Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
Calling all coaches, front desk staff, pro shop managers, and aspiring directors. Are you ready to take your career to the next level? Enrollment is open for the new University of Florida director of Racquet Sports course number one, facilities operations and marketing in the era of complimentary Racquet Sports. Our popular UF curriculum is now available to everyone. This fully online self paced course was designed to be easy to start.
Kim Bastable:No application, no prerequisites. Just bring your interest and your ambition. You'll gain practical tools in facilities and operations and marketing across tennis, pickleball, paddell and more. You will earn confidence and competence and continuing education credits. And if you want to complete the respected UF director of Racquet Sports curriculum track, you will move on to course number two after completion of course number one.
Kim Bastable:Course number one is just $1,295 and for $100 off, use code r f 100 upon checkout. That's just for our Racquet Fuel listeners. Step into the future of Racquet's leadership and enroll today.
Episode Narration: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 professional Racquet Management at the University of Florida, and Simon Gale, the USTA senior director of Racquet Sports Development. Today, Simon and Kim talked to Grace Min, who shares how from the WTA tour to the USTA, she found a way.
Kim Bastable:Welcome to Racquet Fuel. I'm Kim Bastable. So excited to be here with Simon Gale and another, friend cohort from the USTA national campus, Grace Min. She has blazed a trail that few have in that she's transitioned from life as a pro tour player after breaking into that coveted top 100 and having a very career. Come to move into the USTA National Campus last year, 2024, and moving into a role as event manager, really having a lot to juggle and a lot of challenges.
Kim Bastable:So Simon, this is an interesting you recruited Grace. You you've seen her in action.
Simon Gale:Yeah. When I say recruit, she presented to a group of our future leaders, a bunch of young pros who who are aspiring future directors and she spoke to them for about an hour, hour and a half with some q and a and just did a great job offering insight into her role and how she's transitioned. And I thought this was someone we have to have on the podcast and this needs to be shared. So excited to have you here, Grace. Thanks for joining us.
Grace Min:Thank you, Simon. Thank you, Kim. Excited to be here.
Kim Bastable:Well, we wanna start at the beginning, so to speak, not not way back to your childhood, of course, but just a glimpse to the role you have at the USTA and then that transition piece off the tour, I think we're all kind of intrigued about what the decisions are and how you ended up landing at the USTA, but we would love that story.
Grace Min:Sure. Right now, I'm the manager of national campus competition at the USTA. So, essentially, I oversee and manage all of the tournaments that we host at the campus, often serving as tournament director or tournament manager. And I pretty much jumped straight into this role after I retired last April 2024. So there wasn't much of a lag time between retirement and and this this opportunity.
Kim Bastable:So how was that decision made? Tell us a little bit about your maybe how the career went to the point where you said, this is enough.
Grace Min:Yeah. I don't think I'm too different in other players in saying that I was dealing with an injury, was out for a couple months, gave myself about a year after, and wasn't really where I wanted to be and and started to consider other options. This this opportunity came up, and it kinda hit all the check boxes that I was looking for. It was local. I didn't have to move.
Grace Min:There was not much travel involved, and it was in an environment that I was already familiar with, but in a part of the USTA that I hadn't overlapped with a lot. So it just it's it sounded like the perfect fit, and I would have been foolish, I think, to pass it up.
Kim Bastable:Well, I know you mentioned you manage the tournaments. Can you give us a number of tournaments that occur at the campus on an annual basis?
Grace Min:I will say we have over 350 event days, so that means that we're hosting multiple events over the same week or weekend. I would say that the tournaments that I specifically run are between twenty and thirty on the campus. In that, we have a couple week long events, such as the pro circuit events, boys twelves, clays, the j sixty ITF that's coming up, and a couple of adult tournaments that's new to our calendar this year.
Simon Gale:Grace, what made you decide that events or or or the administrative side and and management side because you have a team of people that that report to you and that you have to delegate a lot to? What made you decide that that was the next step for you?
