If you’ve taken any Pickleball classes or lessons with me you’ve heard me use the phrase, “teachable moment.” Well today, I am going to get personal and share with you, a teachable moment, that impacted me today.
What most of you would not know about me is that I absolutely loathe having to assemble something. I’m able to keep my cool with just about anything in life with the exception of when I have to put something together. As technically minded as I am, I apparently am STILL not mechanically inclined, which is so- very- frustrating to me. I’ve tried everything when I have to assemble something from playing calming music, to drinking alcohol to herbal substances and nothing seems to help. Why am I telling you this? Because today, I spent 6+ hours trying to assemble a shed that the pickleball machine and related teaching equipment will reside in.
So I begin at 9:00 a.m. this morning by opening the box, taking out the directions and actually reading them. (I’ve made the mistake in years past of just thinking I can wing it and learned that mistake the hard way!) The instructions state, 1) Allow three plus hours. 2) Takes two people to assemble. 3) Do not try to assemble on a windy day.
Do you think that I followed the instructions? Do you think that I was coachable? The answer to those two questions are, embarrassingly, NO!
Instead of finding another day and time and a helper I decided to power through it and hope for the best. (Remember how this story started out and my history with assembling things. You think by now in my mid-50s, I would have learned my lesson.)
Trying to assemble flimsy metal panels that essentially act like a sail when the wind is blowing with gale forces, well, it’s damn near impossible and incredibly frustrating. What could have taken me 3 hours and a “fun and easy” assembly experience with a helper, has turned into 8+ hours, a bruised ego, use of words that got my mouth washed out with soap by my mama, and a renewed hatred for assembling things.
Why don’t we ever seem to learn some of life’s lessons? Why do we tend to repeat the same mistakes? Why are we still stubborn after a lifetime of learning?
Professionally, as a life coach, these are questions that I ask of my clients and today, I find myself asking of me. Why is it that in certain situations, I resist being coachable or teachable? For me, I thinks it’s my pride. For starters, I don’t like to ask people for help and I also want to believe that at my age and experience I should be able to do just about anything. The reality is, I’m not as accomplished at certain things as I’d like to believe. We all have our unique gifts, talents and strengths and when we operate within the confines of those, we are rock stars. However, outside of our strengths we are reduced to bumbling and fumbling idiots and quickly reminded by Life of our shortcomings.
Let’s circle back to being coachable and teachable moments and how this relates to Pickleball. There are those who reject the idea of needing instruction and coaching with regards to playing Pickleball. These individuals are typically people who have an athletic background, and coupled with a racket sport background they feel that they possess the physical talents and learned paddle skills to immediately play Pickleball at a “high” level. And because of their athletic background they can, in ways better than those who don’t possess those innate skill sets, initially. And therein lies their Achilles Heel. They feel they don’t need instructions. They feel they don’t need to “read the directions.” Their pride, like mine, ends up preventing their growth potential.
Being completely transparent, this was me when I first started playing pickleball. I started playing pickleball in 2019 when USTA shut down their tennis leagues and we needed something to do. Because of my athletic and racquet sport background I was able to “play” quickly, and what I thought was competitively. One day a more skilled player came to the courts and I was absolutely humbled by their playing capabilities. I quickly realized that I was not as good as I thought I was and I needed to know what they knew. More than needed, I WANTED to know. That is one thing I can say about me is that I possess a growth mindset and a desire to be a lifetime learner. Problem was, we didn’t have a coach in my area. So I “played” for over 1 1/2 years before a certified coach moved into our area, all that time developing MANY BAD HABITS. Why is a certified coach important? Because they know things I didn’t. Because they have an understanding of the mechanics of the game that I didn’t. And because they know how to teach the who, what, when, where and why, which is crucial to the learning process. They were doing things on the court that I wasn’t and I wanted to know what they knew. I thought I’d “learn” what I didn’t know by playing better players. I quickly found out that is the BIGGEST MYTH in Pickleball. Playing against the coach and better players only resulted in me getting any ass handed to me time and again and I wasn’t getting any better, instead, I was just getting frustrated and irritated. So I finally asked to take a lesson and guess what, they imparted Pickleball “secrets” to me that were game changing and were the keys to unlocking the next levels of my game. Best decision I’ve made to date with regards to Pickleball. I am where I am today because I swallowed my pride and embraced being coachable.
I’m still being coached; in life and on the pickleball court. As I stated, I believe and practice lifetime learning. That doesn’t mean I’m absolved from allowing my pride to get the best of me from time to time. The difference is now I actively invest in myself by being coachable and coupled with my growth mindset, I’ve learned to embrace and be thankful for my teachable moments because I know, they are helping me with my life’s mission statement which is ” actively striving to become the best version of myself.”
What might be holding you back from reaching your full potential? Do you see yourself as coachable? Would you say you are a lifetime learner? Do you have a growth mindset? Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Introspectively speaking, does this describe your Pickleball game? Are you still making the same mental errors? Same physical errors? Still predominantly playing “banger” style? Are you actively drilling throughout the week or are you just showing up and playing recreationally? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, take note. Don’t be insane in the membrane. Growth comes from change. And change means being willing to put our pride aside for the growth that we know we need in order to take us to the next level of development.
See you on the court! 
