 Hey guys welcome back. In this video I'm going to be talking about preparation and in particular talking about what kit I bring to the tennis court in my tennis bag. Now an age old saying that you'll probably be aware of is failing to prepare is preparing to fail and I believe in this massively. I use this quote quite a lot so if you know me you've probably heard it quite a few times. Now the reason it's so important in sport in particular is if you've got everything that you need for your training session or for your tennis match or any sporting match in your kit bag you're going to feel a lot more confident on that court or on that pitch but also you're going to have things in that bag that are going to help you to prepare yourself physically as well which I'll go through in a second. Now I made this video for tennis players, tennis coaches but also tennis parents as well and for tennis parents in particular I'm not saying that you should be preparing your child's bag in fact actually quite the opposite. I think it's really important that we can encourage our junior players to pack their own kit bags. It's going to help them in the long run and in with their life skills it's going to help them to become more independent and more organized and it's going to give them that extra responsibility and accountability so that when they do step onto the tennis court on their own to play a tennis match they're going to feel a lot more confident that they can deal with things on their own. Now some of the things that I've got in my bag today which I'm going to go through will be great for tennis coaches and I'm sure lots of tennis coaches out there have these things in their bag some of the things I've put in additionally I would put in my bag if I were to have a tennis match and of course there's going to be plenty of other things that may be more suitable for you to bring on to the tennis court or the football pitch or whatever sport you play so let's get into it. So we've got to start with the most obvious things now I obviously pack my tennis rackets now it depends on what sort of tennis player you are and how often you play if you are new to tennis and you don't play an awful lot of tennis then actually bringing one racket is fine. I actually bring a few more so I've got this is my racket that I use to play with I've got a slightly lighter version of that racket which I use for coaching if I'm doing lots of feeding I find that the lighter racket just gives me a little bit more manoeuvrability when I'm doing lots of fast feeds for cardio, tennis or something like that. I also have a spare version of my playing racket in case I break a string or if I need a restring because the tension's gone. So you know depending on your game and the way that you play or if you're a coach or whatever think about how many rackets you need in your bag like I say it's not necessary to have as many as me but as a coach I feel that having different options helps me when I'm coaching. The second thing I pack in my bag is tennis balls now when coaching I don't really need these I've got a you know hopper of tennis balls a lot of tennis balls but it's always useful to have a fresh can you know just in case you fancy it here or something so it's definitely useful to have tennis balls tennis matches could be quite useless without them. The third thing this actually isn't in my bag today it's a bit too big and this is in fact a bottle bottle. As a coach it's crucial for me to stay hydrated when I'm working on the court for hours in a day especially in sunny temperatures like this so this is actually a lifesaver very kindly one of my players actually bought this for me I did have a slightly smaller version and in my naivety I used it as a target for serving and one of my players crushed it so I posted a picture of it on Instagram and very kindly the next week one of my players got me this replacement and it's definitely an upgrade so yeah definitely bring a water bottle it doesn't need to be this big if you're only playing for an hour or two but if you're a tennis coach definitely worth investing in a big kind of two gallon bottle so on to the next item you might laugh at these so I'm wearing a cap today it's a bit sunny I have a variation of my hat for when it's super hot so this one is amazing protects the back of my neck keeps me cooler throughout the day and then if it's a particularly hot day maybe if it's a lesson that I'm not racing around the court in too much I've got this bad boy yeah I mean you don't see many coaches in the UK wearing these we don't get the weather for it but I thought it was funky and it's actually protects me from the sun I think it's really important to pack layers of clothing in your bag you never know when the weather's going to change but also you know when you get on court and you're wearing a few layers to warm up him that once you get warm when you take those layers off whack them in your bag but it's really important you actually put them back on after you play you may not feel cold you know you might may feel like you're sweating and you're still hot but actually those muscles need to recover and you need to stay fairly warm you don't want them going from hot to cold super quickly that's when you get injured so definitely pack a few layers I mean today I'm wearing a t-shirt I'm wearing a long sleeve tee over the top of it and I've got my hoodie you know for after when I play and also I mean not a necessity but I come to the tennis court wearing my runners might be more comfortable shoes for kind of walking around their lighter weight once I get onto the tennis court put my tennis shoes on and then afterwards I'll put these back on as well you know not only is it for comfort you know the the lighter trainers are good