Add it up sometime: how many minutes of your practice actually go to picking up balls? For a lot of coaches and players, it’s more than they’d like — and every one of those minutes is a rep someone didn’t get.
Here’s how to run a tighter, faster session so more of your time goes to playing.
1. Keep the balls in one zone.
Design your drills so shots land in a predictable area instead of scattering all over the court. Fewer far-flung balls means faster resets between reps.
2. Collect as you go — not all at once.
The giant cleanup at the end is where practice momentum goes to die. Top up between feeds instead, so you’re never facing a court full of balls at once.
3. Cut the bending.
Stooping for hundreds of balls a session wears you down and slows you up. A tool that lets you collect standing up keeps you fresh and moving.
4. Use one tool for every ball.
If you coach tennis and pickleball, you don’t want to switch gear between sessions. Pick something that handles every ball type you use.
5. Make cleanup part of the drill.
Build quick collection into the flow of practice — a fast pass to clear the zone before the next set. Keep the rhythm, keep the reps.
The easy win
Most of this gets easier with the right tool. The ClearCourt Ball Tube is built for it — a 48″ tall design so you collect standing up without the back strain, room for up to 21 balls in a pass, and it handles pickleballs, tennis, and red transition balls all in one. Pick up more, bend less, keep playing.
See the ClearCourt Ball Tube:
https://oncourtoffcourt.com/clearcourt-ball-tube/
Kalindi Dinoffer is trained in multiple aspects of mindfulness in life and in sports, sharing on her blog MindfulKalindi.com. She is also certified to teach yoga, fitness, reiki, and MFR. Kalindi also serves as CMO at OnCourtOffCourt.com, a leading supplier of tennis, pickleball, fitness and yoga training aids and equipment and has been published in Tennis industry Magazine and Pickleball Magazine, and has conducted workshops at conferences around the world. In her spare time, Kalindi plays tennis, pickleball and table tennis and enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking and biking and cross country skiing in the winter.
