How do I stop being slow and damaging the crop?

Being slow and bruising the crop at the same time is the normal starting place, not a sign you are not cut out for this. Speed and care feel like opposites when you are learning, so you sacrifice one to protect the other. With time they stop fighting. Right now, care matters more. Damage is the more expensive mistake, so protect against it first. A slow, clean harvest beats a fast, wasteful one every day. Speed is a habit that builds quietly once your hands know the right touch, but a ruined crop cannot be undone. Let yourself be slow while you learn to be gentle. Watch someone who does it well and copy how they hold the plant, not how fast they go. Find the grip and the angle that comes away clean, and repeat it until it is automatic. The speed will arrive on its own once the motion is right. Build the hand first, and the pace follows.