Pickleball Rules for Beginners | Scoring, Kitchen & Serving

The basic goal

Pickleball is played as singles or doubles. You hit the ball over the net and try to make it bounce twice on your opponent's side, force an error or cause a fault. Most recreational games are played to 11 points and won by two.

How to serve

Stand behind the baseline and serve diagonally into the opposite service court.
Use a legal volley serve or drop serve under the current rules.
Keep both feet behind the baseline until the ball is struck.
The serve must clear the kitchen and its line.

Player making an underhand pickleball serve with both feet behind the baseline — A legal serve begins behind the baseline and travels diagonally into the opposite service court.

In traditional side-out scoring, only the serving team scores a point. When the serving team loses a rally, service passes to the partner or to the other team, depending on the sequence.

The two-bounce rule

After the serve, the receiving team must let the ball bounce before returning it. The serving team must also let that return bounce. After those first two bounces, either side may volley the ball or play it after a bounce.

Pickleball receiver waiting behind the baseline while the served ball bounces — Bounce one: the receiving team lets the serve land. Bounce two happens on the serving team's side after the return.

An easy way to remember it

Serve, bounce, return, bounce. After that sequence, either team may hit the ball before or after a bounce.

This rule prevents the serving side from rushing immediately to the net and creates a fair start to each rally.

The kitchen rule

The seven-foot zone beside the net is the non-volley zone, commonly called the kitchen. You may stand in it and hit a ball after it bounces. You may not volley a ball while touching the kitchen or its boundary line.

Four pickleball players dinking from behind the non-volley-zone kitchen line — Players commonly stand just behind the kitchen line to exchange soft dinks without committing a non-volley-zone fault.

Your momentum also cannot carry you into the kitchen after a volley. That remains a fault even if the ball is already dead.

Doubles scoring

The score is called with three numbers: serving team's score, receiving team's score, and server number. For example, “4-2-1” means the serving team has four points, the receiving team has two, and the first partner is serving.

The opening service turn of a game is an exception and begins with the second-server designation. This prevents the team that serves first from receiving an unfair double service turn.

Common beginner faults

Serving into the kitchen or outside the diagonal service court
Volleying before both sides have allowed the required bounce
Touching the kitchen line during a volley
Hitting the ball into the net or outside the court lines
Allowing the ball to bounce twice

Why a lesson helps

Rules are easier to remember when they are attached to movement. A beginner lesson walks through the serve, return, kitchen position and scoring in sequence, then reinforces them during guided points.