Pickleball can be played in doubles or singles, both using the same size court and set of rules.
Games are normally played to 11 points, win by 2; Tournament games may be to 15 or 21, win by 2.
Doubles Serving & Scoring
● Side-out scoring: only the serving side may score a point.
● The first serve of each side-out 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 needs to switch back and forth until a fault is committed.
● When the first server loses the serve, the partner will serve.
● The second server serves until his team makes a mistake and loses the serve 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 odd, that player will be in the left/odd court.
Singles Serving & Scoring
● A side-out is called each time the serving side commits a fault.
● If the score of the player is zero or even, they must serve from the right/even court. Otherwise, they must serve from the left/odd court.
● Others are the same as the doubles rules.
Faults
The faults in pickleball rules include:
● Any action that leads to a rule violation.
● A mistake by the receiving team that earns the serving team a point.
● A serving team error causes the server to lose serve or side out.
The Two-Bounce Rule
● When the ball is served, both the serving and receiving teams must allow it to bounce before returning it. 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 a bounce (ground stroke).
● The two-bounce regulation eliminates the serve and volley advantage and extends rallies.
The Non-Volley Zone
● 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.
● 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, the player must reposition both feet outside the non-volley zone.
References: The official rules by USA pickleball
Niupipo: Feel No Limits