Grace Min:Yeah. I think the the kind of obvious transition from a a player is to go into coaching, and that's definitely something that I considered. But, obviously, having played for the past twenty years, I wanted a new sort of challenge. And I actually as I was considering this new transition in my life, I I had a lunch back in 2023 as I was rehabbing this injury with Megan Rose, and she proposed events and operations. And she said, it's it's within tennis.
Grace Min:It's it's the same sport that you know and love, but I think you'd be surprised at how different the challenge is. And that really stuck with me, and that came up as I was going through this interview process. And and, yeah, I I have no regrets there. It it definitely has been a new challenge. And it's not to say that I wouldn't consider coaching in the future, but I think just immediately coming off the tour, this is the sort of challenge that I wanted to lean into.
Simon Gale:So a quick follow-up on that. What's the number one maybe surprise or thing you've learned that maybe you didn't expect in in this twelve months or so that you've been in the role?
Grace Min:You know, I I think there's a level of similarity that I was actually very fascinated with, and it's the cadence of event operations. It's so similar to training and and playing as a player. You practice your training for an event, get to the tournament, and then you're dealing with all kinds of conditions that you might not have foreseen, whether it's weather, travel issues, opponent, and it's similar. It's I mean, it's just the same as running an event. You can plan.
Grace Min:You can have a detailed plan in place, and then you get to the tournament or event and something comes up. And you're you're leaning on the same skills of adaptability, flexibility. And I and then, obviously, as the tournament wraps up, you're reviewing, you're you're reviewing the process, seeing what you can improve for next time, and it it's such a similar cadence and feeling that I had as a player. And it it reminded me so much of that that I I felt like I settled right in.
Kim Bastable:Wow. I love that insight. The reason I love it so much is because I feel like so many athletes are quite perfectionistic, and they do train and then they have this expectation that things are going to go perfectly because they trained. I'm curious, did you have such a good attitude when you were on the court in terms of adaptability and flexibility?
Grace Min:I didn't initially know. I definitely lean into those perfectionistic qualities, but the thing about tennis is that it forces it out of you. It's not a sport where you play one to two times a year. You're playing every week. So if you are married to that, it it will quickly humble you.
Grace Min:And similar to the events that we run here, we are running every other week, every week. And so, again, if you're married to this idea of perfection, it will quickly humble you. So, yeah, those two thoughts I found alike.
Kim Bastable:Super insightful, Grace. That could be the takeaway from this podcast, and we aren't even five minutes in, but we're gonna keep going. Alright. So alright. Every director has events.
Kim Bastable:This is something we know any any club is doing whether big or small. Can you just give us an example of an event and then something similar maybe to a director? And then how do you prioritize? How do you plan? How do you execute?
Kim Bastable:What's your system?
Grace Min:I think it looks a little different for each event that we're hosting, but recently in May, we hosted back to back pro circuit events at the campus for the first time since 2023. So that was a unique and exciting opportunity for our team because it was previously held by the pro tennis major events team. And so it was a great opportunity for our team to kind of showcase what we do well. And it was also kind of full circle for me because I I played these exact events in 2022. I think, like, with any project, you have to start with the why.
Grace Min:Why are we running this? What mission does it serve? And, ultimately, why is it important? And the why here was that it was a great opportunity to showcase American talent at the national campus for the first time and provide our players an opportunity to not spend the money of going overseas to to the ability to gain points here in their backyard, and and we have this beautiful facility to support them. So it was just it served, I think, a lot of different missions, which is what why it was exciting, not just for our team, but, American Tennis as a whole.
Grace Min:And then from there, just breaking down into, I view events or the the planning of them in in essentially two different categories, like what is fundamental to operating and putting on this event and what is aspirational, what will make this event elevated and a show. So, obviously, we start with the critical what so we're thinking officiating, core allocation, just staffing, things that you absolutely need to put this tournament on. And then once those things are planned and thought of, we look into what will make this event special, what can we do, what sort of activations can we do around it, what can we elevate in terms of player services, And then leading into those things. But no tournament is only as good as its scheduling and officiating. And if those things are aren't spoken for, then anything that we do in terms of player services or activations are are not going to be successful.
