Pickleball Rules

Pickleball Rules

General Rules

Pickleball can be played indoors or outdoors and with Singles (one player against another like in Tennis) or Doubles ( 2 players on either side with a total of 4 players)

1. The Serve

• Service is always underhanded and contact the ball at a level below the waist
• Service must be behind the baseline
• The serve must be to the court diagonally on the opposing side

2.  The Two Bounce Rule

• After the serve, the receiving team must let it bounce before the return
• the serving team must let it bounce before returning

• *TIP – this is why the serving team player(s) must stay back at the baseline so they can allow a deep return to bounce

3. Kitchen or Non-Volley (NV) Zone Faults

• The Kitchen is a rectangle that extends  7 feet  from the net on both sides.
• Players cannot step on the NV-line or into the Kitchen when making a volley shot (hitting the ball in the air).
• Even if the ball is missed on the other side, forward momentum cannot take a player into the Kitchen after hitting the ball.
• No article of clothing, jewelry, or paddle can fall into the Kitchen during a volley—it’s considered a fault.

3.  Faults and Let Serves

• Common faults include

– serve is not into the diagonal  zone

– stepping into the Kitchen during a volley

– serving out of turn 

– hitting the ball into the net.

• A let serve occurs when the ball touches the net during the serve but still lands in the correct service court. In this case, the server gets another chance.

4.  Scoring

• Pickleball is typically played to 11 points (can use 15 or 21 points as well).
• Only the serving team can score points.
• The serving team tries to score more points than the opponents.
• Scoring  always starts as  0 0 1   (score of serving team, score of opposing team , and player number)

5.  Serving

• The serve must be made underhand.
• The server stands behind the baseline and serves diagonally to the opponent’s service court.
• The ball must clear the NV-zone and land in the diagonal service court.
• If the serving team wins the rally, they continue serving from the opposite side.