Chris Beaumont
The practical answer: Do not treat singles as doubles with extra running. Build a deep serve and return, practise moving diagonally as well as sideways, and learn to turn a drive into a winning position without automatically charging the net. At Worlds, Ben Johns, Tama Shimabukuro and Zane Ford all left the men’s singles draw on Wednesday, while the women’s bracket offered further evidence that a strong overall pickleball reputation does not guarantee an easy singles route.
The temptation for a good doubles player is obvious. You already serve, return, volley and read the ball. You may be the best player at your club. How different can singles be when the court dimensions stay the same?
Worlds has supplied a bracing answer.
Noe Khlif beat Ben Johns 11-8, 11-8. Donald Young beat Tama Shimabukuro 12-10, 11-7. Luc Pham beat Zane Ford 11-1, 11-3. In the women’s draw, Shannon Pretorius defeated fifth seed Chao Yi Wang and then Allison Phillips to reach the last 16.
Those results do not mean doubles excellence is a disadvantage. JW Johnson, Jack Sock, Christian Alshon and Hunter Johnson remain in the men’s singles draw. They mean something more useful for club players: the transfer is not automatic.
If you want to add singles, train the decisions that doubles hides.
First, stop apologising for your doubles instincts
Doubles teaches valuable things: compact volleys, patience around the kitchen, an understanding of angles and the discipline to wait for a better ball. You should not throw those away.
But doubles also gives you a partner who covers space, absorbs mistakes and supplies information. In singles, a cross-court shot that creates pressure in doubles may open an enormous recovery run. A safe middle ball no longer creates confusion between opponents; it simply gives one opponent time.
That changes the value of depth. A return that lands near the service line may be manageable in doubles because your partner is already established at the net. In singles it can invite the server forwards behind a drive and leave you defending the full width.
The first training target is therefore not a glamorous winner. It is the first two shots: a serve that earns a shorter return and a return that makes the server play from deep.
Alex Neumann described his default singles plan in an NYC Pickleball interview: “hit big serves, big returns, attack their backhands, and learn as you go.”
For club players, “big” should mean purposeful and deep before it means reckless. A serve at 80% effort that lands consistently near the baseline is more useful than an occasional missile followed by two faults.
Club drill: ten balls, two targets
Mark two deep boxes, one on each side of the baseline. Hit ten serves, aiming for depth rather than an ace, and record how many land in the intended half. Repeat with ten returns against a partner’s serve.
Only increase speed once eight of ten reach a useful depth. Your partner should vary the serve direction, because a grooved return against one familiar ball is not yet a match skill.
A simple scoring system helps: two points for a deep target, one for a legal ball beyond the service line, none for an error or a short return. You are training repeatable position, not admiring isolated pace.
Learn where your drive is taking you
The old singles idea was often drive, pass or drive and come in. Modern equipment and better countering have complicated that bargain.
In Will Daughton’s Pickleball.com report, Johns said the modern ball and spin-friendly paddles have made the old drop-and-come-in approach less reliable. “You can hit drops occasionally just to stay in the point,” he said, “but you’re not gonna drop and come in very often.”
That is not an instruction to hit every third shot as hard as possible. It is a warning against treating forward movement as automatically correct.
In doubles, two players can close together and protect the middle. In singles, coming forwards behind a loose drive can turn one passing shot into a lost point. The drive must create something: a short reply, a contact point below the net, or an opponent moving beyond recovery.
Neumann’s explanation of cat-and-mouse is useful here. He describes driving and crashing the net as one valid style, but says a drop after several passing-shot attempts can disrupt an opponent who has settled into the pattern.
The lesson is variation with a purpose. If you drive three times and your opponent keeps sending the ball deep, a fourth identical drive is not persistence. It is predictability.
Club drill: drive, read, choose
Have a partner feed from the baseline while you start on the opposite baseline. Play a third-shot drive, then use three calls:
- Green: the opponent is stretched or contact is low; move in behind the ball.
- Amber: the reply is neutral; take one step and prepare to play another ball.
- Red: the opponent is balanced and set; hold or recover rather than sprinting into a pass.
At first, let a coach or practice partner make the call. Then make it yourself. The aim is to connect the quality of your drive to your movement, not to memorise a slogan about attacking.
Train the recovery, not just the sprint
Singles movement is often described as a fitness test. It is also a geometry problem.
