New to Pickleballserve
The serve and its rules
The serve is the one shot in pickleball you control entirely: no reaction time, no surprises. Learn the rules right the first time and you'll never hand the other team a free side-out by foot-faulting or swinging illegally.
4 minKey takeaways
- The standard volley serve needs an upward swing, contact below the navel, and the top of the paddle head below your wrist at the moment of contact.
- A drop serve is also legal: drop the ball from an open hand (no throwing it down), let it bounce once, then hit it any way you like; the arm-motion and height rules don't apply.
- Always serve diagonally cross-court: the right-side server targets the opponent's right box; the left-side server targets their left box.
- The serve must clear the net and land in the service box, past the kitchen line. A serve landing in the kitchen or on its line is a fault.
- You get exactly one serve attempt per rally. One fault and the serve passes to your partner (or the other team if you were Server 2).
Drill to try
Shadow-serve 10 times without a ball: contact below your navel (the rulebook's waist line), arm swinging upward, both feet behind the baseline. Have a friend call 'legal' or 'fault' on each one.