Simon Gale:So you've talked about the word process or process as you say in America quite a few times here. I've been here twenty five years. I still haven't got that word down yet. But you've you've mentioned that a lot. You talked about adaptability earlier, delegation.
Simon Gale:So not to rehash the process of putting on an event, but as you've done more of these and the process is probably a little different for each of them depending on the size and scope of it, what have you learned about delegation and adaptability and and and becoming more successful in this role?
Grace Min:Yeah. I think, as you mentioned, Simon, sometimes with the fast paced nature of events, you're you're forced into delegation. There's just no way for one individual to complete everything nor should they. And if you have a great team around you, it's critical that you highlight their talents and their strengths and and lean on them to just support the event. And I think in terms of processes, it's for me, I've especially towards the later part of my playing career, I really value the importance of a process because I think as a young and hungry individual or player, you're kind of leaning into your passion and determination and, you know, all those buzzwords that we associate with with sport.
Grace Min:But it's not in in my mind, it's not those things that get you through the the dips in or the days that you don't feel like showing up. It's these processes that can kinda take over for you when when you don't feel quite up to it and so that it can eliminate the decision fatigue when when it's critical moment and can kinda carry you through those those inevitable dips in in human performance. And I think when I saw that as a player and especially now in this role, the importance of having an established process to essentially have whoever's coming in be interchangeable. They know that this process is in place to take care of them, not the other way around.
Simon Gale:So one of the things that I think is challenging with your job, but anyone who works at the campus, and you didn't ease into getting this job, you this is your first job in event management and you started at the campus, is the the level of expectation. When someone walks through the doors at the campus, there's a level of expectation that everything's excellent and everything's gonna be perfect. And you said earlier, it's never always gonna be perfect and we learn from that and get better. What does effective leadership look like to you in this space and the management of a high performance team and with high performance, I'm not talking about players, talking about the expectations are high, you are expected to perform at a very high level and your team is. So what are you finding is effective and what would you view as effective or successful leadership in this space?
Grace Min:Right. I mean, as we've all heard, that expectation, that pressure is a privilege. Like, we get to work at the USTA national campus and national governing bodies. So it's it comes with that. And I think everyone on the team is aware of that.
Grace Min:And I think any person or player stepping on to the campus automatically has higher expectations because we are the campus, the national campus, and because we are the USTA. So that's something that we're all aware of, and that's something that I was aware of as a player. I was luckily able to train here as well. So I think it's something that I was already familiar with. But in terms of effective leadership and and especially this kind of environment, I think it just boils down to effective communication.
Grace Min:Not everyone on our team works the same schedule. We work different events and overlapping events. So I think the importance of weekly team meetings to recap events, to dissect what we did well, what we could improve. I think this is really the space where we get an understanding of each other's ways of thinking, and this is where, essentially, we can boil down what to do better for our next events. And I I think that FaceTime with each other.
Grace Min:If if it can't be FaceTime, it can be through a doc that we share just our post event thoughts. But coming together and thinking together as a team is the most important thing we can do to ensure the success of our events.
Kim Bastable:I love the effective communication piece. That's an important element of all teams. And I'm curious to know a little more. I wanna drill down a little bit on that. How do you grade yourself?
Kim Bastable:A lot of people, I believe, will grade themselves by the just the smiles. A director might have an event and and just get a feel that the people had a good time. They won't really get into the weeds of what could have been done differently and better, maybe not official after action review type of thing. What is your process on that?
Grace Min:Well, we always send out a post event survey. So we're and people are not shy on those. So we're definitely we definitely receive the feedback. And, obviously, player players and parents come through the tournament desk and reach out to me personally about their their feedback, and I always find that valuable. I always find a comment or an opinion that differs from mine as an opportunity to to learn and grow even if I don't necessarily agree.
