Parentingaces - The Junior Tennis And College Tennis Podcast

Welcome to Season 13 Episode 4 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. Former NCAA Women's Singles Champion, Jamie Loeb, joins me this week to discuss her transition from junior tennis to an outstanding career at the University of North Carolina to her current status on the WTA Tour.I first met Jamie and her mom while she was still playing the Junior Slams. Ever since, I have followed her career through college and now on the pro tour. Until recently, it's been a pretty seamless transition moving through the various levels of the game. However, in recent years, Jamie has been challenged financially as she continues to fight toward reaching her goals on the tennis court.In this episode, you will hear Jamie's very frank accounting of life on tour when you are outside the Top 150 and struggling to pay for travel, training, medical care, and other costs of being a professional athlete in an individual sport. She works every single day to build and promote her brand so t

Welcome to Season 13 Episode 3 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. Martin Vinokur is back, this time with one of his coaches, Jessie Young, to discuss Tennis:Europe, a unique travel-and-tennis opportunity for teenage players.2024 marks the 50th year of Tennis:Europe, an amazing accomplishment to be sure! Since the inception of ParentingAces in 2011, we have had many of our families participate in the program with the players coming home with new tennis skills and new friends and new experiences that serve them well as they continue to develop as tennis players and young adults.You can find previous podcasts and articles about Tennis:Europe at https://parentingaces.com/articles/tennis-europe/, https://parentingaces.com/articles/tenniseurope-experience-kayleigh-yun-thayer/, and https://parentingaces.com/articles/tennis-europe-a-fantastic-summer-tennis-travel-experience-ft-martin-vinokur/.To get more information on the 2024 offerings and to take advantage of the Pa

Welcome to Season 13 Episode 2 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. Those of you who have followed college tennis for a while will recognize Danielle Lao as a standout in her four years playing at USC. If you follow the pro tour as well, you will also recognize her from her ten years battling her way to achieve her goal of playing in a Slam.In the past year, though, life has taken a turn for Danielle, finding her in the coaching arena while also pursuing her love of distance running. Is pro tennis a done deal for her? What did her own Tennis Journey look like? How did she handle the transition from college to pro to coach? What is her coaching philosophy as she works with up-and-coming juniors? You'll have to listen to our podcast to find out!Be sure to follow Danielle on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thelittlegiant/ - she has her DMs open there if you'd like to contact her. You can also follow her sponsors, Hoka and Picky Bars, at https://www.instagram.

Welcome to Season 13 Episode 1 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. We are thrilled to kick off the year with two amazing coaches, Robert Gomez and Todd Widom, helping us understand the role of ratings and rankings in our children's tennis development.Robert Gomez is the Head of the Florida Coaches Commission, a member of the Florida Junior Competitive Counsel, and a USPTA Elite Professional. He has run professional tournaments, traveled the world to coach in other professional tournaments, and is the recently-hired Tournament Director of the Junior Orange Bowl 12s and 14s divisions. Robert also coaches junior players at all levels of the game as the head of tennis at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida.Todd Widom is a former college player from the University of Miami and an ATP professional player who now runs his own tennis system in the Broward County, Florida, area. Long-time listeners of this podcast should be very familiar with Todd by now!These tw

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 43 - our final one of the year - of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. Heath Waters of Match!Tennis App is back with us to share the latest updates to this game-changing tech!Based on the discussions that happen in our Facebook groups and our one-on-one consults, there are some pain points common to almost all tennis families. And, sadly, these pain points rarely change or get resolved by the governing bodies of our sport.Match!Tennis App hears about these same issues and continues to evolve to address and solve problems such as finding a doubles partner, managing tournament entries, sportsmanship, and tournament quality control.In this week's edition, Heath demonstrates for us the latest updates to the app, so I encourage all of you to check out the video version of this episode on ParentingAces.com.For our past podcasts with Heath:https://parentingaces.com/articles/tennis-parents-gotta-get-app/https://parentingaces.com/articles/colle

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 42 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, Lisa brings back fitness trainer extraordinaire, Dean Hollingworth, to break down what junior tennis players need to be doing off-court to maximize their fitness level.Dean has more education and experience training tennis players around their fitness than anyone I know. Lucky for us, he's more than willing to share his expertise with the ParentingAces community.In this episode, you'll hear from Dean about the importance of fitness, the importance of a proper warm-up and cool-down before and after EVERY practice and match, and the other factors that contribute to a player's overall mental and physical fitness.For more information on Dean and to get in contact with him, visit his website here. Be sure to follow him on Facebook and Instagram for new videos and other valuable content.For our previous podcasts with Dean, click here and here.If you’re so inclined, please share

