hand exoression vs electric pump

I am going on breast feeding 9 months now, and I work full time and go to school. my breasts do not do well with the pump at all, and I have been struggling to keep up....today I left my pump at work, and looked up some videos on youtube on how to use hand expression...I am finding I am getting a much better flow of milk than I do with the medela pump n style...am I alone or is this very common?

I wish I have known of this sooner.

You get better Control with hand expressing. But for some it doesn't work well. If u can get it to work do it. Or maybe use a mixture.