For tennis parents by a tennis parent
Welcome to Season 15 Episode 15 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Coach Rod Ray is back to talk about his role as "coach" to Wofford tennis players and what he looks for in recruits.
Rod has been coaching for 26 years, and he's seen so many changes to tennis development and the college recruiting process. Underneath it all, however, wanting "good people" on his team has never changed. Rod explains what that means to him - hint: it goes well beyond wins and losses!
From the parents' perspective, Rod discusses what parents should be looking for in a coach for their child(ren). That again goes beyond wins and losses and really centers around character. Rod's own sons pursued sport at a high level, so he has learned along the way the importance of finding that good coach and being that good coach for so many other athletes.
To get in touch with Coach Rod, you can reach him via his website at https://hardcomesfirst.com/ or by phone at 864-809-8827. His email is [email protected]. Rod is also on Instagram at https://instagram.com/rodray17.
As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
Welcome to Season 15 Episode 14 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, we learn about a new app to help tennis families find a court any time, whether at home or while traveling to a tournament.
CourtsApp, the first AI-powered marketing andbooking platform built to modernize court marketing and reservations, helps players instantly find and book open courts for tennis, TYPTI, pickleball, padel, and more. Bonus: you can download and use CourtsApp at no cost!
CourtsApp founder and CEO, Daren Hornig, has been intimately involved in the tennis space for most of his adult life. “CourtsApp was born from pure frustration,” said Hornig, an avid tennis and pickleball player. “For years, my friends and I struggled to find open courts in real time and near where I wanted to play. We wanted a simple, reliable solution that matched how people already book restaurants, travel, or fitness. Now, with CourtsApp, they finally have one.”
Hornig calls CourtsApp the “OpenTable for courts. The Expedia of racquet sports,” and added, “Beyond convenience, CourtsApp connects people; helping friends meet toplay, helping communities stay active, and making racquet sports more accessible to everyone. It is also a critical marketing tool for facility owners. Most operators lack the funds and expertise to market effectively in today's complex digital environment, and CourtsApp does this for them and more. Our goal is to get players on the courts and help clubs keep their courts full. It’s really a win-win scenario for all.”
Players and clubs can learn more or join the platform at CourtsApp.com and download CourtsApp from the Apple App Store for iOS and the Google Play Store for Android.
As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
Welcome to Season 15 Episode 13 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Tennis Parent Greg Gilbert shares his family's tennis journey from the early days through the college recruiting process.
The Junior Tennis Journey is a long and winding road. Greg candidly shares the things his family did well as well as the mistakes they made along the way. Daughter Ariana will be playing college tennis beginning Fall 2026, but her path to college was definitely tricky as she dealt with injury and other challenges.
Luckily for Ariana, her parents were committed to learning and growing with her as she pursued her dreams. Greg admits to being on information overload at points through the journey and feeling challenged to manage his expectations of what Ariana could achieve at each stage.
Greg also shares details of Ariana's recruiting journey - leading to her full-ride offer at Florida State University - which should prove helpful to those of you with College Tennis in your future.
You can reach out to Greg via email at [email protected] - he is more than happy to answer any questions you have!
As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
Welcome to this Bonus Episode of the ParentingAces Podcast!Y'all should be very familiar with Coach Todd Widom by now and know he is not afraid to speak his mind. In this episode, we discuss Todd's latest social media posts about the Easter Bowl going to a 10-point tiebreaker in lieu of a full 3rd set given the extreme heat during the early days of this year's tournament. Todd and I would both love to hear your thoughts so please share them in the Comments or feel free to reach out to us - [email protected] and [email protected].
As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
Welcome to Season 15 Episode 12 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, sport psychology coach, Josh Burger, joins the pod to dig deeper into the mental side of tennis for both players and parents.
Josh is a former Division I tennis coach at Sacred Heart University and also coached at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is a sport psychology professional who works with tennis players of different ages and levels, mostly junior players from 10-18.
In this episode, Josh talks about the challenges Tennis Parents face as their children are pursuing their dream of playing high-level tennis. He offers some tangible tools for parents to practice and use in order to manage their own stress while watching their children train and compete.
