Developing a Junior Slam Champion ft Mark Carruthers

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 24 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa is joined by coach Mark Carruthers, the early developmental coach of the 2025 French Open Junior Girls Champion, Lilli Tagger.Mark Carruthers was born in New Zealand and is 44 years old. As a junior he was the New Zealand National Champion a number of times and played for NZ all over the world since the age of 10. Unfortunately, a shoulder injury followed by some tough mental health challenges at age 16 cut his playing career short. However, he has been coaching professionally since age 24 after earning his degree in History and Journalism. He has coached all over the world including Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, and Austria where he currently lives with his wife and two children.Most of his work these days is with young juniors looking to develop their games for national and international tournaments although he also does a lot of work with adults and basically anyone who wants to learn. He joins the podcast to talk about developing Lilli and what he saw in her from a very young age that convinced him she had what it takes to become a world champion.If you're interested in talking with Mark, you can email him at [email protected]. You can also find him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/make.tennisgreatagain/.For some additional information on the Italian method of training young players which Mark talks about in this episode, go to https://tennisrecruiting.net/article.asp?id=11804&.As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through 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.CREDITSIntro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNEAudio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

During the opening weekend of the Intennse League, we had a panel discussion with the Head Women's Coaches of cross-town (friendly) rivals, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia moderated by JY Aubone and Lisa. The UGA Women won the 2025 NCAA Championship just last month.Unfortunately, the video quality didn't come out as we had hoped but the audio is great, so you get an audio-only bonus episode this week! Hear what these two seasoned coaches have to say about junior tennis development, choosing the right coach for your child, what college coaches are looking for during the recruiting process, and more!

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 23 of the ParentingAces Podcast! This week's episode with JY Aubone was shot live at the brand new Intennse Arena in Atlanta right before opening weekend of this exciting new way to play tennis.JY is working with Intennse to help manage the players as well as to do the live broadcasting via Twitch. In this week's episode, he explains how Intennse works, how it fits into a junior player's overall developmental pathway, and the opportunities it holds for recently graduated college players.I had the opportunity to watch Intennse live during its opening weekend, both the qualies matches for a spot on the Challenge team as well as the pro and junior matches. What a blast! This is tennis like you've never seen before: played on a clock, one serve, co-ed teams with coaching and substitutions, with teams playing singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. If you missed my Instagram posts over the weekend, you can find them at https://instagram.com/ParentingAces.To be clear, Intennse is NOT looking to replace traditional tennis or tennis tournaments. Rather, it is acting as a bridge for junior players who want to play college tennis so they can gain experience playing on a team and under pressure as well as for those players looking to play professionally but aren't quite ready - either developmentally or financially - to start a pro career. On the junior side, Intennse matches do count for UTR and WTN and, if a junior player wants to play qualies for a spot on that week's Challenger team, they have the opportunity to earn in excess of $1500 if their Challenger team beats the pro team that week. On the pro side, players receive a guaranteed salary plus prize money if their team wins a match. Intennse is allowing players to better manage their travel and competition schedule while receiving salary and benefits, a far cry from the current ATP/WTA tours.For more information on Intennse, visit the website at https://www.intennse.com/home and be sure to follow them on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/intennsetennis, TikTok at https://www.tiktok.com/@intennsetennis, and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61566418503744.You can always reach out to JY directly via email at [email protected] always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through 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.CREDITSIntro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNEAudio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 22 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa is joined by former top Danish junior player and current renowned coach, podcaster, and author, Adam Blicher.Adam Blicher is the National Coach of the Faroe Islands and has spent over a decade immersed in coaching and coach development. For six years, he served as a camp and traveling coach for the Danish Tennis Federation, helping shape the next generation of Danish talent. He is the author of Winning Words – How to Unlock Potential Through Communication and the host of Dissecting High Performance in Tennis - the first dedicated podcast for tennis coaches, featuring interviews with over 100 of the world’s most decorated coaches. His work bridges coaching, sports psychology, and leadership, with a focus on long-term impact and sustainability. His second book—Winning Way —is currently in development and will focus on helping coaches build a sustainable, high-impact coaching philosophy.Since the age of 18, Adam has been working with junior players to help them develop to their full potential. He realized early in his coaching career that he needed to develop his own philosophy of coaching modeled on how he was coached as a junior but also incorporating lessons learned from watching other player-coach relationships over the years. After noticing a gap in the market of coaches helping coaches, Adam launched his