Doubles players commonly move laterally as a pair and recover towards the middle of their half. Singles demands diagonal recovery after wide balls, split steps timed to the opponent’s contact and a willingness to protect the next likely space rather than returning mechanically to the centre mark.
Liz Truluck’s Figure 8 drill addresses this directly. In Pickleball.com’s coaching interview, she describes one player repeatedly driving down the line while the other hits everything cross-court.
“I think it really helps with movement and changing directions,” Truluck said.
That is exactly the transition doubles players need. The drill exposes the moment after you strike the ball: do you admire the shot, or recover for the next one?
Start cooperatively. One player drives down the line, the other cross-court, with enough control to sustain eight balls. Then change roles. Only when both players can recover without crossing their feet or losing balance should you make it competitive.
Truluck also recommends standing close to a wall and alternating forehands and backhands. That simple drill develops compact transitions, particularly useful when a singles opponent takes time away with a body drive.
The backhand is a target, but not a prison
A standard singles plan is to attack the backhand. That can work, especially with a deep return, but club players often pursue it so rigidly that they hit predictable balls and neglect the open court.
Neumann notes that a deep backhand return can neutralise a stronger forehand. He also explains the other side: a player running around the backhand opens the forehand half, creating an opportunity to change direction.
So do not ask only, “Where is my opponent’s backhand?” Ask, “What position have they created by protecting it?”
If your opponent camps in the backhand corner, a deep ball to the forehand side may be more valuable than another attack into their waiting paddle. If they use a two-handed backhand, they may be comfortable driving but less comfortable reaching wide or handling a low slice. Those are hypotheses to test in the match, not universal laws.
Club drill: three-ball pattern
Serve deep, play the next ball to the backhand, then choose either another backhand ball or a change into the open court. Alternate the choice so your practice partner cannot anticipate it.
Score the quality of your decision as well as the outcome. A well-chosen change that clips the line and misses by an inch may be closer to good singles than a timid ball to the backhand that your opponent happens to miss.
Patience is different from passivity
Truluck’s advice against hard hitters translates neatly to singles: slow the ball down, be patient and do not let the opponent dictate your style.
That does not mean floating every ball into the middle. It means recognising that not every opening should be finished immediately.
Truluck says amateurs often construct a point well and then overhit the high ball. Singles magnifies that error because the opportunity feels so hard-earned after several runs and defensive shots. You finally see space and try to make the winner perfect.
Choose a margin that lets you hit hard without aiming at the outside edge of the line. A firm ball through the largest piece of open court is usually enough. If your opponent reaches it, you can play another.
This is where doubles instincts can return as a strength. Your kitchen experience helps you recognise a genuinely high contact point. Your volley technique helps you take time away. The discipline is to use those skills after singles-appropriate preparation, not to skip the preparation entirely.
Our Brooke Buckner coaching feature made the same connection through her work with Mike Wolf: better net coverage, lateral movement and the first volley gave power somewhere to go. The sequence matters more than any isolated weapon.
Build a singles practice week
A doubles player adding singles does not need to abandon doubles or perform mysterious professional drills. Try three focused sessions before your next match.
Session one: serve and return. Spend 25 minutes on deep targets, then play games in which every point begins only after both players have produced a legal first two shots. Record short returns as errors for practice purposes.
Session two: movement and transition. Use Truluck’s Figure 8 pattern, the wall exchange and drive-read-choose. Finish with points starting from a neutral third-shot feed so you must decide whether to advance.
Session three: patterns and finishing. Practise serve-backhand-open court and return-drive-volley sequences. Then play a normal match and count how many points you lose by overhitting the first apparent opportunity.
Keep the measurements simple: return depth, recovery balance and unforced finishing errors. They tell you more about your transfer from doubles than the final score alone.
And retain some humility about the format. Johns’s 189 career titles did not prevent Khlif beating him in straight games. Ford’s seed did not protect him from Pham’s 11-1, 11-3 win. At the other end, Waters’s control shows that elite all-round excellence can still transfer spectacularly.
Singles is not a superior test and doubles is not an easier option. They are different problems. The club player who respects that difference can carry across touch, anticipation and competitive nerve while rebuilding the first four shots and the movement between them.
Start with the return, not the highlight reel. The rest of the court becomes much easier to understand from there.