Grace Min:I would I would say one aspect of that even in this past tournament, it's it was the Bobby Curtis sectional that we just hosted two weeks ago. And it's a five day event, and there's one day where players will have to play two matches. And because of weather and and potential for rain. We we identify that day as a Monday and not one of the earlier rounds. And I think the common piece of, I'm gonna call myself out here, but the the feedback that I got from a lot of the the parents were was why was this scheduled on a Monday?
Grace Min:It extends our stay here. We're we're footing the bill for hotel, and we have to miss workout on a on a Monday when we could have played twice on a Saturday or Sunday. And I I think that was so valuable to hear because now not only are we thinking about what's best in terms of performance for the player and the best tournament experience, but now we're also considering the cost that it's it's it's that the parents are taking on just to be at our event. And that's that's you know, that might not necessarily come through on a survey, but when we're getting that FaceTime with the parents and and they're sharing that, that's absolutely something we have to consider the next time that we're hosting this event.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. So you really are getting those detailed, feedbacks, which is I think everybody should do the surveys, the the real tangible, and then information, and then you have to put that in action, and it's maybe a year later. Do you keep it in a Google Doc? What's the administration side of how you keep track of that for the next time?
Grace Min:Yeah. We have an after action report, and then, one of our team members speaks out on the the surveys each month. He tallies the the averages and and where that, those comments or feedback are relevant. He, sends that out to the the correct department so that if it's just, you know, a courts and grounds comment or if it's a facilities or a cleaning, that that area is being identified and and and the the leaders of that department are being communicated with. But, yeah, we review the action after action report and especially in the team meetings and especially in the team recap, we're looking at these these things.
Kim Bastable:Excellent. Excellent. So, okay, let's talk a little bit about that. Sounds like you're a good learner. You're learning from your feedback, and and you're you're not going to stop.
Kim Bastable:You're not set in your ways, Grace. That's my compliment to you. I see a lot of adaptability and growth, and I'm excited for the future of you and the campus due to that. But did that come from a relationship you've had with any other leaders? Have you had some mentoring?
Kim Bastable:Many people that we interview on this do talk about just what they've learned from people who've gone before them. Can you share a story?
Grace Min:Yeah. I I think in terms of adaptability, I would say that the largest influence on on that skill was my former coach, John Dezduns, Simon. I think you had a great conversation with him the other day, and he's the one that I still connect with on a weekly basis. And he I think in the way that I am wired, I I always want to stick with a plan. But, and similarly to when I got on the court, like, when if I identified, like, this was the game plan for this opponent, but, quickly realized that that's not what they are presenting or the conditions were different, I I had trouble letting go of that plan.
Grace Min:And I think when I had a lot of match play or or confidence under my belt, I could shift quickly. And I think that's no different in in this setting. Like, when we have when we're confident and we've executed events well and we've leaned on that adaptability skill recently, it's easier to kind of lean on that skill again in the next event. But if if for some reason, you know, we execute an event exactly the way that it's planned and that, you know, that's kind of confirmation bias of, like, oh, this plan actually works. But no two events are the same even if they're the same event, the the returning year.
Grace Min:So I think, yeah, there's a lot of valuable skills within the actual within my actual playing days at transfer over. And and John, I think, was a huge part of of me being able to let go of that perfectionism and and being present. I think that's the most important thing, being present to what's presenting at that moment, that minute, the hour, and and adjusting accordingly.
Kim Bastable:I feel every athlete needs to get past their perfectionism. That's excellent. Good. Simon?
Simon Gale:So you're you've talked a lot about skills from your your time as a touring pro and how they've transitioned. So I don't wanna rehash that so much. But from from your transition so far and you're more than a year into this now, one one of your biggest challenges and one of your maybe call call it an unexpected joys, Less about your challenge Less about your skills transitioning. We've heard a lot about that and it's very insightful. One challenge, one unexpected joy.
Grace Min:I think the challenge, but I would say it was expected is that, obviously, as as a player, I'm not I'm the one maybe raising complaints or suggestions to the supervisor or referee or or etcetera. But, on on this side of the role, I'm the one receiving those comments. And I think that extension of patience and and validating that opinion is something new. I've done it obviously with within my player cohort, but receiving it not just and what I have been challenged to do is not receiving it as myself as an individual, but as a representative of the National Campus of the USTA and thinking in in broad strokes of how do I communicate something that serves us as an organization, not myself as an individual. I would say that what has been the biggest challenge.
