ParentingAces - The Junior Tennis and College Tennis Podcast

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 [email protected]. If you aren’t already, be sure to follow him on Facebook and Instagram as well.

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via your favorite podcast app. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces by visiting https://parentingaces.com/membership-join. And check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop (Premium Members received FREE SHIPPING every day!). To support ParentingAces' work with a financial donation of any size via PayPal, click here.

CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

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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 consumer feedback, KT realized many people lacked confidence in applying KT Tape without professional guidance. The app, designed with input from KT's Sports Medicine Advisory Panel, offers instructional videos to help users understand the benefits, use cases, and proper application of KT tape. You can download the app for free on the App Store and Play Store.

They are also launching several new products in the coming months and recently launched the KT PRO Oxygen, the first kinesiology tape to feature CELLIANT® Infrared Technology from Hologenix. Printed on the tape’s surface, CELLIANT® mineral powder converts body heat into full-spectrum infrared energy. This delivers enhanced cellular oxygenation, bringing more oxygen to the cells and increasing local circulation.

For the full lineup of KT products, be sure to visit their website at https://www.kttape.com/. You can also find them on Instagram at https://instagram.com/kttape and Facebook at https://facebook.com/kttape.

Zach has set up a special discount for the ParentingAces community which gives you 40% off your purchase of KT Tape Pro Oxygen or Pro Extreme tape through the end of 2023. Go to https://www.kttape.com/discount/ACES?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=Referral&utm_id=parenting-aces and enter the code ACES at checkout to take advantage of this generous savings!

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via your favorite podcast app. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces by visiting https://parentingaces.com/membership-join. And check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop (Premium Members received FREE SHIPPING every day!). To support ParentingAces' work with a financial donation of any size via PayPal, click here.

CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

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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 all have a conversation using the same terminology? That's where 7 Shot Tennis comes in.

Dave and Dan have been working for several years to create a map of the tennis court that helps players not only understand where they are hitting the ball (the target) but also their court position that allowed them to hit the shot (the position). By simplifying these two components and creating a language around them, Dave and Dan feel players can now better understand their strengths and shortcomings each time they play and coaches can now better evaluate what to work on in lessons and clinics. 7 Shot Tennis is the best, yet easiest to understand, approach to visualizing and remembering what happens during tennis points and to analyzing how to improve your game using that information. 

Be sure to take a look at https://www.7shottennis.com/tennis-court-visualization/ to see the 7 Shot Tennis court map and for an explanation of the various targets and positions. Also, as Dave referenced during the podcast, you can find the blog about Coco Gauff at https://www.7shottennis.com/why-coco-gauff-can-become-world-1/.

The 7 Shot Tennis Playbook is an interactive notebook that outlines drills, scripted plays, games and the inherent strategies within the universal language of 7 Shot Tennis. Graphic displays of target areas and diagrams of tactical positions visually show players and coaches how to use this sophisticated system to chart matches, train effectively based on recent performances, and track progress. Lots of blank match-charting, note-taking, and record-keeping forms. A great handbook for players and coaches, alike. You can purchase the playbook at https://www.7shottennis.com/product/7-shot-tennis-playbook/.

For the 7 Shot Tennis video course, visit https://www.7shottennis.com/video-course/. You can also follow 7 Shot Tennis on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/7shottennis/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/7ShotTennis.

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via your favorite podcast app. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces by visiting https://parentingaces.com/membership-join. And check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop (Premium Members received FREE SHIPPING every day!). To support ParentingAces' work with a financial donation of any size via PayPal, click here.

CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 members of a player's team. It will soon be able to livestream matches, all simply by setting up a smartphone on the court and opening the app.

Over the past 4 years since first hitting the Apple App Store, Swing's AI has improved exponentially such that it can now make line calls with extremely high accuracy such that we may soon see a massive change in the way junior and college matches are officiated.

For more information on Swing, visit their website here. You can go directly to the app download page here.

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via your favorite podcast app. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces by visiting https://parentingaces.com/membership-join. And check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop (Premium Members received FREE SHIPPING every day!). To support ParentingAces' work with a financial donation of any size via PayPal, click here.

CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Tennis Teams after Centenary decided to move from Division I to Division III athletics. As part of that move, the existing tennis courts were razed to provide space for a football field, so David had to look outside the college for a place for the tennis players to practice and compete.

Because of its proximity to the college campus, Chris knew Querbes would be the perfect spot to host these collegiate athletes. He and David have been working hand in hand to hammer out the details, find the right coaches, and recruit athletes to the school. This is a partnership that can be replicated around the US where college tennis teams are losing their funding and facilities, and David and Chris are both happy to share their blueprint.

For more information on Centenary College, visit its website at https://www.centenary.edu/. You can find the athletics website at https://www.gocentenary.com/landing/index. David Orr is happy to field any questions from prospective student-athletes and their families and can be reached via email at [email protected].

For more information on Querbes Tennis Center, visit its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/QuerbesTennisCenter. Chris Dudley is available via email at [email protected].

Note from Lisa: If you find yourself in the Shreveport area, do yourself a favor and visit both of these amazing spots. I grew up going to events on the Centenary campus and playing tournaments at Querbes, so both hold a big spot in my heart!

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via your favorite podcast app. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces by visiting https://parentingaces.com/membership-join. And check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop (Premium Members received FREE SHIPPING every day!). To support ParentingAces' work with a financial donation of any size via PayPal, click here.

CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 table where big decisions are made regarding junior tennis and the sport overall and was happy to share some insights with the ParentingAces community.

For questions, you can reach Amanda via email at [email protected]. You can also follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=3419937 and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/amandafinkmoore/.

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via your favorite podcast app. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces by visiting https://parentingaces.com/membership-join. And check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop (Premium Members received FREE SHIPPING every day!). To support ParentingAces' work with a financial donation of any size via PayPal, click here.

CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 choosing academic courses that will allow the student to achieve at their highest potential. For more information on the NCAA Eligibility Center and to create your Player Profile, visit https://web3.ncaa.org/ecwr3/.

In fact, Danielle has fielded so many questions from parents of 8th, 9th, and 10th graders in recent weeks that she's decided to offer a free webinar to help these parents and players better understand the recruiting process and what they need to be doing at each stage of the process. You can get more information and register for the September 24th webinar at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EAvVc_tmRf6JdDSI9_BCaQ.

For more information or to ask questions, you can contact Danielle through her online contact form at https://www.dlmcoaching.com/contact. You can also email her at [email protected]. Be sure to sign up for her enewsletter at https://dlmcoaching.substack.com/.

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via your favorite podcast app. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces by visiting https://parentingaces.com/membership-join. And check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop (Premium Members received FREE SHIPPING every day!). To support ParentingAces' work with a financial donation of any size via PayPal, click here.

CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 NIL rule applies solely to college student-athletes, brand deals are open to athletes of all ages and stages of development. Since the cost of junior tennis development continues to increase, why not learn how you might be able to offset some of those costs while helping your child learn valuable life skills in the process?

To learn more about how to build a personal brand, be sure to follow Joy on social media:

Instagram: @thejoyharris

Tiktok: @thejoyharris

Threads: @thejoyharris

You can also reach her via email at [email protected].

Also, Joy has a book coming out the end of August 2023 titled HOW TO GET PAID BEFORE GOING PRO. You can do an advanced purchase of her book using our affiliate link: Parenting Aces Link. By purchasing the book through this link, someone in our community could win a $1,000 scholarship to the university of their choice! NOTE: ParentingAces may receive a small commission from your purchase.

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via your favorite podcast app. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces by visiting https://parentingaces.com/membership-join. And check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop (Premium Members received FREE SHIPPING every day!). To support ParentingAces' work with a financial donation of any size via PayPal, click here.

CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 coming in last place in his track events multiple times until he was able to find a way to move up the ranks, eventually earning the opportunity to compete at the collegiate level. For Ashe, that meant learning to be self-sufficient at his tennis practices and tournaments when his parents were otherwise occupied with their own jobs and the care of his older brother.

Both brothers will graduate college in the coming months with a future that looks bright for both of them. Throughout their journeys, though, Rod has had his own challenges balancing his role as both Coach and Dad. He is now in the process of sharing that journey through book form, writing HARD COMES FIRST which will be published some time in 2024.

For more information on Rod's process, visit his website at https://hardcomesfirst.com/ and sign up to receive his blog and join the waitlist for his book.

For more information on Wofford College Tennis, a Division I program in the Southern Conference, visit https://woffordterriers.com/sports/mens-tennis and https://woffordterriers.com/sports/womens-tennis. You can reach Rod via email at [email protected].

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via your favorite podcast app. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces by visiting https://parentingaces.com/membership-join. And check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop (Premium Members received FREE SHIPPING every day!). To support ParentingAces' work with a financial donation of any size via PayPal, click here.

CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Season 12 Episode 27 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. In this week's podcast, we take a look at a new way to help players get in their fitness training on or off the court.

Gemma Coles is a former gymnast in the UK who moved into the coaching arena once her competitive years came to a close. She became very interested in learning how young athletes can maximize their performance by increasing their physical strength, flexibility, and endurance. Shuffle Up Games came about with the help of experts in their respective fields, starting with gymnastics and moving into the tennis arena with the help of former ATP player, Marcus Willis.  

Gemma's goal in creating Shuffle Up is to provide a simple way for players to work on a variety of skills with a minimum of equipment while giving players a fun way to compete with family and friends. The game box comes with a variety of game-playing ideas while leaving room for players to create their own games as well. The activities are divided up by level of difficulty and are appropriate for all ages and stages of tennis skill.

To order your copy of Shuffle Up: https://amzn.to/3rqWd5i (ParentingAces may receive a small commission on your order)

You can also engage with Gemma on social media:

Twitter (https://twitter.com/Games1Shuffle)

Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/shuffleupgames/)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/shuffleupgames/?hl=en)

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via your favorite podcast app. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces by visiting https://parentingaces.com/membership-join. And check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop (Premium Members received FREE SHIPPING every day!). To support ParentingAces' work with a financial donation of any size via PayPal, click here.

CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices