How to Play Pickleball

‍Everyone and their mother is talking about pickleball so let’s learn how to play in 10 minutes or less.

After teaching pickleball to countless friends, I’ve found the easiest way to learn is by:

Setting up the court
Learning some principle rules
Walking through some hypotheticals

No fluff… let’s learn pickleball.

‍

Pickleball Court

Pickleball is a racket/paddle sport that’s a combination of tennis, ping pong, and badminton. The paddle resembles that of a ping pong paddle over a tennis or badminton racket, while the ball you use is called a pickleball and looks a bit like a wiffleball.

The game can be played as singles or doubles, although doubles is much more common (and more fun)!

The court is 44 feet long by 20 feet wide and each side is dived up into 3 zones - left service area, right service area, and the non-volley zone (aka the kitchen).

‍

‍

🔥 Fun Fact You can fit 4 pickleball courts in 1 tennis court

‍

There are two types of shots in pickleball:

Groundstrokes - hit off the bounce, often from the baseline
Volleys - hit out of the air, often closer to the net

‍

Rule #1 - The game starts with a serve

The game begins with a serve. The player in the right box on the serving team (red) starts first. You serve diagonally to your opponent (yellow box) and the ball must land beyond the kitchen.

‍

Note, on the serve, If it hits the kitchen line (red line), it’s a fault. If it hits any other line, such as the sideline or centerline, the rally continues on.

‍

Rule #2 - The ball must be served underhand and from behind the base line

Both feet must be behind the baseline while serving.**

‍

Pickleball Serving - Behind the Baseline

‍

** You are allowed to hover your foot over the baseline, so long as that when the ball is hit, the foot is not touching the ground over the baseline. Most simply keep both feet on the ground behind the baseline.

‍

Note, you cannot jump while serving.

‍

Rule #3 - The rally continues until a fault occurs.

You win the rally if your opponent:

Hits a ball out of bounds
Hits a ball into the net
Lets the ball bounce twice on their side
Performs a kitchen violation (more on that in a minute)
Gets hit by the ball

‍

Rule #4 - The ball must bounce at least once on each side before you can hit a volley

If you recall there are two types of shots you can hit:

Groundstrokes - hit off the bounce, often from the baseline
Volleys - hit out of the air, often closer to the net

The ball must bounce at least once on each side before a volley occurs. What this means is that the team receiving the serve must let the ball bounce on their side. When the serving team receives the ball back, they too must let the ball bounce.

‍

‍

From that point on, either team may volley the ball out of the air.

Heads up This is one of the tricker concepts for beginners

‍

Rule #5 - You cannot hit the ball out of the air in the kitchen

If you hit the ball out of the air, your feet cannot be touching the kitchen line or be inside the kitchen line.

‍

‍

Note, they can hover, but they can’t be inside the line touching the ground.

🔥 This makes a lot of sense. the game would be quite different if this wasn’t a rule

‍

Rule #6 - You may hit the ball out of the kitchen so long as you let the ball bounce

You are allowed to enter the kitchen and hit the ball, so long as you let the ball bounce. You do not have to wait for the ball to bounce to enter the kitchen. I'll repeat that because a lot of beginners struggle with that one.

‍

You do not have to let the ball bounce before entering the kitchen. You can enter either before the ball bounces or after the ball bounces. Just be sure that you let the ball bounce.

‍

‍

Rule #7 - If you hit a ball out of the air and your momentum carries you into the kitchen, that’s a fault

Although uncommon, your partner is allowed to pull you back if you’re about to fall in.

‍

Rule #8 - You can only score while your team is serving, you play to 11 points, and must win by 2.

In pickleball, you can only score points while your team is serving. Both players on your team get a chance to serve, before your possession is over and the serve is handed over to the other team.

‍

You play to 11 points, win by 2. This means if the score is 10-10 and the serving team wins the point, the score is now 11-10 but the game is not over. You continue playing until a team is up by 2 points.

‍

How to start a pickleball game (Game Flow)

Now that we’ve covered 8 principle rules to get us started, let’s setup the game.

‍

Pickleball - How to start a pickleball game

‍

The first person on your team serves.

If your team wins the point, that same person serving switches sides to the other box and continues to serve.

‍

If your team does not win the point, the serve switches to their partner

‍

Both team members get a chance to serve during a possession. When the second team member is serving and loses the point, the possession is over, from which the other team now begins serving.
‍
‍

‍

This is known as a side out, meaning the possession has shifted to the other team.

‍

How to score pickleball

In doubles, the score is comprised of 3 numbers - the serving team's score, the receiving team's score, and the current server.

‍

Whoever is on the right box when the side out occurs, aka you start serving, is considered the 1. When the 1 loses the serve, the serve goes to the other side where the 2 resides.

‍

‍

🔥 Worth noting The same person is not always the 1 or the 2. It matters who is on the right box, when the side out occurs that determines the 1 or the 2 for that possession.

‍

To reiterate some scoring rules from earlier:

You can only score a point while you are serving
The game is played to 11 points
You must win by 2

‍

How to Play Pickleball Singles

While doubles is by far the most popular way to play pickleball, you can enjoy the game playing singles.

Playing singles works the same way, except for the fact that there is 1 person on each side.

The biggest difference here has to do with serving. There’s no need to callout the final number, as there is only 1 person on each side serving.

Singles Rules

The first serve for each side starts on the right side
IF the server wins the point, the sever (and therefore both players) switch sides.
If the receiver wins the point, both players remain where they are
The server continues serving until he or she loses a point
The server starts serving in the right box when the server score ends in an even number (0, 2, 4, 6, 8) and on the left side when the server has an odd number (1, 3, 5, 7, 9)

‍

Best Pickleball Paddles

If you've read the rules and are ready to play, make sure you've got the paddle for you. We've put together some very thorough buying guides to help to sift through all the options.

‍

Check out Best Pickleball Paddles of 2023

‍

How to Play Pickleball (Video)

If you prefer to learn in video form, Kyle Koszuta from ThatPickleballGuy has put together an incredible video (under 10 mins).

‍