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Racquet Fuel provides insights into the best practices and innovations of racquets industry business leaders.
Co-hosts Kim Bastable, Director of Professional Tennis Management at the University of Florida, and Simon Gale, Senior Director Racquet Sports Development at the USTA National Campus, help racquets leaders in your ability to grow the game and to improve the experiences you offer to both your staff and players by talking to industry leaders, including USTA executives, authors and innovators. If you are on a career path in racquet sports or already a racquets business leader and you want to stay up to date on ideas and innovations in racquets industry business and leadership, this podcast is for you.
Presented by the Athlete+ Podcast Network at the University of Florida Institute for Coaching Excellence.
Welcome to Racquet Fuel, where we launch into great conversations and share powerful tools to help you become a stronger Racquet's leader. Your hosts are Kim Bastable, a former All American tennis player and now the director of tennis management at the University of Florida. And Simon Gale, the USTA senior director of Racquet Sports Development. Today on Racquet Fuel, we feature information about a new two year university like apprenticeship program offered at the USTA National Campus in Orlando. The program starts early next year and is designed to develop essential on court and off court skills for a long career as a Racquet Sports leader.
Episode Narration:Simon and Kim are talking to program director Jason Allen about the exciting career opportunity that recently opened for applications. Here's Kim and Simon.
Kim Bastable:Welcome to Racquet Fuel. I'm Kim Bastable, and today I'm here with Simon Gale, my trust co host, but also another member of his USTA team, Jason Allen, I am actually interviewing them both because we are talking about a very exciting new program that is being started in the USTA this year. So Simon, welcome this summer to our episode, but, let's start with you. Tell us the overview. What is USTA trying to accomplish with this new program?
Kim Bastable:And then I'll let you introduce Jason.
Simon Gale:Well, Kim, it's interesting to be on the other side of the mic today, isn't it? Like, I have to be interviewed by you, so this will be a new experience and some fun. But super excited to be here with Jason and talk about the Racquet Sports Management Apprenticeship. It's brand new. We think it's very unique in nature and the goal with this program is really, I think if you go back to the concept, the vision for this a couple of years ago was there's a lack of leadership education specific to becoming a director of Racquet Sports or a leader in our industry.
Simon Gale:And you've done a great job with the UF program and I've done that program and it's extensive and thorough and is a great preparation for moving into a leadership role. But we wanted to take that even further and be able to do an in person two year experience and have a very practical and what we're calling a transformational experience that hopefully leaves them able to hit the ground running when they move into a new position at the end of their two years. I think the lack of ability to learn off court skills, the business skills in our industry is a real concern. I think we've spent a lot of time mastering how to teach tennis, but we don't have as many options when it comes to leadership. So I think this is unique in nature, but gives people an option to look at how do I take that next step if I'm maybe stuck in my career or struggling with the interview process to sell myself for some of these bigger jobs.
Simon Gale:And we want to be able to feed that pipeline for the future.
Kim Bastable:That's exciting. I mean, think this is definitely something needed in our industry. So I'm curious, how did you land on Jason? Tell us about Jason a little bit and introduce him.
Simon Gale:Jason has been with the USTA for around seven years now and when we first had the concept, we presented to him and started to draft a bit of a skeleton outline of what this could look like over a two year period. Then he went to Midtown Chicago for twelve months and was the director of Racquet Sports there for a tremendous organization Midtown is. So I think that was a great learning experience for him to add to his already extensive teaching and leadership experience in the tennis industry. But Jason's educational background and ability to write curriculum and understand the scaffolding needed to be able to produce a two year program is something that I don't own that skill. And I think us together are able to put something on paper and now put it together and have a complete two year program in place now that we think is really solid.
Simon Gale:But with anything, it's gonna take continuous tweaking and modification to make it better once we have people in here and they give us feedback. So Jason's ability to navigate through that, I think, is a huge asset for this program. And he'll be our director of the program, so I'll be co piloting it with him. But he'll be driving this and I think they're in good hands when they're with Jason.
Kim Bastable:Yeah, definitely agree. Jason, really welcome to the podcast and we're excited for you to explain why do you want to be a part of this program? Why are you fired up?
Jason Allen:Well, first, I wanna say thank you to both you, Kim, and and Simon for the invitation to be on Racquet Fuel. I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to the other episodes, and it just adds such a a great wealth of knowledge that's much needed and it's lacking in our industry, which is leadership specific skills and business specific skills to prepare people for that director's role or for that leadership role. It's exciting for me to be a part of it. I spent a few years working in what was formerly known as the USTAU, which stands for USTA University. I was very honored when Simon and Joe Wallin approached me to help them create a shell of an outline of a program to present to the board of directors of the USTA.
