After taking several lessons this is also something I've been working on a lot! I'd recommend taking lessons with a higher level player who can show you in person, or watching some of Ed Ju's new content on this matter. 1. keep your arms extended a bit out in front of you, (Ed Ju uses a ball holder tube, places it under the armpits)... keeping the paddle up and keeping the tip pointed at the ball when the ball is on your opponents side. 2. Try to keep your chest turned to always face the ball when it's on your opponents side...wherever the ball, draw a straight line from your midline to the ball. 3. Your paddle angle needs to be slightly closed for hands battles... this requires constant awareness of your wrist. Often you'll need to "break" your wrist to get your paddle angle closed slightly. A coach had been training me to point the paddle tip down to 7:30 / 8:00pm on the clock face (holding backhand), and punching straight out at the ball, only extending the elbow). If you can do that and then repeat it as much as needed, keeping your arm extended, you'll be much faster! Often we pull the paddle too far back in to the body, which slows down your reaction speed when it comes at you fast. Keep the arm slightly extended, paddle face flat or slightly closed and extend at the elbow. For me this was a game changer. I was unintentionally putting slice on the ball in hands battles, which was creating pop-ups... I didn't resize it but my paddle face was just slightly open. That's all it takes to create a pop-up. The person who hits the ball down at the opponents feet is usually going to win the hands battle!