Pickleball rules you actually need for your first game

The official USA Pickleball rulebook runs to dozens of pages. You need about five of its ideas to play a friendly game without anyone stopping to explain things mid-rally. Here they are, in the order they come up on court.

The serve: underhand, diagonal, one try

Every rally starts with a serve, and the serve is where beginners give away the most points.

• Underhand. Your arm swings in an upward arc, you contact the ball below your waist, and the paddle head stays below your wrist. If that feels fiddly, USA Pickleball also allows a drop serve: let the ball fall and hit it after it bounces.
• Feet behind the baseline. At least one foot must be on the ground behind the baseline when you hit it, and you can't step on the line.
• Diagonal. The ball goes crosscourt into the opposite service box, the same idea as tennis.
• Past the kitchen. The serve has to clear the non-volley zone. A serve that lands on the kitchen line is short, and that's a fault.
• One attempt. No second serve. Miss it, and the serve moves on.

In doubles, the first serve of each turn comes from the right-hand court.

The two-bounce rule

This is the rule that makes pickleball feel different from tennis. After the serve, the receiving team must let the ball bounce before returning it. Then the serving team must also let that return bounce before hitting it.

Serve, bounce, return, bounce. After those two bounces, anyone can volley, meaning hit the ball out of the air. The practical effect: the serving team starts at the baseline and has to wait for the third shot before rushing the net. Most first-game faults come from someone volleying the return because it floated temptingly close.

The kitchen, and the one thing you can't do there

The kitchen is the official non-volley zone: the area within 7 feet of the net on both sides, including its lines. The rule is narrower than people think.

You can stand in the kitchen, walk through it, and hit a ball that has bounced there. You cannot volley while touching the kitchen or its line. That includes momentum: if you volley from outside and your follow-through carries a foot onto the line, it's a fault, even after the ball is already dead.

The kitchen rule isn't about where you stand, it's about where you are when the ball hasn't bounced yet.

Calling the score, the faults, and keeping track

In traditional doubles, the server calls three numbers before every serve: the serving team's score, the receiving team's score, then the server number, 1 or 2. Every game starts at "zero, zero, two," because the first team to serve gets only one server. Only the serving team can win a point. Games usually go to 11, and you have to win by 2.

Plenty of groups now play rally scoring instead, where every rally is worth a point. We went through both systems, and why the three-number call trips people up, in how to keep pickleball score without the mid-game arguments.

A rally ends with a fault when a player:

1. Hits the ball out of bounds (any line except the kitchen line on a serve counts as in).
2. Hits it into the net.
3. Volleys before both bounces have happened.
4. Volleys while touching the kitchen.
5. Touches the net with a paddle, body or clothing during play.
6. Lets the ball bounce twice on their side.

On day one, remembering the score while also remembering where to stand is a lot. Kitchen takes the score off your mind: tap the big button on your team's side to award the point, and it tracks the serve number, the server's side and side-outs for you. The numbers are big enough to read from the baseline with the phone propped on a fence, a shake undoes a mistap, and you can switch between rally and traditional side-out scoring. It's free, with no subscription and no account.

Rules differ slightly between leagues and tournaments, so the full USA Pickleball rulebook is the final word. For your first game, though, serve deep, wait for two bounces, respect the kitchen, and you'll be one of the easy people to play with.