How to play pickleball: rules, scoring and the court

The pickleball court, with every part named

The court is 13.41 metres long and 6.10 wide (44 by 20 feet), the same size as a doubles badminton court, with a net 86 cm high in the middle. Lines are named on the far half of the diagram and zones on the near half.

The kitchen

The seven-foot zone on each side of the net, officially the non-volley zone. You may not volley while touching it or its line. Step in only to play a ball that has bounced.

Kitchen line

The front edge you stand behind at the net. It belongs to the kitchen: a serve that lands on it is a fault, and a toe on it during a volley is a fault.

Service courts

The two boxes behind the kitchen. Serve from behind the baseline into the one diagonally opposite. Start on the right when your score is even, and on the left when it is odd.

Transition zone

The middle of the court between the baseline and the kitchen line. It is not painted on the court. You pass through it on the way to the net, and it is where resets are played.

Baseline and sidelines

The outer lines. A ball that lands on any of them is in, except a serve on the kitchen line.

Centreline

Splits the two service courts. A serve landing on it is in.

The serve

Serve from behind the baseline, diagonally, into the service court opposite. You get one attempt. There are two legal ways to do it:

• The volley serve. Hit the ball out of the air with an underhand swing: the paddle moves upwards, and contact is below your waist.
• The drop serve. Let the ball fall from your hand (no throwing it down or up), let it bounce, and hit it however you like.

The serve has to clear the kitchen, and the kitchen line counts as the kitchen: a serve that lands on it is a fault. The other lines are in. Beginners should use the drop serve. It removes the two rules people break without noticing.

The two-bounce rule

The serve must bounce before the returner hits it, and the return must bounce before the serving team hits it. After those two bounces, anyone may volley.

This one rule shapes the whole game. The serving team has to stay back and wait for the return to bounce, while the returning team is free to run to the net straight away. It is why the returners usually hold the net first, and why the serving team's third shot is so often a soft drop into the kitchen: it buys them the time to come forward too.

The kitchen

The kitchen, officially the non-volley zone, is the strip seven feet deep on each side of the net. The rule is about volleys, not about standing there:

• You may not volley while any part of you touches the kitchen or its line.
• If your momentum from a volley carries you into the kitchen, it is a fault, even if the ball is already dead.
• You may step into the kitchen at any time to play a ball that has bounced. Then get back out before your next volley, with both feet re-established behind the line.

Cue: toes behind the line, paddle up. That is where most of the game is played.

Scoring and how to call the score

Games are normally played to 11, win by two. In traditional scoring only the serving team can score a point. If the receivers win the rally, nobody scores; the serve just moves on.

In doubles, both partners get to serve before the serve passes to the other team (a side out). The exception is the very first service turn of the game, when only one player serves. Whoever is on the right-hand side when their team wins the serve goes first, and is server one for that turn.

Before every serve, the server calls three numbers: their team's score, the other team's score, and whether they are server one or two.

When your team scores, you and your partner swap sides and the same player serves again, from the other service court. When your score is even, the player who started the game on the right should be on the right. If you ever lose track, that fixes it.

Singles uses two numbers, and you serve from the right on an even score and the left on an odd one. Some leagues and tournaments use rally scoring instead, where every rally scores a point whoever served. Ask the organiser which one you are playing before the first game.

What loses you the rally

• The ball lands out, or goes into the net.
• You volley before the two bounces have happened.
• You volley from the kitchen, or fall into it after a volley.
• The ball bounces twice on your side.
• The serve lands in the kitchen, on the kitchen line, or in the wrong service court.
• You, your clothes or your paddle touch the net while the ball is in play.

Where to stand

The serving team starts with both players back at the baseline, because the return has to bounce. The returning team starts with the returner back and their partner already up at the kitchen line; the returner hits and follows the ball in.

From there the aim for both teams is the same: get both players to the kitchen line and hold it. Points are won from there far more often than from the back. The stretch in between, the transition zone, is somewhere to pass through. If you get caught in it, a soft reset into their kitchen lets you keep moving up.

The shots to learn first

In this order, because this is the order a point happens in:

1. The serve: deep and in, nothing fancy.
2. The return: deep, then run to the kitchen line.
3. The third shot drop, or a drive when the ball sits up.
4. The dink, for the soft exchanges at the net.
5. The volley, for when someone pops one up.

Related guides

• How to serve in pickleball: rules, technique and drills
• How to dink in pickleball
• The third shot drop: how to hit it, and when to drive instead
• How to volley in pickleball
• Pickleball practice at home: drills without a court