Post by Roberto Bertinetti

Losing is the best ⚔️ I know, it's an odd statement, but let me explain. I fenced professionally for over 20 years and honestly, I lost a few too many bouts than I should've. After a bad loss, the first thing you do is disappear. Towel over your head, you want no one to talk to you, sometimes for hours, just to digest the defeat. But at World Cup level, you can't afford to dwell for too long. There's no time for excuses; you need to drop the heat and actually face what happened. You talk to your coach, about what you did wrong, what you missed, what he saw that you didn't see. It's always a humbling experience, but also: it's the only way you can learn. Fast & factual. I've learned a lot this way. Some of my most burning defeats happened because I walked onto the piste thinking (or even knowing!) that I was better than my opponent - so I got a little too relaxed, a little too comfortable. And lost. Fencing punishes that instantly: one distracted second and it's over. Years of training can vanish in one touch. I made that mistake more than once in my junior years. But with time, I learned not to underestimate my opponents. Ever. The pain, if you're willing to sit with it, brings learnings. You build up from what you did wrong: what skills should I focus training ?How do I approach my next bout? what's the one thing I need to remember when I'm back on that piste? How do I prevent this from happening again? Description → analysis → action points. I do the exact same thing at work, and I try to bring my team along with the same mindset. When something doesn't go the way we planned, we do the debrief and analyse what went well, what didn't, why, and what are the specific things we're going to do differently next time. And we make sure to minimise the possibility of it happening again. Here is me fencing (and soon losing) the Italian Championship gold medal match to my dear friend, world champion, and Olympic medallist Paolo Pizzo OLY. Since my fencing days, I learned that the memory of a loss sticks to your head much more and teaches you much more than a win. Did you also experience a "burning defeat" that taught you a most valuable lesson?