What Are The Rules of Pickleball?
What is Pickleball?
Pickleball is a game that can be played either indoors or outdoors with a pickleball paddle and a small, plastic ball with holes. You can either play singles with two people or doubles with four people. The surface of a pickleball court is the same as a tennis court, but the dimensions are much smaller (44' long x 20' wide, whereas a tennis court is 78' long x 36' wide). It’s a great option for you and your friends to get up and moving without putting too much stress on your body.
Scoring Rules
The scoring in Pickleball is a little different than other racquet sports. In Pickleball, a team is declared the champions when they win two out of three games. To win a game, a team must be the first to win 11 points, winning by two points. So if the score is tied at 10-10, the team must win two more points to win the game.
Here’s where pickleball scoring is different than other racquet sports: the serving team is the only team that can score points. If you are on the returning team, so sorry! No points for you. (No need to fear. You are one step closer to becoming the serving team if you do win the point when returning.) Check out the Wilson guide for more information on how to score in pickleball.
Serving Rules
The serving rules can be a little tricky at first, but we’ve broken them down so you can better understand what’s going on.
Serving Sequence
The typical serving sequence is the first server begins serving on the right side of the court. If the serving team wins the point, the server serves the next point from the left side of the court. If the serving team loses the point, then the second server serves from the side he or she played the previous point (A little confusing, I know). Once the serving team loses their second point, then they pass along the serving “power” to the other team. So in other words, just keep winning the point on your serve, and you won’t have to worry about remembering who serves next.
As with all games and sports, there is an exception to this serving rule. When players first begin their match, the first serving team continues to serve until losing the point. Once the serving team loses their first point, then the other team beings their serving sequence. This rule only applies at the beginning of a game, so make sure you continue swapping servers after the first sequence.
Two-Bounce Rule
Again, another rule that is unique to Pickleball is the two-bounce rule. This rule means that after the serve, the returner must let the served ball bounce on the ground before hitting the ball, and the serving team must let that returned ball bounce on the ground before hitting the ball. Hence where the two-bounce rule name was born. Once the ball touches the ground twice, it’s fair game for either team to hit the ball out of the air.
Kitchen Rules
And no, we are NOT talking about rules for cooking.
Everyone has a love-hate relationship with the Kitchen, also known as the Non-Volley Zone. This is the 7-foot area within both sides of the net. To make things easier for yourself, imagine the Kitchen is lava. Players are NOT allowed to step inside whenever volleying or hitting the ball out of the air. That means no stepping on the line or inside the area before or during your swinging motion. If you do happen to hit the ball out of the air while standing in this area, you unfortunately lose the point.
The only time you can step inside the Kitchen is if the ball has already bounced in the Kitchen. Only then can you step inside and hit the ball after it has bounced. Just make sure to get out as quickly as possible, or else your opponents might hit a ball straight at you when you are in the "non-hitting" zone!
Line Calling Rules
Like other racquet sports, Pickleball line calls are based on the honor system. Whichever side the ball bounces on, that team is responsible for making the call. Any time a ball bounces on the line (except on a serve when it hits the Kitchen line), it is considered in. As they say, when it doubt, call it…in.
Rules Expert Certificate
We all know that understanding the rules makes playing games much more exciting. After reading this post, you now know all the basic rules of Pickleball! We’ve covered everything from the score, serve, kitchen, and line calls. Now it’s time to go out and play some pickleball!
