After winning the fortunes of Taranto (again), moving from A2 to Superlega and scoring two saves against all odds in the top flight, Vincent Di Pinto He decided to catch his breath for a moment (but only for a moment, we specify). There are mainly two reasons that can be summed up in two words that carry some weight: fairness and ambition.
accuracy because, as he tells us himself, “During the championship I had some suggestions (even from direct competitors, we add), but I never wanted to talk to anyone because all I could think about was Taranto and the redemption we were seeking. I put all my energy into it. It’s been three very tough years with great results and great work despite the Covid, many injuries to key players, an operation I had to have for prostate cancer and a broken rib due to an investment. The results achieved, the goals achieved made up for everything. My conscience is clear, now I use it to restore my health.”
ambition Because now Di Pinto is waiting for a big call: “I won’t hide it, I want to win something important again. In recent years I’ve always been portrayed as the man of impossible rescues and miracles by teams from the South, but my career started with top teams from the North and now I want to go back there as a coach. I also feel ready to tackle an ambitious women’s project. I’ve been dealing with the A1 series for a while, that would be interesting. It has developed well in recent years, and now there are no more differences from the Superlega from a technical and tactical point of view. Di Pinto says that at the age of 65, 45 of them in volleyball and more than half of those as a Serie A coach, he never stopped learning and developing. “The game is always evolving, if you don’t keep up you’re screwed.”
However his number it has always been like this. “Since I started in 1979, I immediately drew on my university studies in eye motor skills and biomechanics and applied my ideas to volleyball – he explains –. Later I tried to steal a lot from Anderlini, he was almost a father to me; I studied Platanov, the first great Russian engineer; Doug Beal; Velaco. We had a wonderful relationship with Julio, I made a big leap in quality thanks to him. He was a hard worker, both in the gym and in playing techniques. Then Silvano Prandi, Bebeto, now Fefè De Giorgi, who I also saw in Cavalese’s last college.”
But not just volleyball. Di Pinto is one too Very attentive to the management of the groupmental energies, stress, and for that reason over the years his attention has turned to that as well other sports and other coaches. “I really liked Marcello Lippi, he inspired me a lot in managing a dressing room. When you’re a top team, you need to be good at handling the pressure to win; When struggling to save yourself, you have to bear the burden of defeat. In both cases, planning the season is fundamental. You always have to know which points you have to take home with you in order to reach your goal.”
“But I’ve also always been fascinated by individual training techniques and to follow my son, who played tennis as a boy, I’ve had the opportunity more than once to attend the training sessions of Federer and Nadal, which in some ways played a part.” really opened up a world for me.”
So now his players know who to blame Vincenzo Di Pinto’s famous “individual” workouts. It is said, without naming names, that it often happened that at the end of a training session, one of his players took turns “sacrificing” himself by talking to the coach, or rather listening to him, for at least two more hours. Allow the rest of the team to escape home through another exit of the building. Because Di Pinto is really a man at the same time passionate for this sport, but at the same time one that leaves nothing to chance, almost obsessed in his search for results, both for the team and, as already mentioned, with the aim of successively improving all his players in one or more fundamentals. And the facts, the numbers, the statistics have always proved him right in all these more than forty years of volleyball.
any examples? Tarento’s last season, which was also able to save itself because someone benefited from Di Pinto’s “cure” and how, is symbolic. “When 36-year-old Antonov arrived, everyone said he didn’t know how to receive. I told him he would get a 6 out of 6 not only on the jump but also on the hover. He didn’t believe it either: “You’re the first to tell me something like that,” he replied. “What matters are the facts,” I told him. We worked, he got positive feelings, which then turned into beliefs that got the job done. As a moral of the story, he finished the championship in 2nd place in the ranking of perfect receptions (The only spiker in the top 5, the other four are all free, editor’s note.)“.
To support this thesis we also add the great work in attack represented by the second place of good Loeppky in the ranking of Attacks/weighted average behind a certain Leon, from the 3rd troupe on vocals victorious fights and the second for the vocals Win fights per set. In the first case behind Trento and Piacenza, in the second behind Perugia, all teams that, unlike Gioiella Prisma, have played in a top championship.
Yes, ok, kidding, Di Pinto does it himself, his attention to detail of any kind (don’t forget that in the last few years that he’s been a coach, he’s also held the role of manager). and talent scout) requires a certain commitment, a certain “application”, but in the end all his players have always shown him great appreciation and gratitude. And among them from top player there were so many. “Zorzi, Brogioni, Schuil, Rafael Pascual, Vujevic, Savani, Pippi, Bovolenta, Matt Anderson, Stokr, Sintini, Miguel Angel Falasca, Anderson Rodrigues, Granvorka, Kovac. They’re all players whose coaches I’ve really enjoyed coaching. Champions are champions because in addition to their talent, they also have a great mentality. Great players want to see if you’re competent, and if you are, they’ll follow you like a shadow.”
Our conversation with the coach ends with this (let’s admit that we would have listened to him for weeks, the “blame” also lies on his really rare sympathy and empathy). Write about Di Pinto A book would not suffice, and if you did it now, the work would be incomplete because the last few pages were missing. Pages we would like to read.
In the first part we told about his successes Lube Macerataplayoffs in year one, championship semifinals in year two; Perugia, with the team’s record in terms of points (50), consecutive wins (11), a Challenge Cup won (the Umbrian club’s first ever trophy); And Spanish national teamhonored as Most Creative Coach of the 1998 World Cup. Side note: for the uninitiated as Santarelli and his colleagues speak from the sidelines today covered his face with his jacketThe first to do so was Vincenzo Di Pinto in World Vision at the World Championships in Japan.
The second part has it all forced into exile (one should say) in Puglia to enable his wife, who suffers from a severe form of asthma, to take better care of herself in a climate more ideal for her state of health. Here, at the top (several times) of Gioia del Colle, Taranto, Castellana Grotte and Molfetta (as well as Vibo Valentia), to the sound of promotions and salvations He was the only manager able to bring teams from the South head-to-head in the top flight, almost always managing the lowest budgets in the entire Superliga. Companies that earned him the nickname thanks to the intuition of his Rai colleague Franco Strippoli “Wizard of Turi” we all know that today.
“Fortunately, my wife’s health problems are now over. The kids have grown up, they’ve both settled in wonderfully and there’s nothing wrong with training somewhere else. Wherever I’ve gone, my goal has always been one thing: to win. And now I have an incredible will to win at a high level and a lot of certainties that convince me that I can prove myself in a top team with great ambitions.” Sometimes life takes something away, others give something back. We hope that’s the case with Vincenzo Di Pinto. one of the greatest Italian volleyball champions ever.
By Giuliano Bindoni
