“VERY Difficult, but not impossible”
Novak Djoković
Very Difficult, But Not Impossible
You’ve probably heard about the tennis match between Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open semifinal, where Djokovic triumphed after five grueling sets. His post-match statement resonated around the world: “Very difficult, but not impossible.”
You know the impact it made online—the flood of positive comments, the memes, the inspiration it sparked. But for me, those words hit differently. They took me back to nine months that changed my life forever.
The Connection
I want to draw a parallel between Djokovic’s mindset of never giving up and fighting until the very end, and the discipline I’ve dedicated my life to: Parkour (art du déplacement). That same raw energy, that fight for every single step—I learned it from the Yamakasi, and particularly from one man in that legendary group: Laurent Piemontesi.
I spent a significant amount of time with Laurent, training together and running parkour workshops. And for nearly a year, we lived under the same roof, sharing daily life where we averaged 4-5 hours of training almost every single day. Two to three hours in the morning, then another two to three hours in the afternoon.
The Awakening
Every morning was conditioning training. Afternoons were movement work and parkour sessions where we’d train alongside students—often leading and doing the entire session ourselves. Sometimes it happens that we’d do conditioning in the morning and than afternoon with the students again. It was so exhausting that it took me a full two months just to adapt to this regime, to even be able to complete an entire training session that Laurent would organize daily. He had his program, and I followed.
For those first two months, I couldn’t keep up with his rhythm or finish training to the end. On the rare days I managed to complete it, I’d nap during the afternoon and go to bed early, completely drained. This was despite being, from my perspective, in excellent physical shape—
I already had nearly 10 years of parkour behind me of consistent training. But Laurent’s rhythm and the intensity of his training knocked me completely off balance. My body trembled every day, I had cramps, I would wake up at night with jerks, and sometimes I couldn’t even sleep from sheer exhaustion.
The Difference
I had attended Laurent’s workshops before and trained with other Yamakasi co-founders (Yann, Chau, William). These were usually weekend workshops that I could handle—I’d always manage to complete them and continue my regular training afterward. I even had an intro to all this that was to come, when Comrade Mirko and I were visiting Milan for a week of training. It was the most hellish week of my training up to that point. And after that would follow 9 months of hard training, sore muscles but with a smile on the face thanks to Laurents spirit and jokes.
But living with Laurent for nine months and training with him every single day. That was like training on another planet where gravity is much stronger and nothing exists except training and survival.
The only rest day in the week was Sunday. And by “rest,” I mean we’d go for a 5+ km run or do “recovery exercises.” It was hard to say which day was more demanding—the ones where we’d do hundreds of repetitions of various jumps, spend several hours doing quadrupedal movement exercises, or something he called “baby pull-up block.”
He always have excellent names (and a great sense of humor) for his training sessions—relaxed and soothing at first glance, at least by name, though each one hid a baptism by fire. Not to mention “stretch relax”—where instead of stretching at the end of training, we’d do push-ups to failure. Stretch = top position of the push-up, Relax = bottom position. Then you’d wait in whichever position he called out. A truly hellish exercise for body and mind. Sometimes we’d spend 10 minutes in push-up position doing this “cooldown” after already 2-3 hours of training.
The Revelation
During those nine months (for reference, that’s how long it took you to become a human being), I was reborn, and I learned what “It is not easy, but it is not impossible” truly means. That’s when I experienced what YAMAKASI training really is, what an iron mind means, and what it takes to do “just one more.”
A few months later, when I moved to Belgrade, I set myself a challenge that seemed incredibly difficult but achievable: ‘climbing’ the Genex Tower (the tallest building in Belgrade at the time) backwards on all fours (quadrupedal movement), all 30 floors. [You can watch the video here.]
I was preparing for that challenge for a few months. When I finally completed it, I felt like a Grand Slam winner—in my own way.
My trophy wasn’t a golden cup handed to me on a court; it was standing there on the 30th floor, lungs burning, muscles, victorious and happy. I stand with a smile, proud of a dream come true. The Genex tower was my center court, and reaching top floor was my championship moment.
For those who know and have had the opportunity to train with the Yamakasi group, you understand what one workshop looks like. Maybe you can imagine what it’s like to be stuck in a loop of such parkour workshops for nine months. (I’ll give you a moment to recall those training sessions.)
What I experienced during those nine months with Laurent—I still draw lessons and motivation from it to this day.
Full Circle
So what does all this have to do with Novak Djokovic and his tennis match with Sinner at the AO semifinal, you might ask?
Novak and I are roughly the same age. He spent his 20-plus years training tennis, breaking every possible record in the process—definitely the greatest of all time. I spent my twenty years in parkour (art du déplacement) with equal passion, pushing boundaries and discovering what that “just one more” step holds. I enjoyed every moment, overcoming obstacles along the way.
Watching that match, I recognized all his invested effort and all 20+ years of experience. It was the moment where Djokovic’s mindset and Laurent’s mindset merged into one line. The cherry on top was the phrase he uttered: “Very difficult, but not impossible”—just like Laurent said many years ago: “Not easy, but not impossible.” (We have made a T-shirt back in 2013)
That’s the moment when a person transcends themselves and becomes something more.
Novak Djoković and Laurent Piemontesi are, for me, living proof and constant motivation that when you get up from your bed and start your day, everything is possible. They remind me that the limits we perceive are often just the beginning of what we can achieve.
“it’s Not easy, but not impossible”
Laurent Piemontesi
This mindset isn’t built in a day. It’s forged through countless mornings when your body screams to stop, through thousands of repetitions when your mind begs for rest, through the relentless pursuit of “just one more” when impossible seems certain. Whether it’s on a tennis court, scaling a tower, or in the daily grind of life—the principle remains the same: Very difficult, but not impossible.
Stay in motion
With Love Saša Ševo
