Picking Up Pickleballs

(The Easy Way)

(For the Hard Way, Click Here)

This is a technique you may know already. If not, enjoy! This technique is not only impressive, but saves a lot of energy otherwise spent in bending down to pick up balls.

When the ball rolls on the floor to you, there is no need to lean all the way down to pick it up. Just trap the ball between the side of one foot and your paddle. Make a rapid upward motion with your foot and paddle in unison, and the ball will go up in the air where you can catch it easily.

One version is to use the inside edge of one foot with the paddle held in the opposite hand. The other version is to use the outside of the foot that’s on the same side as the hand holding the paddle.

Unless you are picking the ball up from a soft surface such as grass, you don’t need to pop the ball up all the way to your hand. You can just bring it up a foot (30 cm) or so, then hit it downward with your paddle so it will bounce off the ground and up to where it is easy to catch.