Runa Reta - WISPA Squash Pro on Tour on www.squashtalk.com

When I was in college, our UPENN team traveled to nearby F&M for a league match one night.

Carelessly, I happened to pack two different kinds of shoes- one right Adidas shoe, and one left Hi-Tec shoe. My first feeling was relief at the thought that at least in my clumsiness I managed to get both a right and left shoe. My second feeling- which followed precipitously- was that of embarrassment, as I realized that I now had to go on and play my match in two different shoes!

Of course, my teammates caught on quickly and spent the rest of the night teasing me, but it was only my coach at the time, Demer Holleran, who managed to conjure up some calculated words of wisdom regarding my mistake.

She sat next to me after my match and said to me judiciously: “you know Runa, the first time you do something like this, it’s funny. The second time you do it though, it’s just plain stupid”.

Ah, only Demer could make you feel like you were about to bear witness to the deepest, most earth-shattering revelation, only to be sucker-punched in the belly with the simplest of observations!

Since my college days, I’m happy to report that I have not as of yet repeated that particular shoe scenario. However, on a recent trip to an event, one of my bags was lost for an entire week by the airline, thus leaving me without shoes, racquets or basically any of the essentials required to compete (properly) in a squash tournament.

While at first I felt like the simple, helpless victim of bad luck, it wasn’t until one of the most notoriously disorganized and space-cadet-like players on tour (of all people!) informed me that I made a huge travel error, that it dawned on me that I was the one at fault, not the airline. And so, as I listened to this one player and many others share their two cents on how they prepare themselves for travel to avoid predicaments like the one I was in, I was able to compile a list of things that professionals do to avoid the nightmare scenario that had become my reality not long ago.

As I have come to find out, there is an art to packing that requires a combination of efficiency, creativity, and just plain common sense (…all of which I clearly lacked on my last trip!) The first error in judgment that can be made is the presumption that bags will always arrive to their designated destination; of course, this is far from true. Therefore, when packing for competitions (particularly on long trips) it is imperative to assume that bags will be lost. Using this as a guiding principle, you can prioritize the most important things that you cannot afford to be without, and set them aside for hand luggage. I learned the hard way that these elements include: squash shoes, racquets, a few pairs of underwear, at least one set of competition gear, and necessary medication.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SHOES
The importance of carrying your shoes as hand luggage (as annoying as it is to do), cannot be overstated. Simply put, your feet are critical to your performance, and it is very hard to replace or borrow shoes in a style and size that will fit. This advisory is particularly poignant for those of you who have feet that are way off the average size. For me, coming in at a miniature size 5 ½, my options were limited to going to shop at an infants/freakishly-small-footed-peoples store, or wearing 4 pairs of socks and hoping that I wouldn’t slide around too much in a borrowed pair of squash shoes! (Ironically, it was the shoes that again let me down here!)

NOT ON THE BALL
Racquets are another essential (again I should say, I was really not on the ball with this trip!) In the past, racquets were not allowed on planes because of their apparently violent and threatening nature, however since then executives in the airline business have rethought that one through and decided that laughter would be the only emotion elicited if one were to try and stir up trouble on a plane, armed with a sports racquet in hand! As a result, most airlines are once again allowing racquets on board. Now, if you happen to play with a brand and model of racquet that several others in the event also use, you could likely get away with not carrying any with you on the plane (and simply borrowing from others if your checked-in luggage gets lost). If you are the only one on the entire tour using a specific model however, (ie. me) you might want to seriously consider taking a few racquets with you as hand luggage!

Underwear also tops the list as an essential because let’s face it folks, you’re not going to borrow your roommates underwear (well, let’s hope), you can never contemplate re-using dirty underwear (again, a bleak hope) and going commando is way overrated! In my case, having not even had the sense to follow this major commandment, I ended up hand-washing my underwear for a couple of days, then splurging on the hotel laundry service for another few (I’m sure they really appreciated taking away my 2 pieces of underwear to wash and iron every day!) and finally ended up buying some cheap underwear for the rest of the time. Bottom line: it was a nuisance.

THE PACKING BALLET
One further essential is bringing some on-court kit, simply because you know it will fit and you will be comfortable in it (which is one less distraction to deal with on court), and worse comes to worse, you can use some of it for practice too. Luckily, I had accidentally left a few skirts in the bag that I received, so I do get one measly point for packing here! (even if it wasn’t on purpose!)

Once you have all of the aforementioned packed and ready, you can then start to consider second-string necessities, which will vary according to the individual and to the amount of space one has in the carry-on baggage. Ideally, it would be nice to carry a few t-shirts, shorts and socks in which to train, as well as a pair of track-pants/sweats. You could easily save space by wearing the sweats when you travel, as they are extremely comfortable for long flights, and are probably the most well-worn article of clothing in a squash professional’s wardrobe. Also, (as I later found out) if you end up losing bags, you could then use them to practice in, and still look as if you are part of the event, rather than a mere spectator in khaki pants. Of course, I had to go with the khaki pants on the plane, and thus was not only unable to get any practical use out of them, but was also branded as a preppy outcast for the duration of the tournament!

The last crucial tip that I learned about packing is this: with regards to checked-in luggage, it is always a good idea to spread out your high-importance articles between pieces of luggage if traveling with more than one bag (ie. squash kit, underwear, training gear, but NOT shoes!) You see, I in fact had only lost one of my two bags on this trip. Although everyone was quick to give me the “at least you got one of your bags”/ “the glass is half-full” spiel, I left them with looks of sheer horror on their faces as soon as I listed the contents of the bag that did arrive: hair straightener, make-up, bathing suit, dress shoes, food….aka everything I could have done WITHOUT during the entire course of the event! Not one squash-related item was present in that bag (other than a few skirts), which meant that I was one very screwed competitor…and no amount of time spent prettying myself up and walking around my hotel room in bathing suit, high heels and sandwich in hand could help me erase that fact!

As you can see, I was having a major senior moment (or two!) while preparing to go to this event. Not only did I fail to ensure that I had what was necessary to get by on this trip, but I completely jeopardized my on-court performance as well, which is the #1 cardinal sin in the professional world of squash. Luckily, as this was the first time that I had landed myself in this particular predicament, I had the privilege of drawing on Demer’s Law, and laughing this one off as a silly mishap. We all know however, that there are two parts to this Law and that silly mishaps tend to only capture our laughter and forgiveness the first time around. Thus, learning from the mistakes and ensuring that they never re-occur becomes an important process in life that can mean the difference between having a funny story and just being a plain idiot! For Demer’s sake, I will always strive to be the good storyteller.