ParentingAces - The Junior Tennis and College Tennis Podcast

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 15 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Coach Rod Ray is back to talk about his role as "coach" to Wofford tennis players and what he looks for in recruits. Rod has been coaching for 26 years, and he's seen so many changes to tennis development and the college recruiting process. Underneath it all, however, wanting "good people" on his team...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 14 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, we learn about a new app to help tennis families find a court any time, whether at home or while traveling to a tournament. CourtsApp, the first AI-powered marketing andbooking platform built to modernize court marketing and reservations, helps players instantly find and book open courts for tennis, TYPTI, pickleball, padel,...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 13 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Tennis Parent Greg Gilbert shares his family's tennis journey from the early days through the college recruiting process. The Junior Tennis Journey is a long and winding road. Greg candidly shares the things his family did well as well as the mistakes they made along the way. Daughter Ariana will be playing college tennis...

Welcome to this Bonus Episode of the ParentingAces Podcast! Y'all should be very familiar with Coach Todd Widom by now and know he is not afraid to speak his mind. In this episode, we discuss Todd's latest social media posts about the Easter Bowl going to a 10-point tiebreaker in lieu of a full 3rd set given the extreme heat during the early days of this year's tournament. Todd and I w...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 12 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, sport psychology coach, Josh Burger, joins the pod to dig deeper into the mental side of tennis for both players and parents. Josh is a former Division I tennis coach at Sacred Heart University and also coached at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is a sport psychology professional who works with tennis players of dif...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 11 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by Chairman and CEO of TYPTI Inc., founder of the Tennis Channel, former President of Kodak, and fellow Tennis Parent, Steve Bellamy. **This episode does contain some 4-letter swear words so please use caution before showing to young children** TYPTI is a new racquet sport played on a standard pickleball court...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 10 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by the team behind Winning Parents, a UK-based organization educating tennis parents across The Pond. Dr. Liya Jacob is a Lifestyle Medicine Physician, Clinical Nutritionist, Health & Life Coach, and a Tennis Parent. After noticing a lack of support for her peers in the Junior Tennis world, she teamed up wi...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 9 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by Tennis Parent and Entrepreneur, Jeremy Saline, to discuss the impetus behind On The RISE Tennis . Jeremy is the father of 4 children, the oldest of whom has fallen in love with tennis. As his daughter started improving and expressing the desire to play at higher and higher levels, Jeremy - like many of us - w...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 8 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by the parents of 2025 Little Mo International Champion Olivia Arage - Lynn and Michael Arange. It's always interesting to hear about a young player's developmental journey through tennis. While Olivia is early in the process, Michael and Lynn have done a great job so far of keeping her love of the game...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 7 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by former LSU Women's Tennis Coach, Tony Minnis. Tony grew up in a tennis family. His father coached college tennis and both his brother and sister played college tennis, all in his home state of Louisiana. After his own stellar college tennis career, Tony realized coaching was in his blood, and he went on t...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 6 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's guest, Reese Brantmeier, is one I've wanted to have on the pod for a few years, ever since watching her play at National Hardcourts in San Diego for the first time. I'm thrilled to get her on to discuss her unique junior development pathway to being a top junior player and the current NCAA Women's Singles Cham...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 5 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Peter Clarke of CoachLife shares the latest developments in this unique online coaching platform. In Season 13, we featured several coaches who offer virtual instruction via the CoachLife platform . Now, we have the founder himself discussing the incredible international coaching talent his team has recruited to work with play...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 4 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, we'll be looking at a new piece of equipment that allows players to practice at home or anywhere, really, when court time is not an option. John Davey is a self-taught tennis player and former standout #1 singles player on his NCAA Division 1 team at the University of Vermont. Aspiring to play professionally after college...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 3 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, junior tennis players and their parents will learn what it takes academically to be eligible to play college tennis. Shaquana Miller is a former college athlete and coach, currently working as the Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Support at Division II Anderson University in South Carolina. Afte...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 2 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, we take another look at an incredible tennis travel experience for junior players - Tennis:Europe . Martin Vinokur is a former high school teacher and tennis coach who is in Year 52 of taking junior tennis players to Europe to train and compete. Mike LeVan is a former college player and has been a coach for Tennis:Europe 7 tim...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 1 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, you get me, Lisa Stone, for a brief chat about what you can expect from this podcast over the next year. ParentingAces is here for YOU, and I want to make sure I'm providing all the information you need to have a successful Tennis Journey with your child(ren). Please reach out with any suggestions as to topics and/or guest...

Welcome to the final episode of Season 14 of the ParentingAces Podcast! We close the season with a thought-provoking discussion with coach Duey Evans centered around the secrets to better coaching. As in the majority of our conversations here, this one once again turns to the importance of communication. In Duey's more than 3 decades of tennis coaching, he has given much thought to how our spo...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 44 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, sports psychologist and former top junior and pro player, Jeff Greenwald, joins Lisa to discuss the importance of mental training FOR TENNIS PARENTS! On this podcast, we've covered mental training for junior players many, many times. This episode is the first to address mental training for parents, digging into the why an...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 43 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Ben Shapiro of Atlas Tennis is back to talk about the phenomenal trips they took in Summer 2025 and what's on deck for Spring Break and Summer 2026. Tennis, travel, and human connection—these are the foundation of Atlas Tennis. Well before they started Atlas, the founders knew there was so much potential in bringing these...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 42 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, we're doing things a little differently - we asked you what you want to know about player health and injury prevention from the Director of the Emory Tennis Medicine Program, Dr. Neeru Jayanthi, then gave him the opportunity to answer your questions. Dr. Jayanthi is also the co-director of the Emory Youth Sports Medicine...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 41 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by former top Ukranian junior, NCAA All-American, and current WTA professional and coach, Veronika Miroshnichenko. At the age of 14, Veronika and her developmental coach made the tough decision for her to move to the US to increase the level of her training. She left her parents and younger sister and made a co...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 40 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, former top junior and pro players, Sky Kim, shares his journey through injury and recovery which led him to coaching and entrepreneurship through his company, Road to Pro . As a child, Sky moved with his father from South Korea to South Florida to train at IMG with Nick Bollettieri. He was training alongside Mari...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 39 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa chats with former top junior and long-time coach and coach-educator, Kyle LaCroix. We've kind of followed a theme in our most recent episodes, one in which we've examined the state of junior tennis coaching and how to make it a better experience for the coaches, players, and parents. The hope is that, throug...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 38 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa is joined by Sam Parfitt, former top junior and collegiate player and the founder/CEO of The True Athlete Project (TAP) . TAP has pioneered a holistic mindfulness-based approach that unleashes sport's potential to change lives across diverse contexts. They believe sport can play a powerful role in building a...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 37 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, we hear from Quinn Borchard, a former top junior, college, and professional player who is now coaching his own two sons through the juniors. Parenting a child who aspires to be the best at their pursuit - whether that's in academics, the arts, or in sports - is challenging, to say the least. Parenting tha...