Pickleball Bug

Category: Pickleball Rules

  • Pickleball Rules

    AI referee pickleball court
      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.