🏓 Stuff Every Pickleball Player Should Know: Training Guide

How Pickleball Began

Pickleball began on Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 1965. Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum made the game at the Pritchard home. They used ping-pong paddles and a plastic ball so the whole family could play together.

The first net was set at badminton height, 60 inches. The inventors soon lowered it to 36 inches. Today the net is 36 inches high at the sidelines.

According to USA Pickleball, the name pickleball comes from pickle boat crew races. Joan Pritchard named the game in 1965 after these races. The dog story is a myth, because Pickles the dog was born in 1968.

Court and Net

The court is 20 feet across and 44 feet from baseline to baseline. Singles and doubles use the same court size. Around the court, the full playing area needs to be at least 30 feet by 60 feet.

The net is 36 inches high where it crosses the sidelines. It sags a little lower in the middle. The founders lowered a badminton net to 36 inches when they invented the game.

The net is 34 inches high at the center. That is 2 inches lower than the sides. A center strap can hold it at the right height, and the allowed tolerance is only a quarter inch either way.

Balls and Paddles

Indoor and outdoor pickleballs usually have different hole sizes. Balls with larger holes are customarily used indoors, and balls with smaller holes are used outdoors. Any approved ball is legal in either place.

An official ball must have between 26 and 40 circular holes. The hole pattern must still give the ball proper flight. An approved ball measures 2.87 to 2.97 inches across.

An official paddle has a size limit. The combined length and width cannot be more than 24 inches. The length alone cannot be more than 17 inches.

Two Legal Serves

There are two legal serves in pickleball: the volley serve and the drop serve. On a volley serve you hit the ball out of the air. On a drop serve you drop the ball and hit it after it bounces.

On a volley serve, the paddle must be moving in a clear upward arc when it hits the ball. This keeps the serve underhand. You may use a forehand or a backhand motion.

On a volley serve, the ball cannot be higher than your waist when the paddle hits it. The top of the paddle head cannot be above the highest part of your wrist at contact. These two rules, along with the upward arc, are the three motion rules for a volley serve.

On a drop serve, you drop the ball and let it bounce on the playing surface, then hit it. There is no limit on how many times the dropped ball may bounce before you hit it. The ball may bounce anywhere on the playing surface.

The waist, wrist and upward-arc rules do not apply to a drop serve. With a legal drop serve, none of them apply. The drop serve still has its own rules: drop from a natural height and do not throw the ball down.

Where to Stand and Where to Aim

For a serve, at least one foot must stay on the ground behind the baseline. Touching the baseline or any part of the court is not allowed. Keep both feet within the side and center extensions.

You cannot jump into the air while hitting a pickleball serve. If both feet are off the ground at contact, it is a fault against the server. Pickleball has no jump serve.

A serve goes from your side to the service court diagonally opposite. If the ball lands in the wrong service court, you lose the serve.

Faults and Net Balls

Your serve must clear the whole non-volley zone. If the ball lands right on the kitchen line, it is out and a fault. The kitchen line is part of the kitchen, so a serve that touches that line is short. This is the one time a line is out on a serve; other lines are in.

Under current rules, a serve may touch the top of the net as long as it clears the kitchen and lands in the correct service court. The ball is in play and play continues. But if the ball hits the net and lands in the kitchen, it is still a fault because it landed short.

The Two-Bounce Rule

The serve must bounce before the receiver can return it. If the receiver hits the serve out of the air, it is a fault against the receiver. This is the first half of the two-bounce rule.

After the return of serve, the serving team must let that return bounce before hitting it. That is the second half of the two-bounce rule. After one bounce on each side, players may volley or hit off a bounce.

The two-bounce rule exists to remove the serve-and-volley advantage. If servers could rush the net after serving, points would be too short. Forcing one bounce on each side makes rallies longer and fairer.

The Kitchen: Non-Volley Zone

The non-volley zone reaches 7 feet from the net on both sides and runs the full 20-foot width of the court. Most players call it the kitchen. You will hear players shout stay out of the kitchen all the time.

You cannot volley the ball while standing in the kitchen or touching the kitchen line. All the lines around the non-volley zone belong to the zone. Volleying with a toe on the line is the same as standing in the kitchen, and it is a fault.

You may step into the kitchen to hit a ball that has already bounced. The kitchen rule is only about volleys, not about standing there. Many soft shots called dinks land in the kitchen, so players step in all the time.

If your volley carries you into the kitchen, it is a fault even if the ball is already dead. You must stop yourself before you touch the zone. Momentum ends when you regain balance and control of your motion.

After touching the kitchen, both feet must be back on the ground fully outside it before you can volley. One foot out is not enough. This stops players from hopping out of the kitchen just as they volley.

You may volley a ball that is in the air above the kitchen if your feet are outside it. The kitchen is only on the ground, two-dimensional. What matters is where you are standing, not where the ball is when you hit it.

Lines, Net and Bounces

During a rally, a ball that touches a line is in. The only exception is a serve that touches the kitchen line, which is short. That means the baseline and sidelines are in even on serves.

