How To Play Pickleball Skinny Singles

Playing pickleball singles is not as popular as playing doubles due to the sheer amount of movement that it may require. However, there is a singles game that can significantly improve your game without requiring a ton of energy running around. Let’s go over how to play pickleball skinny singles and why you should incorporate it into your game.

Pickleball skinny singles only use half the court of a regular pickleball court. You would draw up an imaginary sideline in the kitchen. Or you can use removable court line markers to close off the lines in the kitchen.

There are several ways to play skinny singles. By using exactly half the court straight across.

Or you can alternate crosscourt as a player scores.

Pickleball Skinny Singles Scoring

Scoring is the same in pickleball skinny singles are it is in a regular singles game. You can only score on your service and each player only gets one serve. Games are typically played to 11, win by 2. If you want to incorporate using cross-court, the player that scored will move to the other side of the court.

Once they score again, they would move back to the straight court. And they will continue this pattern until they score 11 points or win by 2. The advantage of alternating straight-court and cross-court is being able to get better placement practice. The disadvantage is that it can be harder to keep track of your score and position.

How Skinny Singles Can Improve Your Game

Since you’re bound to use only half the court, skinny singles require your shots to be more precise and controlled. In regular singles, you have a lot more margin for error since there is a lot more room on the pickleball court. With skinny singles, each service return, drive or drop, or dink must be within half of the pickleball court. It can be more challenging than you may expect.

Pickleball skinny singles also make it easier for you to make your third shot drop because there is only a small area of the court that you can place. For those that still have a tendency to stay at the back of the court, skinny singles will demonstrate the importance of moving up to the kitchen line as soon as possible.

Pickleball skinny singles have the advantage of playing like doubles since you only cover half the court as you would in a normal doubles game. However, it gives you twice the amount of hits since you have to hit every shot. So whether you’re working on improving a specific skill or your overall game, you have the opportunity to do so since you’re the only player on your side of the court.

If you happen to live in an area without a lot of other available pickleball players or if not enough people are free during the same time for a doubles game, a game of skinny singles can be just as fun. If you’re drilling with a single partner, it can also be a fun and competitive way to add to your routine.

More Pickleball Tips

For more pickleball tips and strategies or if you rather play a regular pickleball singles game, check out the next few articles below.

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