Jason Allen:And they came to me because, you know, I'm a former high school principal. I was a, you know, teacher at the high school level, at the university level, and I hold a doctoral degree in educational leadership and just love education in general. Part of my previous role at the USTA was developing curriculum for both wheelchair tennis and adaptive tennis, which I heavily believe that is so important for any coach to be able to do, which is to be adaptable and adapt your coaching and teaching to the needs of the learner. So combining my experience in the tennis industry with the new endeavor to develop wheelchair tennis curricula as well as adaptive tennis curricula just really really helped to round out my understanding of what it takes to be a coach in the industry as well as a leader. And I brought those skills to Midtown and really enjoyed working there over the past year and was excited when when Simon and Joe called me up and asked me if I'd be interested in applying for this position, and I and I jumped on it.
Jason Allen:I think it's gonna be a game changer in our industry. It's is a much needed facet of our industry. Like Simon said previously, your course, Kim, the director of of Racquet Sports at the University of Florida is the only game in town. I think there's another one as well, but it's yours is the one that's on that's accredited right now by the USTA and and recognized by the USPTA and PTR. So we're happy to add to that.
Kim Bastable:Well, it's called the Racquet Sports Management Apprenticeship. So I'm curious, you know, what what's the ideal candidate for this? What does this look like? I know it's an academic and a work program, but but how do you see the ideal candidate for what you're offering?
Simon Gale:I think it's a great question. We put a lot of thought into that when we kind of started to map out what the content looked like and what the application process and criteria would be. It can be pretty varied, Kim. When you look at where people could be in their career, you could already be a director of tennis somewhere. I look at the first director's job I had, I didn't know what I was doing.
Simon Gale:I was making it up as I went along and thank goodness it was a small enough club that I couldn't do too much damage. But when you're at a four court club and it's you and a part time assistant, that type of situation, how are you learning? Where are you learning other than through trial and error? And some of us can get there with that and some need more help. So you could be somebody who is a director but wants to go further.
Simon Gale:You want a bigger job. You want get one of the bigger clubs or you want to be at a bigger country club, for example. This could be you're finishing school, so to speak, even though you have the word director next to your name. But I also look at somebody who is a very strong staff pro who is at a bigger facility and that facility has extensive leadership. I look at some of the people we have here at the campus who can run three or four courts and manage three or four pros at once who aren't in a leadership role, they're exceptional on court and are looking for that leadership opportunity.
Simon Gale:This is a springboard, as you could say, to an opportunity in the future. I think it's somebody who ideally has around five years plus teaching experience and two years in some sort of supervisory role which could be somebody who is a director of junior tennis or director of the summer camp. Just somebody who's got that leadership aspiration, but is also trending in that direction and would be able to illustrate to us that they can lead in some sort of capacity in a role that they're already in. So I know that's a long winded answer, but it's so broad because there's some diamonds in the rough out there. As we know, so many of our pros aren't even certified in this country.
Simon Gale:And so there's a lot of good people who maybe don't have the certificate next to their name, but they're outstanding coaches and already good leaders. And we have to consider all of those when looking for who our top eight are when we take this initial cohort.
Kim Bastable:Okay, well, let's talk a little bit about also the compensation. I know there's some compensation involved in this. And then the first year, it's a two year program, but let's specifically talk maybe about the first year experience. Jason, you wanna speak to that?
Jason Allen:Sure. You know, there's a pointed reason why we chose the term apprenticeship. It's different than a fellowship or a residency or something like that. It's it's it's a paid earn and learn program. So you're actually coming down here and you're gonna work teaching on court twenty hours a week.
Jason Allen:The goal is not to really learn how to coach better in that facet. It's really to enhance your leadership skills on court. And then you're gonna spend the other fifteen or twenty hours a week in the classroom applying some of the knowledge that you're learning and trying to work with other people in the cohort on projects. It's project based learning, but you're gonna be paid $75,000 a year plus full benefits. And we're quite proud of that because when you look at the tennis industry, we think 75,000 is quite competitive for most people who we we would consider teaching pros or staff pros out there.
Jason Allen:But when we look at the rest of our industry, we typically always say that only about 20% of the coaching jobs that exist out there even provide benefits. So we're able to provide an amazing benefits package on top of that. So to answer your question though, more specifically, the first year of the program, they're gonna jump in and they're gonna do an introduction to our program. It's gonna take about three months just to get accustomed to life at the national campus. It's a huge facility.