Grace Min:And the one of the I mean, the unexpected joy is just the camaraderie amongst the team. It's such a great, fun, dynamic team. And to be able to work with them every day and and run all these events is is so fun, and it's not something that I obviously experienced as a player. I was you know, tennis is an individual sport. We're on a team.
Grace Min:We have coaches and physios and doctors, but you're not around people and working towards the same thing as a group. And that's honestly been probably my favorite part.
Simon Gale:So one quick follow-up, Kim, is I've heard you talk about receiving feedback multiple times
Kim Bastable:Mhmm.
Simon Gale:Which I would associate with listening.
Grace Min:Mhmm.
Simon Gale:How would you rate your listening skills and and how have they been challenged? Because it feels like that's something there's a bit of a theme here about you're receiving a lot of feedback, whether it's parents, players, or even within your team. So how are your listening skills, Grace?
Grace Min:I I hope they're good. I think it the thing with with playing is that you're always receiving feedback on your performance. So whether you lose a point, that's immediate feedback. A ball is called out, that's feedback. And you lose a match or win a match, that's feedback.
Grace Min:And you're always getting kinda judged on your performance, but the feedback that I'm now receiving isn't so much that. And so I think to there has to be a level of, I would say, room, especially in tournament mode where I have to reserve some of those those listening skills or or patience to hear to hear this out because that's it's just as fundamental, I think, in to operate a tournament is to to listen to how it affects the the people playing in it and and the decisions that I make, what the the cause and effect what the effect of that is. And so I I think it's important to remind myself that if even if I think it's right, that this person or the person giving the feedback is is due is rightfully can be right as well. And and to to leave room for that and and not just get so focused on on executing what we're meant to that day. I think that customer aspect role of this job is is just as important as the operational.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. That takes me to the question I was gonna ask because I think that's an interesting transition. Junior tennis players have played countless tournaments. You've been in so many city situations, clubs. You know?
Kim Bastable:The the everything is you just feel like it's Groundhog Day a little bit. And at some level, I remember when I was a player, I had a feeling that I knew how to run a tournament because I had been at 10,000 of them or whatever. Right. It was harder than I thought once I did it. But you do have a little bit of a skill.
Kim Bastable:But I'm just curious. I talked to somebody yesterday who feels like they have a really good handle on how they could run a club because they've been in this environment a long time. You might have thought that about tournaments. I've run it. I've played several.
Kim Bastable:I know. Just give us a little glimpse on was that transition was some of that information you had helpful, or was it harder than you thought? Maybe your experience was different than mine.
Grace Min:Yeah. I think I think ultimately it was helpful, but it obviously, you know, you can only anticipate so much for something that you've never done. And I think, especially, the thing that we don't wanna convey to our our players and and parents and coaches is that the amount of effort that it takes, it should look effortless. We don't wanna say, well, look at all the things that we're doing to run this event for you. They should be entitled to that opinion, and they should feel comfortable enough to convey it to us.
Grace Min:And I think that's that's right. Like, when you're when you're seeing a duck in a pond and they're, you know, they're they're flapping tirelessly underwater, but they look so graceful from above. I think that's essentially what we wanna do as a team. Like, we want it to make we want it to look effortless. We don't want it we don't want that strain of of the tournament to to trickle down onto the players and and to the parents and and to be able to create that that space for them to to share their feedback is is critical.
Kim Bastable:But that's what you're doing is you're essentially you're realizing I think as a player, you saw it one way, and then you realize there's a lot of flapping that's going on.
Grace Min:Yeah. No. Of course. And, you know, I think as a player, you kinda it's it's humbling. You want everyone, especially other players to be like, hey.
Grace Min:Look. This is difficult. It's not as easy. There's a lot of things to consider here, but that's the privilege. Right?
