ParentingAces - The Junior Tennis and College Tennis Podcast

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 5 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Peter Clarke of CoachLife shares the latest developments in this unique online coaching platform.In Season 13, we featured several coaches who offer virtual instruction via the CoachLife platform. Now, we have the founder himself discussing the incredible international coaching talent his team has recruited to work with players of all ages and stages to develop their tennis game to its full potential. Additionally, Pete talks about the new CoachLife Academy based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The facility has both hard and clay courts as well...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 4 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, we'll be looking at a new piece of equipment that allows players to practice at home or anywhere, really, when court time is not an option.John Davey is a self-taught tennis player and former standout #1 singles player on his NCAA Division 1 team at the University of Vermont. Aspiring to play professionally after college but side-lined by injury, he refocused into a successful career on Wall Street before turning to entrepreneurship.“After selling my last business, I was coaching for fun at a local club bu...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 3 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, junior tennis players and their parents will learn what it takes academically to be eligible to play college tennis.Shaquana Miller is a former college athlete and coach, currently working as the Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Support at Division II Anderson University in South Carolina. After seeing far too many student-athletes being deemed ineligible to play their sport in college because of small, fixable issues with their high school academics, Shaq started Next Play Athletics Consulting.Shaq works with college-bound athletes and...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 2 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, we take another look at an incredible tennis travel experience for junior players - Tennis:Europe.Martin Vinokur is a former high school teacher and tennis coach who is in Year 52 of taking junior tennis players to Europe to train and compete. Mike LeVan is a former college player and has been a coach for Tennis:Europe 7 times. Mike is also now working behind the scenes with Martin to ensure program participants have the best possible experience.Tennis:Europe is different from other tennis/travel...

Welcome to Season 15 Episode 1 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, you get me, Lisa Stone, for a brief chat about what you can expect from this podcast over the next year.ParentingAces is here for YOU, and I want to make sure I'm providing all the information you need to have a successful Tennis Journey with your child(ren). Please reach out with any suggestions as to topics and/or guests, and I will do my best to work them into an upcoming episode. We have a great year for you, focusing on the joy...

Welcome to the final episode of Season 14 of the ParentingAces Podcast! We close the season with a thought-provoking discussion with coach Duey Evans centered around the secrets to better coaching.As in the majority of our conversations here, this one once again turns to the importance of communication. In Duey's more than 3 decades of tennis coaching, he has given much thought to how our sport can do better on the part of coaches and players, and as a direct adjunct, parents.Duey has spent the last several months writing thought pieces for his The Performance...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 44 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, sports psychologist and former top junior and pro player, Jeff Greenwald, joins Lisa to discuss the importance of mental training FOR TENNIS PARENTS!On this podcast, we've covered mental training for junior players many, many times. This episode is the first to address mental training for parents, digging into the why and how of it with someone who has plenty of experience as both player and parent. Jeff Greenwald, M.F.T., is an internationally recognized sports psychology consultant/elite mental coach and licensed therapist...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 43 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Ben Shapiro of Atlas Tennis is back to talk about the phenomenal trips they took in Summer 2025 and what's on deck for Spring Break and Summer 2026.Tennis, travel, and human connection—these are the foundation of Atlas Tennis. Well before they started Atlas, the founders knew there was so much potential in bringing these things together, and that belief is what drives Atlas to create one-of-a-kind tennis camps and experiences. They take small groups (10-15 teens plus 2-3 well-vetted coaches per group) of junior tennis players ages 13-18...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 42 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, we're doing things a little differently - we asked you what you want to know about player health and injury prevention from the Director of the Emory Tennis Medicine Program, Dr. Neeru Jayanthi, then gave him the opportunity to answer your questions.Dr. Jayanthi is also the co-director of the Emory Youth Sports Medicine Program and has 25 years of experience caring for athletes at all levels: youth, collegiate, and professional. He sits on the USTA Sports Science Committee and writes articles for USTA's Serving Success website which pr...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 41 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by former top Ukranian junior, NCAA All-American, and current WTA professional and coach, Veronika Miroshnichenko.At the age of 14, Veronika and her developmental coach made the tough decision for her to move to the US to increase the level of her training. She left her parents and younger sister and made a commitment to be the best tennis player she could be. Her journey led her to US College Tennis at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where she had a stellar career, playing...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 40 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, former top junior and pro players, Sky Kim, shares his journey through injury and recovery which led him to coaching and entrepreneurship through his company, Road to Pro.As a child, Sky moved with his father from South Korea to South Florida to train at IMG with Nick Bollettieri. He was training alongside Maria Sharapova, Tommy Haas, and Venus and Serena Williams, among others. After going through two knee surgeries and multiple shoulder injuries, Sky decided to retire from a professional playing career to move...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 39 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa chats with former top junior and long-time coach and coach-educator, Kyle LaCroix.We've kind of followed a theme in our most recent episodes, one in which we've examined the state of junior tennis coaching and how to make it a better experience for the coaches, players, and parents. The hope is that, through these conversations, we can get the ball rolling to improve coach education, parent education, and the overall experience of families and professionals involved in our sport.Here's a little...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 38 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa is joined by Sam Parfitt, former top junior and collegiate player and the founder/CEO of The True Athlete Project (TAP).TAP has pioneered a holistic mindfulness-based approach that unleashes sport's potential to change lives across diverse contexts. They believe sport can play a powerful role in building a happier, healthier, more compassionate world. But too often, sport fails to live up to its potential, driven by a win-at-all-costs culture that dehumanizes people and leads to dropout, burnout, bullying, and disastrous mental health outcomes. T...

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 37 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, we hear from Quinn Borchard, a former top junior, college, and professional player who is now coaching his own two sons through the juniors.Parenting a child who aspires to be the best at their pursuit - whether that's in academics, the arts, or in sports - is challenging, to say the least. Parenting that child while also acting as his primary coach adds a whole new level of challenge! Quinn Borchard has taken on the challenge with both of his young sons and is d...

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 on to a successful professional tennis career before turning his sites to coaching. Since entering the coaching arena at age 22, he has worked with Maria Sharapova, Jessica Pegula, and Ashlyn Krueger...

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 Johnson; US Open Junior Boys Doubles Champion Keaton Hance, Courtney Hance; and US Open Junior Boys Doubles Champion Jack Kennedy, Bryan Kennedy.Please keep in mind these juniors are playing at the highest level of...

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 Finalist Alexander Vasilev of Bulgaria; Girls Singles Finalist Lea Nilsson of Sweden; Boys Doubles Champions Keaton Hance and Jack Kennedy of the US; Boys Singles Champion Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria; and Girls...

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 (per my media credential rules) interviews were conducted in the Media Garden at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, so please pardon the ambient sounds you may hear in the background!These juniors all competed in both...

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. They definitely covered a wide range of opinions, so I wanted to give Jack a platform to talk about the WHY behind his actions. My hope is that this episode wi...

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 performance physiologist, researcher, university professor, author, speaker and coach with an extensive background training and researching athletes at all levels. He serves the iTPA mem...