Rules
The kitchen, the two-bounce rule, faults and serving, rule by rule.
- Guide
Pickleball Rules for Beginners: Your First Game
Serve underhand and diagonally. Let the serve bounce and let the return bounce. Don't volley from the kitchen, the 7-foot zone by the net. Only the serving side scores, games go to 11 (win by 2), and in doubles the score is called as three numbers.
- Rule
Pickleball Kitchen Rule: The Non-Volley Zone Explained
You can't volley (hit the ball before it bounces) while touching the kitchen, the 7-foot non-volley zone on each side of the net, or its line. You can stand in the kitchen any time to play a ball that has bounced. If a volley's momentum carries you into the kitchen, it's a fault even after the ball is dead.
- Rule
Pickleball Serve Rules and the Two-Bounce Rule
Serve diagonally, underhand, from behind the baseline, with one try. A volley serve must swing upward, with the paddle below your wrist and the ball below your waist; a drop serve lets the ball bounce first. Then the two-bounce rule. The serve must bounce before it's returned, and the return must bounce before the serving side hits it.
- Rule
Pickleball Faults: The Full List in Plain English
A fault ends the rally and costs the side that made it. The common ones are hitting out or into the net, a kitchen volley, volleying the serve or the return, letting the ball bounce twice, the ball hitting your body, touching the net, and a two-player double hit.
- Rule
Pickleball Line Call Rules: Who Calls In and Out
In rec play you call the lines on your own side of the net. A ball touching a line is in, except a serve on the kitchen line. If you can't clearly see space between the ball and the line, it's in. If you and your partner disagree, it's in.
- Explainer
Pickleball Court Dimensions: Size, Kitchen and Lines
A pickleball court is 20 feet wide and 44 feet long, the same for singles and doubles. The non-volley zone (the kitchen) runs 7 feet back from the net on each side, leaving two service courts 10 feet wide and 15 feet deep on each side. Lines are 2 inches wide, and the net is 36 inches high at the sidelines and 34 inches in the middle.
- Explainer
Pickleball Net Height: 36 Inches, 34 in the Middle
A pickleball net is 36 inches high at the sidelines and 34 inches high at the center, each within a quarter inch. The posts stand 22 feet apart, about a foot outside each sideline, and the net is at least 21 feet 9 inches long.
- Rule
Pickleball Singles Rules: Serving, Scoring and Sides
Singles uses the same 20-by-44-foot court and the same rules as doubles, with two differences. There's only one server per side, so losing a rally on your serve is a side out. And the score is two numbers, server's then receiver's. Serve from the right when your own score is even and from the left when it's odd.