limited series podcast, inviting experienced coaches from around the world to share their experiences and advice. He later transcribed all the episodes and turned them into his first book, Winning Words. Adam has generously offered to give a FREE COPY of Winning Words to 3 ParentingAces Community Members. To win, simply post about this podcast episode on Facebook and/or Instagram by midnight Pacific Time on June 24, 2025, tag @ParentingAces as well as @AdamBlicher, and we will draw three winners to be announced on those two social media platforms.You can reach Adam via email at [email protected] or on his website, adamblicher.com. Be sure to follow him on both Facebook and Instagram as well.To order your copy of Winning Words for yourself or your child's coach - or both! - go to https://amzn.to/3ZhdMmm.As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through 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.CREDITSIntro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNEAudio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 21 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa chats with Italian talent identifier and coach, Luca Appino who is with his 14-year-old player competing in the Italian Open Junior event.Luca started his career in Italy and for over 10 years was dedicated to the development of tennis schools in various clubs. He became experienced in management, marketing and product testing while working for industry leaders such as Dunlop, Babolat, and Fila.Luca has dedicated a significant part of his work and research to talent scouting. For Babolat, he selected various young and, at that time, almost unknown, players from 11 to 15 years old; four of them reached the #1 position in the ATP and WTA: Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijsters, and Dinara Safina. In 2008 Luca founded Tennis-Talents and implemented the TT Method. Between 2010 and 2011, he was the Executive Tennis Director of the Tunisian Tennis Federation and coach of Ons Jabeur, the Roland Garros Junior 2011 girls champion.​Luca is also instrumental in supporting the Smrikva Bowl, a prestigious junior tournament set in Croatia for junior players age 10 and under from around the world. The goal of the tournament is to promote global awareness and understanding through the sport of tennis. If you are interested in getting in touch with Luca for online or in person coaching or consulting , his email is [email protected]. You can also contact him through the Tennis Talents website at https://www.tennistalents.net/contact.As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through 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.CREDITSIntro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNEAudio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 20 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, we take a deep dive into a new app designed to help players and parents better manage their training and tournaments.Alli Barnes and Jaime Sullivan have been friends since childhood. After Jamie's last child left the proverbial nest, she was ready to let loose her entrepreneurial spirit so she reached out to Alli to collaborate on an app that combined her love of tennis with Alli's love and expertise in the health and wellness arena. TennisIQ was born!We've done a couple of podcasts in the recent past on the importance of journaling, so I won't rehash the details of the value in it. That said, TennisIQ takes journaling to a whole new level, including a voice-to-text feature, mindfulness prompts, and the use of AI to devise pre- and post-match audio to help players - and parents! - come to each practice and each match fully prepared to give their best.Whether you need to get advise from your personalized in-app coach, track your opponents, manage your matches, or view past journal entries, this app has you covered. And I will be recording some helpful modules for parents so you can use and benefit from TennisIQ as well.TennisIQ is available in the Apple App Store for iOS users and as a web app for Android users. Jaime and Alli have set up a 50% off code for the ParentingAces community which you can redeem as follows:Go to: www.tennisiq.appClick on "Get Started" button.Enter the promo code: ACES at check out Complete your checkout to lock in the discount.Once you've redeemed your code on the website:Head to the App StoreSearch for “Tennis IQ”Download the app and log in with the account you just created.That’s it! You’re ready to start training your tennis brain with Tennis IQ — anytime, anywhere.To connect with Jaime and Alli and TennisIQ, here are some links for you:Email: [email protected] @tennisiq_appFacebook: Tennis IQ App Linkedin: Tennis IQ AppWebsite: https://www.tennisiq.appAs always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through 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.CREDITSIntro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNEAudio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 19 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week’s episode, father-son duo, Scott and Bode Campbell, are back to take a look at their Junior Tennis Journey as Bode prepares to play college tennis in the Fall.Scott has been a long-time follower of ParentingAces! This is not his and Bode's first time to appear on our podcast. They were here a little over a year ago sharing their perspective on the journey - you can find that podcast at https://parentingaces.com/podcasts/a-parent-player-perspective-on-parentingaces-ft-scott-bode-campbell/.Now that Bode is graduating high school and heading into his first year as a College Tennis Student-Athlete at Xavier University in Ohio, they asked if they could share some of the challenges and solutions they faced with the help of our platform. Of course, I said yes!You will hear from them both about Bode's college recruiting process and how he came to choose Xavier, dealing with injury last summer, Bode's high school tennis experience, working through some of the mental aspects of the game utilitizing tools from Apeak and 7ShotTennis, and how parents can work together to ensure a more positive experience for their children.If you'd like to reach out to Scott directly, he's always willing to help! His email is [email protected]. You can find both Scott and Bode on Instagram as well. Scott is https://www.instagram.com/scottcoulter5/ and Bode