I picked up pickleball a few years ago for one simple reason: It’s fun. No training, videos, or strategy. Just me, a paddle, and the joy of showing up. In pickleball and veterinary medicine, the real wins come from consistency, curiosity, and the courage to continue improving long after the excitement of being a beginner has worn off. Pickleball life taught me four valuable lessons that every practice owner can use.
1. Everyone Brings a History, Habits, and Blind Spots
It’s best to start with the basics in pickleball — “Who serves, and how do I score points?” It’s no different with a new veterinary team member. Successful onboarding requires reviewing the basics. Who are the doctors? How long are the appointments? Where are the catheters stored?
I encountered pickleball beginners with backgrounds in tennis or badminton. Oftentimes, you can spot their athletic strengths and weaknesses. In contrast, newly hired veterinary team members might have “played” at other clinics. They might have held customer service jobs in different industries. While they follow your clinic’s rules and get through the workday, they aren’t necessarily valuable players quite yet. Value comes from teaching and coaching them and helping them replace their old habits with intentional, practice-aligned skills and procedures. After all, every practice is unique.
2. Minor Adjustments Create Big Improvements
As someone who teaches practice owners to build effective systems, I ironically chose the sink-or-swim approach in pickleball. Like every practice owner who hopes for the best with a new team member, I assumed I could figure out the sport as I went. After struggling for two years to be more competitive, I took lessons. Deciding to learn from a professional changed everything.
What surprised me most was learning the “why” behind pickleball techniques. Suddenly, my minor adjustments made sense. Pickleball players are supposed to spot their teammate’s location on the court and adjust their play accordingly. I stopped immediately running to the net when the ball bounced back. Instead, I positioned myself for a return shot. It was a far cry from me trying to get lucky and outsmart my opponent. I had been playing the game, but I wasn’t playing it well.
That is what happens inside a veterinary practice. People join your team with enthusiasm and varying experience. But if they lack guidance, bad habits are reinforced, workflows get messy, and “figuring it out” becomes the culture by default, not design.
Can you think of tips or tricks to improve your team’s performance? How would making those adjustments improve the clinic workflow or client communication? It might be as simple as offering a refresher class on feline body language to anticipate patient behavior. Or adding an intake question about a pet’s typical day to understand better the patient’s lifestyle and the owner’s parenting approach.
3. Consistent Practice, Leadership, and Modeling Promote Mastery
Having played pickleball for a few years now, I packed a paddle when I recently attended a veterinary conference. I thought, “Hopefully I can get a game in somewhere.” However, all I could do was take a class taught by a lady in her 70s who taught tricks. She was good, and I learned so much. But did the lesson improve my game? Not yet. Practice yields improvement. And as the saying goes, practice makes perfect.
When rolling out a new service or refreshing a standard operating procedure, don’t expect to fix all the issues or guarantee instant success. Implementing change takes time and effort. Knowing what to do is not the same as doing it well. Tricks make you feel smart, but practice makes you better.
When you roll out an SOP, everyone is watching. Lead by example and follow your policies before expecting others to do likewise. If you browse social media during work, your employees will, too. If you smile at and greet a client when you enter the exam room, your team members will, too.
4. Eagerness Has Its Limits
Pickleball reminded me of what every practice owner eventually learns. Enthusiasm gets you started, but intention moves you forward. I spent the first year or two showing up excitedly at the pickleball court, hoping my effort alone would turn into mastery. I didn’t improve until I slowed down, sought guidance, and committed to practicing the correct skills with purpose.
Your team members are no different. They show up eagerly. They care. They want to do well. But without direction, without understanding the why, and without seeing you — their leader — model the behaviors you expect, they just swing at whatever comes their way and hope it lands correctly.
Progress isn’t magical. It’s repetition, clarity, and leadership. Therefore, take the class and offer refreshers. Share the small adjustments that make the most difference. And keep practicing alongside your team.
DID YOU KNOW?
According to USA Pickleball, the sport started in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with friends Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell. “The property had an old badminton court,” USA Pickleball reported, “so Pritchard and Bell looked for some badminton equipment and could not find a full set of rackets. They improvised and started playing with pingpong paddles and a perforated plastic ball.”