Tis the season for many people to travel either off to a warm paradise for vacation or to some snowy region to visit uncles, grandparents, cousins and other loved ones for the holiday season.
What better time than now to explain the fascinating little facts of traveling as a pro tennis player (a little bit of sarcasm there), packing and braving the airports?
After reading this you should have no problem preparing to travel with a tennis bag in case the occasion should ever arise for you (more sarcasm-let’s be honest, what percentage of people travel with tennis bags?).
Many players vary the details in their own ways here—this is my own personal prep-system. For example, many players check their tennis bags in whereas I bring mine as a carry-on. My reasoning is as follows: have you ever seen how those guys below the planes toss the checked bags around?? Racquets cost almost $200 a pop if you are not sponsored, and so I keep my equipment as close to my person as possible. I also think the tension of the string changes with the lack of pressure where the checked luggage compartment lies. I am not a fan of re-stringing my racquets at every venue.
One friend of mine asked me when she had just finished college and was about to play on the tour, “What should I bring when I go to Mexico?”
What follows is an extended version of the list that I gave her. It applies to Mexico, the USA, Australia, Japan, and any other country to which a person could travel. Consider it my go-to guide for international travel and competing in pro tennis tournaments. Who knows, there might be some tips in there that apply to the traveling you will be doing in the near future.
1. String, preferably a reel. String is FAR more expensive individually wrapped, and there is no way to predict what kind of string is sold/not sold at any given venue. In fact, they might not sell string at all where you play which means you then have to either order and pay for shipping the string to that far-off land, or find a way to get to a sports store. This is more difficult than it sounds.
Let’s say it’s Sunday, you have just popped your last string and you play the next day at 11AM. Most places will be closed until Monday, and they will open around 10AM, 9AM at the earliest. If you can even manage to get transportation to the sports store and to the tournament site that early in the morning off the regular tournament transportation route, you will be lucky to make it back in time to warm up for your match. You can always take a taxi, but that costs money. It is just cheaper and easier to bring a reel of the string that you like.
If you will be gone for a long period of time competing, also bring a new pair of tennis and running shoes. This will save you from the hassle of finding new ones on the road, or ordering them and having them sent to your location—which can be difficult if your location changes every week.
2. Laundry soap. Just having some powder soap in a Ziploc bag can be a life-saver. Shampoo works too (thank you Mom for that tip)—but shampoo typically only really works with very warm/hot water.
3. Clothesline. I have been stuck doing laundry by hand in some tiny hotel rooms and a clothesline can be very useful when you go to hang out your wet clothes with minimal space available. It takes up next to zero space in a bag.
4. Lotion! If you like a particular brand, do NOT assume that every country/store in the world carries it, because they do not.
This applies if you have a favorite type of face wash, shampoo, sunscreen, deodorant or whatever type of toiletry if there is only one brand or type that works for you.
Random fact: Australia does not sell sunscreen over SPF 30. People defend this and say that you cannot get higher protection than 30 but my experience suggests otherwise. My SPF 70 doesn’t let me get a tan, and I get dark brown with SPF 30. . .you do the math.
5. Snacks. For the airplane, for late night snacks after a long day competing. I like flavored roasted almonds, peanut M&M’s (because peanuts make them healthy), Snickers (again with the peanut equals healthy idea), Trail Mix, and Sweet & Salty almond and peanut granola bars.
Travel is unpredictable, so why go hungry when the schedule gets changed around? You know it’s bound to happen—so bring a snack and be a happier traveler.
6. A hat, sleeping mask, or jacket with a hood that can cover your eyes on the plane. Planes dry you out with all of the air blowing at you all the time-if you don’t want red eyes at the end of the flight cover them up somehow when you sleep.
7. A change of clothes for every kind of weather—within reason. Not a big puffy parka—I’m talking about bringing sweatpants and a jacket to Hawaii in case the weather turns cold (because you know it will freeze the year that YOU decide to go), at least one pair of long pants to Florida, and shorts to Midland, Michigan (they play indoors there and it gets warm in there with the heaters!!).
8. Cash. You will always need this at some point, whether it’s for laundry or a bottle of water at a store on the side of the road. Not a whole lot, but at least $20.00.
9. Passport. Big one here—your best international form of identity. You need it everywhere-at the hotel, at the airport, the train station, the rental car counter.
10. Stretching rope and thera-tube. There is no guarantee there will be a good gym where you go and an arm-band (stretchy, like a thera-tube) can help prevent injuries and keep you strong. It’s like a portable gym for your arms. The more you can do with less weight when you’re traveling, the better.
11. PATIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING!!!
Let’s say I am on an airplane and we are getting in our seats and stowing our carry-on bags when the captain comes on the intercom to say there is a bit of a maintenance problem with the plane and we will have to wait a little bit to take off. We wait thirty minutes for the notification that the plane is not fit to fly and we will all have to de-plane. What do I say in this situation?
“Thank you flight crew for doing your job and picking out a potentially life-threatening maintenance problem with the plane that was just about to carry myself and 200 other passengers 3 miles into the air at speeds up to 600 miles/hour. I will wait as long as it takes to have a safe plane. I will be happy to move my things, de-plane, take another flying bird, and live to fight another day.”
What do I hear other people saying to their loved ones on cell phones?
“This is ridiculous. I can’t believe this. They had us on the plane for 30 minutes and now we have to de-plane and they are going to try to find us another plane. . .unbelievable.”
Would they prefer that the flight crew to ignore the potentially disastrous problem and put us in the air? What’s better, making it home on time or making it home ALIVE?! I’ll leave you to make that judgment.
Another realization that might come as a shock to some of you out there is that the agents at the desks in the airport are NOT the Gods and Goddesses of travel. They make mistakes, they do NOT know all and many of the passengers coming through have done more traveling and been on more planes than the people working the desks in the airport. As a result, one must practice patience and treat them with respect given their limited margin of travel knowledge.
Exhibit A: I have my tennis bag (which is not the normal rectangular size of other carry-on bags) that I have traveled with as a carry-on for 14+ years on planes everywhere. The size of it has varied over the years, but not drastically, and the size of my bag nowadays is actually quite a downscale compared to previous years.
One morning this past November 2010 flying from Phoenix to Dallas/Ft. Worth an agent gave me a hard time over the shape of my bag. She said that I couldn’t bring it unless I could fit it in the carry-on bag size display. I thought, if the total volume is the same, why does the shape matter? They can’t expect me to fit sports gear in a rectangular shaped bag.
The supervisor had to come out, shove my bag in the display to show that it fit—I knew that the bag would fit, but they didn’t. Why would they? They don’t travel everywhere with a tennis bag. The situation could have turned ugly, but I don’t expect her to know the things about traveling that I have learned from years and years of experience. If she had that experience, she would know that my tennis bag ALWAYS fits.
I will leave you with one last tip for the holiday season and the New Year (2011, wow!!).
Remember to put all your liquids (aka sunscreen) from your tennis bag into your checked bag before you try to carry on your tennis bag. Sunscreen is expensive (try $11.00 a bottle)—if you don’ want to buy new sunscreen in every city it’s worth the trouble.
Regular sunscreen sizes are almost always over the 3oz liquid allowance. Even if it’s almost empty and the amount of liquid is below 3 oz what matters is the size of the container.
Safe (and prepared, hopefully) traveling!!!
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