Anyone watching Antônio Carlos da Silva Mello on the field wouldn't believe he's 64 years old. With the energy of a young boy, he runs, gives instructions, and does everything to keep his players flying high. In his almost 20 years of career in footballMello has many stories to tell, many titles on his resume, but above all, the technical know-how on how to get the most out of a team's physical potential on the field.

It's no coincidence that in his 18-year career, he has already won 19 trophies. Among them, a Copa América with the Brazilian national team, a World Cup with the under-20 national team, and three Brazilian Championships with Corinthians, Santos, and Cruzeiro. To repeat that success at Flamengo, the formula is simple: work, work, and more work. In a long season with four competitions (State Championship, Copa do Brasil, Brazilian Championship, and Copa Sudamericana), nothing is better than a well-prepared campaign.

"A team like Flamengo plays 75 to 80 games a year. You have to work for that. There are several competitions, with different characteristics: league format, which is easier to manage, knockout tournaments, which are more competitive, like the Copa do Brasil, which is very difficult. So everything has to be well planned," said the fitness coach, believing that his experience can make the difference.

"Imagine me arriving here at Flamengo and having to play in high-altitude cities, like Potosí, and me not knowing how to manage the team for altitude. Now in the Copa do Brasil, we're going to face Murici, from Maceió, and I know the climate, the city, I know what to do to play there. This is important to help the team. We came here for this," he emphasized.

Mello further explains that the first step in pre-season is to get all the players to a similar physical level. According to him, the group ends up being somewhat heterogeneous at the start of the year, and it's necessary to work to get the athletes into equal condition.

"Throughout the preseason, you have to think about the physical conditioning of the group. The players arrive from other clubs, on vacation, and the group is quite heterogeneous. Our first step is to take the players to a place where they can train a lot, rest, and eat well. This is so that the preparation is done properly and we can simply maintain it throughout the year," said the trainer, who believes that there is still little time to properly prepare the group.

"This time is short. It's not possible to get them in such good shape in 17 days, so we're going to extend our training during the Carioca Championship, focusing on pre-season training for the players. We'll enter some games as high-level friendlies, without disrespecting anyone, but to give the players better conditioning," he concluded.

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