You may call a ball out only when you clearly see space between the ball and the line. If you cannot see a gap, the ball is in. Spectators must never be asked to help with a call.

During a rally, if your shot touches the top of the net and goes over, the ball stays in play. Touching the net does not stop a rally. You may even hit a ball around the outside of the net post instead of over the net.

If the ball hits your paddle hand below the wrist while you are holding the paddle, it is legal. That part of your hand counts as part of the paddle. A ball hitting your arm above the wrist, your body or your clothes is a fault.

The ball may bounce only once on your side before you must hit it. If it bounces twice, you lose the rally. This applies to most players.

Players using wheelchairs may let the ball bounce twice. The first bounce must be in the court, and the second can be anywhere on the playing surface. USA Pickleball has a full set of adaptive rules in the official rulebook.

How Points Are Scored

In standard side-out scoring, only the serving team can score points. When the serving team loses a rally, it loses the serve and no point is scored. When the receiving team commits a fault, the serving team scores a point.

In rally scoring, a point is scored after every rally, no matter which team served. USA Pickleball allows rally scoring as a provisional option. USA Pickleball provisionally recognized rally scoring in 2025 for singles and some doubles formats.

In doubles rally scoring, only one player on a team serves before a side out. As soon as the serving team loses a rally, the other team gets the serve. Because of this, the score is called with two numbers, not three.

Calling the Score

The server must announce the whole score before serving. In traditional doubles scoring, the score call has three numbers: server score, receiver score, and server number. The server number tells whether the current server is server 1 or server 2.

In singles, the score call has only two numbers: server score then receiver score. There is no server number because only one player serves per side.

Server 1 is the player on the right when a side starts serving. Server 2 is the partner. After server 1 loses a rally, the serve goes to server 2. These numbers reset after every side out.

At the start of a doubles game under standard side-out scoring, the starting server is designated as server 2. When that team loses its first rally, the serve goes straight to the other team. A doubles game starts with the score call zero, zero, two.

Serving Position and Game Length

In singles, your own score decides which side you serve from. If your score is zero or even, serve from the right side. If your score is odd, serve from the left side. You keep serving and switch sides after each point you win.

In standard pickleball, a game is played to 11 points, and you must win by 2. If the score reaches 10-10, play goes on until one side leads by 2. Tournament games may be played to 15 or 21 points, still win by 2.

In a USA Pickleball tournament, teams switch ends between games. In a deciding game to 11, they also change ends when one team reaches 6 points. Games to 15 change at 8, and games to 21 change at 11.

Movement and Asking Positions

In doubles, partners may switch sides during a rally after the serve and return. The rulebook fixes positions only while serving and receiving. After that, players can stand anywhere on their end.

Before the serve, you may ask the other team who the correct server or receiver is, and they must tell you. This helps avoid confusion if players switch sides.

After announcing the score, the server has 10 seconds to serve. Serving while the score is still being called is a fault on the server.

Basic Shots and Grip

A dink is a soft shot hit from the kitchen line that bounces in the opponent's kitchen. The goal is not to win the point right away. It is to wait for the other team to make the first mistake.

The third shot drop is a soft shot by the serving team into the other kitchen after the return. It takes away the other team's net advantage and buys time to move up. Because of the two-bounce rule, the serving team stays back after the serve and waits for the return to bounce.

For a dink, hold the paddle loosely, about a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10. On that scale, 10 is as tight as you can squeeze and 1 is nearly dropping the paddle. A loose grip keeps you from hitting the dink too hard. Good players rarely dink to the same spot more than 2 or 3 times in a row.

Etiquette on and Around the Court

In recreational pickleball without a referee, players call the lines on their own side. If you cannot clearly call a ball out, it is in. In doubles, if partners disagree on a line call, the ball is in.

At the end of each game, meet the other players at the net in a positive way. Many players do a friendly paddle tap. In matches with a referee, also thank the referee.

If you need to walk past a court where people are playing, wait until play stops, then cross quickly as a group. Do not walk behind or across a live rally, because it can distract players or cause a collision. In social play, rotate on and off courts fairly and never jump ahead of people waiting to play.

Staying Injury Free

The Achilles tendon joins the calf muscles to the heel bone. It can tear when you land from a jump or make a quick cutting move. See a doctor for sudden heel or calf pain.

The rotator cuff is a group of tendons in the shoulder. Repeated overhead motions, like overhead pickleball shots, can stress it. If your shoulder stays painful or weak, see a doctor.

The best warm-up before a match is easy aerobic movement, like light jogging. It gets blood flowing and warms your muscles. Stretch only after you are warm, because stretching cold muscles can cause injury.

USA Pickleball highly recommends protective eyewear for all players, but it is not required. Regular glasses and sunglasses do not protect eyes from sports injuries. The right protective eyewear prevents most sports eye injuries.

Yoga and strength training can improve your balance and help prevent falls. Pickleball has lots of quick side-to-side moves. Running shoes lack the side support pickleball needs, so wear court shoes.