New to Pickleballrules
What pickleball is and how a point works
Pickleball is one of the easiest racket sports to pick up, but knowing the basic shape of a rally before you step on the court saves a lot of early confusion. This lesson gives you the 30-second overview of the game and shows exactly how a point moves from serve to score.
12 minKey takeaways
- Pickleball is played on a 20×44 ft court (less than a third of a tennis court) with solid paddles and a plastic wiffle-style ball. Think tennis, but smaller, quieter, and slower.
- Every point starts with a serve. The server hits cross-court into the opponent's service box, the receiver returns it, and a rally begins.
- The objective is to hit the ball over the net in a way the other side can't return legally: into the net, out of bounds, or bouncing twice all count as your point.
- Only the serving team can score a point; if the receiving side wins the rally, the serve passes on (in doubles, first to the server's partner, then to the other team, a 'side-out') and no point goes on the board.
- Games are played to 11, win by 2. Tournament formats sometimes go to 15 or 21.
Drill to try
Watch one full rally of any pickleball video (or a game at your local court) and narrate it out loud: serve, return, third shot, rally over, naming why the point ended. Do it three times.