Skinny Singles

If you have a practice partner (2 people), but you don't want to play full court singles, skinny singles is a great way to practice doubles with only two players. Skinny singles is singles pickleball (1 verses 1), but played on half the court so the dynamics of the game simulate the dynamics of doubles pickleball. The difference is that you can only hit to your the half of the court where your opponent is playing.

Balls that fall outside of the lane each person is playing on would be called out. Unless you are on a court with a defined line through the kitchen, you have to use a bit of discretion when calling balls in or out when they bounce in the kitchen. Most of the time, I try to err on the side of grace for the person hitting the ball unless it is clearly out. Playing longer points is more fun (I know, it's off brand for me).

Skinny singles yarn skeins

There are a variety of ways you can play depending on who you are playing with and what you are trying to achieve.

Down the line

This version of skinny singles is just played on one half of the court, straight ahead. You can play on the left or the right side. Any ball that lands outside the half of the court you are playing on is out. Serves are hit straight rather than cross court.

Balls are out unless they are on the side you are playing on.

Every variation of skinny singles I will present here will help improve the accuracy of your shots because you are only allowed to hit to one half of the court. Instead of listing that as a "pro" for each version, just know each version will help you in this area.

Pros

• Simple (no need to worry about where you are or your opponent is relative to the score)
• Helps improve shots down the line
• You can practice hitting ernes

Cons

• Serve isn't a legal serve
• Hitting to opponents down the line is not the best habit to engrain
• Not likely to get many opportunities to practice ATPs.

If you choose to play this version of singles, it would probably be best to at least change which half of the court you play on from one game to the next. Having the outside boundary on one side rather than the other makes a difference and it is good to get practice on both sides.

Also, to keep the serves legal on this version, you can have the server step to the diagonal court to serve the ball, but then slide over and play out the point down the line. That way you aren't practicing an illegal serve.

Diagonal

Diagonal skinny singles is just played on the diagonal. You can alternate between points if you like. One of the big benefits of this style of skinny singles is that you can allow for ATPs. If the shot goes around the post, the other half of the court becomes in bounds. 

It would be advisable here, just as in the previous method, to change directions so you don't exclusively get practice on one side of the court.

Pros

• Simple
• Serve is legal
• Cross court shots are, generally speaking, a better choice
• more margin for error
• longer flight path means more time to move and recover your position
• ATP practice!

Cons

• Ernes are unlikely (not impossible, but far less common)
• No practice shooting outside lanes

Gee Wally. if only there were some kind of hybrid version of skinny singles.

Don't be goofy, Beaver. Of course there is a hybrid version!

Tricky singles

This version of skinny singles has players playing the points out from the side of the court that corresponds with their scores. For example, if the score is 0-0, both players would play from the even side of the court (that's on the right side from each player's perspective. If the score is 1-0, the server would play out the point from the odd side of the court and the receiver would play from the even side.

This means that players will be playing from a diagonal half court when they both have even or both have odd scores and they will play down the line if one has an even score and one has an odd score.

0-0 would be played out on the diagonal.

1-0 would be played out down the line.

There are two ways you can manage serves when playing this way. The easiest way is to not worry about legal serves when you are playing down the line. You would serve down the line and play out the point. Sticklers for legal serves don't like that, so the solution is that the server would serve cross court to wherever the receiver is located, but slide to the other side where the server's score dictates to play out the rest of the point.

Looking at the lower diagram above (serving 1-0), to keep the serve legal, the serve would be hit from the server's even court, but the return would come down the line (to the odd side) and the rest of the point would be played out there.

Let's say the server loses that point; side out. Now the score is 0-1. The player with zero would serve from the odd side to serve cross court to the player with one point (that player is on the odd side), but again, the return would be hit down the line.

This might sound confusing, but it's really not that bad once you get the hang of it. And again, you can ignore the service rule about serving cross court to keep things simpler.

What happens at 1-1? Diagonal the other direction.

1-1 score is played out on this diagonal

Pros

• Best of both worlds; cross court shots and down the line
• ATPs and ernes
• You will learn to pay closer attention to scores and court positions

Cons

• Keeping track of serves and scores is important and can be a little confusing to start
• keeping score and your position on the court relative to the score is also worth practicing

This is my favorite version of skinny singles because it teaches you to place the ball to opponents on either side and hitting ATPs is too fun not to allow it.

What else?

There are good reasons for choosing to play any or all of these versions. If I am working with a brand new beginner to teach them the basics of pickleball and there were just two of us, I would probably just go with the simple down the line version. If I wanted to get focused practice from one position to strengthen my game on one side, I might play out 5 or 6 points on the diagonal from that side and 5 or 6 points down the line. Maybe I'm trying to focus on cross court drops and dinking. Skinny singles is a great way to practice when you don't have 4 players.

Now go try it!

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Let me know what's on your mind!

Thanks for stopping by,

David