Jason Allen:It's gonna have a 100 courts by the time they would arrive in January 2025. Just knowing where the ball carts are and where the clay courts are and the hard courts and where's player development, where's the collegiate center, and understanding how the USTA functions and all the different levels and facets of it and all the events that we have here. It's gonna take a solid three months just to get used to coaching here. And then they'll dive into their coursework. The first year, they're gonna learn about the racket sports industry, and they'll take four courses which will culminate into a project.
Jason Allen:And then year two, they're gonna jump into the racket sports business, and they'll finalize their courses with what we're calling racket Sports leadership. Then they'll take three elective projects at the end, and then they'll finalize a portfolio, which hopefully they'll be able to to show to a prospective employer as they're starting to interview for positions. But to summarize, it's $75,000 a year with full benefits.
Kim Bastable:Very good. Very exciting. And I think the next question most people would wanna know is what will they end up with after the two years? So after two years of living in Orlando, they're sort of kicked off the island. And where are they gonna be sent?
Kim Bastable:Where going are to end up? How's it going to are you going help them get a new position? What do you think will happen? Of course, we don't know yet. It's new, but what do you think?
Simon Gale:Yeah. At this point, the plan is to be able to have all of them placed in positions. We'd love to say that we could guarantee that, but we can guarantee that we're going to work very hard to make sure we find you a position. And the way we're going to do that is working with some strategic alliances out in the industry across all aspects of teaching. So if we look at whether it's resorts, country clubs, NJTLs, public park programs, commercial indoor in the Northeast, all the types of facilities, we want to make sure they're well represented throughout the two years.
Simon Gale:But what we're going to do is make sure we introduce them to key stakeholders in those areas to make sure, a, all these apprentices are fully aware of the options out there. And if you've only worked in the Northeast at an indoor commercial club, you you maybe haven't been exposed to some of the other options. We want to make sure they're aware of all their options and then during the course of the two years, the ability to customize their education to understand what the tracks are they could go down and try and start to align that with their goals and move them into positions that not just a job so we can check a box, it's a job that's meaningful and in a place that's going to continue to be a supporter of your development. We don't want to place them somewhere just to get a job, we want to make sure that they can continue to grow. So that would be the big picture goal.
Simon Gale:But what we want to do throughout the time is also have guest speakers and lecturers and opportunities for these clubs around the country and facilities to introduce themselves to the apprentices. What a great way to get somebody from club and be able to put themselves in front of these people and say, here's what I offer, here's what we offer. If you have any interest, here's my information and start a relationship. So the goal would be to have them placed by the end of the '2 so they know where they're headed come January 2027 that would be. I'm just trying to do the math.
Simon Gale:2025, '26. In two years time, Kim, whatever that is, I think it's '26. But that that's something we're making a real effort to make sure there's a finish line and it's not you finish and then you go find yourself a job. We want to facilitate that.
Kim Bastable:Excellent. So my question, we do have an interesting industry profession where we have so many different types of businesses, as you mentioned, the many different places someone could work. We also have multiple complimentary racket sports. I'm curious to know where you think does someone have to have tennis teaching five years experience there, Or can they be more experienced in pickleball, Padel? We probably got that question that would be out there.
Simon Gale:Look, think you and I have talked about this a few times throughout Racquet Fuel episodes. And you go back five years and pickleball was just getting started as a teaching. You know, it's been around a long time, but as a teaching option. And I think it's still evolving into can you make money as a pickleball teaching professional full time? But you go back ten years and the words pickleball and peddell didn't exist and you were a director of tennis.
Simon Gale:I think we'll see what type of candidates we get over the course of the coming months. But I could see over time where when somebody comes in and says, I've been a pickleball director for five years. I don't have any tennis background. Could I do this program? I don't see how you could say no.
Simon Gale:What's the difference? You know, if you're to go into a club, we've talked about this, you're becoming more of the CEO of Racquet Sports Sports versus the director of tennis and you have to be a tennis background in order to teach pickleball or Padel or platform tennis. So why not somebody who's an expert in pickleball and you hire the tennis director and you hire the other Racquet sports directors, and you manage them. I think that's totally reasonable, and I think it will happen over the course of time as this program evolves.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. I think we're facing that certainly in our industry overall. We just don't know when the point will come when people have been in just those other silos and have the leadership and experiences that allow them to be able to manage kind of the big brother or the grandfather in the room, maybe we think tennis. So my question is, my program's at University of Florida, the Director of Racquet Sports certificate course, which allows someone to earn the title of USPTA or PTR, Certified Director of Racquet Sports, and we also have a master's of sport management with the specialization in director of Racquet Sports. So those offer the online educational opportunity for, as Jason said, for people who want to become leaders, want to be a director of Racquet Sports.