for just walking around in day-to-day life but obviously I need to wear my tennis shoes on the tennis court also if I'm playing on the clay these tennis shoes tend to fill up with with the the artificial clay and so actually I don't want that being traced around the house I bring a spare pair of shoes along with me as well and final few things in this pocket so these are things that I would bring in my bag if I were to have a tennis match if I were to do a you know an intense training session and these are to help me to prepare physically so in here I've got a lightweight resistance band I use this band quite a lot to warm up before playing really good tool definitely something if you're a player that plays in matches or somebody who kind of tends to get into some quite intense tennis on the tennis court so useful to warm up with I've got this I think they call it a lacrosse ball but it's basically a massage ball size of a tennis ball it's hard it's got these bumps on it to help you to kind of relieve some of the the knots that you've got in some of your muscles so another good tool for kind of sitting down and massaging your your calves on the floor or up against the wall if you've got any shoulder pains good tool and my final piece of warm-up equipment is my skipping rope great for any sportsman I mean it's uh it's a good coordination tool good for your fitness really good way to warm up I do have one more thing in this pocket this is more relevant in these times as a tennis coach so I've got a pack of disposable gloves obviously during these times they are used for players if they wish to practice their serve and they haven't been touching the tennis balls in the session they can put on that glove and you know to make sure that there's no transmission of COVID but um you know that's something that's new to my kit bag and and if you're a player yourself you probably won't need them but as a coach it's quite a good tool to have so moving into one of the small pockets got some hand sanitizer so obviously before and after play wash my hands with this useful for coaches to have if you've got back-to-back lessons and um you need to wash your hands obviously if you've got time washing your hands properly and in the sink it's definitely better but um this is a real help as well and over grips so I like to put a new over grip on my racket if I've got a match coming up if um my other one's starting to wear down I just like the feel of an extra over grip on top of my replacement grip so an over grip is just a thin grip that goes over the top of your existing grip it makes the grip slightly thicker so I'm a grip size three and I tend to have an over grip over the top but um it gives it a slightly fresher feel um I tend I don't really like the really tacky grips these ones are kind of in between tacky and chalky so I like to put these on to give my racket a nice new fresh feel not a necessity over grips but something um some players like to have and in the final pocket in here my sunglasses now as a tennis player I didn't actually like playing in sunglasses I found it obstructed my vision a little bit but um as a coach it's a lifesaver having these when I'm out on court in the sunshine for hours on end really protect my eyes um I bought these ones they've got their wrap around so they protect the whole of your eye um but also they've got polarized lenses so you know tennis players you don't need to wear sunglasses you kind of get used to playing in the sun and you're not out there for hours but as a tennis coach definitely a good investment and if you're going to get some sunglasses make sure you get some good lenses because it will be worth it you've only got one pair of eyes at the end of the day uh in this pocket as well I've got a mini tripod called a gorilla pod one of the flexible ones I use this with my phone it's got an attachment on which I'm actually using on the tripod um you're being filmed on at the moment but um great to put on the side of the court you can attach it to the fence or the net post you can wrap the legs around to to attach it really good tool for video analysis so I tend to video quite a lot of my players you know might be video in their surf to show them what they could be improving on um and give feedback into them so mini tripod great tool to have and the final thing in here is my card reader so again with individual lessons or when players want to to pay for their coaching or whatever they don't have to pay with cash they don't have to you know pay with card actually they can pay with their phone as well so as a tennis coach this is a great tool you obviously don't need it if you're a tennis player but if you run a coaching business or you've got your own coach coaching program or you need to take any kind of money I use an eye zettle definitely recommend it and um yeah it just makes your whole business slightly more professional as well so that's my bag that's what I bring to the tennis court obviously in this bag I probably wouldn't pack quite so much on a day-to-day basis quite heavy but if I've got a day of coaching I'll bring the coaching necessities if I'm playing a match I probably won't bring lots of the coaching stuff but I'll bring a bit more of the physical stuff the warm-up equipment and I'd probably pack a banana and something like that as well I'm not one to have uh energy drinks or or sugary drinks like lukas abean brings I bring my water and a banana to you know top up my electrolytes but um yeah that's what I pack you may pack something slightly different if there's anything extra that you think I've missed out let me know in the comments below I'd be really interested to see what you pack in your bag and um hopefully I've helped you with a few ideas as well see you soon guys take care