How crucial are the technicians next to me and how crucial are they to a championship? That is the recurring question. And you don’t know how many times it has affected my decisions. Being a professional in padel also means this: knowing how to choose who can help you be better.
This just passed, wonderfully won Italian championship was first and foremost a TEAM victory, I say that in capitals, because it was a championship studied, prepared, lived before and throughout in the best possible way. When I met Lorenzo Di Giovanni, my current playing partner, we immediately agreed to go all the way, and the first thing I told him was that we had to win the Italian championships soon, even if it was not an easy thing, given the presence of so many pairs even qualitatively better than us. Determination, this soul entity that is so demanding of us, proved that we could win in any condition and so we won the 2023 Italian championship. A great tiring wonderful victory.
To achieve it, in this regard, a relevant figure was the coach, or in our case Gustavo Spector, who embraced our project flawlessly, guiding us through four or five tournaments, managing to concretize the good feelings in the best possible way, as well as being invaluable on the bench because constant tactical vision was definitely key. The coach is our ace in the hole and we had confirmation that Gustavo was able to go above and beyond, changing tactics often and seeing things we didn’t see. Thanks to him we played well for the title.
Furthermore, another indispensable figure, I had Tommaso Piccolo as my athletic trainer: an incredible professional who has always been by my side and who specifically prepared me for the championship over several weeks. He was a great trainer who made me physically well. Impeccable.
Another essential figure: the personal masseur, or in my case the great Renato Lemmi, who professionally comes from tennis, whom I asked to follow us for three days in the championship: his support was constant and fundamental both in the pre-competition, for the best warm-up, and in the post-competition recovery period in which it is necessary for the muscles to relax, an aspect of absolute importance.
Furthermore, PHYSIO REHAB, i.e. Daniele Lobattini and his team, was also important for me, due to the injury problems I had with my ankle and shoulder: rehabilitation with accurate treatments allowed me to train and helped me to reach top condition to play the Italian championships, with him and the staff available at all times.
I return to my playing partner reminding you of how important it is to know how to choose your partner, and I tell you that I was happy to see the title awarded to Lorenzo for his first time, because he deserves it, and because I am happy to have found a symbiosis with him, already knowing that after the celebrations we have to prepare for the next appointments.
I dedicate my shield to all of them, to the TEAM.
The shield is the answer to the initial question. How important are technicians to achieve this?
As much as a perfect machine made of several indispensable components.
No component must be missing.