Pickleball Rules, Explained Simply

You can learn enough pickleball rules to play a real game in about five minutes. Here's the short version.

The serve. Underhand, contact below the waist, one foot behind the baseline. Serve diagonally into the opposite service box. The ball must clear the kitchen (the 7-foot zone in front of the net) on the serve.

Double bounce rule. After the serve, the return must bounce once. The next shot (by the serving team) must also bounce once. After those two bounces, either team can volley (hit out of the air).

The kitchen. Also called the non-volley zone. You cannot volley while any part of your body or paddle is touching the kitchen or its lines. You can enter the kitchen anytime — you just can't volley from there. Momentum counts: if you volley in the air and land in the kitchen, it's a fault.

Scoring. Traditional (side-out) scoring: only the serving team scores. Games to 11, win by 2. The server's score is called first, then the receiver's score, then the server number (1 or 2 in doubles). '5-3-2' means serving team has 5, receiving team has 3, and it's the second server.

Rally scoring is used in some tournaments and pro play — every rally scores a point regardless of who served. Recreational and most amateur play still uses side-out scoring.

Faults. Serving into the kitchen, stepping on the baseline while serving, volleying in the kitchen, hitting the ball out of bounds, letting the ball bounce twice, and hitting the net on a serve are all faults.

That's the whole game. Everything else — line calls, lets, replays — is edge cases you'll pick up naturally.