Whenever I am teaching beginners how to play pickleball, someone will invariably say, “I’ve heard the rules are complicated.”
To be honest, there are a lot of nuances to the pickleball rules. After all, the game was dreamt up one afternoon by a couple of guys in their backyard. I can picture them standing around making things up on the fly, “Uh, how about if it bounces off the old redwood tree and comes back onto the court it’s a dead ball but if the dog catches it and runs away it’s a do-over?”
But, like any game, the rules become second nature after you’ve played a few times. Let’s put it this way, the rules for pickleball are not as easy to pick up as they are for Candyland, but not as difficult as trying to understand the “ineligible man downfield” concept in American football.
One of the quirky rules of pickleball, memorialized in Section 4.A.1 and 4.J of the USA Pickleball 2023 Official Rulebook, is that the score and the server number should be called before serving. Thus, if your team is winning 10 to 9 and you are the first server, you would be required to call out ten-nine-one before serving. Can you imagine an NBA player stepping to the free throw line and having to say, “94-88-first attempt,” before shooting?
But what if you call the wrong score? Or fail to call the score at all, as often happens? Or you call the correct score, but speak so softly that your opponents can’t hear you? Well, then things can get complicated. But let’s not worry about those details right now.
For now, if you are just starting out in pickleballI, you only need to know the basics. How to start the game, how to score, when to hit the ball, and when to not hit the ball. With that in mind, we’ve compiled the following bullet list of what you need to know to get on the court, hit the ball around with some friends (or soon to be friends), and have a good time.
Format
Pickleball is played either as doubles (two players per team) or singles. While there are certainly plenty of great “older” singles players, I prefer the doubles game as it is easier on my knees and my lungs.
The same size playing area is used for both singles and doubles.
Scoring
Points are scored only by the serving team.
Games are normally played to 11 points, win by 2.
The Serve
The serve starts the game. Any fair method can be used to determine which team has the first serve. You can flip a coin, you can guess a number, or you can use the Cards Against Humanity method and go with whomever most recently pooped.
Once the server is determined, they serve by 1) hitting the ball directly out of the air (called a volley serve), or 2) dropping the ball on the ground and hitting it off the bounce (called a drop serve).
A pickleball serve is not a tennis serve. At the beginner level, you are not trying to ace your serve. Rather, you are trying to hit an easy, underhand serve to put the ball in play. It can be harder than it looks. If using a volley serve, the server’s arm must be moving in an upward arc when the ball is hit, paddle contact with the ball must be below waist level, and the head of the paddle can’t be above the highest part of the wrist at contact. These rules don’t apply to a drop serve where all you need to do is drop it, watch it bounce, and hit it.
Whether you use a drop serve or a volley serve, at the time the ball is hit, the server’s feet must be behind the baseline (they can’t touch the court) and must be within the imaginary extension of the sideline and centerline. At least one foot must be on the ground when the ball is struck. This means no jump serves!
The serve must land within the opposite diagonal court.
Only one serve attempt is allowed per server. Practice your serve because there are no do-overs if you commit a fault. And since you can’t score unless you are serving, if you can’t get your serve in, you can’t score.
Serving Sequence
Only one player on the serving team gets to serve at the start of the game. Once they lose the point, the serve goes to the other team. From this point on, both players on each team get a chance to serve and score points.
Whenever a team gets the serve, the first server for the team is the player on the right side of the court.
If a point is scored, the server switches sides with their teammate and the server hits the next serve from the left side of the court.
As subsequent points are scored, the server continues switching back and forth until a fault is committed, and the first server loses the serve.
When the first server loses the serve, their partner then serves from whatever side of the court they are on.
The second server continues serving until their team commits a fault and loses the serve to the opposing team. This is called “side out.”
Once the serve goes to the opposition (at side out), the first serve is from the right side of the court and both players on that team have the opportunity to serve and score points until their team commits two faults.
In singles, the server serves from the right court when their score is even and from the left when their score is odd.
As points are scored, knowing which side of the court you are supposed to be on can be confusing. An easy way to remember where you should be is that when you are the first server for your team at the start of the game, you should be on the right side of the court whenever your team's score is even (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10). When your team's score is odd (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) you should be on the left-side court. Now the trick becomes remembering whether or not you were the first server for your team at the start of the game!
Two-Bounce Rule
When the ball is served, the receiving team must let it bounce before returning, and then the serving team must let it bounce before returning. This is known as the two-bounce rule.
After the two-bounce rule has been satisfied, players may then hit the ball before it bounces (called “volley”) or play it off a bounce (called a “ground stroke”).
Non-Volley Zone (also called “The Kitchen”)
The non-volley zone (The Kitchen) is the area within seven feet on both sides of the net. It is marked by a line going from sideline to sideline. This line is called the kitchen line.
Hitting the ball out of the air (volleying) while standing in the kitchen is a fault. Faults are bad.
It is a fault if a player steps in the kitchen or on the kitchen line after volleying the ball.
It is also a fault if the player’s momentum causes them or anything they are wearing or carrying to touch the kitchen or the kitchen line after volleying the ball. Thus, if your hat falls off your head and into the kitchen after you’ve just made a game-winning smash, you may think about wearing a better fitting hat.
It is not a fault to stand in the kitchen and hit the ball after the ball bounces.
A player may legally be in the kitchen any time other than when volleying a ball.
Only one kitchen-related joke is allowed per team, per game. For example, if your partner asks your opponent, “Did you make me a sandwich?” after your opponent volleys the ball while standing in the kitchen, you are prohibited from making a similar joke for the rest of that game.
Line Calls
Players are responsible for calling lines on their end of the court. The opponent gets the benefit of the doubt when making “in” or “out” calls.
A ball contacting any line is considered “in.” The exception is that a serve is out if it hits the kitchen line.
Players should not call a ball out unless they can clearly see a space between the line and the ball when it hits the ground.
Faults
A fault is any action that stops play because of a rule violation.
A fault by the receiving team results in a point for the serving team.
A fault by the serving team results in the server's loss of serve or a side out.
A fault occurs when:
A serve lands in the kitchen or touches the kitchen line. If the serve touches the baseline, centerline, or sideline of the opposite diagonal court, it is considered in.
A serve lands outside of the opposite diagonal court, such as in the wrong court our out of bounds.
The ball is hit into the net without going over or goes under the net;
The ball is volleyed before the two-bounce rule is satisfied;
The ball is hit out of bounds;
The ball is volleyed by a player standing in the kitchen or while touching the kitchen line;
A ball bounces twice before being hit back;
A ball is hit twice before going over the net;
A player, player’s clothing, or any part of a player's paddle touches the net or the net post when the ball is in play;
There is a violation of a service rule. For example, you hit the ball overhand on a volley serve;
A ball in play strikes a player or anything the player is wearing;
A ball in play strikes any permanent object before bouncing on the court.
With these basic rules in mind, you are all set to play. And, when you become as engrossed in the game as we here at Pickleball Mexico are, you can check back as we will periodically have information getting into the details of more nuanced rules, such as, what does happen if you don’t call the score before you serve?
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