Pickleball Rules

  1. The playing area is the outside lines of the badminton court. The ‘kitchen’ area is the front section of the court by the nets, the service and return of serve are not permitted to land in this section and you are not permitted to volley in this area.
  2. The ball is served underhand from the right side of the court and is played diagonally across to the other service court, you can bounce the ball to start or from your hand.
  3. The defending side has to let the ball bounce first before it can be returned and, subsequently, the serving side also has to let the ball bounce. It is only on the third ball that the ball can be returned immediately. Either you can play a volley or you can let the ball bounce first.
  4. Points can only be scored by the serving side. You win a point if the defending side does not manage to return the ball, hits the ball out, does not let the serve ball bounce, volleys in the non-volley zone, or is hit by the ball.
  5. When a side scores a point, the same person serves, but from the other side of the court. When a player loses a point, his or her partner serves from the side of the court where he or she is standing at the moment. If this service also fails to score, service goes to the opponent and the opponent begins the service on the right. For the first service, however, the service changes sides after only one serve.
  6. When playing singles, the player serves from the left if he or she has an uneven number of points, and from the right with an even number of points. This is how scoring is kept: 1-0-1 means that the serving side has 1 point, the other side has no points, and this is the first server.