How to play pickleball.

Pickleball is a doubles-by-default racket sport played on a 20×44 ft court (the same size as a doubles badminton court) with a perforated plastic ball, solid composite paddles, and a net set 34" at the centre. It looks like the lovechild of tennis, badminton, and ping pong — and that is roughly what it is. Three dads in Washington State invented it in 1965 because their kids were bored.

It became the fastest-growing sport in America in 2022, 2023 and 2024 (per the Sports & Fitness Industry Association) for one reason: the learning curve is brutally short. You can be in a competitive rally inside 15 minutes of picking up a paddle. Tennis takes years.

• — A paddle: solid composite or graphite face, around 7-8 oz. A £40-£60 paddle is plenty for your first year. Avoid wooden paddles unless you have no other option — the weight ruins your wrist.
• — A ball: outdoor balls have ~40 small holes and are heavier; indoor balls have ~26 larger holes and are lighter and slower. Use the right one for the surface or the bounce will be wrong.
• — Court shoes: tennis or court-specific shoes. Not running shoes — pickleball is full of lateral movement and running shoes will roll your ankle.
• — Nothing else: no special clothes, no grip tape, no overgrip, no second paddle. The sport is intentionally low-friction to start.

A pickleball court is 20 ft wide × 44 ft long — exactly the size of a doubles badminton court. The net is 36" at the posts and dips to 34" at the centre. The court is divided into:

• — The kitchen (non-volley zone, NVZ): a 7-foot strip on either side of the net. Critical to learn — see section 5.
• — The service courts: two boxes on each side, beyond the kitchen. The serve must land in the diagonally-opposite service court.
• — The baseline: the back line, 22 ft from the net. You serve from behind it.

The serve is underhand, hit below the waist, with the highest point of the paddle below the highest point of your wrist at contact. You stand behind the baseline, you swing low to high, and you hit the ball diagonally into the opposite service court — past the kitchen line.

You only get one serve. There is no second serve. A serve that clips the net and lands in is in play — the old "let, replay" rule was removed in 2021.

There is also a drop serve option: drop the ball from your non-paddle hand and hit it after one bounce. The drop serve has no underhand or below-waist requirement and a lot of beginners find it much easier. Use it without shame.

This is the rule that makes pickleball, pickleball. After the serve, the ball must bounce once on the receiving side and once on the serving side before either team is allowed to volley (hit the ball out of the air). So:

• — You serve. The ball bounces in the receiver's service court. The receiver lets it bounce, then hits a return.
• — Your return-of-serve has to bounce on your side too. Then you can hit it.
• — After those two mandatory bounces, either team can volley.

The two-bounce rule exists to stop servers from rushing the net immediately and crushing the return. It is what gives the receiving team a fair chance.

The kitchen — the 7-foot non-volley zone on each side of the net — is where new players bleed points. The rule is short:

• — You cannot volley the ball (hit it out of the air) while any part of you, your paddle, your clothing or your shoe is touching the kitchen, including the kitchen line.
• — You CAN stand in the kitchen all day long. You just can't volley from it. Step out, then volley.
• — If you volley from outside the kitchen and your momentum carries you into the kitchen — even after the ball is gone — you lose the point. Follow-through counts.
• — Bounced balls are fine. You can step into the kitchen and play a "dink" off a bounce all day.

The kitchen line belongs to the kitchen. Touching the line during a volley is the same as standing inside it.

A pickleball game is played to 11 points, win by 2. Standard tournament play is best of 3 games. Only the serving team can score a point in traditional (side-out) scoring — if the receiving team wins the rally, they earn the serve, not a point.

In doubles, the score is called as three numbers: server's team score, receiver's team score, server number (1 or 2). So "5-3-2" means the serving team has 5, the receivers have 3, and it's the second server's turn. The first service turn of the entire game starts at 0-0-2 — only one server gets a turn before the side-out, to slightly disadvantage the team that won the serve.

In singles, scoring is the same idea but with no third number — just server score, then receiver score.

Rally scoring is an alternative used by the PPA Tour and a growing number of leagues, where every rally produces a point regardless of who served. Same target (11), same win-by-2, no third number. It finishes matches in a more predictable amount of time.

Find three other people of any skill level. Pick partners. The team that won a paddle spin or coin toss serves first. You start at 0-0-2.

Server two on team A serves diagonally — say, hits a deep ball into the back of the receiver's service court. Receiver lets it bounce, returns deep down the middle. Server's partner moves up to the kitchen line. The serving team plays the ball off the bounce (two-bounce rule), and now everyone can volley.

The fastest way to win your first game: get to the kitchen line as soon as legally possible, and stay there. Play soft "dinks" — short slow shots that land in the opponents' kitchen — until they make a mistake. Avoid the back of the court. Pickleball is won at the net.

• — Call the score before every serve. Loud enough that the receiver can hear. This is not optional.
• — Call your own out-balls only. The receiving team makes the line call. If you have any doubt, the ball is in.
• — Tap paddles after the game. Even after a brutal one. Especially after a brutal one.
• — If you're winning a rotation in open play, take a break and let new people in. Pickleball culture is heavy on inclusivity.