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How Pro Pickleball Players "Predict" Every Counter In A Hands Battle

Players with fast hands are guessing right, not reacting faster. BK Pickleball's point is that anticipation, not reflex speed, is what makes JW Johnson look unbeatable in a hands battle.

Before you can anticipate anything you need a speed up worth hitting. Wait for three things at once, enough time, your feet set, and the ball out in front of your body, which in practice means a dink that bounces high.

Treat that speed up as a setup and never as the finish. The moment it leaves your paddle, your job is to work out where the answer is coming.

The rule is the wall. Imagine your speed up hitting a wall and coming straight back, because the counter has to return along the line you sent it.

Speed up down the line and the counter comes back down the same line, so hold that side and wait for it. Speed up across your body into their backhand and the counter comes back to your other side, so let your follow through carry you onto that side.

BK puts the accuracy of this at 80 to 90 percent, which is not certainty but is enough to sit on a side instead of guessing late. The result feels like faster hands even though nothing about your reflexes changed.

The drill for it is the figure eight. You and a partner volley at the kitchen line, one of you hitting every ball crosscourt while the other hits every ball down the line, alternating forehand and backhand.

Keep the paddle out in front the whole time, because the second you take a backswing behind your body you are late for the next ball. Build pace only once you can hold the pattern, then swap roles so you cover both directions.

Key points

Players with fast hands are guessing right, not reacting faster.
Speed up only when you have time, your feet are set, and the ball is in front of your body.
Treat the speed up as a setup and never as the finish.
A speed up down the line comes back down the same line, so hold that side and wait.
Keep the paddle out in front, because a backswing behind your body makes you late.

Watch the full tutorial here.