Grace Min:We get to kind of make those decisions, and they shouldn't.
Kim Bastable:They shouldn't see that. I love that theory. Yeah. That's definitely that's the way to look at it. It's definitely hard work, but you make it look just like your playing days.
Kim Bastable:I'm sure you looked graceful. So that's it's a good that's a good analogy. Thanks for sharing that.
Simon Gale:So, Grace, one of the the things we really wanna make sure, because you've said a lot in this thirty minutes and it's been really insightful. I think we've we've we've been able to gain a lot of insight to how you you think and what your mindset is. But we wanna be able to summarize that a little bit. So what's something solid piece of advice or an action item that you would you would wanna leave leave this leave this on today? How would you summarize some of this?
Grace Min:I always think back to and I keep referring back to John Destin's, but he he's been such an influential figure in my life and something that he would tell me before each match was when the last point, and it was such a great way to kind of break the ice and, you know, calm down the nerves and just keep things simple. And so I think back to it when we're running an event, and I I just think, okay. What's what are we trying to accomplish, and what's the most effective way to do that? How do we win the last point? And that's all it is.
Grace Min:Like, I think you can get kind of wrapped up in in the detail a lot and and to to always have your pulse on the bigger picture. And it again, as to why you're doing this is is is the best way, I think, to proceed in in moments of stress.
Kim Bastable:I love that suggestion. I have put on multiple weddings because I have a large family, and it is a stressful experience. And I think of people who choose to be wedding planners, and I think, wow. Why would you do that? But it takes an hour.
Kim Bastable:It takes a person with your personality and your attitude, and I can feel that calm sense of purpose and process. And I think that's a gift message to those listening that that that is kinda what you need to find in you even if it's not a part of you if you are a director putting on an event. Simon, do you have some final thoughts?
Simon Gale:Yeah. A couple of things have stood out. There was words like communication, adaptability, listening, delegation. I love the duck analogy. I've heard that before, but I haven't heard it for a while.
Simon Gale:But one of the things that stood out was was how you looked at feedback. And for somebody getting started in this in in a leadership role, for you to be able to talk about how the customer has a reason for that feedback and and and open mindedness to listen to that versus, I think when I was younger as a leader, the defensive walls would go up and it was a little personal that you were attacking my product. And you you grow out of that over time, but the fact you're there, it's pretty refreshing and a mindset that I think is gonna make you really successful, whatever's next. But I I I think if you're demonstrating that and role modeling, and we talk about that a lot is, you know, mentoring and role modeling. If you're role modeling that to your team and you have a young team, I know a lot of your team, they're getting a lot of skill development and and taking things for their toolbox, so to speak, because of the way you're presenting things.
Simon Gale:So I love hearing this. I think it's it's it's great and I think there's a reason you got top 100 is because of this mindset and how you look at things and how you took feedback and and and moved on with your process and so on. I don't think that's normal for a lot of people. So for you to talk like this is probably one of the reasons you were successful. There's a lot of tennis players, me being one, who couldn't get past the perfectionism and it hampered your ability to to win the last point as mister Destoons would tell you.
Simon Gale:So I appreciate your insight. It's been fun to listen to. Thank you.
Grace Min:Thank you for those kind words. I mean, I did not make that correlation, but I will definitely put that in my back pocket.
Kim Bastable:I would agree. I think it is. It's unique when we speak to someone that has that calm sense, and it clearly does translate into I think you learn it through competition. That's why I love the sport of tennis and other sports because they give an opportunity to learn it, but not everybody learns the lesson. Some people struggle.
Kim Bastable:I would put myself on the camp with Simon. I didn't fully learn the lesson. Didn't mean I didn't win a bunch of tennis matches, but still didn't fully learn the lesson. So excellent. Really appreciate your time, Grace.
Kim Bastable:Thanks for your insights. I think every event manager, every director that has to run an event will be better for this. So we appreciate your time.
Grace Min:Of course. Thanks, Kim. And thank you, Simon.
Simon Gale:Pleasure. Thank you.
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.
Conlcusion: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.