ParentingAces - The Junior Tennis and College Tennis Podcast

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 41, of the ParentingAces Podcast! To view the video version of this week's episode, go to https://youtu.be/KGaX6MbLYrE . Brittany Collens and Anna Woosley were members of the University of Massachusetts Women's Tennis Team from 2014-2017. Two weeks ago they received some very upsetting news. The NCAA is stripping UMass of victories in men’s basketball and women’s tenni...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 40, of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week Lisa speaks once again with coach Todd Widom. To view the video version of this episode, go to https://youtu.be/XvNYHoB9Nrk . Todd recently posted an old clipping on Facebook showing the Boys 16s rankings in Florida in the late 1990s. It sparked a conversation about the importance - or non-importance - of rankings and ratings...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 38, of the ParentingAces Podcast. This week Lisa speaks with Coach Heath Waters and his son, Heath Paul, about their travels to Europe to train with coaches who developed Grand Slam Champions. To watch the video version: https://youtu.be/Kc_wObEWgG8 With junior tournaments on hold here in the US, Coach Heath Waters decided to take his 14 year old son, Heath Paul, to Eu...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 37, of the ParentingAces Podcast. This week, Lisa speaks with former UCLA Men's Tennis standout, Karue Sell, about his recent gig as US Open Women's Singles Champion, Naomi Osaka's, hitting partner, and his move into the world of Tennis Technology. The impetus behind this week's pod was a tweet Karue posted recently: He went on to tweet about the personal growth afford...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 36, of the ParentingAces Podcast! To watch the video version of this episode, go to the ParentingAces YouTube Channel . As you know by now, Dominic Thiem broke the long-standing string of Majors won by The Big 3 (Djokovic, Nadal, Federer) to win the 2020 US Open Men's Singles Title. Dominic's father, Wolfgang, joins Lisa Stone of ParentingAces to talk about his son's j...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 35, of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's episode with Coach Zibu Ncube was recorded right before the end of the 2020 US Open. One of Zibu's players, Katrina Scott, had an incredible opportunity as a wildcard recipient into the US Open Main Draw for the first time . . . at age 16! Be sure to check out https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/sports/katrina-scott-usopen.h...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 34, of the ParentingAces Podcast! Lisa's guest this week is Coach Jay Gooding of the Gooding Todero Academy in Orlando, Florida. To watch the video version of this week's episode, click here . Jay is currently in New York coaching players as part of the Tennis Australia Coaching Team during the US Open. In this week's episode, he discusses the unique nature of this yea...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 33, of the ParentingAces Podcast! To watch the video version of this week's episode, click here . Learn from Kayla Epperson, Physical Therapist and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, about a very specific and common tennis injury called "Backhand Wrist" and how it can be avoided. This is a similar injury to the one Cici Bellis sustained and is finally reco...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 32, of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa speaks with Tim Cass, General Manager of the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona (Orlando), Florida. They discuss USTA's role in college tennis and what they are currently doing to preserve the College Tennis Pathway for US Junior Tennis Players. Tim talks about how USTA has developed 5 "buckets" around colle...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 31, of the ParentingAces Podcast! Lisa Stone of ParentingAces speaks with Coach Todd Widom about what's happening in the world of Junior Tennis Development and Competition in Florida during the pandemic. Todd and I also dive into Junior Golf as well. Todd's oldest son, age 6, has been competing in Junior Golf events for about a year now, and Todd shares his insights on...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 30, of the ParentingAces Podcast! Lisa Stone, creator of ParentingAces, and Gabriella Hesse, part of the inaugural group of Tennis For America representatives, join in a discussion around the role of the college tennis and its players, especially as it relates to giving back to the community. As Gabby says, "We NEED to integrate our college tennis programs into their c...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 29, of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's podcast is a little Tennis History Lesson focusing around an amazing woman who blazed new trails not only on the court but also in the areas of music, writing, politics, and civic action. She was a Renaissance Woman in every sense of the term! Who was Alice Marble? In her public life, she was the biggest tennis star of the...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 28, of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's show, Lisa Stone chats with Coach Bill Patton about his new course for junior tennis players and their parents. It's vital for beginners to learn Visual Training so Tennis can retain more players. If you're interested in learning more about Visual Training, you can contact Bill Patton directly at 720degreecoaching@gmail....

