I am writing this from a seat at Heathrow Airport.

This is not one of my normal blog posts. It is not something I tend to do, but at the same time it is a point of pride for me, so I kind of wanted to brag a little about it.

I came this weekend for a business trip to London and took the opportunity to visit my old gymnastics club and some of my old gymnasts. I was impressed at how big they had gotten after three years of not seeing them, some of them almost unrecognisable. I also met a few new boys who were not there last time I came through, as well as some coaches.

But one of the things that struck me quite a lot, and this matters less during training and much more when it comes to performing at your best, goes back to something I heard almost a decade ago. Almost a decade ago I started listening to Les Brown, and one thing he said never left me: you need to make an impact. This is something I try to teach most of my athletes. You need to do something beyond just showing up and doing what you need to do. You need to do it in such a way that people stop to look at you.

I am happy to say that I clearly did make an impact.

I spent about an hour at the club just watching the boys train, and I had two of the little ones, the ones who started their gymnastics career with me, keep coming over and asking: Sacha, are you going to come back and coach us?

I was struggling to say no. I knew I could not, for too many reasons, but part of me always wanted to say yes. That was pride. But more than that, it was the boys from another coach's group, ones I had helped out with for a short while, who kept pulling me aside saying: Sacha, have you seen what I can do now?

Being there, even briefly, felt like the work had meant something, even with how little time I had.

The cherry on top was dinner. A bit of regret got in the way though.

Having the pleasure of sitting down with all the seniors I had coached five years ago, when they were still juniors. We were in the city centre talking about good memories and about where they are now. Watching them having grown into young men was something else.

But there was a shadow over that evening. Two of my former gymnasts did not come. They clearly did not have a good experience training with me. It was too intense for them at that point in their lives, and they did not even respond when the dinner was being arranged.

You will not always win.

I am glad the success rate was much better than the failure rate. But I still stand by the point: you should always try to make an impact.

So how are you doing on that front?

Are you showing up in a way that people remember? Or are you just passing through invisibly?