Overview of the Rules of Pickleball

Not sure how to play? Here is a brief overview of the most important pickleball rules to know.

Pickleball can be played as a doubles team event, or as singles. Both utilize the same size court size and follow the same set of rules of rules.

Games are typically played to 11 points, and a player or team must win by 2. Tournament games are sometimes played to 15 or even 21.

Doubles Serving & Scoring

Side-out scoring: Only the team which is serving side may score a point. The return team can only side out on defense to get the serve back on their end.
The first serve is made from the right/even court.
Once a point is scored, the server changes sides and starts the subsequent serve from the left/odd court.
The server continues to switch back and forth until a point is won by the return team.
When the first server loses the serve, their partner (2nd server) has a chance to serve.
The second server serves until his team loses a point. One this occurs, the serve switches to the opposite team.
When the serving team’s score is even, the first server in the game for that team will be in the right/even court when serving or receiving. When it is an odd score, that player will be in the left/odd court.

Pickleball Singles Rules

A side-out is called each time the serving side loses a point on their serve.
If the score of the player is zero or even, they must serve from the right/even court. If it is an odd numbered score, they must serve from the left/odd court.
All other rules are the same as doubles rules.

The Two-Bounce Rule

When the ball is served, both the serving and receiving teams must allow it to bounce one time before returning it, equaling a total of two bounces.
After the ball has bounced once in each team’s court, both teams may either volley the ball (hit the ball before it bounces) or play it off of a bounce.
The two-bounce rule eliminates any serve and volley advantage and instead extends rallies.

No player may volley a ball while standing in the non-volley zone, or while touching any of the lines around the non-volley zone.
If a player makes contact with a ball while in the non-volley zone, a fault will be called.
A player may enter the non-volley zone to play a ball that has bounced and may stay there to play other balls that bounce.
Before playing a volley out of the air, the player must reposition both feet outside the non-volley zone

Nothing is Unreachable,

Pickleball People!