ParentingAces - The Junior Tennis and College Tennis Podcast

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 36 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa chats with WTA tour coach and former USTA National Coach, Michael Joyce, and high-performance junior coach, Todd Widom about what true high-performance coaching looks like and what it takes to make it to the top levels of our sport. Michael was a top junior player, winning Kalamazoo in the Boys 18s, who went...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 35 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This is the final in our 3-part series of interviews recorded at the 2025 US Open Junior Championships, and it’s another long one, this time featuring the Tennis Parents! Lisa chats with the parents of Wimbledon Junior Boys Singles Finalist Ronit Karki, Kanchan Joshi; US Open Junior Boys Singles Quarterfinalist Andy Johnson, Cindy Johns...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 34 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This is the second in a 3-part series of interviews recorded at the 2025 US Open Junior Championships, and it's a long one! In this installment, Lisa talks with the Boys and Girls Finalists and Champions in both singles and doubles. You will hear from Boys Doubles Finalists, Ben Willwerth and Noah Johnston of the US; Boys Singles Fi...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 33 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This is the first in a 3-part series of interviews recorded at the 2025 US Open Junior Championships. In this installment, Lisa talks with American junior players Ronit Karki from New Jersey, Thea Frodin from Southern California, Andrew Johnson from Southern California, and Kristina Penickova from Northern California. The audio-only (pe...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 32 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week’s episode, Coach Jack Newman of the Austin Tennis Academy is back to dig deeper into his recent article ( click here to read) on taking one of his alternate-listed junior players to this year's Level 1 in Kalamazoo. Duey Evans shared Jack's article in our Facebook Group and I was very interested to read all the comments. Th...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 31 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week’s episode, Dr. Mark Kovacs is back to dive deeper into a recent social media post about the decreased fitness levels he's seeing in junior tennis players and what we can do to help our players get fit and stay injury-free. In case you're unsure as to why you should pay attention to what Mark has to say, he is a renowned per...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 30 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Coach Hannah Keeling of Georgia Gwinnett College - the winningest college tennis program in the NAIA - joins us to discuss why junior players and their families should take a closer look at this division. Coach Keeling is a former NCAA Division II top-20 singles tennis player and earned four first-team all-confer...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 29 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, we hear from 16-year-old Sadira Ouyang and her parents, Erica and JS, about Sadira's incredible progress over the past year and their thoughts on what has led her to her first seeding at a USTA Level 1 tournament. Sadira loves tennis. Actually, Sadira LOVES tennis! Coming from a family with pretty much no...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 28 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, father-son duo, Ethan and Eyal Yurconi, share their journey through junior tennis. Being the Coach-Parent of a young player is definitely a challenge, but Eyal and Ethan seem to have found a great balance that works for their family. Being a former top junior and college player himself, Eyal had the lived ten...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 27 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, coaches Pierre Arnold and Todd Widom are back for some real talk around what it takes for junior tennis players - and their families - to develop to their full potential. Long-time listeners of this pod are all too familiar with Todd Widom and his approach to developing and training players. Todd's develo...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 26 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Swupnil Sahai of SwingVision is back to share with us the latest - and upcoming - developments in this game-changing platform. Not only is SwingVision changing the way we record and review matches, but it now includes a way for any player to access its extensive professional coaches marketplace to have those matc...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 25 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa chats with former Wimbledon Junior Finalist, Jordan Cox, live from the Intennse Arena in Atlanta. Jordan Cox began playing tennis at 8 years old and quickly started competing in junior events across the country & around the world. Some key junior tournament highlights include winning the singles & do...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 24 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa is joined by coach Mark Carruthers, the early developmental coach of the 2025 French Open Junior Girls Champion, Lilli Tagger. Mark Carruthers was born in New Zealand and is 44 years old. As a junior he was the New Zealand National Champion a number of times and played for NZ all over the world since the age...

During the opening weekend of the Intennse League, we had a panel discussion with the Head Women's Coaches of cross-town (friendly) rivals, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia moderated by JY Aubone and Lisa. The UGA Women won the 2025 NCAA Championship just last month. Unfortunately, the video quality didn't come out as we had hoped but the audio is great, so you get an audio-only...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 23 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's episode with JY Aubone was shot live at the brand new Intennse Arena in Atlanta right before opening weekend of this exciting new way to play tennis. JY is working with Intennse to help manage the players as well as to do the live broadcasting via Twitch . In this week's episode, he explains how Intennse works, how i...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 22 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa is joined by former top Danish junior player and current renowned coach, podcaster, and author, Adam Blicher. Adam Blicher is the National Coach of the Faroe Islands and has spent over a decade immersed in coaching and coach development. For six years, he served as a camp and traveling coach for the Dani...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 21 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa chats with Italian talent identifier and coach, Luca Appino who is with his 14-year-old player competing in the Italian Open Junior event. Luca started his career in Italy and for over 10 years was dedicated to the development of tennis schools in various clubs. He became experienced in management, marketing...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 20 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, we take a deep dive into a new app designed to help players and parents better manage their training and tournaments. Alli Barnes and Jaime Sullivan have been friends since childhood. After Jamie's last child left the proverbial nest, she was ready to let loose her entrepreneurial spirit so she reached ou...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 19 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week’s episode, father-son duo, Scott and Bode Campbell, are back to take a look at their Junior Tennis Journey as Bode prepares to play college tennis in the Fall. Scott has been a long-time follower of ParentingAces! This is not his and Bode's first time to appear on our podcast. They were here a little over a year ago sharing...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 18 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this episode, Case Western Reserve University Head Men's Tennis Coach, Todd Wojtkowski, offers a little calm after the perfect storm of our last episode. This podcast was filmed live from Claremont Mudd-Scripps in Claremont, CA, host to the 2025 NCAA DIII Men's & Women's Tennis Championships. Todd Wojtkowski has built...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 17 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa is joined by Markus Dayton and John Parsons, both actively working in the college tennis space. With the House vs NCAA settlement still being negotiated, there are a lot of unanswered questions, both for existing college tennis players as well as those junior players aspiring to play college tennis. There ha...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 16 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Coach Jim Harp is back to discuss not only his philosophy of junior tennis development but also his latest passion project, Roots to Racquets . Jim Harp is a highly accomplished tennis coach and the founder of Harp Performance Tennis Inc ., established in 2004 in Cumming, Georgia, where he continues to reside wit...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 15 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's conversation is all about the mental side of tennis and how we can help junior players and their parents develop the necessary tools to have a successful Tennis Journey. Damon Valentino is a mental strength coach and former D1 Tennis Player at Michigan State University. He holds a Masters in Sport & Performance Psycholog...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 14 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, we hear from the Senior Vice President of UTR Sports and former college coach, Chase Hodges. Before coming to UTR Sports, Chase was the head Men's and Women's Tennis Coach at Georgia Gwinnett College where he led his teams to 15 national championships. Chase knows college tennis and he understands what junior pla...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 13 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, we continue our discussion of what it takes to become a great coach and how great coaches bring out the best in their players. Coach Chris Marquez is our guest. Chris Marquez is a nationally respected tennis coach with a career built on passion, perseverance, and a deep understanding of player development. A self...