*geek alert*
I spent a long time trying to figure out this solution, so I wanted to share it here to possibly help someone else. If you are looking to redirect an existing path on your site, like:
www.mysite.com/old/folders/content
to something like:
www.mysite.com/new/directory/content
Add this (and tweek to your needs) to your .htaccess file on the root of your website.
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^old/folders(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/new/directory$1 [L,R=301]