Pickleball rules: the complete guide for beginners

Pickleball rules are shorter than they look. There are really only four things a beginner gets wrong: how to serve, when the ball has to bounce, where you may not volley, and how the score is called. Learn those four and you can play a full game today; everything else on this page is detail you can pick up between points.

The rules below follow the USA Pickleball rulebook, which is what almost every rec court, club and tournament in the US plays by.

The rules of pickleball in one paragraph

A game starts with an underhand serve, hit diagonally cross-court from behind the baseline. The serve has to bounce before the receiver hits it, and the return has to bounce before the serving team hits it. After those two bounces, the ball may be volleyed out of the air — as long as you are not standing in the seven-foot non-volley zone, the kitchen, next to the net. Rallies end in a fault. In traditional scoring only the serving team can score, and the first side to 11 points wins, by two.

How the serve works

The serve is the most rule-bound shot in the game, and the one most rec players do slightly wrong.

• It is hit underhand, with contact below your waist and the head of the paddle below your wrist. Or use the drop serve: drop the ball from your hand and hit it after the bounce, with any motion you like.
• You stand behind the baseline, between the imaginary extensions of the centreline and the sideline. Neither foot may touch the baseline or the court until after contact.
• The serve goes diagonally cross-court and must clear the kitchen and the kitchen line. Landing on the kitchen line is a fault; landing on any other line is good.
• You get one attempt. A serve that clips the net and lands in the correct service court is live — the let serve was removed in 2021.

The full mechanics, including what counts as your waist and how the drop serve differs, are in pickleball serving rules.

The two-bounce rule (also called the double bounce rule)

The serve must bounce. The return must bounce. Only then may anyone hit a ball out of the air.

That is the whole rule, and it is the one that keeps pickleball from becoming a serve-and-volley game. It also means the serving team spends the first two shots stuck near the baseline, which is why the third shot — the first ball they are allowed to hit however they like — matters so much. That shot has its own drills.

What the kitchen rule actually says

The non-volley zone is the seven-foot strip on each side of the net, and the rule is narrower than most people think: you may not volley while touching it. You can stand in the kitchen all day if you want. You can step in to play a ball that has bounced. What you cannot do is hit a ball out of the air while any part of you touches the zone or its lines — including if your own momentum carries you in afterwards.

Pickleball kitchen rules covers the momentum clause, the partner-contact case and where the line sits.

How to keep score

In doubles the score is three numbers, called before every serve: your score, their score, and whether you are the first or second server. 4-2-1 means you have four, they have two, and you are the first server of the pair. Games are to 11, win by two, and only the serving team can add a point.

The full method, including why the first serve of the game is called 0-0-2, is in pickleball scoring.

Faults: every way a rally ends

A fault ends the rally. The common ones:

• The ball lands out, or in the net.
• You volley while touching the non-volley zone or its lines.
• You break the two-bounce rule.
• The ball hits you or anything you are wearing.
• You hit the ball before it crosses to your side, or touch the net with your paddle or body while the ball is live.
• The serve lands in the wrong court, or on the kitchen line.

If the serving team faults, they lose the serve. If the receiving team faults, the serving team scores.

Line calls and in-or-out

Any ball touching a line is in, with the single exception of the serve on the kitchen line. Players call the lines on their own side, and the rulebook is explicit that any doubt goes to the opponent — if you cannot be certain the ball was out, it was in.

Doubles and singles: what changes

Almost nothing. The court is the same size for both. In singles you call two numbers instead of three, there is no second server, and you serve from the right when your score is even and the left when it is odd. That single rule tells you where to stand without anyone tracking rotations.

What a beginner should read next

If you have the rules, the next two things that decide your games are the court you are standing on and the paddle in your hand. Start with pickleball court dimensions so you know where the lines are, then how to choose a pickleball paddle.