All great victories come from some kind of love. The love for your sport. The love for someone you want to show your mettle to. The love for your students in spite of how stubborn and ungrateful they can be. Vanessa Ciancimino should know very well the three of them. The new Champion of Italy (Jun F -52Kg) had kept her talent sealed for so long, someway fleeing the responsibility of it, when a few days ago she decided to try out her class on the fighting mat overcoming every opponent in the country.
All's well that ends well, I guess. However, I am currently wondering how much love a teacher should allow themselves to feel for and show to their students. Training & coaching is a form of education. If you give too much, you end up spoiling your athletes. Also, you must realize you can't substitute your effort for theirs. Because for all the good things you can teach them, it will be them stepping on the mat, not you. And yet, when a competition is over, feeling partly responsible for the smile of a boy (let alone a girl) can be the thing you enjoy the most in your job. So you understand you must become like an angel keeper, following every move of your athletes while making hardly visible your presence in their lives. Without ever hoping they will return half the love you're giving them. Someday, they will not be able to notice you're clenching your fists in your pockets as they're climbing up the highest step of the podium. But you will know very well when the smile bending on their faces swells yours with sheer pride.