For more information on Josh Burger and his work, visit his website TiebreakerPsych.com or the Tennis IQ Podcast which he co-hosts alongside fellow sport psychology coach Brian Lomax. You can email Josh at [email protected]. Be sure to follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TiebreakerPsych/ and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tiebreakerpsych/As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
Welcome to Season 15 Episode 11 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by Chairman and CEO of TYPTI Inc., founder of the Tennis Channel, former President of Kodak, and fellow Tennis Parent, Steve Bellamy.
**This episode does contain some 4-letter swear words so please use caution before showing to young children**TYPTI is a new racquet sport played on a standard pickleball court with a 22-inch strung racquet, a 3.5-inch diameter channeled foam ball, and a new scoring system. TYPTI begins with a national circuit, major partnerships, and committed top players to grow the sport rapidly.
A mixture of badminton and tennis, the sport is nearly noiseless and easy on the body, with low shock at impact and no overhead serve. It’s incredibly easy for beginners and chess-like for the pros. Most of all, it’s incredibly fun to play for all levels. With the explosion of pickleball courts across the country, TYPTI launches with tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure already in place for players to adopt and embrace the sport.
Anyone who has a pickleball court now has a TYPTI court. Says Bellamy: “I’ve spent my career helping racquet sports grow because they’re a powerful gift to society. Our goal is not to cannibalize other racquet sports like tennis and pickleball, but instead bring the 25 million former players in the U.S. who don’t play anymore back on the court. If they play TYPTI and then migrate to tennis, pickleball, badminton, table tennis or padel, then that will be a huge success for the entire industry.”
The new sport has inked a number of important partnerships with collegiate, racquet and coaching organizations, including the Racquet Sports Professional Association with over 14,000 teaching pros. There is also an agreement in place with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association to have a significant prize money collegiate championship. “We’re always looking for ways to enhance the lives of our student athletes,” said David Mullin, ITA CEO. “TYPTI will be a very smart option for some collegiate tennis players as the mechanics of the two sports are so similar.”
For more information on TYPTI and its specialized racquets and balls, visit its website at www.TYPTI.com. To see the sport in action, go to the TYPTI YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@TYPTI_SPORT and follow on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/playtypti/.
As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
Welcome to Season 15 Episode 10 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by the team behind Winning Parents, a UK-based organization educating tennis parents across The Pond.
Dr. Liya Jacob is a Lifestyle Medicine Physician, Clinical Nutritionist, Health & Life Coach, and a Tennis Parent. After noticing a lack of support for her peers in the Junior Tennis world, she teamed up with Ellie-Rose Griffiths, a former UK top junior, and Chris Johnson, an LTA Level 5 Master Performance Coach, to create an online course.
You will learn all about the course and its intentions throughout this episode. To register, simply go to https://winningparents.mykajabi.com/offers/hiFpZhuH/checkout. The cost is approximately $67.00USD, a small price to pay for this very useful information - gratefully, The Winning Parents team are offering a 10% discount to the ParentingAces Community. Simply use code LISASTONE10 at checkout.
You can reach out to Dr. Liya directly at [email protected]. To reach Chris, email [email protected]. To reach Ellie, email [email protected].
As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
Welcome to Season 15 Episode 9 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by Tennis Parent and Entrepreneur, Jeremy Saline, to discuss the impetus behind On The RISE Tennis.
Jeremy is the father of 4 children, the oldest of whom has fallen in love with tennis. As his daughter started improving and expressing the desire to play at higher and higher levels, Jeremy - like many of us - was hit by the rising costs associated with her development. He started projecting those costs over her remaining junior tennis years and realized the current model just isn't sustainable for most families out there.
"What if," he thought, "there were a way to bring junior players together as a team and share some of those costs? What if we could attract sponsors and donors to offset some of the expense?" And he got to work creating On The RISE Tennis.
Jeremy applied for 501(c)3 status, pulled together a board made up of people in the tennis and non-profit worlds, and got to work.
On the RISE Tennis identifies and nurtures junior athletes with the potential to compete at the highest levels. Its mission goes beyond the court, using tennis to teach discipline, self-confidence, resilience, leadership, and integrity through the RISE Individual Performance Program.
The organization is committed to shaping well-rounded individuals by:
If you are interested in learning more about On The RISE Tennis and/or if your player would like to apply to be part of Team RISE, you can reach out to Jeremy at [email protected].