is https://www.instagram.com/bodecampbell_tennis/.As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through 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.CREDITSIntro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNEAudio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 18 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this episode, Case Western Reserve University Head Men's Tennis Coach, Todd Wojtkowski, offers a little calm after the perfect storm of our last episode. This podcast was filmed live from Claremont Mudd-Scripps in Claremont, CA, host to the 2025 NCAA DIII Men's & Women's Tennis Championships.Todd Wojtkowski has built the Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team into one of the top programs in all of Division III during his 16 seasons at the team's helm, which includes guiding the squad to the NCAA Division III Championship in 2023, the first-ever team title won by a CWRU team in any sport. The National Championship came on the heels of back-to-back finishes at the NCAA Championship each of the previous two years, including in 2021 when he was named the Wilson/ ITA National Coach of the Year. Wojtkowski went on to lead the Spartans back to the NCAA quarterfinals for the fourth consecutive season in 2024. Now they find themselves back in the Elite 8 as they compete for the 2025 title.I first met Todd about 10 years ago. We had been corresponding electronically since the beginning of ParentingAces, so it was a real treat to run into him at Indian Wells and put a face to a name. We've stayed in contact over the years, but, recently, Todd's name has come up in multiple conversations I've had with industry leaders, other college coaches, and even Tennis Parents, so I was thrilled to learn he'd be with his team only an hour from my home and was willing to sit down and talk tennis with me.Todd's approach to the sport is so balanced and so heartfelt and 100% aligned with what we are trying to accomplish with ParentingAces. I hope you enjoy hearing his thoughts on the DIII experience, what he looks for in a recruit, and the future of not only college tennis but tennis in its entirety.Coach Wojtkowski has generously offered to take part in a follow-up Q&A with the ParentingAces community to answer any questions or concerns that may pop up as you listen to our conversation. Please email your questions to me at [email protected] so we can compile them into a future discussion.And please join me in wishing the Spartans - and all the teams competing - all the best this week!As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through 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.CREDITSIntro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNEAudio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 17 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Lisa is joined by Markus Dayton and John Parsons, both actively working in the college tennis space.With the House vs NCAA settlement still being negotiated, there are a lot of unanswered questions, both for existing college tennis players as well as those junior players aspiring to play college tennis. There has been a lot of discussion online about the various aspects of the settlement and its impact on facets of college tennis including the transfer portal, roster limits, scholarships, and international recruiting.Both Mark Dayton and John Parsons work daily in the college tennis space and have been actively trying to shed light on the settlement and its possible short- and long-term effects. We tackle a variety of questions in this podcast and hope it clarifies and gives listeners the push to formulate a plan for any junior players who have college tennis on their list of goals.To reach Mark, join his College Tennis Recruitment Video Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/808424032556193.To reach John, follow him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/noadnoproblem/ and subscribe to the No Ad, No Problem podcast at https://noadnoproblem.buzzsprout.com/.As always, I am available for one-to-one consults to work with you as you find your way through 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.CREDITSIntro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNEAudio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

Welcome to Season 14 Episode 16 of the ParentingAces Podcast! In this week's episode, Coach Jim Harp is back to discuss not only his philosophy of junior tennis development but also his latest passion project, Roots to Racquets.Jim Harp is a highly accomplished tennis coach and the founder of Harp Performance Tennis Inc., established in 2004 in Cumming, Georgia, where he continues to reside with his wife, daughter, and a variety of pets. Renowned for his expertise and dedication to the sport, Jim holds prestigious certifications as a PTR Master Coach and an ITPA Certified Performance Specialist. He is also a graduate of the USTA’s High Performance Program and is recognized as a USPTA Elite Coach. As a coach developer for both the PTR and USTA, Jim is committed to training the next generation of tennis coaches, sharing his extensive knowledge and experience in the sport. His coaching journey began in earnest in 2001, and he quickly made a name for himself as a 1994 NJCAA All-American player from Dekalb College.Jim founded Roots to Racquets in 2024 to create an affordable healthy living initiative for all families through the lessons of sport performance, nutrition, education and lifestyle.Its goal is to create a new age health and wellness environment where the entire family comes to learn and play together.In addition to world class tennis instruction, information on nutrition, exercise and sport performance will be available both online and in person! By providing access to these programs for the entire family, the Roots to Racquets program will provide better opportunity for success in the classroom, at work, in sports and most importantly at home for every member of the family.If you are interested in making a tax-deductible donation to Roots to Racquets, click https://www.rootstoracquets.org/donate/.To reach Jim directly:[email protected]://www.instagram.com/harptennis/404-213-9282If 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.CREDITSIntro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNEAudio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone