Hiroshima (Japan)

“It’s incredible what the sport can teach us. It’s a very important lesson even for me. For instance, now I’m sharing the same room with my assistant coach (N. Ben Younes). He is a very faithful Muslim and I’m Buddhist. Many times we are praying together. He takes his carpet and prays in one room side while I’m praying in the other side in front of the “Gonzon”. I respect him and whenever he ask me about Buddhism I try to explain. Other times he explicates me some point of his religion and we are happy. We never found one point in contrast.”

This is a short excerpt taken by the longer video interview with Antonio Giacobbe, Italian coach who, since 2000, is coaching the Tunisian National Team.

We started the dialogue talking about the Volleyball but soon after, we were involved in different sport values.

Is the sport really an opportunity to break down the barriers among the men?

Might be, but more often than not, athletes, coaches and the whole team group, are utterly focused only on victory or defeat, losing the opportunity to better know each other.

Usually, Volleyball teams (including players. coach, statisticians, doctors etc.) are about twenty people. For such a group isn’t necessary rely on the local people except for organizing issues. Often, they rebuild abroad, the environment which they are used to. These groups move every time together, eating at the same table or just taking jointly a walk outside. They don’t need to learn words in different languages nor eat local food. Many times, in these international tournament, the only personal interactions are among the players who play or played in the same foreign Club League. In that case, the athletes, who performed abroad, were alone and they needed to be supported. Thus they learned different languages, habits and cultures.

What a pity losing such interesting chances.
Sharing experiences as much as possible with foreign athletes doesn’t mean wasting time and for sure, doesn’t decrease the performance level. Otherwise, being too “professional” (misunderstanding the right professional approach) cuts down the wonderful opportunities that the Sport gives us.

And keep talking about how Volleyball helped me to grow up with wider openness, let me tell you a helpful story of my career.

Julio Velasco, the Argentinean coach who coached Italian team from 1989 to 1996 in the first meeting with us, established that it wouldn’t have been possible taking with us Italian food during the international tour anymore. As you probably know, we Italians love our food more than anything . Before Velasco arriving, we were used to have a huge bag filled up with “Spaghetti and Parmigiano Reggiano.” Immediately after that change, our reaction was very negative and we were complaining saying that a “healthy” food was necessary to play at our best.
But Velasco didn’t change his mind and his answer was very simple: “It isn’t a matter of better or worse food. If you cannot easily change your food habit without grave sufferings, how you could overcome bigger difficulties as the opponents strength or abilities?”

Please don’t think that eating foreigner food make teams stronger but, whenever and wherever, the adaptation skill is crucial.

I fully understood the true advantages of sport career only after my retirement in 1998. Taking part at the tournaments as reporter, I had to switch the usual approach and it helped me to thoroughly appreciate the Volleyball environment.
Nowadays being a journalist and writing stories, I would like to help players and fans avoiding any wasting of such unique opportunity.


Why Russia won: the replacing Russian line up showed a shocking supremacy. Korean players were rightfully concerned about their health because of the Russian attack power and speed.

Why Australia won: one more time Australia was involved in a wonderful match but in this game, the Tunisian team acted as leading actor. North Africans players have excellent skills but they lack the necessary consistency. They won a breathtaking second set (37-35) and unreasonably, they lost the third game after leading 24-19 After the match, Antonio Giacobbe didn’t give any hint of comprehensible regret, if I were in his shoes, I'd got mad!

Why Japan won: 9 aces for Japan and only one for Argentina. All Japanese players served with an excellent relation between winning services and mistakes. The surprising and welcomed victory, for the enthusiastic Japanese fans, rely in this fundamental.

P.S. Tomorrow I’ll post the full video interview with Antonio Giacobbe, the Tunisian coach.

P.S.2 I received many e-mail asking for the possibility to translate in English the video interview published in Spanish. I cannot manage the translation due to the lacking of time. If any Blog visitors would be so kind to help me, I really appreciate. Let me know by e-mail.

Bye bye andrea zorzi