How to Have Fast Hands in Pickleball (Stop Practicing Cooperative Volleys)
Summary
The Flying Pickle Academy: Coach Susannah Barr and visiting pro Nick Wade show a raw, unscripted drill session. Higher-level players seem to have incredibly fast hands because they don’t just trade friendly cooperative volleys; they drill hands battles at full pace and try to beat each other. Setup: stand 14 feet apart, start every rep with a dead dink like you’d see in a real match, then your opponent speeds it up right at you and you play out the hands battle. It’s not cooperative: one of you comes out on top, then you feed a fresh dead ball and go again. Later they switch to volleys straight out of the air, skipping the dink. Goal: more hand speed, more confidence, and more hands battles won.
Key takeaways
- Cooperative volleys don’t build match-speed hands
- Stand 14 feet apart and start each rep with a dead dink
- The opponent speeds it up right at you; play the battle out to win it
- Progression: skip the dink and go straight into volleys out of the air
Action items
- Swap one cooperative volley warm-up for full-pace hands battles
- Each rep: dead dink, speed-up at the body, battle until someone wins
- After each point, feed a fresh dead ball and go again
- Finish with a block of volleys out of the air, no dink first