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Pickleball rules for beginners: the kitchen, the two-bounce rule and the score

Pickleball · 7 min read · Updated August 2026

You can learn enough pickleball to play in about ten minutes, and the rules below are the ones that actually come up. They follow the USA Pickleball Official Rulebook, which is revised each year, so check the current edition before a sanctioned event.

The court

• The court is 20 feet by 44 feet, the same for singles and doubles.
• The non-volley zone, universally called the kitchen, runs 7 feet back from the net on both sides, across the full width.
• The net is 36 inches high at the sidelines and 34 inches at the centre.

The two-bounce rule

The serve must bounce before the receiver hits it. The return must bounce before the serving team hits it. Only from the third shot onwards may anyone volley.

This is what stops the serving team from rushing the net behind the serve, and it is the reason the third shot drop exists as a shot at all.

The kitchen: what is actually against the rules

The kitchen rule is about volleying, not about standing. People get this backwards constantly.

• You may stand in the kitchen whenever you like, including all day, as long as you are hitting balls that have bounced.
• It is a fault to volley the ball while any part of you is touching the kitchen or its lines.
• Momentum counts. If your volley carries you into the kitchen afterwards, it is a fault even though the ball is already dead.
• Anything you are wearing or carrying counts too. A paddle dropped in the kitchen during a volley is a fault.
• A serve that lands on the kitchen line is a fault. Every other line on the court is in, and this is the only exception.

Side-out scoring, and why only one team can score

In traditional scoring only the serving team can score a point. If the receiving team wins the rally they do not get a point, they get the serve. That is a side-out.

Games are to 11 and you must win by 2. Tournaments sometimes use 15 or 21, still win by 2.

Why the score has three numbers

In doubles you call three numbers before every serve: your team's score, the other team's score, and whether you are the first or second server. So "6-3-2" means your team has 6, theirs has 3, and you are the second server.

• The very first serve of the game is 0-0-2. The team serving first gets only one server, to offset the advantage of serving first.
• When your team wins a rally you score, and the same server switches sides with their partner and serves again.
• When your team loses a rally the serve goes to your partner, unless they have already served, in which case it is a side-out.
• Serve from the right when your team's score is even and from the left when it is odd. If you get confused, the score tells you where to stand.
• In singles it is two numbers, and the same even-right, odd-left rule applies.

The serve itself

• A volley serve is underhand, contact below the waist, with the highest point of the paddle head below your wrist, moving upward.
• A drop serve is an alternative: drop the ball from any height, let it bounce, and hit it. The below-the-waist and paddle-head restrictions do not apply to it.
• The serve goes diagonally crosscourt and must clear the kitchen.
• There is no second serve. You get one.
• There are no service lets. A serve that clips the net and lands in is live, and has been since 2021.

Common questions

Can I step into the kitchen?

Yes, any time, as long as you are not volleying. The rule is about hitting the ball out of the air, not about where your feet are.

What happens if the serve hits the net and lands in?

Play on. Service lets were removed in 2021, so a net-clipping serve that lands in the correct court is live.

Why do we start at 0-0-2?

The first serving team gets only one server, so it loses serve after one fault. It exists to reduce the advantage of serving first.

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