The game of pickleball is not a complicated game to learn and the rules can be broken down in to a set of basic rules that when learned will set you on the path to becoming a solid pickleball player. The official pickleball rules are governed and published by USA Pickleball with the official rulebook being updated on an annual basis. Lets take a look at the basic pickleball rules that all pickleball players should know.
What Are the Pickleball Rules that all Players Should Know?
Luckily, the rules of pickleball are not so complicated for the average player to learn. This makes it easy to summarize the rules in a compact list of the main rules to learn before stepping on the court.
SERVING RULES
1. All pickleball serves whether volley or drop serves must be made underhand.
This may be lesson # 1 when stepping on a pickleball court and playing your first game. The pickleball serve must be made as an underhand motion. The underhand pickleball serve motion in my opinion is so unnatural and totally different from any shot that I am aware of in other paddle and racket sports.
For these reasons, many new players have a hard time learning how to serve due to the requirement the paddle must be below the waistline when striking the ball on the serve. The server will serve by swinging in a low to high motion, the servers arm must be moving in an upward arc when the ball is struck and propelling the ball over the net in to the proper service box.
If the underhand serve is a challenge as you begin your journey learning how to play pickleball, start out with a drop serve as your “go-to” serve until you are ready to switch to a volley underhand serve.
You will also want to make an effort to learn the pickleball serve rules so you know what you can and can’t do on the serve which is an important part of developing into a good pickleball player.
2. Serves are made diagonally cross court with both feet behind the baseline until after the ball is hit.
When the serve is hit, the server’s feet must be behind the baseline and not beyond the imaginary extension of the sideline. This is pretty self-explanatory and not much explaining needed here, keep your feet behind the baseline when you are serving, and no part of your foot may touch the baseline at any time during the moment of the serve.
Fun playing fact: some experienced players like to serve from different spots on the baseline believing that doing so gives a different look to their serve and making it more difficult for some opponents to return a serve. Do you use the same serve strategy?
The easy thing to remember when serving is to serve the ball crosscourt to your opponent with the ball landing squarely in the diagonally opposite service box.
3. Only one serve turn is allowed per player per doubles team in a serving sequence, with each player serving until their team commits a fault.
The first serve of a doubles game starts with a score of 0 – 0 – 2 and the first server serves until that doubles team commits a fault. A side out occurs, and the serve now moves to the opponents doubles team with each side out after the initial one resulting in both doubles players on each team taking their turn to serve.
After the initial serve sequence to start a doubles game where only the first player will serve, each subsequent service turn will have each doubles teammate taking their turn to serve and the server will continue to serve until the team commits a fault. When the doubles team commits a fault on server # 2’s serve turn, it is now side out and the serve moves to the opposing team.
4. A serve that lands in the Kitchen is a fault
Any serve made must clear the kitchen and land in the proper serve box diagonally opposite the server. The serve may not land in the kitchen or touch any part of the non-volley zone, or non-volley zone line.
DOUBLE BOUNCE RULE
5. When the server serves the ball, the receiving team must let it bounce before returning the ball, and then the serving team must let it bounce before returning. Thus, two bounces. Once the ball has bounced in each team’s court, the ball can now be volleyed (hit out of the air) or hit as a groundstroke by letting it bounce first.
This double bounce rule is a brilliant idea for the game of pickleball and it was put in place to eliminate any serve and volley advantage the serving team would have if the rule was not in place. Imagine if the double bounce rule didn’t exist, the serving team could serve and rush the net like John McEnroe and Pete Sampras made a living doing on the tennis court to put the return shot away with a well-placed volley.
This is one of the rules which takes a while to get used to. Experienced players know to always hit their serve return shots deep to their opponent’s court. New or inexperienced players naturally will take a few steps in after the serve and if the serve return comes back deep in the court, they can’t hit it out of the air as it sails by and before it bounces on their side of the court. If the server has taken too many steps forward after the serve the only option is to watch the serve return sail by waist high and land “in” at the baseline. I’ve had that happen to me way too many times when I just started playing, but I learned quickly.
NON-VOLLEY ZONE RULES
6. A player may not volley a ball while standing in the non-volley zone or touching the non-volley zone line.
7. A player is not allowed to volley a ball then have their momentum carry them into the non-volley zone or have either foot step on the non-volley zone line.
The rules governing the pickleball kitchen, also known as the non-volley zone are the rules that seem to generate the most confusion and require the most “pickleball continuing education” as I like to call it for pickleball players. The kitchen area on the pickleball court is a small 20’ x 7’, 140 sf area of the court that players find difficult to know when they can and can’t step in to the kitchen during a pickleball game.
The short answer is while not advised, a player can step into the kitchen at any time during a pickleball game as long as that player is not volleying a ball while standing in the kitchen.
If you are standing in the kitchen, and you let the ball bounce before you hit a return that is a legal shot. This rule applies whether you are in the kitchen or step into the kitchen to hit a shot that has bounced in play first on your side of the net.
We talk about the Pickleball Kitchen rules in more detail in this article but the summary we shared here is a good primer for what you can and can’t do in and around the kitchen area of the pickleball court.
SCORING
8. Points are scored by the serving team only. Games are played to 11 points, must win by 2.
While scoring in pickleball may not necessarily be a rule, you can’t play the game if you don’t understand how to score. Pickleball scoring can be a bit confusing for new players since the scoring is much different than other sports, there are three numbers to keep track of in the more popular doubles game. Most sports only keep track of two scores, your score and your opponent’s score.
The creators of pickleball decided they had to turn up the learning curve a notch and add a third number to keep track of when playing doubles. That third number is often a source of confusion on the court as to what that third number means and when to call out server “1” or “2” depending on who is serving.
Let me explain why there are three numbers in pickleball doubles scoring along with an explanation on what each of the three numbers mean. As an example, your doubles score may look something like this:
The first number is the serving teams score, the second number is the receiving teams score, and the third number lets you know if the current server is the first or second server to serve on the upcoming point for the serving team. For a more detailed explanation about pickleball scoring and how to keep track of the score in pickleball, read our full article on the topic here.
FAULTS
A fault is defined as any action that stops play because of a rules violation. We talk in greater detail about faults in pickleball in our article here. The next few rules summarize what happens when a fault occurs and what are the most common faults in pickleball.
9. A ball touching any line except the non-volley zone line on a serve, is in. A ball that touches the non-volley zone or non-volley zone line on a serve is short and considered out, also known as a fault.
10. A fault by the receiving team results in a point for the serving team. A fault by the serving team results in the first server losing the serve, or side out if the second server loses the serve.
There are 5 common faults in pickleball:
A ball is hit in to the net on a serve or a return
A ball is hit out of bounds
A serve lands in the kitchen rather than the receiving court
The ball does not bounce on each side of the net following a serve before it is volleyed
A ball is volleyed from the non-volley zone
Final Thoughts
Having a good grasp of the pickleball rules is essential to becoming a good pickleball player. Experienced pickleball players that know the rules better than newbies will use that knowledge to their advantage when playing.
Don’t be the only experienced player on the court making newbie pickleball mistakes because you choose not to learn the rules as well as you should. The rules are easy to learn, and you will be happy you have the knowledge once you start playing regularly.