TO PLAY PICKLEBALL.
Arguably the fastest growing sport in the world right now, pickleball is like a combination of tennis and ping pong, with a volleyball scoring format (can only score when your team is serving). To start out the game, the partner who starts on the right side of the court will always start out serving, and get one serve until their team misses. Once the initial team misses on their first serve, the serve would go to the opposing team, and from there on out both partners each get one chance to serve each time they get the ball. It is set up this way so there is no advantage for which teams serves first.
TO SERVE IN PICKLEBALL.
While standing behind the baseline, serves are made cross court diagonally, similar to tennis except the serve has to be underhand, and the ball must be hit below your waist. The serve has to go past the kitchen, and land in the square diagonal from where you are serving from. If you score on your serve, you keep the serve, switch sides with your partner and serve from that side and repeat this each time you score. Once you miss, your partner gets the chance to do the same. After you and your partner have both lost the serve, then the other team will get their chances to serve. You also must say the score each time before you serve.
Each team must let the first shot bounce, the serve has to bounce, as well as the return (the second shot). After that, teams can either let it bounce, or volley (hit it out the air).
TO SCORE IN PICKLEBALL.
Scoring: The game of pickleball is played to 11, and you must win by 2 points.
The only time you can score is when your team is serving.
Ways that you can win the point include:
• the opponent returning the ball out of bounds or into the net
• the ball bouncing twice on the opponent’s side
• simply hitting the ball by your opponent, with the shot still landing in the court
Keeping score is tricky, because it involves 3 numbers instead of the traditional 2. So let’s say your team is winning 3-1, and you are the first person to serve on your team, you would say….
3 (your score)
1 (opponent’s score)
1 (the order you serve in with your partner, either a 1 or 2)
3-1-1
NON-VOLLEY ZONE/``THE KITCHEN``.
This is the middle part of the court. The only time that you can go into the kitchen, is if the ball bounces in there first, otherwise if you want to volleyball, you have to be behind the kitchen while doing so, and also making sure that your momentum doesn’t carry you into the kitchen. If either of these happen, your team will either lose the serve, or the other team would get a point if they were serving.
