5 Simple Tips to Play Better Pickleball SINGLES

I'm going to serve big. I'm going to return deep. I'm going to hit to his backhand. I'm going to get to the net. I'm going to win this point. Hey! Yes! That's pickleball singles. Danny Johnson, nice to meet you. Pickleball singles. I'm going to give you five tips so you can get the edge over the person that you play next in singles. Let's go. Okay, so here's tip number one. Stand middle, serve big. If I stand wide and I hit a ball to Danny and Danny takes it down the line, I'm forcing myself to have to run all the way over to hit that shot on the move. It'll look something like this. Okay? So what I want to do is limit the amount of running I have to do the moment after I hit the serve. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to stand middle. So I'm going to stand middle so I'm immediately in the center. Boom. And then I can go into my next point. So this first tip is stand middle, serve big. So I said to stand middle part. Now here's the second part. Serve big. I'm going to put him on his heels as much as I can to set up my third shot. If I can move him back on my serve, I immediately have the advantage. Beautiful. That's a good ball. One more point. Here we go. Nice. Boom. So there's a good example right there. I served really big and Danny missed the return, which is a good way to win some points and steal some points. Because he's doing what I'm going to talk about as the number two tip. I got to return it deep. Great energy, Danny. Nice. Oh, that was bad. So Danny returned that one short. The goal is to return deep. And you saw what happened. If Danny returns the ball short, I'm able to move forward as he was moving in and apply more pressure. I also have more options. I can rip the forehand cross court down the line. I could drop the ball. And so he's immediately at a disadvantage if he returns short, which is what we're trying to do with tip number one is get them to return short so we have more advantages. So Danny's job here is to return the ball deep. Let's see what it looks like. Okay. Shoot. Nice. Good shot. Danny's serve was deep and it put me on my back foot. And the moment he noticed it was deep, he came into the kitchen, which we're going to talk about in a moment. Tip number three, you want to hit it to their backhand as much as possible. And the truth is most players, maybe a majority, I'd say 80% plus have, especially at the beginner level, have a weaker backhand than they do a forehand. Their forehand is typically stronger. They typically can hit the ball harder, place it in better spots. And so Danny is a great example. So Danny's a really solid, really, really solid doubles player. In singles though, where Danny and myself struggle is our backhands are not nearly as good. So when Danny went into his first singles tournament, where did they hit you the ball? I didn't get a single ball on my forehand. It was all backhand. All backhand. All right. Most players have a weaker one. So attack and exploit the thing that they're not good at. So I'm going to serve deep. He's going to try to return deep and I'm going to hit to his backhand. Oh, good ball. See, I tricked him. He thought it was coming to his backhand and I took it right to his forehand. Yeah. That's called faking the game. Yeah. Good ball. Beautiful. So a good example there. He was hitting it to my backhand. I was hitting it to his backhand. We both have weaker backhands. Most players that you're going to play as a newer pickleball player playing singles are going to have a weaker backhand. Hit it there. You'll win more points. Kyle, if you noticed, your winner was with your forehand because you didn't keep it to my backhand. Yeah, exactly. Here's tip number four. Have courage and control the net because the player that controls the net often controls the point. Now, of course, not every single point, but in a majority of the points, especially at beginner level. So let's talk about the return first. Danny, the moment he hits the ball, he's probably going to hit my backhand like we just talked about. And then he's going to come in and control the net and force me to hit a very difficult shot, a passing shot, right? That adds added psychological pressure to me. And also Danny controls the net, he has a higher likelihood of winning this point because I got to hit a difficult shot. So let's take a look. And that's a perfect example. You saw Danny pretty deep return. I ran around, tried to hit a forehand. Danny was just there controlling the net. And then he got me off balance. He got me moving until he got a put away ball. And that's what you want to do, especially when you're returning. All right, now let's talk about on the serve. Now, a lot of times at the beginner level, you're playing somebody who doesn't really understand how to play singles. So they're going to return the ball. They're going to stay back. Here's what that would look like. So I serve it. They return it and stay back. Now, if that's the situation, you hit the ball to the open spot and you come control the net. And all of a sudden, you just flipped. Now, typically in a singles point, the person who gets to the net and controls it, a lot of times will win it at the lower levels. Here we go. This is another example here of Danny returning and not coming to the net. Serve big. Nice, right? So I just reapplied pressure to Danny. So here's the second type of shot you could hit. And it's one you see in doubles a lot is I serve it, they return it. I drop the ball, a third shot drop. And where do you hit it to? Hit it to their backhand. And if you hit it in a way that's not too high that they could just run around it and pound it, come in and approach the kitchen the moment you hit the ball. So that could look like this. Danny comes in. All right. He hits a return. I want you to hit the ball to a place, boom. I'm just hitting it to a place that he's not, right? I'm moving him around and I'm making him run and I'm really just getting one more ball in. So in order to avoid losing a lot of points just by hitting it into the net, put a ball to a place that's tough for them to recover. That was five tips for strategy for you to improve your singles game. If you just watched this video and came across it and you actually don't even know what the rules of pickleball singles is, click this video right here and you can go watch the rules before you go play in your next day. And also make sure you hit the like button if you like this video and comment the name of the first person that you beat in pickleball singles. I'm going to comment. Let's say it on three. One, two, three. Computer. And scene. Hey! Ah! No! How did I miss that? Come on!