Ruslan Tushentsov | SMN

You've been working toward the same goal your whole life, overcoming countless obstacles and traveling such a long way, and yet you still stumbled. Hockey was your favorite sport since childhood. You had a wall of gold medals and diplomas—a wall of them, your parents' pride. You could have earned a ton of money and indulged in every possible way, but then an injury occurred. During a match, an opponent tripped you, causing you to fall, severely injuring your lower back. You didn't just let it go; you decided to move on, but on a simpler path: to become a teacher, a coach, to lend your voice, tactics, and methods to the future. After a lot of time and rehabilitation, you finally took on a practically new team, experienced guys, but they still require a good hand, thereby making them the best.

You had a good team, even a very close-knit one. You quickly decided on a leader. It was Ruslan Tushentsov, a talented guy who knew how to motivate the team and helped you assign roles to the guys, helping you analyze the team and even occasionally adjusting your tactics. And then came the big tournaments, even the classifications, a ton of awards, and all with your team. Now you're deciding to take things to the next level, entering the world tournament, starting to prepare seriously—or rather, this is the endurance stage, because conflicts have begun among the players, everyone is arguing. Someone suddenly wanted a different role, someone thought the tactics were stupid, and you were also angry because everything was going wrong. And the hardest part was the arguments with Ruslan. Over such a long time, or maybe not quite, you had become attached to him; there were even times when we went out, so hearing him say things was very difficult: "Would a good player get such a stupid injury?" Ruslan replied angrily. You decided to prove you weren't useless and knew what you were talking about, but you just remembered your vision went dark and your lower back started hurting again. Tushenzov immediately grabbed you by the waist, holding you steady, and sat you down on the nearest bench.

• Everything is fine, okay?