Softer Hands

If you’ve been playing pickleball for a while now, you probably have heard people talk about having “soft hands”.

But for those of you who don’t know what we’re referring to - we’re talking about holding the paddle with a certain amount of tension to be able to absorb the impact of the ball as it makes contact with the paddle face.

For example: do your shots tend to pop up? High-sitting balls - dinks or volleys - are frustrating because they’re setting up the other team to attack the ball back at you.

Many times, once a player starts to pop up the ball it can cause them to do it more frequently throughout the game. Usually, the main reason that happens is because the paddle handle is being held too tightly.

I’d say that most people (unknowingly) hold tension in a few areas of the body - like clenching the jaw, the tension in the lower back or shoulders; the same thing happens while playing pickleball but typically it’s clenching the handle of the paddle or holding the breath while hitting the ball.

As I say to students a lot of the time - the more relaxed you can play the better!

Working on gaining softer hands will help reduce the overall tension in the body...

Photo Credit: Sara McInnes

The Wrist

This is worth addressing right away here. When I speak of soft hands I’m not suggesting a relaxed or loose wrist. The wrist should almost always be locked in pickleball so that the movement of the arm comes from the shoulder.

In today’s game, you will see the majority of high-level players keeping an almost exaggerated, open wrist as well; aside from pro player JW Johnson who often curls his wrist inwards when hitting a forehand dink.

Feel it Out

Okay, so if you aren’t sure that you’re death gripping the paddle then take your paddle in hand and grip the handle as hard as you can - that’ll be a 10/10 in terms of tension.

Now, ease off the grip all the way to the point where the paddle could almost slip out of your hand and there’s your 0/10. Find that halfway point for a 5/10.

For reference, I tend to suggest to students that they hold the paddle around 3/10 with soft dinks.

Now, be honest with yourself: when you’re playing a rally how hard are you holding the paddle? When I’m giving a lesson I can usually see how hard a person is holding the paddle - white knuckles are usually a giveaway.

If you think about your fingers having a function in creating a softer grip then it’s a simple breakdown: the thumb and index finger are meant to grip the paddle with the last three fingers stabilizing and balancing the paddle in hand.

If a person can’t separate the tension from the wrist to the hand, then I would suggest removing the paddle from the hand and holding the arm up around chest height with the elbow slightly engaged/bent.

Ask the person to move the arm side to side, after a few swipes from the shoulder then start to wiggle the fingers while still moving the arm.

Have the person really focus on the fact that they’re now moving the arm side to side or back and forth and can move the fingers without engaging the wrist - the wrist is locked and engaged but the hand is executing another task.

There are times you want or need to hit with more tension and by holding the paddle harder you’re ultimately creating more power - but with the wrong angle that power will turn into a pop-up or send the ball out of bounds.

This can especially happen if someone attacks the ball at you and you move the paddle up to block it with a volley but without those sensitive hands, the ball will likely sit high for the team to attack the ball again. 

Photo Credit: Sara McInnes

Practicing Softer Hands

So now it’s clear what we mean when saying “soft hands” or “sensitive hands”. There are a few ways to practice absorbing the impact of the ball and creating that soft hand.

For someone who needs to start at the beginning, challenge them to toss the ball straight up in the air - well above head height - and catch it with their dominant hand - have them visualize the ball being an egg instead and they need to catch the ball without breaking the egg.

Once they have that figured out then they can try the same challenge but must cradle the ball with the paddle.

This might be pretty challenging for the person and the idea isn’t to get them to achieve the catch before moving onto something else - this can be a work in progress.

In a two-person drilling scenario I would suggest having one person feed the ball as a flat speed up about a foot or so off of their non-volley line, directly to their partner.

The partner is going to work on absorbing the pace and power of the feed by softening the hands and relaxing the body; some evidence of them doing this successfully is when the ball drops into the feeder's non-volley zone, with a low bounce.

Keep in mind that if the arm pushes out to meet the ball or sort of gets jerked up towards the ball then the soft hand won’t be enough, the entire body should be relaxed as you run this drill.

The person feeding should really focus on creating speed-ups that are consistent in pace, power, height/angle, and location. Increasing all of these elements to provide a more challenging feed should occur with the increase of players’ ability.

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