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 41 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. Egor Shestakov, a senior at University of Texas at Tyler who happens to be from Russia, shares his junior and college tennis journey with us, one that I believe you will find to be extremely eye-opening.Egor was coached by his father at the beginning of his junior tennis career until both of them realized their relationship - and Egor's tennis - would be better served by hiring an outside coach. Egor continued to play other sports at the recreational level while pursuing his tennis with the goal of coming to the US to play in college.You will hear him talk about the challenges involved in getting noticed by American college coaches, learning English and taking the necessary entrance exams, and what he's learned about himself and his tennis since being in Texas the past 3 years.This young man has a lot of wisdom to share with all of us, so please consider having your junior player(s) watch or lis

NOTE: Please pardon the technical issues with the sound. We did our best to capture all of Lester's stories though some of the audio & video glitched along the way.Welcome to Season 12 Episode 40 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. This week's episode is one that's very special to me as it features my father's college teammate, Lester Sack, who is still competing on the world stage at age 87!Lester Sack didn't really start developing his tennis game until he showed up at the Tulane tennis courts as an 18-year-old freshman walk-on. He credits coach Emmett Pare with his success on the Tulane team and beyond.Lester has been competing on the Seniors and Super Seniors tour ever since graduating from Tulane in 1958, earning a ranking in the top 3 nationally in every age group. He is the epitome of a lifelong learner, even now continuing to make changes and improvements to his game.Here are just a few of his accomplishments in his illustrious tennis life: Played nu

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 39 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. Coach JY Aubone is back to talk about what he sees as gaps in the training most junior tennis players are receiving.JY works with several junior players, both in person and virtually, and he is noticing definite trends in the people he trains. Not only are they missing the mental toughness and understanding of tactics during competition and pressure situations, but they are also practicing inefficiently. What does that mean?Players need to replicate tournament situations during their daily practice sessions. That includes building their fitness, mental resiliency, and nutritional habits. And sometimes that means bringing in specialists such as sports psychologists or fitness coaches. Great tennis coaches build a network of professionals to whom they can refer players for that extra training and work.If you have more questions or would like to get in touch with JY, you can reach him via his websi

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 38 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. Coach Traci Green, Head Women's Tennis Coach at Harvard University, joins Lisa to share her tennis journey and what sets the Ivy League tennis programs and academics apart.Traci Green's success as a coach follows a highly successful career as an undergraduate at the University of Florida. She was a member of the Gators' 1998 NCAA championship team and was ranked as high as No. 5 nationally in doubles and No. 12 in singles during the 1999-2000 season. Her teams won two ITA national indoor championships (1997, 1999) and ranks among Florida's career leaders in singles and doubles wins. Green was a three-time first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection in both singles and doubles.In addition to her coaching, Green also served as an adjunct faculty member in the Temple University College of Education, where she taught courses in the department of kinesiology. She also continues to serve as a UST

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 37 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. This week, we check back in with SenseArena to see how this unique virtual reality product has morphed over the past several months.Topics of conversation for this episode include how SenseArena is being used at the college level, how junior players can leverage SenseArena to help them be ready to be recruited and play in college, and why the new ATP partnership is so significant to the growth of technology in our sport at all levels.Matthew Simons is the tennis business-to-business manager for SenseArena while also working as the head men's and women's tennis coach at the University of Puget Sound. He offers a unique perspective on how SenseArena can be used at both the junior and collegiate levels to help players work on the mental and physical sides of their game. You will hear Matt talk about how he's using it with his own players to help them prepare for practice sessions and competition.Ya

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 36 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, Coach Todd Widom is back to talk about the success our US pro players are having this year and why we're not seeing more US junior players showing up on top college tennis teams.This episode was recorded toward the end of the 2023 US Open where we saw 2 American women and 1 American man into the singles semifinals which is a big positive for US professional tennis. That said, the other side of the coin is that we are seeing fewer and fewer American juniors on the rosters of the most desirable college tennis programs. Where's the disconnect?Todd definitely has some thoughts about what's going on in the junior tennis development landscape and what we need to do to make it better. Hint: it involves a culture shift, a parenting shift, and a coaching shift!To contact Todd or to get information on his training, you can reach him at todd@twtennis.com. If you aren’t already, be s

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 36 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, Lisa is joined by Zach Decker, Chief Marketing Officer of KT Tape.Zach grew up in Boulder, CO with a passion for sports and wellness. He is an avid mountain biker and father of two very active kids. As a result of his interest in physical activity and sports, his role at KT was a no-brainer.In case you're not familiar with the KT brand, it is the leading kinesiology tape brand in the nation. What is kinesiology tape? It is a product used by health care professionals to prevent and treat muscle and tendon injuries and pain such as a strained hamstring or a sore knee. If you watch professional sports of any kind, you have likely seen the colorful tape on athletes' arms or thighs to help them continue playing while preventing further injury.KT has just launched its first mobile app, providing users with clear instructions on how, when, and why to use KT Tape. Based on consum

