ParentingAces - The Junior Tennis and College Tennis Podcast
Lisa Stone
Recent Episodes
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.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone
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].
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.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & 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.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & 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.
CREDITS
Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE
Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone