This is like a personal little two-stroke engine. When you push in the handle, it shoves the air into your game ball... but when you pull back on the handle, it still shoves in air. Now it can take half the time to inflate your Mikasa Sports USA and with half the energy. Does this mean that now you have twice the energy for the game? The only trick to this little red pump is to find the needle. We hid it in the top of the handle just to protect it during shipping. All you have to do is screw it on to the flexible hose and put it to use.