tells us: ‘Here we're like one big family, we share everything, it's like having a family separate from the one we each have at home. I feel right at home here.’ The fact that half of that family has changed this September isn't a problem for the friendly golfer from Valencia. “We're going to miss the friends who left a lot; now five new ones have arrived, and we're helping them with their first steps in Madrid, just like they did for me last year,” she explains.

Cloe, who is in her final year before embarking on her American adventure, highlights the differences between the two years. “The first year is when you might have to adapt to some technical changes, while the second is easier because you've usually already internalized those changes,” she explains.

Both golfers from Madrid and León are facing a first half of the season where the primary focus is on technical, physical, and mental training, as well as learning how to conduct those training sessions. From January onwards, the focus shifts to adapting to competition, because, as Cloe points out, "with so much travel, there are weeks when you might only be able to train one day.".

So, by the time you read this, the players will be working hard to put everything they've learned in the first few months to good use when the golfing season kicks off. Work now to enjoy later.

What if it snows? We still work.

The High-Performance Center in León is a top-level facility that boasts a competition gym and a multi-purpose hall, among other resources. One of its greatest strengths is that it allows for indoor training even in adverse weather conditions, a welcome feature during the winter months.

In addition, golfers at the Blume Center in León also have access to the technological advances of the Golf Center of Excellence, just like their counterparts in Madrid.

A mentor to enhance personal development

“It’s a program designed to accelerate the athletes” development, especially in terms of personal growth.“ This is how Nacho Gervás explains the Mentoring program launched by the RFEG (Royal Spanish Golf Federation) to support all players at the Blume National School. According to the Sports Director, ”a mentor is someone who listens to golfers and helps them during their first experience away from home.” With this premise, a program was born that continues to bear fruit year after year.