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 27, of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's episode is all about high school tennis and technology. Our guest, Keanen McCarthy, has been working for several years to develop an app to help high school tennis coaches and players get organized and improve communication. The Mobile Match App is the perfect solution! Keanen shares his motivation behind the app and what h...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 26, of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, we're talking about the mental side of tennis. But NOT for the juniors! For the Tennis Parents! Lisa Stone and Rob Polishook chat about the mental side of returning to junior competition, both from the player's and the parent's side of things. Rob is a mental training coach who works with tournament players, has...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 25, of the ParentingAces Podcast! Even though we're still in a recruiting "dead period" through the end of August 2020, that doesn't mean Prospective Student Athletes (PSAs) should put their recruiting efforts on hold. In fact, quite the opposite it true: this is a great time for PSAs to ramp up their efforts to reach out to college tennis coaches and market themselves...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 24 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's episode features a new racquet sport that can be used as a training tool for - and a gateway to - junior tennis. It's called Spec Tennis and is the brainchild of Nate Gross. Using a perforated paddle and a orange dot or foam ball, Spec Tennis is played on a smaller court. Because the strokes used in Spec Tennis look the same...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 23 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's episode is the audio version of a Facebook Live chat (you can watch the video version here ) I had with Coach Sandy Franz discussing his work in recruiting international players to US college tennis programs as well as his newly-founded Charleston Tennis Circuit. For the last 10 years college tennis recruiting has been Sandy...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 22, of the ParentingAces Podcast!  Laura Vallverdu, sister to ATP coach Dani Vallverdu, found herself in the WTA top 450 before making the decision to play college tennis at the University of Miami. She was the top collegiate player in the US, making the NCAA singles final in 2009 and the semifinals in 2010. After graduating and getting her Master's Degree, Laura start...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 21, of the ParentingAces Podcast! My guest for this special Video Episode is my son, Morgan Stone. For those of you who follow the  ParentingAces Facebook Page , you may have seen our conversation when it aired live last week. However, for those who missed it, this is a very raw, very honest – and, at times, very uncomfortable – account of Morgan’s junior tennis develo...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 20, of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's episode is once again an audio replay of a Facebook Live interview I did last week, this time with Coach Andy Findlay of Erie, PA. As the Intense Tennis Camps' 26th-year director and with over 49 years of tennis experience, Andy Findlay brings confidence, determination, engagement, professionalism, imagination, intensity, r...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 19, of the ParentingAces Podcast. As with last week's episode, this week's podcast is a recording of a Facebook Live interview I did with Coach Ruben Herrera. If you'd prefer to see the video version, click here to go to our YouTube Channel. Ruben Herrera runs BaseTennis in Germany, the organization behind the Tennis-Point Exhibition series, the first live tennis event...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 18, of the ParentingAces Podcast! Tennis is opening up in various spots around the world (tomorrow I'll be chatting with Ruben Herrera about his Tennis-Point pro event in Germany). What's it going to take for you to feel comfortable getting back out there or sending your junior player back to lessons, drills, and match play? Coach Matt Manasse and I discuss these and o...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 17, of the ParentingAces Podcast! Our conversations around college tennis and COVID-19 continue this week with guest Scott Handback. Lawrence "Scott" Handback is a junior tennis coach, junior tennis official, and tennis director in North Carolina. He has developed over 70 players who have gone on to play college tennis and understands the unique nature of junior tennis...

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 16, of the ParentingAces Podcast. This week's episode is a replay of the Facebook Live chat I had with ITA CEO Tim Russell last week. In that discussion, Tim and I talked about COVID-19's potential impact on college tennis, what's in store for both entering and returning college tennis players, and what we can all do to help ensure college tennis remains vital and viab...