Raising Athletes

Mike Jaffe is president and founder of SAVIA Leadership, a global leadership development firm that unlocks the potential of individuals and teams through conscious communication, experiential learning, and transformational conversations. Also a nationally-recognized speaker, executive coach, and best-selling author, Mike has an inspiring, motivating, and powerful message as a 9/11 survivor. He sha...

One of the biggest gifts an athlete can acquire by playing sports, in addition to the fun stuff like winning, learning about the power of teamwork and leadership, is the skillsets that can be developed over time which lead to creating good habits for life. Habits which make you successful in life: such as being on time, doing extra, working hard even when no one is watching. This week Kirsten and...

In this week’s episode of the #RaisingAthletes Podcast, we spoke with Kyle Weindel, the Associate Club Director and Coach for the Sunshine Volleyball Club. Sunshine is the #1 club in Southern California and is consistently ranked in the top 10 in the country. If you have a young athlete who is considering playing club and/or has dreams to play volleyball in college, you’ll want to hear this episod...

Welcome parents to the #RaisingAthletes Podcast. Let’s talk about LAX! Excited for the first time to have a former DI LAX player, Kim Christos on the podcast. Kim is now a LAX club director living in New Jersey, who is also a coach and mother of four athletes. We’re excited to have her on the podcast to speak about how best to support your athlete, how she navigated playing multiple sports and how...

Four ways you can support your athlete through the pressures of youth sports Parenting is tough and responding in a way that is not only supportive but beneficial to your child can be tricky some times. Understanding WHY your teen plays is so helpful in supporting him on his journey. Today Susie and Kirsten discuss four ways to support your athlete as adversity occurs. When we have the tools as pa...

Dan Mavraides is a top-ranked FIBA 3x3 professional basketball player and a 2020 Olympic hopeful. Prior to playing 3x3 professionally, he played in the top 5x5 leagues in Greece and Italy. He graduated from Princeton University in 2011 where he was the two-time team MVP and let the Tigers to an Ivy League Championship and NCAA tournament birth. But for all of Dan’s success, which is tremendous, th...

Austin Hatch is a survivor. A two-time plane crash survivor, he epitomizes what it means to be resilient. In 2003, at the age of 8, Austin’s mother, sister and brother were tragically killed plane crash. Eight years later, with many hours of hard work, the 6’6” basketball phenom was offered a college scholarship from his dream school, University of Michigan. Just nine days later, Austin would be a...

Are you a sympathetic parent or an empathic parent? When your child “falls in a hole”, ie, he gets cut from a team, didn’t get the playing time he hoped he get, had a bad game, lost, do you “jump in the hole” with him or do you stand near “the hole” (proverbially hole, of course), ask good questions and see how you could help by witnesses his pain. In today’s episode, Kirsten and Susie talk about...

Derek Cox was a D1 athlete who had never really considered playing pro football until a scout came to see him play in his senior year in college and told him he could become a “Priority Free Agent”…. Derek said he wasn’t exactly sure what that was, but liked the sound of it.  Because he wasn’t a First Round pick, Derek worked tirelessly with the hopes of landing a spot in the NFL…which he did. We...

One of the greatest gifts we can give this next generations (and ourselves) in the gift of inner peace. What if your child could possess a knowing that whatever they encounter, good or bad, they will be ok? Rates of depression and anxiety are sky-rocketing. So much of it is caused by the fear of the unknown, the panic of the question that arises in everyone’s head, “What if I’m not enough?” Susie...

Sue Enquist was UCLA Softball’s first All-American, National Champion, and Hall of Famer. In 2006, Enquist wrapped up a 27-year career as head coach of the UCLA Bruins with a 887-175-1 (.835) record, making her the winningest softball coach among all active coaches. On today’s episode we discussed how twelve years after retirement, softball is still her passion and through her business OneSoftball...

My kid got cut- now what!? Kirsten and Susie discuss what happens when our athlete gets cut… no matter what the level, whether it’s the middle school team or the varsity team or even at the college or pro level. They discuss the three different approaches we can take as parents to support them, which will give him/her the opportunity to feel the pain and move through it, together. Support this pod...

