Besides normal serve-to-score, game-to-11, win-by-2 singles and doubles, there are a few special games.

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• Play-to-9, win-by-1, rally scoring is good if you want a shorter game.

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• A Dink Game, in which anything that lands outside of the kitchen is out of bounds, is great practice!

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• Skinny Singles is good when you have only 2 people and you don't want to play a normal high-energy game of singles. When your score is even, you play on your right half. When your score is odd, you play on your left half. Your opponent does the same. Any ball hit to the wrong half is out of bounds. So when the score is 0-0, you are playing diagonally.

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• Play Mortimer when you have 1 or 2 extra players. An extra player stands back at the baseline and handles any balls that are missed by the two regular players on his side. When somebody goofs, they become the new Mortimer.

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• The Goof Game is also good for 1 or 2 extra players. Extra players wait to play on the sideline. If they clearly identify someone at fault for losing a point (i.e. an unforced error), the next waiter takes that person's place. The Goofer might not be the last person to touch the ball (for example if someone pops a ball up for no good reason that's a goof may cost a point down the line).

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• When you have only three players, play 3-player Rotation. Play 2-on-1 with the single player serving 5 times, alternating sides, and counting how many points he wins. Players than rotate clockwise and the next player plays alone for 5 serves. The lone player typically plays half-court so anything that lands in his non-service half is out of bounds.

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• When many players must share a single court, try Fives. In this game, you play a normal doubles game. As soon as one team reaches five points, their score reverts to 0. The player on the other side that has been in the longest is replaced by the next waiting player. That team retains their side's points (no reset to 0). Eventually everyone is replaced. Play continues indefinitely in this way. People rotate in pretty quickly in this game without much sitting around so it's especially good on a very cold day when players don't want to sit idle for very long!