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A year has passed since my tennis tour in Europe.
On this self-guided five-city tennis journey, I flew to Spain, France and Great Britain to retrace the footsteps of the tennis legend and my personal hero - Rafael Nadal. Along the way I discover many wonderful cultures and met individuals from all walks of life, all of whom celebrating tennis.
When seeking the Wise Man atop the mountain - you end up learning more from climbing up that mountain than you ever would from meeting the wise man.
I've had some time now to reflect and recollect my thoughts and memories from the my experience. It was a colorful journey, sharing the road with many friendly characters helping me along the way. Hopefully my story will inspire you as Rafa has helped inspire me in life.
"We always talk, speculate, dream or maybe even playfully plan about these adventures - but how often do you meet someone who has followed it through in their lifetime and talked about it..."
From the red crushed clay of Roland Garros to the freshly moved lawns of Wimbledon - the boundless empire of tennis stretches. Spanning three countries (Spain, France, UK) with all her tennis territories united together in glorious victory by Rafa, less than a year earlier.
I sought out in an ambitious quest to pay homage to Nadal's Kingdom of Tennis. This presented an appealing opportunity to see a "Summer in Europe" - centered around tennis, was too good to pass up.
To truely understand someone I knew, could only be done by walking in his shoes...only by sweating on the same soil as the young master. So I enrolled for a week along side other tennis professionals at his former academy of the Sanchez-Casal in Barcelona for a week. There by seeing the life of other young rising juniors could I truly begin to understand how he grew up. That was where his talents were nurtured to yield his genius, his style, his influences and development as a player starting out.
(more coming soon)...http://www.tennis-8.com/search/label/Travel
Being my first time venturing to Europe, I was both anxious and excited - unsure about the language barriers and not knowing what to expect as an American traveling solo in Europe, but excited to be immersed in a new world of tennis, art and culture.
It seems that every year around this time, late in the Spring as the weather is becoming just warm enough to go outside in the morning without a sweater, the idea of travel comes to me. Specifically it is the idea is seeing the French and Wimbledon grand slams together. At first I always envisioned this to take place on the honeymoon trip (Paris / London); drive the Autobahn with a factory-made BMW..
Over the years, this tennis idea takes many different shapes and forms as in a daydream floating around like a feather on a light summer breeze...re-animated just the slightest whenever there is another exciting ATP event is televised on the air.
But whether it was work or family or other earthly commitments - something more urgent always seemed to always brush aside these well-intended notions; "Europe is too far", "You don't have enough vacation days", "The exchange rate for the Euro is bad this year" - the fears and reality would talk me down like Icarus and his paper wings...not too high now. Whatever it was, there's always one excuse or another that was able to hold me back.
Damn the torpedoes...I'm going to go for it!
Mardid, Barcelona, Paris, Normandy, London... the journey begins
Editors' note: I am still doing my initial drafts and edits but please feel free to leave comments and suggestions below - I am hoping to turn it into a short publication/documentary eventually.
I sought out in an ambitious quest to pay homage to Nadal's Kingdom of Tennis. This presented an appealing opportunity to see a "Summer in Europe" - centered around tennis, was too good to pass up.
To truely understand someone I knew, could only be done by walking in his shoes...only by sweating on the same soil as the young master. So I enrolled for a week along side other tennis professionals at his former academy of the Sanchez-Casal in Barcelona for a week. There by seeing the life of other young rising juniors could I truly begin to understand how he grew up. That was where his talents were nurtured to yield his genius, his style, his influences and development as a player starting out.
If Tennis were a religion, this trip would be the Holy Pilgrimage every true tennis fan must invoke at least once in your life...Finding myself in between career moves and motivated by a new found sense of freedom, I set off to see it all but little more than a week with just a rough idea and a tennis dream to plan it all out...
(more coming soon)...http://www.tennis-8.com/search/label/Travel
Being my first time venturing to Europe, I was both anxious and excited - unsure about the language barriers and not knowing what to expect as an American traveling solo in Europe, but excited to be immersed in a new world of tennis, art and culture.
Over the years, this tennis idea takes many different shapes and forms as in a daydream floating around like a feather on a light summer breeze...re-animated just the slightest whenever there is another exciting ATP event is televised on the air.
What surprised me was it took a short monologue on the season finale of "Amazing Race 14" to trigger the ephipany that would eventually allow me to overcome these previous seemingly un-scalable mountains of time, distance and price. It was like Destiny calling through the DVR in replay mode...the timing and relevance was uncanny:
"My entire life, I felt like I've done what was expected of me - what was the right thing to do.
This was my opportunity to do something that everyone thinks is a crazy thing to do. And I'm just so grateful! I come out of it feeling there are no sort of "walls" or "rules" in terms of what we have to be.
What's been enlightening to me in the race is you can have a lot of fun! - just doing the crazy, unexpected, and completely unconventional; and it makes life sorta interesting."
- Victor Jih (winner of the Amazing Race season 14)
So I thought to myself, well if not this year, then you'll wait another - then another, then another..."So if not now, then when?", I asked myself. How much longer will Rafa and Federrer still be competing for 5-sets to win championships in epic fashion. Will you get another chance to go see Nadal on clay if you don't go now?
Damn the torpedoes...I'm going to go for it!
Mardid, Barcelona, Paris, Normandy, London... the journey begins
Editors' note: I am still doing my initial drafts and edits but please feel free to leave comments and suggestions below - I am hoping to turn it into a short publication/documentary eventually.
Please stay tuned for a complete documentary on the next chapter of my travels - as I will include not only photos, stories and experiences but hopefully also be able to share some of the lessons I picked up from Europe. If interested, I will try to help you plan a vacation of your own (USAtennis8@gmail.com)
I am still doing my initial drafts and edits but please feel free to leave comments and suggestions below - I am hoping to turn it into a short publication/documentary eventually.
Read more about my Tennis Travels.
I am still doing my initial drafts and edits but please feel free to leave comments and suggestions below - I am hoping to turn it into a short publication/documentary eventually.
Read more about my Tennis Travels.
The Road to Rafa's Renaissance
European Tennis Tour - Summer 2009
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the places and moments that take our breath away."
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
