ParentingAces - The Junior Tennis and College Tennis Podcast

Sport Psychologist, Dr. Michelle Cleere, talks with us about why training the brain is crucial to the overall junior development process. Her approach to working with young players is to normalize the process and help them understand that they need tools to deal with the ups and downs that naturally happen during a tennis match or during training. If all a child knows how to do is throw a temper t...

Tim Russell, the head honcho at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), discusses how his organization is working with colleges, coaches, and communities to save and grow college tennis across the US. The ITA has developed a self-assessment tool, the Program Health Index, for college tennis programs to use in order to determine whether their team is "safe" or at risk of being cut. The assess...

I will once again be covering the BB&T Atlanta Open, the kick-off men's event to the US Open Series. This year's tournament will be held at Atlantic Station in the heart of Atlanta's Midtown district July 22-30, 2017. For more information on the tournament, go to http://www.bbtatlantaopen.com. At this year's Media Day, I had the opportunity to chat with Young Guns Chris Eubanks and Trent Bryde...

Two-time Australian Open Champion, Johan Kriek, has been working hard for the past several years to change how we train junior tennis players here in the US. Last year, he moved his academy from Charlotte, NC down to the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, FL in order to maximize the opportunity for young players to train and learn. This summer, Johan is partnering with Ten-Pro Gl...

My dear friend, Sol Schwartz, passed away suddenly in March 2016, and a group of us decided to honor his legacy and try to continue his life's work by creating a very special junior tennis tournament. The inaugural tournament was held in Sol's hometown of Baltimore in August of 2016. This year, we are excited to expand the tournament to two cities: Atlanta July 17-19 and Baltimore August 12-13. In...

Should we parents push our kids to be fiercely competitive? Or should we protect them from the knockouts?  In Part 8 of our conversation, John Falbo is of the opinion that not only should we push our kids to be competitive but it is also OUR RESPONSIBILITY as parents to do so in order for them to be successful in life. As usual, John doesn't mince words, and some may find his opinions offensive, b...

Like most of us Tennis Parents, Lindsay Lee Waters (who also happens to be a touring pro) found herself spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with her son's junior tournament scheduling. Between searching for tournaments on TennisLink, UTR, and other sites then choosing which tournaments were appropriate given her son's current level then signing up without missing the deadline then checki...

Dave Mullins comes from an extensive tennis background, both as a player and as a coach. He is originally from Dublin, Ireland, and came to the US to play college tennis. He wound up in the world of college coaching, having a stellar career at the University of Oklahoma as the head women's coach. A couple of years ago, Dave retired from coaching and returned with his wife and two children to Dubli...

The past 12 days at the NCAAs at the University of Georgia have been incredible! The level of tennis and sportsmanship exhibited by the student-athletes, coaches, and fans (well, mostly!) has been superb. I ran into some old friends (including Stanford Super Fan, Cliff Hayashi !) and made some new ones. I even had the opportunity to meet some long-time digital friends in person - including College...

PlaySight Head of Sales Racquet Sports, Josh Graves, grew up in tennis. Upon graduating from Northwestern where he played #1 for the men's tennis team, he sought a job. Using the vast store of resources he developed throughout his tennis career, he landed his ideal job: working with a cutting-edge tech company in the tennis arena. PlaySight has really changed since I was first introduced to it at...

On July 28, 2015, Tim Siegel received a phone call that tragically changed his life. In this week's ParentingAces podcast, Tim talks about his son, Luke's, golf cart accident and how his family has turned such a horrific event into a foundation dedicated to helping others. Tim grew up in tennis, achieving the highest level as a junior player, college player, and on the pro tour before moving into...

This week, the world lost a great man, a great supporter of tennis, and the Tennis Parent I aspired to be when Steve Johnson, Sr. passed away. I first met Steve at the NCAA Championships in Athens, GA when he was on a panel for parents and high school-age players who were interested in learning more about college tennis. After the panel discussion, my husband and I spoke with Steve and thanked him...

Adam Van Zee played his college tennis at D3 Wabash College then coached both the men's and women's teams at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. He now works in development at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis while also writing and hosting his own podcast for Division3Tennis.com . In this episode of the ParentingAces podcast, Adam and I discuss the ins and outs of playing a Divi...

Coach Ed Krass runs a series of college exposure camps for high school age junior players (rising 9-12 graders). His goal is to help these kids learn from the college coaches themselves so they have a clear idea of what it means to play college tennis. Not only are the kids on the court with the head coaches themselves, but they also have the opportunity to talk one on one with the coaches and ask...

Coach John O'Sullivan of Changing the Game Project discusses transactional vs. transformational coaching (read more here ) and why we parents need to seek out coaches who are truly invested in the development of the whole child, not just the tennis player. We also talk about the "sweet spot of involvement" for parents and how we parents need to adjust constantly throughout our child's junior devel...

Does your junior player have issues staying motivated? Has he/she had to deal with cheating in practices and/or tournaments? In Part 7 of our conversations, John Falbo discusses the intricacies of helping your player find the internal drive to succeed in tennis despite the obstacles ahead, including players who are dishonest. John stresses the importance of maintaining an open line of communicatio...

The founder of Im Recruitable and Collegiate Exposure Camps talks about the challenges and possible stumbling blocks for junior tennis players going through the college recruiting process. Tarek offers suggestions and solutions for helping the process have a positive outcome from both Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Registered dietician and sport nutrition expert Jeff Rothschild discusses the various supplements available to junior tennis players and how they need to fuel their bodies for maximum performance and to reduce illness and injury Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former professional player Eric Butorac talks about his unique junior development and college tennis years and how they helped form him into one of the world’s top doubles players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reynaldo Garrido had to make his own way in tennis as a young boy growing up in Cuba. Hear his story then read more in this New York Times article (click here ). The Tennis Channel is in Cuba doing a documentary on this project where the tennis courts at the main tennis training facility in Havana were refurbished by funds raised by Jake Agna from Connecticut, the first brick and mortar project ap...

Former college and pro player and the founder of Tenicity discusses the difference between simply coaching a junior player and managing that player throughout the junior development process Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this episode of the ParentingAces podcast, Lisa Stone traveled to Chattanooga, TN, to spend the day at the 2017 DecoTurf High School Tennis Team Championships where she chatted with Tournament Director Brandon Feusner as well as several others involved with Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the ParentingAces podcast, Lisa Stone and John Falbo discuss what it will take to bring back the popularity of tennis in the US, including officiating, junior tournament rules, and building a fan base for college tennis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the ParentingAces podcast, Peter Rennert, former top college player and current coach and founder of TELOS, shares his thoughts on integrating the body and mind through breath work and purposeful training to maximize performance both on Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the ParentingAces podcast, high-performance coaches Frank Giampaolo and Bill Riddle discuss the junior development process from the early years through high school. Be sure to check out Frank’s newest book here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices