Leadership, Mentorship & “One Experience” at the 2026 Racquets Summit
- Sarah McQuade
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
This week, we had the privilege of joining Cliff Drysdale Tennis and Peter Burwash International at the 2026 Racquets Summit, hosted at the beautiful Chateau Elan Winery & Resort.
This was not simply the Racquets Summit — it also marked the launch of Racquet Works, an exciting new platform and initiative focused on leadership, hospitality, learning, and mentorship across the racquets industry.
Linda Low and I are genuinely delighted to be partnering with Racquet Works and contributing to what feels like a growing ecosystem centered around people, learning, development, and connection within the racquets world.
Set against the backdrop of one of the most stunning venues in the industry, the Summit brought together leaders, coaches, directors, partners, and innovators from across the racquets world for a few days of conversation, collaboration, reflection, and growth.
Mentorship as a Thread Through the Organization
We were thrilled to be invited to contribute to the Summit under the banner of mentorship, delivering a keynote and subsequent workshops that explored the role mentoring can play at every level of an organization.
Across our sessions, we explored questions including:
What if the biggest driver of development isn’t what we teach… but the relationships we build and the environments we create?
Participants were invited to rethink how people learn and grow, recognize the power of connection and belonging, and explore how mentoring can intentionally support onboarding, staff development, leadership growth, coach support, retention, wellbeing, collaboration, and culture.
Through interactive activities, reflective discussion, and practical workplace application, conversations moved beyond mentoring as simply a formal programme and instead explored mentoring as an everyday leadership practice — one capable of shaping the experience people have within an organization.
Learning Through Experience, Conversation & Reflection
One of the highlights of the workshops was a deceptively simple activity inspired by beer pong — high on energy, laughter, and engagement, but also a powerful catalyst for conversation and reflection about how we help others learn.
As participants experienced two very different approaches to facilitating the activity, discussion quickly shifted toward the impact of relationships, environment, autonomy, support, and emotional experience on learning and performance.
The activity became a practical reminder that development is rarely shaped by information alone. How people feel, who they learn with, and the environment created around them all matter deeply.
Those conversations reinforced one of the central themes of the Summit: mentoring is not simply about giving advice. It is about intentionally creating experiences, relationships, and environments where people can grow.
More Than a Tagline: “One Experience”
But what stood out most throughout the week was not simply the quality of the programming — it was the culture.
Cliff Drysdale Tennis and PBI speak often about “One Experience.” At the Summit, it quickly became clear that this is far more than a tagline. It is a philosophy genuinely lived and celebrated across the organization by staff, leaders, coaches, and partners alike.
From the moment attendees arrived, the atmosphere was warm, welcoming, collaborative, and deeply people-centered. Conversations flowed naturally. Relationships mattered. People showed genuine curiosity about one another and a shared commitment to learning and growth.
The staff at Château Élan were beyond welcoming, helping to create an environment that felt both professional and personal — a reflection of the wider culture the Summit itself embodied.
Great Conversations Create Great Growth
One of the great joys of the Summit was the quality of the conversations that emerged both inside and outside the sessions. As one attendee reflected afterwards, “Great conversations create great growth.” That sentiment captured the spirit of the week perfectly.
There was a real openness to sharing ideas, challenging thinking, and learning from one another — all grounded in a shared belief that investing in people matters.
Mentorship, leadership, hospitality, and learning did not feel like separate conversations. They felt interconnected — woven together through relationships, shared experiences, and intentional culture.
Looking Ahead
A huge thank you to the teams at Cliff Drysdale Tennis, PBI, Troon, and Racquet Works for their trust, partnership, and hospitality. Oh
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