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If you’ve ever played pickleball solo, you know that it’s very different from playing doubles. Singles are faster-paced, require more movement, and have different rules for how to hit the ball than pairs.
The bonus is, it’s a great way to work out your heart! Pickleball for one person is sometimes called “mini-tennis,” but it’s not just tennis in a smaller size. It’s a unique sport that needs skill, strength, health, and a lot of different shots.
One thing the two games have in common, though: you need a plan to win on the court. The tips below will help you improve your pickleball singles game, no matter how long you’ve been playing or whether you’re just starting.
Understanding Singles Pickleball Serving Rules
In doubles pickleball, there are rules about how to serve and how to play that affect the score and the order of the games. These are three important things to know about working as a single:
- Each player’s first serve comes from the right side.
- When the player wins the first serve, they serve from the left side.
- The person keeps serving from the right and left sides until they make a mistake. If they do, the serve goes to the other player.
Understanding these three serving ideas, along with the fact that the score goes from even from the right to odd from the left, will help you keep the game moving smoothly.
Strategies You Must Know When Playing Pickleball Singles
Mastering Serve and Return in Singles Pickleball
In doubles pickleball, it’s very important to know how the serve and return work. Because you have to cover a bigger court area than in doubles, the serve and return are even more important. A strong serve and return can change the point in a big way.
The Serve
- Key Item: A long serve is important, just like in doubles. If you want to put pressure on your opponent, don’t serve short or just get the ball in.
- Pressure the Opponent: When you serve a deep ball, your opponent has to hit from behind the sideline. This makes it harder for them and increases the pressure on them.
Return
- Importance: Your return shouldn’t be a simple shot that lets your opponent do any third shot they want.
- Keep It Deep: Aim for a deep return to keep your opponent on the move and edge.
- Make Them Move: If your opponent serves from the right, move to the left, and if they serve from the left, move to the right. This makes your opponent move across the court, which gives you a better chance of winning.
Exploit Opponent’s Weakness (Often Their Backhand)
For intermediate and lower-level players, this approach works especially well. However, pros often use it to take over points.
- Aim for the Backhand: Since 99% of players have a better forehand, keep the ball on their backhand side.
- Serve and Return Strategy:
- Put the ball on their backhand.
- Bring it back to their backhand.
- Applying consistent pressure: Keep aiming at your opponent’s backhand until they make a mistake, even if they move.
- Lower risk: By keeping the ball on their weaker side, you make it harder for them to make good offensive shots.
- Case-by-case exceptions: You may need to hit their better side sometimes, like when the court is wide open or you need to put away a high ball. Focusing on their backhand, on the other hand, will help them win the game.
Approach the Net Early and Often
Of course, you won’t always be able to get to the net. But getting to the net or even the middle of the court, especially after a return, can put a lot of pressure on your opponent.
- Rallying Strategy: During baseline rallies, hit the ball and then rush the net to put pressure on your opponent instead of waiting for them to return it.
- Return of Serve: After a return, top players almost always move up to the net and don’t stay back.
- Mobility and Quickness: Put pressure on the net whenever you can, depending on how quick you are.
- Break the other team’s plan: Making your opponent think about more than one choice can throw off their game.
- Get Used to Short Returns: Your return might be short sometimes, giving your opponent more choices. The main goal is still to put pressure on the net and figure out the best way to get close to it.
Keep Your Opponent Moving
Being aware of your opponent’s position on the court before and after each shot is crucial. Knowing their location helps you decide where to hit next.
- Court Awareness: Always know where your opponent is standing so you can hit them where they need to go.
- Force Movement: Aim your shots at places where your opponent isn’t to make them move all the time.
- Strategic Placement: To keep them moving, hit to the left if they are on the right and to the right if they are on the left.
- Tire Them Out: Making your opponent move over and over again will wear them down.
- Advantages for singles: You can use the whole court, which makes it easier to move your opponent around than in doubles.
- Gain Points: You can improve your chances of winning the match and earn points by hitting the ball where your opponent isn’t.
Hit and Recover
Remember to hit the ball and then come back to the middle of the court for every shot, whether it’s a serve, return, third shot, or something else.
- Positioning in the middle: If you recover to the middle, you can cover the whole court.
- Avoid Vulnerability: If you stay on one side, your opponent can get to the rest of the floor.
- Consistent Recovery: When you take a shot, you should always go back to the middle, no matter if you’re on the baseline or the non-volley zone line.
For example, if you and your opponent are at the baseline and you hit down the line, immediately move back to the middle to prepare for the next shot.
Boost Your Cardiovascular Endurance!
In singles pickleball, you have to move quickly across the court and cover the whole playing area by yourself. This could be hard on your body and test your fitness.
In singles pickleball, sometimes all it takes to win is beating your opponent by staying out longer. You don’t want to lose a game because you’re too tired, so work on your endurance and energy.
To improve your endurance on the pickleball court, do cardio workouts like jogging, cross-training, hiking, or anything else that gets your heart rate up.
Common Faults in Pickleball for Beginners
Volleys in the Kitchen
Anywhere in the non-volley zone (kitchen), even on its line, a volleyball can fall.
Common Mistake: Kids forget that they can’t serve in the kitchen, but they can hit the ball from there if it hits the ground first.
Two-Bounce Rule Violation
When the serve is over, hit the ball out of the air before it bounces once on each court.
Common Mistake: That is, not following the Two-Bounce Rule, especially after the serve.
Service Errors
Serve hits the net or goes out of bounds.
Common Mistake: Not doing a good serve, which leads to mistakes when serving.
Underhand Serve Violation
Not following the rules for an underhand serve, like not touching the ball below the waist.
Common Mistake: Getting the rules for underhand serve wrong.
Importance of Avoiding Common Faults
Focusing on avoiding these common mistakes can help newbies get much better at the game and improve their chances of beating other beginners.
To avoid making mistakes and improve your game, you need to know how to serve properly, understand the Two-Bounce Rule, and respect the non-volley zone.
Singles vs. Doubles: Understanding the Differences
You already know how different singles and doubles play are in pickleball if you’ve played singles before. When you play singles instead of pairs, it feels like a whole different sport.
Precision, patience, and planned placement are more important in doubles than in singles. Power, speed, and endurance are more important in singles.
It is possible to use some techniques from doubles to singles, but your performance as an individual is more important because you have to cover the whole court width.
Dive into Singles Pickleball: Learn by Playing!
Singles and pairs Pickleball has some small differences in how points are scored and what players should do, but these differences are easy to understand. No matter how experienced you are, playing singles games is a great way to show off your pickleball skills.
The best way to learn how to play both singles and doubles, though, is to go out on the court and play. This guide gives you a quick overview, but playing the game yourself is the best way to learn.
Put down your books and get your paddle ready—it’s time to hit the court! No matter how experienced you are as a pickleball player, playing a few rounds will help you learn and enjoy the game more.
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