Pickleball Rules, Explained Simply

Pickleball is easy to start and full of small rules that trip up new players. This guide covers everything you need to play a correct game, in the order it comes up: the court, the serve, the two-bounce rule, the kitchen, and scoring. All of it follows the official USA Pickleball rulebook.

The quick version

1. Serve underhand, diagonally, into the opposite service court.
2. The two-bounce rule: the ball must bounce once on each side before anyone may volley.
3. Do not volley (hit the ball out of the air) while standing in the kitchen — the non-volley zone within 7 feet of the net.
4. Only the serving side can score a point. Games go to 11, win by 2.

The five rules on one card

Every point in pickleball is governed by these five. If you only memorize one thing before your first game, memorize this table.

The court

A pickleball court is 20 feet wide by 44 feet long — the same size for singles and doubles, and the same footprint as a doubles badminton court. The net is 36 inches high at the sidelines and 34 inches at the center. On each side, a 7-foot area extending from the net is the non-volley zone, universally called the kitchen.

Those numbers do not change with the format. A singles court is not narrower, and the net does not move — which is why the same court hosts both games all evening. The full layout, including where the lines sit relative to each other, is in our court dimensions guide.

Serving

The serve has more rules than any other shot. To serve legally:

• Serve underhand. Contact the ball below your waist (navel level), with the paddle head below your wrist.
• Serve diagonally. The ball must travel cross-court into the opposite service court, clearing the kitchen and the kitchen line.
• Keep both feet behind the baseline at the moment you strike the serve.
• One serve attempt. There are no second serves as in tennis (although a serve that clips the net and lands in is simply played on under current rules).

A drop serve — where you drop the ball and hit it after the bounce — is also allowed, and many beginners find it easier to keep legal.

The two-bounce rule

This is the rule that separates pickleball from tennis, and the one beginners break most. After the serve, the ball must bounce once on the receiving side, and then once again on the serving side, before either team may volley (hit it out of the air). In practice: the serve bounces, the return bounces, and only then can players start hitting out of the air. This stops the serving team from rushing the net and smashing the return, and it is why pickleball rallies develop the way they do.

The kitchen (non-volley zone)

The kitchen is the 7-foot zone on each side of the net, and its rule is simple to state and easy to break: you cannot volley the ball while any part of you is touching the kitchen, including its lines. You may step into the kitchen any time to play a ball that has bounced; you just cannot be in it (or touching its line, or carried into it by your momentum) when you hit a volley. Much of high-level pickleball is a patient battle at the kitchen line for exactly this reason.

Scoring

Pickleball uses side-out scoring: only the serving team can score a point. Games are played to 11 points, win by 2 (tournaments sometimes use 15 or 21).

In doubles, the score is called as three numbers— for example “4–2–1” — meaning the serving team's score, the receiving team's score, and the server number (1 or 2). Both players on a team get to serve before the serve passes to the opponents, except at the very start of the game, when the first serving team gets only one server. When your team wins a point, the same server keeps serving and you both switch sides; when you lose the rally, either the serve passes to your partner or, if both of you have served, it goes to the other team (a “side out”).

Common faults

• Volleying while standing in the kitchen (or touching its line).
• Volleying before the ball has bounced once on each side (breaking the two-bounce rule).
• Serving into the net, out of bounds, or into the kitchen.
• Hitting the ball out of bounds, or letting it bounce twice on your side.

Your first game, in order

The rules make far more sense in the sequence they actually occur. This is a whole point, start to finish:

1. Call the score. Three numbers in doubles, two in singles. The very first call of a game is “0–0–2”.
2. Serve. Underhand, from behind the baseline, diagonally into the far service court, clearing the kitchen line.
3. The receiver lets it bounce. Bounce one. They return it, usually deep.
4. The serving team lets that bounce. Bounce two. This is the rule beginners break, and it is why the serving team stays back.
5. Now the rally is open. Anyone may volley. Both teams move up to the kitchen line and the soft game begins.
6. Someone faults. If the serving side won it, they score a point, switch sides with their partner and serve again. If not, the serve moves on.

That's enough to play

Learn those five things — serve, two-bounce, kitchen, scoring, faults — and you can play a correct game today. Everything else is refinement. If you are brand new, our beginner hub covers the gear side, and what is pickleball gives the bigger picture. If you are coming from another racket sport, pickleball vs tennis maps the differences.