Rules

Serve Rules

The serve is the first shot that starts a rally. In pickleball, the only legal serve is an “underhand serve” — swung upward from below waist height. That makes it easy for anyone to start playing right away.

1How to Hit It

Swing your arm upward in an arc, from low to high. Swinging downward is not allowed.
At contact, the paddle head must be below your wrist, and the ball must be struck below waist height.
The standard serve drops the ball from your hand before striking it. A “drop serve,” where the ball bounces once first, is also allowed.
You may not deliberately spin the ball with your tossing hand. Natural spin from simply dropping the ball is fine.

2Where to Stand and Where to Aim

Serve from behind the baseline. Stepping on the line or into the court is not allowed.
Stepping outside the sideline while serving is also a fault, known as a foot fault.
Serve diagonally into your opponent’s service area, on the far side of the court.

Who serves first is decided by a fair method, such as a coin toss or rock-paper-scissors. The winner chooses whether to serve or receive, and which side of the court to start on — and may hand either choice to the opponent instead.

Serving Order

Scoring is simple, but keeping track of which player serves from which side of the court can be a little confusing at first. Once you know these four points, you won’t lose track during a match.

When Your Team Scores

The same server switches sides and serves again. As long as your team keeps scoring, you keep serving.

When the Other Team Scores

No point is awarded — instead, the right to serve simply passes to the other team. This is called a “side out.” Your position on the court doesn’t change.

A Special Rule for the Very First Serve

Only on the first serve of each game, the serving team gets just one server instead of two. If that serve is lost, the ball goes straight to the other team. Both players get to serve from then on.

If You Lose Track of Where to Stand

Just remember: if your team’s score is even (0, 2, 4…), stand on the right; if it’s odd (1, 3, 5…), stand on the left. Check the score and you’ll always know where to be.

Illustration of player positions for the first serve, with the serving player highlighted in yellow hitting diagonally across the court

The player highlighted in yellow is the one about to serve, hitting an underhand serve diagonally into the opponent’s service area.

How Scoring Works

Pickleball uses “side-out scoring”: only the serving team can score a point. If the receiving side wins the rally, no point is scored — the serve simply passes over.

3–1–2Called out loud as: “three, one, two”

First Number

The serving team’s score

Second Number

The receiving team’s score

Third Number

Whether the first or second server is currently serving

Games are scored one point at a time. The first team to reach 11 points with a lead of at least 2 wins. If the score reaches 10–10, play continues until one team leads by 2, such as 13–11. Match formats vary by tournament — some are played to 15 points, or as a best-of-three-games format.

It might look a little odd, but every game’s score starts at “0-0-2.” Since only one player on the serving team gets to serve at the very start of a game, the count begins as if that player were already the “second server.”

The Two-Bounce Rule

After the serve, the ball must bounce once on the receiving side before it can be returned. The same applies to the return shot: it must bounce once on the server’s side before it can be volleyed (hit before it bounces). In short, neither the serve nor the very next return may be volleyed — both must be allowed to bounce.

Wait for the 1st bounce after the serve, and the 2nd bounce after the return, before hitting the ball.

This rule stops players from rushing the net right after the serve to end the point immediately. As a result, rallies naturally last longer, giving less experienced players time to settle in and take part.

The Kitchen (Non-Volley Zone)

The 2.13m-deep area on either side of the net is called the “non-volley zone,” better known as “the kitchen.” Volleying (hitting the ball before it bounces) while any part of your body is touching this zone is a fault. This rule keeps players from winning points on power alone, and is a key part of what gives pickleball its strategic, back-and-forth feel.

Once the ball has bounced inside the kitchen, you’re free to step in and hit it. The fault only applies when you volley the ball — hitting it before it bounces — while your foot, hand, or paddle is touching the zone. Be careful of stepping in from the momentum of a volley, too, as that’s a fault as well.

Common Faults

Situation	Description
Kitchen Violation	Volleying while your foot, hand, or paddle touches the non-volley zone
Out of Bounds	The ball lands outside the court lines
Net Fault	The ball fails to clear the net, or a player’s body or paddle touches the net
Two-Bounce Violation	Volleying the serve or the very next return before it has bounced
Foot Fault	Stepping on or over the baseline or sideline while serving

A handy rule of thumb for line calls: if the ball touches any part of the line, it’s “in.” It’s only “out” if it lands completely beyond the line. Keep this in mind for those close, hard-to-call shots.

Any mistake that ends a rally — an out ball, a net fault, and so on — is collectively called a “fault.” It’s normal to be unsure about close calls at first; ask more experienced players around you, and you’ll pick it up quickly.

Once you understand the rules, see Court to see how the kitchen and court dimensions fit together.