Pickleball rules & scoring.

Pickleball is played to 11 points, win by 2. That part is the same in every common format. What changes is who is allowed to score those points, and that is where almost all the confusion comes from.

Traditional (side-out) scoring is the USA Pickleball default and what most recreational players grew up on. Only the serving team can score a point. If the receiving team wins the rally, they don’t get a point — they get the serve. They then have to win their own rally on serve to actually put a number on the board.

Rally scoring is the modern alternative, used by the PPA Tour and a growing number of leagues and clubs. Every rally produces a point for somebody, regardless of who served. Games still go to 11, still win by 2. Rally scoring exists because matches finish in a more predictable window of time, which matters for broadcast and bracket scheduling.

RALLY’s app uses rally scoring, first to 11, best of 3 as the default for pickleball — it’s the simplest format to keep on a tap-only scoreboard and the format new players pick up fastest. You can switch between formats as you go.

This is the single most-Googled thing in pickleball, and for good reason. In doubles, the score is called as three numbers, in this order:

• — Server’s team score (the team currently serving).
• — Receiver’s team score (the team currently returning).
• — Server number — either 1 or 2 — telling everyone which partner on the serving team is up.

So "5-3-2" means: the serving team has 5, the receivers have 3, and the second server is currently serving. When that second server eventually loses a rally, it’s a side-out — the other team gets the serve.

Worked example from the start of a game. Team A serves first. The score begins at 0-0-2 (more on that "2" in section 6). Team A wins the first rally, so the same server moves to the other side and calls 1-0-2. Team A wins again from the new side: 2-0-2. Then they lose the rally — that’s a side-out, because the first service turn of the game uses only the second server.

Team B now serves. Team B’s first server starts calling 0-2-1. They win a rally, switch sides, call 1-2-1. They lose a rally — but this is server 1 losing, not a side-out. Their partner serves: 1-2-2. When server 2 also loses a rally, it’s a side-out, and Team A gets the serve back.

Two things to internalise: the server’s team score is always called first, and the third number is the only thing that tells your partner whether the next rally decides a side-out or not.

Singles is dramatically simpler. There is no third number, because there is no second server to track. The call is just server’s score, then receiver’s score. So "7-4" means the server has 7, the receiver has 4.

The other singles-only thing worth knowing: the server serves from the right-hand (even) court when their score is even, and from the left-hand (odd) court when their score is odd. That’s how you can glance across the court mid-game and know whose score is what.

Pickleball serving rules are short, but every one of them matters. To serve a legal pickleball serve under the standard volley serve rules:

• — The serve must be made underhand. The paddle must contact the ball below your waist (defined as the navel).
• — At the moment of contact, the highest point of the paddle head must be below the highest point of your wrist. This is the rule that retired the old "chainsaw" spin serves.
• — At least one foot must be behind the baseline, and neither foot may touch the baseline or the court until after contact.
• — The serve is made diagonally and must land in the opposite service court — past the non-volley zone (kitchen) line. A serve that lands in the kitchen or on the kitchen line is a fault.
• — You get one serve attempt. There is no second serve. A let serve (one that clips the net and still lands in) is now in play — the old "let, replay" rule was removed in 2021.

A small piece of useful history: before 2021, doubles used to give the very first server of the match no second-server bonus, but otherwise both partners served before each side-out, just as they do today. The bigger 2021 change was the elimination of the let serve replay. If you play with someone who keeps replaying lets on serve, gently update them — that hasn’t been the rule for years.

There is also a drop serve option: instead of striking the ball out of the air, you can drop it from your non-paddle hand and hit it after one bounce. The drop serve has no underhand or below-waist requirement because it’s already inherently constrained by gravity. A lot of beginners find the drop serve much easier and there is no rules disadvantage to using it.

The kitchen is the 7-foot non-volley zone (NVZ) extending from the net on each side. New players lose more points to kitchen violations than to anything else, so this rule is worth getting completely right.

• — You cannot volley the ball — i.e. hit it out of the air without a bounce — while any part of your body, paddle, clothing or shoe is touching the kitchen, including the kitchen line itself.
• — 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 you’ve already hit the ball — you lose the rally. The follow-through counts.
• — You may enter the kitchen to play a ball that has bounced (a "dink"). Bounced balls in the kitchen are completely legal to hit from inside the kitchen.

The kitchen line itself belongs to the kitchen. Touching the line during a volley is exactly the same as standing inside it. This is the opposite of how most other racket sports treat lines, so it catches tennis players out constantly.

In doubles under traditional scoring, both partners on the serving team get to serve before a side-out — with one famous exception. The very first service turn of the game uses only the second server. The team that serves first in a game starts at 0-0-2, not 0-0-1. As soon as they lose a rally, the side-out happens immediately.

This rule exists to slightly disadvantage the team that won the serve, since serving first is a real advantage in pickleball. After that first service turn, every subsequent service turn for both teams uses the normal both-partners-serve rotation.

Within a single service turn, the server switches sides of the court after every point they win. They keep serving from alternating sides until they lose a rally. When server 1 loses a rally, server 2 starts (without switching sides). When server 2 loses a rally, that’s a side-out and the other team begins to serve.

In rally scoring there is no server-1/server-2 distinction at all. The serve rotates on every side-out like in traditional, but because every rally produces a point, the third number disappears entirely. That’s another reason rally scoring is easier to teach to new players.

Both formats play to 11, win by 2. The only thing that changes is who can score on a given rally.

• — Side-out (traditional): only the serving team can score. Receiving team wins the rally → side-out, no point.
• — Rally: every rally produces a point for whichever team won it, regardless of who served.

Side-out is still the USA Pickleball default and the format you’ll find at most recreational courts. Rally scoring is used by the PPA Tour, by Major League Pickleball, by a lot of college programs, and by an increasing number of clubs that want their league nights to finish on a clock. It’s growing fast, mainly because rally games take a more predictable amount of time.

Strategically, rally scoring punishes loose returns more harshly — every error costs you a real point, not just a serve. Side-out rewards patience and lets a team grind their way back from deep deficits if they can hold serve repeatedly.

Recreational play: a single game to 11, win by 2. That’s what you’ll find on virtually every public court when people are rotating in and out.

Tournament play: usually best of 3 games to 11, win by 2. Finals at many tournaments extend to a single game to 15 or 21, still win by 2, to give the higher-seeded player a longer runway to assert themselves.

PPA Tour uses rally scoring with games to 11, win by 2, best of 3, with a deciding game to 15 if needed. Major League Pickleball uses a unique format with rally-scored games to 21 and a structured team-vs-team scoring system designed for spectator clarity.

Between games you typically get 60 seconds. Use it. Pickleball is short, fast, and unforgiving when you’re out of breath at 9-9.

Line calls in pickleball work the same way as tennis: if any part of the ball touches any part of the line, the ball is in. Out is out only when the ball is entirely beyond the line with no contact at all.

One important exception: the kitchen line belongs to the kitchen. A serve that lands on the kitchen line is a fault, because it’s effectively short. Every other line on the court — baselines, sidelines, centreline — counts as in.

In recreational play, the receiving team makes the call on their side. The convention is to call out only when you’re sure. If you have any doubt, the ball is in. Bad line-calling habits are the fastest way to make pickleball less fun for everyone you play with.