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 34 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, Lisa is joined by Daniel McCain and David Howell of 7 Shot Tennis.Former President and Managing Director of Universal Tennis, LLC, Dave Howell was the creative force behind Universal Tennis Ratings (UTR®). Dan McCain is a father, husband, dog lover & tennis coach and analyst. He won gold & silver balls as a junior player before playing the University of Michigan on scholarship. He was a Illinois State High School State Champion, as well as a 2-time Florida High School State Champion. For quite a while now, tennis parents and coaches have manually charted matches using a variety of symbols, abbreviations, and lingo. It's a basic way to analyze a match and use the data collected to help the player improve different aspects of their game. But what if there were a universal language around that data collection that all players and coaches understood so that they could

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 33 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, Swupnil Sahai of Swing Tennis comes back to share some exciting updates to SwingVision and new partnerships on the horizon that could have a very positive effect on junior competition and college matches.NOTE: For our previous podcasts about SwingVision, go to https://parentingaces.com/articles/bringing-ai-to-tennis-with-swupnil-sahai/, https://parentingaces.com/articles/swingtennis-ft-swupnil-sahai/, and https://parentingaces.com/articles/whats-new-with-swingvision-ft-george-opelka/Hopefully, by now, you've heard of SwingVision and have tried this innovative app to record matches, analyze stats, and even share match highlights.In addition to recording matches and uploading them to the cloud, the app can be used to create highlight videos to send to college coaches during the recruiting process, pull out stats of a particular stroke or shot, and share matches with all mem

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 32 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, Lisa chats with the Athletic Director of a small college and the Director of Tennis of its neighboring public tennis facility about what it takes to resurrect a college tennis program that has been defunded and unhomed.David Orr is a former multi-sport athlete who attended Centenary College in Lisa's hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, on a soccer scholarship. After coaching soccer in the Shreveport community, he found his way back to Centenary as its Athletic Director.Chris Dudley is a life-long tennis player who, along with his wife, moved to Shreveport to manage the iconic public facility, Querbes, just over 3 years ago. The facility had just undergone a major facelift when the Dudleys came to town, and they have continued to nurture it and its relationship to other entities in the area.Today, these two are working closely to reinstate the Centenary Men's and Women's Te

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 31 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, Lisa is joined by Amanda Fink, former top junior and college player and current developmental coach and USTA board member.After growing up in Southern California and becoming the top junior player in her age group in the 16s and 18s, Amanda chose to play her college tennis at USC where she achieved All-American status all four years. Her tennis playing resume speaks for itself!Moving into coaching was a logical next step once her professional playing career came to an end. She has worked with players of all ages and levels, helping them achieve their tennis goals. Amanda approaches junior tennis development in a logical and methodical manner, stressing the importance of playing practice matches as an important piece of the journey.Along the way, Amanda became very involved with USTA, both in the Southern California section and now in the Southwest section. She sits at the

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 30 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, Danielle McNamara rejoins Lisa to discuss why grades are important to high schoolers hoping to be recruited to play college tennis.For those of you who have watched/listened to our previous episodes with Danielle (click here, here, and here), you know she's the former Head Coach of the Yale Women's Tennis Team as well as a former college player herself. She is now retired from coaching and has started DLM Coaching to help families better navigate the recruiting process.Many high school players and their families are under the false impression that tennis skill alone is enough to open the door to college tennis playing opportunities and that good grades are secondary to on-court success. That couldn't be further from the truth, as Danielle explains in this episode. She stresses that families need to develop a recruiting plan before starting high school that includes choosi

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 29 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, we take a deep dive into the NCAA's Name Image Likeness (NIL) rule and how tennis families can use it to their advantage throughout the Junior Tennis Journey.Joy Harris is a mom and an entrepreneur. While her two sons followed their dreams in football, she is no stranger to youth sports and the expense involved in helping your child achieve their athletic goals.Joy found a way to offset the high costs of her own children's' athletic development by helping them develop their personal brand then leveraging it into brand deals with local and national businesses. As a result, other sports parents started asking her advice to help them do the same with their young athletes. She then parlayed her knowledge and expertise into a consulting business that helps junior athletes and parents find ways to parlay their sport and other interests into income opportunities.While the NCAA N

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 28 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, Wofford Men's Tennis Coach, Rod Ray, joins Lisa to share his sports journey with his two sons and why he's found value and joy in the challenges life has thrown at him. He also talks about his recruiting philosophy and what parents and junior players need to know.When he was about 4 or 5 years old, Rod's oldest son, Cole, was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Since Rod and his wife also had another son, Ashe, just 18 months younger, they had to find a way to balance Cole's needs with those of his little brother.As the boys got older, they both gravitated toward sports, not surprising given Rod's background as a collegiate tennis player and current job as the Head Coach at Wofford. Through sports, Rod was able to watch both his sons face hardships head on and learn from those situations in order to keep improving on and off the playing field.For Cole, that meant c