Kim Bastable:And we are supported by the USTA, and the curriculum is funded by the USTA. So I think people might wonder how this USTA program differs from ours or how it complements. Could you kind of explain that? We've worked together on your program, so we're fully supportive of each other, but I think it's clarity is kind of important here.
Simon Gale:I'll kick it off, and I'll Jason to talk on that as well. We've both done your course. Well, Jason's in the middle of doing it, and I I did it, and it's extensive and thorough and really opens your eyes to the broad skill set and the amount of hats you have to wear to be a successful director. I think for someone at my stage of of my career, it made me think about what I did and how I got there and still made me think about areas to grow and reflect a lot on what I've done. I think for somebody who's just getting started, it's tremendously helpful.
Simon Gale:And for the aspiring director, I think it would be quite difficult because it's making you think about things that haven't probably entered your mind over time. You think you know it, but when you have to sit down and do it and produce assignments and do tests and so on, it's very challenging. So I think it can be beneficial to a lot of people within the industry at different levels. What I would say though is that that's a springboard for what this program would be because you would take those modules and those learnings and have two years to apply them and physically apply them on court and in classroom settings and make it. Just the sheer amount of time allows you to explore those options deeper and I think leave with an even deeper understanding of how to be successful.
Simon Gale:So I think the two programs complement each other and we've worked together to build this program and talk about how to build yours in version two point o as well. So I think we're all just trying to drive these people to success because I think there's a lot of people who go through their career and they fall into these positions and some of them fail and don't go back to being a leader because they weren't prepared for it. So I think this will give you, hopefully, a hit the ground running type impact. And I think the option or the ability to be around you know, we have a large staff. We have a large leadership team between head pros and associate head pros.
Simon Gale:That's a team of 10. So between Jason and myself and the leadership team, you're able to work directly with them and just the ability to have casual conversations and talk about how I'm doing and have those interactions and reflect on your growth and get guidance from these people. I think that's very impactful. I think if you did nothing and you just spent two years here, the impact of the team here is beneficial to someone. You add the education piece the classroom setting, and I think it's a great recipe for them to leave ready to go.
Simon Gale:So that's probably how I'd answer. I don't know if Jason has anything else you'd add to that.
Jason Allen:Well, it's a great answer, Simon. And I love how you used the word springboard when referencing the University of Florida certificate program. One of the interesting aspects of that program is that it's created based on two courses that exist within the masters of sports administration at the University of Florida. What we've done here in terms of building the curriculum is literally utilize the university like two year experience that is just like taking a master's degree. And when you come to the the Racquet Sports Management apprenticeship, you're gonna be in a university like environment where you're working, you're learning, you're in class, you have different professors, different lectures, you have assignments.
Jason Allen:We are gonna utilize what we call the flipped classroom methodology, which is the the main teaching methodology used at most universities where you're asked to read a certain amount or study a certain amount before you arrive to class so that you can discuss it and apply it in a classroom setting. Most all educators agree that the best way to learn is to learn by doing. And so classroom environment will be just that, project based, application based. And then when they're done with class, they're gonna go out on the court and apply what they've learned. One of the great things we have here at the USTA is the the fellowship program every summer.
Jason Allen:So the apprentices will be able to use what they've learned in the classroom to help other coaches here at the campus that are trying to learn how to be better coaches to work on their coach development skills. So there's just so many things here at the campus they'll be exposed to from a practical implication standpoint. Whereas, you know, when you take a certificate program like University of Florida's, which is phenomenal, and and I will say that Kim does a phenomenal job of making it as interactive and and engaging as it can be, but it's still an online environment. And so this is a chance to have that face to face interaction with not only professors or guest lecturers, but the secret sauce in my humble opinion is that peer to peer interaction that they'll have here at the national campus.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. I think that's what we've always wondered is, you UF has a great opportunity given it's an online format. It's available to all, and we love that. People can do it on their flex time. We know pros have limited flex time.
