For the last two weeks, the tennis world has been focused on New York and the US Open. With all eyes on the USTA event, Tennis View Magazine sat down with Kathy Woods, the new Director of Tennis at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Florida. She provided insight into her role with the new home for American tennis, which is scheduled to open in early 2017.

Tennis View Magazine:  Can you tell us a little about yourself and your tennis background?

Kathy Woods:  I am a USPTA certified tennis pro. My path to tennis teaching was as a young child learning to play, played high school tennis, and played varsity tennis for the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I began teaching at a very young age, in High School. I have continued the passion of teaching throughout. I worked my way up in teaching and coaching. I was at many different tennis facilities during my tenure in teaching, and I became the first and only woman president of the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA).

TVM: Your new position is Director of Tennis at the new USTA National campus. What are the responsibilities of this position?

KW: The center is being constructed as we speak. Everything will be open to the public because it’s a community center, so my immediate focus is to help assist in getting this amazing USTA facility open and in the next five months to hire staff and plan programming so that we are ready for that opening. And that is mainly programming for the community. Once we are up and running, I will be supervising, training and working on all aspects of those teaching programs with the staff that will even include some young interns who will be on our campus learning how to teach tennis as well. I will be multi-faceted. Our goal is that we are going to have the best of the best programs that have been out in the country and we will ensure that the teaching experience of those programs is at the highest standard of excellence. These include programs for children and for the family.

One of the purposes of this facility is to be in innovative and some of this often comes from outside the center, from all of our teaching pros across the country. And then the USTA often tests it and then decides to send it out to the 17 sections of the USTA. For the first time at this center, these ideas can be tested in an actual laboratory on the court, there is now a playground to test them, experiment and be innovative.

TVM: What are some of your initial goals?

KW: In the beginning, my immediate focus is just helping to open this facility, and hire the teaching professionals required to offer everything. We will have our own junior excellence program for the community, a regular junior program and in the family zone, what we call the “ten and under tennis” which are the scaled-down courts, low compression balls, and the equipment is different. This site will have those courts built to scale.  So, being innovative, ensuring that there is a high standard of excellence and showcasing every kind of programming that’s available for any person at any age who is interested in tennis, that is the goal of the center and that’s my goal.

TVM: How many people will you oversee?

KW: It’s not perfectly clear but I will be overseeing anything that has to do with teaching on the tennis courts, booking of courts, any kind of lessons, clinics and also the reception area in what would be a pro shop but it’s really a large reception area. It’s a 50,000  square foot building. I will be touching all those pieces including the reservation desk staff, there is a business manager who oversees them, there is concierge portion because there will be so many tennis events showcased there as well. So I will have some oversight over the reception area and all of the teaching and programming.

TVM: On-court instruction is something you enjoy. Do you plan to continue that?

KW: I do. I don’t think I will spend as much time on the court as I do now, but I will definitely still be on the court teaching.

TVM: What would you consider your coaching/management style?

KW: I think it is collaborative. I learned so much from the people I have worked with throughout all of my career. I pay attention, I listen and look. But if I were to distil what I think I’m best at now, it’s actually making it simpler for the student or the group.

TVM: Are there additional objectives you have set?

KW: Being able to be innovative in the family zone space. We have done so well in scaling down the courts and getting young children to be able to play right away. And it doesn’t have to take a lot of time. We are able to streamline competition so that it is efficient for parents and children. And to figure out other ways to get families to play tennis together will be a very big part of this center. Also, to get senior players to enjoy the scaled down version of courts when they feel they are no longer as mobile as they would like to be. One of my other goals is making sure that the central Florida pros in the area and their students have an opportunity to utilize the campus. So I will be working with my staff on finding creative ways to bring pros and students from other clubs in to take advantage of the technology on the campus.

TVM: What other sections of the facility do you think tennis fans will be excited about?

KW: There is the nation’s top excellence program called the “player development program” on the campus, there is a whole space dedicated to collegiate tennis. The University of Central Florida is actually using the campus as their home tennis court for men and women. And many of the collegiate championships will take place on the campus. And then there is another space with 20 courts or more for the rest of the USTA sections to come and use when they need or want to with the players in their sections of the country. So there are courts for everyone.

The exciting thing is that everything in tennis will be represented on this campus. It will really be a model teaching and learning center from entry level players to the entry into professional tennis. It is really exciting to think that all of this will be taking place on the same campus. It really is the new home for American tennis.