PathWays by Path

Colin Hartley, a tennis commentator who covers junior tournaments, walks through a junior final he called: a player down 6-2, 4-1 who came back without changing a single shot. He explains what she did between points, how her coach trained it, and three things parents can watch for from the stands. A practical conversation about emotional control under pressure.

A tennis dad never yelled once and still became the loudest voice in his son's head. Tomás Ibarra explains how constant presence turned into pressure, the afternoon that finally showed him what it was doing to his son, and the three things he changed. Listen to this week's episode of Pathways by Path.

Camille Rourke runs a junior tennis academy, and she's found families rarely leave over results, they leave the moment they can't see what's next. She breaks down the season-mapping conversation that changed her retention, and how running it through Path's Academy Suite lets families see the same plan the staff does... at academy.pathtennis.com.

A chair umpire spends fourteen years watching more than the score. Els Verhoeven breaks down the three things she catches from the chair contradictory instructions between parent and coach, the serve clock, and where a player looks after losing a point and what they reveal about pressure long before it shows up on the scoreboard. Listen to the full conversation on Pathways by Path.

Most junior tennis players train endurance and technique almost none train real strength. Strength and conditioning coach Dean Okafor shares the three lessons he learned the hard way, including the twenty-minute habit most families skip. Listen to Episode 16 of Pathways by Path.

Talia Novak stopped competing at 27. Today, at 38, she coaches her ten-year-old son and she's the first to admit she's repeated old patterns without meaning to. She explains how she draws the line between coach and parent, and why she still won't be the only voice in his development. Episode 15 of Pathways by Path.

A junior's forehand doesn't change on five hours of sleep her decisions do. Sports sleep specialist Naomi Voss explains why reaction time and shot selection break down before physical performance ever does, why seven to eight hours a night matters more than any single pre-match nap, and the one schedule change most families get backwards. Episode 14 of Pathways by Path.

A junior did everything right trained through every warning sign and never got to play his own tournament. Strength and conditioning coach Deshawn Cole breaks down how a forty percent training spike over three weeks turns discipline into the exact thing that sidelines a player, and the one question parents can ask to catch it early.

In the Pathways by Path season finale, former tennis player Sienna Dawes makes the case that competing hard and loving the sport were never opposites what actually separates them is whether the triangle keeps checking, season after season, that it's still the player's choice. She and Evan Rhodes talk about the real difference between a present parent and an over-involved one, and the two c...

This week, sports agent Marcus Bell breaks down the real financial math behind turning pro and why the players who run out of money usually aren't the ones who ran out of talent. A conversation about budgets, three-year plans, and knowing the number before you spend it. Listen to hear what actually decides whether a career on tour survives.

Every recruiting season, families obsess over a rating and college coach Diane Kowalski says it rarely decides anything. She joins Evan Rhodes to break down what actually earns a roster spot, when families should really start the process, and why the email a coach receives can say more than any number. Listen in.

Tennis is generating more data than ever but data analyst Priya Iyer says most families are drowning in numbers they don't know what to do with. On this episode, Priya explains why a 13-year-old only needs to track three things, not forty and why the real skill in analytics isn't collecting data, it's subtracting it. She and host Evan Rhodes dig into what's actually changed in tennis data, what's...

If your junior has beautiful strokes and no idea where to hit them, this one's for you. 70% of points end in the first four shots. Three good patterns beat ten flashy ones coach Henrik Sand on Pathways by Path.

What happens when the sport that defines your entire identity is suddenly taken away? This week, Evan Rhodes sits down with 15-year-old junior player Marco Rivera to talk about the side of injury recovery people usually skip: the emotional toll. After eight months away from tennis due to a stress fracture, Marco opens up about the identity crisis of losing the sport, the weight of navigating confl...

In this episode of PathWays by path , host Evan Rhodes sits down with sports dietitian Lina Kirsch to unpack a critical, yet often overlooked, aspect of junior tennis development: elite nutrition. If you think the biggest obstacle for young athletes is junk food, think again. Lina introduces the concept of "Invisible Nutrition" the hidden energy deficit caused by under-fueling kids who j...

Most junior players aren't underdeveloped because they're not working hard enough. They're underdeveloped because nobody is managing their load. Tomás Reyes, a strength and conditioning coach who works exclusively with junior tennis players, breaks down what physical preparation actually looks like at the competitive junior level and why the biggest threat to a player's development...

The best coaches aren't trying to be the most important person on the court. They're trying to make themselves unnecessary. Lior Avraham breaks down what real coaching looks like and what happens to a junior player when the triangle around them breaks down

The hardest role in junior tennis isn't the player's. It's the parent's. Rachel Brennan spent years thinking doing more meant helping more. She was wrong. In this episode, she talks about getting out of your kid's way without disappearing, communicating with the coach without becoming the problem, and why the car ride home after a loss matters more than you think. "Keep th...

Most families enter competitive junior tennis without a map. A career in the U.S. system can cost anywhere from $10,000 to over $100,000 a year and almost no one explains how the pieces fit together. In this episode, Evan Rhodes sits down with junior coach Ana Solano to break down the real shape of the U.S. development pathway: the seven USTA tournament levels, the ITF Junior circuit, the recruiti...

Most juniors lose more matches to their own thoughts than to their opponent's strokes. In our first episode, sports psychologist Marcus Whitfield breaks down why the mental game decides everything and why it can be coached just like a serve.