Kim Bastable:So it's a challenge to get through it, and it is a big lift. Because it is self paced, there's some level of comfort in having something be more structured, which you are providing to them more of a structure with deadlines and things like that. So we are, definitely a springboard because it's just a different format of learning and you are putting the application on it. But we know that with you selecting eight people in your cohort each year, and there will only be as many as 16 in this program at any one time, that will always be a limited number. So as we've discussed, there's many more slots in the University of Florida program, which is open all of the time.
Kim Bastable:And if you want to be in your cohort, I think you would say maybe this would be a good first step for for people that maybe don't get selected. How do you look at that?
Simon Gale:Yes. You know, we went live, you know, a week and a half ago and have have got quite a few strong applicants already. And as we're on an awareness campaign right now trying to get people to even know this exists and what it is, there's a lot of questions. Right? It's going take some time to establish some understanding out there.
Simon Gale:But we've already started telling people if you're not selected, this is going to have an annual selection process. If you didn't get in this year, let's try next year. But in the meantime, we think you need to build your understanding of what it takes to be a director. You need to go and do the UF course between now and then and show us a commitment to wanting to grow as a leader. So I think the two courses will feed each other and at the end of the day, we need a lot of leaders as we've talked about, Kim.
Simon Gale:Over the next five, ten years, we're going to have a lot of aging out of some great directors and we need young leaders who bring fresh ideas and a fresh enthusiasm to these roles and there's a concern that there's a lack of them now. So while we only have eight and eight every year, it's not enough. You you would love to be able to have hundreds. If we have a fallback option or a starting point for them to go through the UF course, I think the two options will complement each other nicely.
Kim Bastable:Alright. So, Jason, what are the next steps? If this is intriguing to someone, how do they learn more?
Jason Allen:Well, we have an amazing landing page that has so much information that could answer any questions potentially. It's simple. You just go to usta.com/rsma, which stands for Racquet Sports Management Apprenticeship. But if you read through all those materials and you're not quite sure that you wanna do this or you wanna talk it out a little bit more, you can also reach out to us at rsma@USTA.com, and then then I'll call you or Simon and will get in touch with you or reach out to you. But we also have webinars that we're hosting as well.
Jason Allen:We had one yesterday, but the next one that's coming up is on July 17 at 3PM. That'll be a chance for you to listen to Simon and me speak about the program a little bit more, but it'll also give you the opportunity to ask questions and and learn learn more about the whole program in general.
Kim Bastable:That's great. Well, I was at a conversation last night where people were talking about lack of leadership in the industry in which they work. And I thought, you know, it would be great. I knew I had this webinar recording, and it would be so great if people could look at the tennis industry and say, there's some good leaders in that industry, in the paddell or pickleball or just our profession in general, if we could be known for excellent leadership. I think there's many poor leaders out there, and we're all, you know, the three of us on this call are striving to change that.
Kim Bastable:So I'm excited about this new program. I think this is definitely a step in the right direction.
Simon Gale:Well, you don't get any arguments from us, Kim. We're pretty passionate about it and it's been a major focus for me for eighteen months or so and I'm just thrilled that we got this out on time and that we're moving in the right direction and being able to talk to it and have a variety of options and places to talk to people about it is our goal. So thank you for interviewing us today. I really appreciate it.
Kim Bastable:I'm excited to see where this goes. Thank you for your time.
Jason Allen:Yeah. Thank you again for the time, Kim. Yeah. So so great to speak about this program, and it's exciting for me to work with Simon. And Simon's a great mentor, and I would say that to anybody who's interested in this program.
Jason Allen:Just think about the amazing mentorship that you're gonna receive by sheer presence here at the National campus for two straight years. Be around people like Simon Gale every day and other industry experts. Just so just reach out to us if you have any other questions.
Kim Bastable:This is gonna be exciting. Look forward to seeing what the next steps are. Thanks for your time today. That's all we have for you today on Racquet Fuel. Be sure to tune in again next time for the next piece of great information to become a stronger Racquet's leader.
Episode Narration:That's all for today, but we're not out of fuel. You can find more information and resources in our show notes and by visiting racketfuelpodcast.com. If you like what you just heard, please subscribe. And also, leave a review, which helps other people join the mission to become stronger Racquet's leaders.
Conclusion:This podcast is a production of Athlete Plus, the people, stories, science behind elite athletes and teams. Athlete Plus is the official podcast network of the Institute for Coaching Excellence, a research, education, and outreach center in the College of Health and Human Performance at the University of Florida. The Institute for Coaching Excellence offers various online certificate programs and degrees in partnership with the Department of Sport Management. Learn more today at coaching.hhp.ufl.edu.