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9 Simple Pickleball Rules for Beginners

2023-05-30

Do you want to learn how to play pickleball? You're not by yourself. Pickleball is America's fastest growing sport, and it's a lot of fun.

Whether you're a complete newbie or a seasoned player wishing to refresh your knowledge of the game, our fast tutorial has you covered.

Simply follow these nine basic rules, and you'll be playing in no time.


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Rule #1: Each point begins with a serve

The serve begins the pickleball game, and each point. The serve is initiated by the player on the right side of the court, facing their opponents. You serve to your opponent diagonally, into the right or left service area:


Rule #2: Your serve must be underhand

A pickleball serve must be hit with an underhand stroke with contact below the waist. Your arm must move in an upward arc when you strike the ball.

You can hit the ball out of the air, which is what most players do. You can also hit if you drop the ball on the ground.

The pickleball serve's goal is to put the ball in play. This is not like a tennis serve, where the idea is to serve overhand aggressively in order to win the point.

Rule #3: Each point continues until a fault

The game continues after the serve until a "fault" is committed. A mistake brings a point to an end.

In pickleball, there are basically 3 types of faults:
1.The serve does not clear the kitchen (including the line).
2.A shot is hit out of bounds - landing behind the baseline or outside the sideline.
3.A shot is hit into the net.

Note that there is no "let" in pickleball, which means that if a serve hits the net, there is no replay. The ball is played as soon as it touches the ground.

Later in our rules, we'll go over two more complex flaws.

Rule #4: You can't volley in the kitchen

The "non-volley zone," or kitchen, is marked by a 7-foot zone on each side.

This implies you can never hit a volley—an out-of-the-air shot—while having any part of your body in the Kitchen. Or even in the kitchen. You also can't let your momentum carry you into the kitchen following a volley.


Rule #5: You can hit groundstrokes in the kitchen

If your opponent hits a short shot landing in the kitchen, what’s called a dink, you can enter and hit from the kitchen.

Dinks are a defensive shot, and one of the most important parts of pickleball strategy. Often your best move after moving into the kitchen to field a dink is to dink right back to your opponent’s kitchen.


Rule #6: The ball must bounce on both sides before either team can volley

The ball must bounce at least thrice on each side before any player can hit a shot out of the air (a volley). This means that if your partner is serving and you start working in the kitchen, you are in a perilous situation...

This rule returns the serving team to the baseline. Without it, the serving side would be able to simply rush the net and gain an unfair advantage every time. As we'll see in our following rule, the return team would struggle to reclaim the serve and score points.

Rule #7: You only win points on your serve

Pickleball is a game in which you only win points on your serve and continue serving until you lose a point. You switch sides with your partner after winning each point on your serve and serve to the other opponent.

What if you blow the point on your serve? We' ll cover that below in Rule #8.

Rule #8: Both partners serve in a turn

Both players (in doubles) have the ability to serve during each turn. In pickleball scoring, players will pronounce three numbers, "Zero, zero... two."

What on earth is that third number? It keeps track of which of two players on a team has the serve.

Assume the game is deadlocked at 3-3. If you begin the serve (from the right side, remember), you will announce "3-3-1," letting everyone know you are the first player in rotation to serve.

The ball does not move to your opponents if you lose the point. It is your teammate's turn to proclaim "3-3-2."

If your partner fails to serve, the ball is returned to your opponents, who will say, "3-3-1." And your team will now have win points on both of your opponent's serves in order to reclaim possession of the ball.

Rule #9: First team to 11 points wins—but you must win by 2

Following all of the rules stated above, the game will continue until one team has 11 points. What's the catch? You must win by a margin of two.

So, if a game is tied 10-10, the next score does not determine the winner. The game is still going on at 11-10. This rule allows games to continue for an extended period of time. Ending scores of 12-10, 15-13, or even 21-19 are possible. However, these are frequently the most enjoyable games!

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