If you would like to support his efforts through a financial donation, you can do so via this link.
As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
Welcome to Season 15 Episode 8 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by the parents of 2025 Little Mo International Champion Olivia Arage - Lynn and Michael Arange.
It's always interesting to hear about a young player's developmental journey through tennis. While Olivia is early in the process, Michael and Lynn have done a great job so far of keeping her love of the game alive while ensuring she is getting the right balance of instruction and competition and a life outside of tennis.
Finding the Little Mo series has given the Arage family a great way to help Olivia hone her competitive muscle while learning that tennis is about more than hitting a fuzzy yellow ball across a net. Olivia is making friends from all over the world, learning about other cultures, and developing a working knowledge of what it means to be a citizen of the world.
If you would like information on Little Mo, visit their website at https://mcbtennis.org/. The direct link for Little Mo tournaments is https://mcbtennis.org/tournaments/.
To reach Michael and Lynn, email them at [email protected]. You can also follow Olivia on Instagram at baby_beast_tennis.
As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
Welcome to Season 15 Episode 7 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week, Lisa is joined by former LSU Women's Tennis Coach, Tony Minnis.
Tony grew up in a tennis family. His father coached college tennis and both his brother and sister played college tennis, all in his home state of Louisiana. After his own stellar college tennis career, Tony realized coaching was in his blood, and he went on to coach at all levels of the game.
Tony Minnis finished his career in college tennis as the most decorated Head Coach in the history of LSU Women’s Tennis. He was the first African American Head Coach hired in any sport at LSU. And during his 21 seasons as the LSU Head Coach, Minnis collected a host of accolades that place him squarely among the most respected coaches in the country.
After finishing his coaching career in 2012, Minnis became the host of the groundbreaking TV show “Inside College Tennis with Tony Minnis” which aired on the Tennis Channel and was the first TV show to feature college tennis. And it featured institutions such as Tulane, TCU, University of Minnesota, and the HBCU National Tennis Championships. He then went on to host the TV show “College Sports Weekly”, which currently airs on Fox College Sports. Some of the institutions featured during Tony Minnis’ tenure were schools such as Harvard, SMU, the NCAA Men and the Women’s Tennis Championships along with the “Pray for Luke” and “Hiding Inside the Baseline” documentaries. Minnis’ responsibilities included hosting, writing, and locating the content and stories. To watch Tony's documentary on Team Luke, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IojLFYj9aPk.
Now, his focus is on helping athletes OFF the court. Tony works with individuals and teams to develop a stronger mindset, incorporating goal-setting and visualization into the training. He brings his decades of coaching experience as well as his empathetic style to high school and college players who want to become their best selves on and off the tennis court.
You can follow Tony on social media including Instagram and Facebook. You can also reach him through his website at https://www.minnisproduction.com/ or via email at [email protected]. Tony has also graciously offered his cell number which is 225-910-0002.
As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
Welcome to Season 15 Episode 6 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's guest, Reese Brantmeier, is one I've wanted to have on the pod for a few years, ever since watching her play at National Hardcourts in San Diego for the first time. I'm thrilled to get her on to discuss her unique junior development pathway to being a top junior player and the current NCAA Women's Singles Champion.
Reese grew up in an area of the US known more for ice hockey than tennis. When she fell in love with our sport, her family knew they were going to have to think outside the box to help Reese reach her full potential. USTA soon recognized Reese's affinity and talent for tennis and supported her need for instruction and competition through trips to the National Campus for camps and training.
Fast forward several years to Reese's outstanding college tennis career at the University of North Carolina, well-known for producing several top professional players. Side-lined by injury and multiple surgeries, Reese was determined to make her final year of college a great one, both on and off the court. As you will hear, she has worked hard in the classroom (education is very important in the Brantmeier household!) and on the tennis court and hopes to help her team win one more national championship in May!
You can follow Reese on Instagram at https://instagram.com/rs.brntmr. You can learn more about her non-profit organization to bring tennis to more kids in her hometown of Whitewater, Wisconsin, at https://www.reesebrantmeierproject.com/.
As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through junior tennis and the college recruiting process. You can purchase and book online through our website at https://parentingaces.com/shop/category/consult-with-lisa-stone/.
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. Please be sure to check out our logo’d merch as well as our a la carte personal consultations in our online shop.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone