Di-Soñar
Chapter 11
Today we bring you the final part of Chapter 11 of Di-soñar. Read it slowly, without rushing… because rushing is never good.
…
—Many times we should pay close attention to the words and opinions of older people, because they speak with the confidence and experience that come from years and from everything they have lived through —Lamarck pointed out gratefully—. And now, to finish, I would like to tell you a story. It is called The Japanese Bamboo, and it goes like this:
A long time ago, two farmers were walking through a market when they stopped at the stall of a seed seller, surprised by some seeds they had never seen before.
—Merchant, what kind of seeds are these? one of them asked.
—They are bamboo seeds. They come from the East, and they are very special seeds.”
—And why are they so special? one of the farmers asked the merchant.
—If you take them with you and plant them, you will find out why. They only need water and fertilizer.
So the farmers, driven by curiosity, bought several seeds of that strange plant called bamboo.
When they returned to their lands, the farmers planted the seeds and began to water and fertilize them, just as the merchant had told them.
After some time, the plants did not germinate, while the rest of the crops continued to grow and bear fruit.
One of the farmers said to the other:
—That old merchant tricked us with these seeds. Nothing will ever grow from them.” And he decided to stop watering and fertilizing them.
The other farmer decided to continue cultivating the seeds, so not a single day went by without watering and fertilizing them whenever necessary.
Time continued to pass, and the seeds still did not germinate.
Until one day, when the farmer was about to stop cultivating them, he was surprised to find that the bamboo had grown. And not only that, but the plants had reached a height of 30 meters in just six weeks.
How was it possible that the bamboo had taken 7 years to germinate and, in only six weeks, had reached such a size?
Very simple: during those 7 years of apparent inactivity, the bamboo had been generating a complex root system that would allow it to support the growth the plant would later have.
If you do not achieve what you long for, do not despair… perhaps you are simply putting down roots and growing downward. (20)
—That is the most important concept, dear children: growing downward, investing time and work in learning and building very deep, very strong roots that will help you support the weight of the great tree you will become in the future.
We farmers and gardeners always say that a good tree requires a good seed, good soil with plenty of fertilizer, the right climate and water. In football, the same thing happens. You are the seed that your parents and coaches will be responsible for fertilizing and watering.
For many years, they will do everything possible so that you live all kinds of experiences that allow you to learn and put down roots. But both plants and children need time to grow and learn. Becoming a footballer is a long journey, and it requires a great deal of patience and consistency from everyone: from the children, the coaches and the parents.
Do not be discouraged if the results do not come. Think of the bamboo. First, it is necessary to invest a lot of time and work in developing strong roots, and only then should you try to reach your dreams.
Thank you all very much for sharing your time with me. It has been a pleasure to be here with you, talking about gardening and football. And always remember this: ‘Nothing worthwhile is built in a hurry,’” Lamarck said goodbye, amid applause.
Thank you very much, Lamarck,” Juan said to him. “It has been a very enriching and useful talk for everyone here. As we have been able to see and hear, in every profession there are excellent professionals like Lamarck and Beltrán. Their knowledge and different points of view can help us enrich and improve the learning process in which we are all involved.
Now the boys and girls will go out onto the field with their coaches to keep growing downward and putting down roots, so that in the future they can reach very high.”
Another round of applause accompanied them as they left the auditorium and headed toward the pitch.
Awake and smiling, they went with their coach, quietly and without rushing, just as Fito & Fitipaldis said: «He walks slowly, because rushing is never good…».
Growing downward
The Pedagogy of the Invisible
We live in a culture obsessed with immediacy: fast results, urgent performance and visible success. We want to see shoots before roots exist. But to educate is not to accelerate processes. To educate is to accompany them with patience, demand and meaning.
Rapid growth without internal structure can generate anxiety about results, dependency on external validation and fragility when facing the first difficulty.
Lamarck expresses it with a simple and profound phrase:
“That is the most important concept, dear children: growing downward”.
This idea completely changes the way we understand learning. We usually associate growth with going up, moving forward, standing out, winning or being recognized. We think growth is what can be seen.
But bamboo reminds us of the opposite: the most important growth happens before any visible result appears.
The story shows this clearly. The farmers plant the seeds, water them and fertilize them, but “the plants did not germinate”. While other crops grew and bore fruit, the bamboo showed no external sign of progress.
And that is where the great educational difficulty appears: continuing to believe when nothing can yet be seen.
One of the farmers gives up because he interprets the absence of results as the absence of learning. The other, however, continues. The text says that “not a single day went by without watering and fertilizing them whenever necessary”.
That is true pedagogical patience: not waiting passively, but continuing to work even when the reward has not yet appeared.
During those years of apparent inactivity, the bamboo was generating “a complex root system” that would allow it to support its later growth.
The bamboo was not standing still; it was building structure.
That is the great lesson: not everything that is delayed is failing; sometimes, it is simply preparing itself.
In football, growing downward means building an internal structure —a synaptome— that remains invisible to the eye. It is the silent work that cannot be seen from the outside, but that supports everything the player will become.
Growing downward means going to training every day to learn to understand the game, observe better, decide with greater judgment, make mistakes and learn from them. It means developing the ability to tolerate frustration, overcome adversity, build discipline, gain confidence and move toward greater autonomy.
Lamarck sums it up with another fundamental phrase:
“Plants and children need time to grow and learn”.
This phrase should be written at the entrance of every football academy.
Learning should not obey the adult’s rush, but the child’s internal time. Each player matures at a different pace, interprets the game from a different experience and builds their roots in a unique way.
An academy should not be a place where players are forced to grow quickly, but an environment where they learn to grow well. It is not about accelerating stages, but about respecting the development processes that allow the player to build a solid foundation.
When we forget this, we start asking for fruit before roots exist. We compare too early, label too quickly and confuse immediate performance with true potential.
The farmer who stops watering represents that impatient adult gaze that needs immediate results in order to keep believing. If he does not see shoots, he concludes there is no learning. If he does not see success, he concludes that the process does not work.
But many development processes do not break because of a lack of talent, but because of a lack of time. Bamboo does not grow late. It grows when it is ready to support its height. That is why, as coaches and educators, we must shift the focus from the result to the process. Patience in football is not waiting: it is working without guarantees.
We need to invest now in order to harvest later. We must accept that there are daily and invisible efforts that do not always appear on the scoreboard, but are essential to building a solid foundation.
Lamarck says goodbye with a phrase that is not only motivational; it is pedagogical ethics:
“Nothing worthwhile is built in a hurry”.
That phrase brings parents, coaches and children back to the right place: the process.
Because in education and in football, the goal is not to arrive quickly; the goal is to arrive prepared. And before growing upward, we must learn to grow downward.