This week on the #RaisingAthletes Podcast,  we are excited to have United States Navy SEAL veteran, Jason Booher on. While he is currently the leader of the management consulting firm, Northwest Harbor Solutions, Booher served 23 years as a commander in the SEALS, leading teams in everything from basic SEAL training, i.e., BUD/S to commanding hundreds of combat operations as well as driving integr...

What is a post-grad year? And why would a student athlete choose to take this path? Today we discuss what the benefits are of an athlete taking an extra year to prepare for college and what the potential upside can be. Alex Popp (pronounced Pope) is in his fifth season as Head Coach of Men's Basketball at Vermont Academy. During Popp's time at the Academy, the program has matriculated student-athl...

Jamal Adams has twice been named CIF Division Coach of the Year, as well as being awarded the prestigious National Double Goal Coach of the Year, given by the Positive Coaching Alliance in 2009. Over the last 12 years as the Loyola HS Head Basketball Coach, the Cubs have won 7 league titles, have been ranked in the top 25 nationally four times, earned five state tournament berths and one CIF South...

Today we discuss a topic we often take for granted when we think of peak performance, SLEEP.  Gary Trudell, who’s family has owned the Custom Comfort Mattress Company here in Southern California for the last 35 years, and who is a father of three teen athletes himself, understands the importance  of young athletes getting good sleep to not only help their growing bodies produce much needed (HGH) H...

Dr. Tommy John, son of renowned Major League baseball pitcher, Tommy John Jr, who played in the league for 26 years, was the first person to come back in 1974 from the revolutionary surgery (which was subsequently named after him) which allowed him to continuing playing baseball for an additional 16 years. Dr. Tommy John, like his father, also played baseball, and it was after a career ending shou...

This week on #RaisingAthletes, we speak with former Cleveland Cavalier NBA Champion, Channing Frye. He discusses the importance of trying things other than basketball. For example, his first passion was the trumpet. He lays down what he looks for in an ideal teammate and who he aspires to be as one. We discuss mindset and what it takes to make it at every level, how you need to show up, even when...

This week on #Raising Athletes, Kirsten Jones & Susie Walton discuss the power of intrinsically driven athletes and share three tips to help your athlete hardwire his/her intuition. As parents, when we allow our children to grow their own intuition, their intrinsic awareness, competence and confidence grows over time. The more adept we as parents get at letting go of trying to control the outcome...

This week on #RaisingAthletes, Audrey Monke, the Director of Gold Arrow Camp, Mother of five and speaker and writer of Sunshine-Parenting.com, spoke with Kirsten about the importance of giving your athlete some time away from their sport and the other benefits of sleep away camp, like making real lasting connections (without any devices), having some alone time and facing fears that they don't get...

This week on #RaisingAthletes, we get to go DEEEEP with legendary Pro Beach Volleyball/AVP announcer, former coach of five National Championship club volleyball teams and former co-Captain of the Cal State Northridge the Men's '93 Championship title match Volleyball team current anchor of the Emmy Award winning Spectrum Sports Los Angeles Lakers Show. We discuss his path to broadcasting (hint: it...

We are thrilled to have three time first team American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American, 1993 National Player of the Year, in which she led the Long Beach 49ers to the NCAA National Championship, the Honda Sports Award recipient. She was the first Big-West student-athlete to earn all-conference accolades in both volleyball AND basketball and tried out for the WNBA three times. Listen in...

In today's episode, we have the Head Women's Volleyball Coach from the D1 program, The College of William and Mary. We went deep on the recruiting process and how it works from a "birds eye" view. We have also compiled a guide of questions to ask if you are a student athlete who is looking for their next coach (could be at the high school, club or college level).  Tim is full of wonderfu...

Today's guest is the Founder of Pensole Footwear Design Academy and former Creative Director of Brand Jordan. He shares his story of how he used his passion for sport + drawing to create his dream job. This is so inspiring, you won't want to miss it! Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kirsten-jones0/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com fo...

This week, Kirsten interviews former William & Mary Hall of Fame, college teammate, Jennifer Petrie, who has coached an led the Women Toreros for the last 20 years. A four-time West Coast Conference Coach of the Year, Petrie attracts and develops some of the top talent in the country. We discussed her coaching path, her mentors and her role from the other side of the net, as a parent of a teen...