First Came Tears, Then Four Titles
Damian Reszka wanted a plastic toy gun but received a draughts set. He remembers crying over the gift. Yet that same evening he sat down to play with his father — the beginning of a story that would later include four Polish championship titles.
Draughts was not even his second choice. Three-year-old Damian Reszka wanted a plastic toy gun. When he received a game instead of his hoped-for toy, he cried even harder. A future passion could hardly have had a less promising debut.
That is how Reszka remembers his first encounter with draughts. The important sequel came that evening: his father set out the game, and they began to play. The gap between disappointment with the present and his first game was not years, but hours.
His later achievements give that beginning a particular charm. Reszka says he won the Polish championship and went on to claim the title three more times. In his account, the unwanted gift and four championship titles belong to the same story. That does not, of course, mean a single evening at the board explains an entire sporting journey.
The most interesting point is not a recipe for raising a champion, but the difference between reacting to a box and experiencing the game itself. A child rejected the present, yet tried playing that very day. There is a modest, useful lesson here for adults introducing children to new activities: initial disappointment need not be the final word. In this story, the tears were followed by a game together.