Welcome to this Bonus Episode of the ParentingAces Podcast! 

Growing the game of tennis is the mission of many organizations and individuals out there, including Yours Truly. However, there seems to be a disconnect between the marketing experts and those on the ground, and we aren't seeing the increases in players and fans that we hope and work for. One young professional player is working to change that.

Noah Rubin, whose mom, Melanie, you've heard on this podcast in the past (click here, here, and here for my conversations with her), realized that in order to grow the sport, there needed to be a way to get the individual players' stories out to a large audience. He decided to use his large social media presence to create a new Instagram account and do the story-telling himself.

Behind the Racquet has only been in existence about a month, but Noah has already amassed a following of almost 5000 people. There are other professional players, coaches, parents, and fans who have found these stories to be inspirational and a real way to connect with players and the game. As you'll hear in our podcast, Noah is getting messages from people all around the world who are moved by the honesty and rawness of what he's presenting via Instagram.

You can find Noah's Behind the Racquet on Instagram here and on Facebook here. He is also on Twitter here. I hope you'll share his platform with your young players, too, so they get a better understanding of the challenges faced by pros that may not look any different from what they're going through themselves.

Thank you to my son, Morgan Stone, aka STØNE, for our new intro and outro music this season! You can find more of his music at SoundCloud.com/stonemuzic. If you’re interested in House Music, please be sure to check out his social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the ParentingAces website. This podcast – and all of the work ParentingAces does – is supported by donations from our audience. If you are getting value from these podcasts, please consider making a donation – any size is much appreciated! – through PayPal here. You can also support ParentingAces by clicking on the ads on our right sidebar. Thank you!

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