Welcome to Season 13 Episode 6 of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. They say necessity is the mother of invention. This week's guest, inventor and CPA Ken Bright, definitely supports that statement!

Ken grew up playing competitive tennis alongside other sports. While he was quite the player, even playing on his high school team, he chose another path when it was time for college. However, he always kept playing and competing, growing his love for tennis into his adult life.

After noticing he was amassing quite the collection of used tennis balls in his racquet bag, Ken thought there had to be a better solution for rallying those balls to use in future practices and matches. Rally Hopper (https://rallyhopper.com/) was born!

Traditional ball hoppers are awkwardly shaped, cumbersome to transport, and add unnecessary weight to your practice. Rally Hopper is a racquet-shaped ball hopper that fits into the racquet compartment of your tennis bag, holding around 30 balls. It has foldable legs which bring the balls to "grab level" during practices and can also be used to pick up the balls once empty.

Taking things a step further, Ken was concerned about the amount of tennis string winding up in land fills. So, he created a way to recycle the string, using it to hold the balls in place in the Rally Hopper. Ken is now working with stringers across the US, providing them a simple way to collect their used string and ship it to him for use in this creative new tennis solution.

For more information on Rally Hopper, be sure to visit the KickStarter page at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rallyhopper/rally-hopper. There you will find great photos and videos demonstrating its various uses and branding opportunities. You can also follow Rally Hopper on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/rallyhopper/ where Ken will be posting purchase and branding options as they become available.

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your fellow tennis players, parents, and coaches. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts 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