How to play pickleball: your first game, step by step

The short version of how to play pickleball: serve underhand crosscourt, let the serve and the return each bounce once, then rally until someone faults. Games go to 11, win by two, and in standard scoring only the serving team scores. The rest you pick up in your first hour on court.

Pickleball equipment for beginners

Borrow before you buy — most open-play sessions keep loaner paddles by the gate and someone always has balls. If you do buy, check weight and grip size. Most paddles land between roughly 7 and 8.5 ounces; lighter ones react faster at the net, heavier ones give free power from the baseline.

Gear	What a beginner needs	Skip for now
Paddle	Borrowed or entry-level, mid-weight, grip that fits	Thermoformed "power" paddles built for 4.5+ players
Balls	Outdoor (usually 40 small holes) outside, indoor (usually 26 larger holes) inside	Buying both — use what the group brings
Shoes	Court shoes with lateral support: tennis, volleyball, pickleball	Running shoes, whose soft heels roll on sideways steps
Clothing	Moisture-wicking shirt, shorts or skirt with deep pockets	Loose hoods and drawstrings that catch the paddle
Outdoors	Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, extra water	A full gear bag you can't yet explain

What to wear to play pickleball

Anything that breathes works — you move in short bursts and stop constantly. Shoes are the real decision: running shoes roll you forward, and this is a sideways game where a soft, high heel is the last thing you want on a wide dink.

Deep pockets matter, because you'll carry a spare ball. Push it all the way in — a ball that squirts out of your pocket mid-rally kills the point.

The court, in 30 seconds

A pickleball court is 20 feet wide and 44 feet long — the footprint of a doubles badminton court. The net is 36 inches at the sidelines and sags to 34 in the middle, which is why so many balls down the center sneak over.

The seven feet on each side of the net is the non-volley zone, which everyone calls the kitchen. Stand in it whenever you like; you just can't hit a ball out of the air while touching it or its line. Behind it, a centerline splits each side into two service courts, 10 feet wide and 15 feet deep. For fault-by-fault detail, the pickleball rules cover the rest.

A five-minute pickleball warm up

The first three points of a game are usually spent learning what the ball does. Dink softly at the kitchen line until the bounce stops surprising you. Back up to mid-court and trade a couple dozen at half pace. Drive ten from the baseline. Finish with four or five serves each into the correct box.

How to play pickleball: one rally, start to finish

Serving. At least one foot stays behind the baseline, and neither foot may touch the court or cross the imaginary extensions of the sideline and centerline. Two kinds of serve are legal, and you get one attempt — there's no tennis-style second serve. The volley serve is struck out of the air with contact below your waist (navel level), the highest point of the paddle head below the highest part of your wrist, and an upward swing path. The drop serve is simpler: drop the ball from any natural height without throwing it down, let it bounce, then hit it however you like — none of the volley-serve restrictions apply.

The serve goes diagonally into the opposite service court. The kitchen line is out on a serve; every other line is in. A serve that clips the net and lands in is live — the service let was scrapped in 2021.

The return. The serve has to bounce before the returner touches it. Return deep and walk in behind it. That return is your free ticket to the kitchen line, and the shot beginners under-hit most.

The two-bounce rule. The serving team has to let the return bounce too. Serve bounces, return bounces, and only after that may anyone volley. Most first-hour faults come from the server's partner charging forward and picking the return out of the air.

The third shot. The serving team is pinned at the baseline while the returners own the kitchen line. Getting up there is its whole job — a third-shot drop that lands soft and dies, or a drive if you'd rather earn the space. Move forward behind either one.

Dinking. With all four players at the kitchen line, the point becomes a soft exchange of low balls, nobody able to attack until someone lifts one. The first ball above net height gets put away. That exchange is the actual game; everything before it is transportation.

The fault. A rally ends when the ball goes into the net or lands out, bounces twice, or someone volleys while touching the kitchen or its line — including when momentum carries them in afterward. The serving team then wins a point or loses the serve; under traditional side-out scoring, the receiving team never scores directly.

Calling the score: three numbers, every time

In doubles you say your team's score, then theirs, then whether you're the first or second server: "four, two, one." The game opens at 0-0-2, which confuses everyone — the team serving first gets one service turn only, so its server is the "second server" by default. After that side out, each team gets two.

Say it before every serve, loud enough for all four players. It's the rule, and the only reliable way to keep four people agreeing. Losing the count inside four rallies is common enough that plenty of groups hand the job to a device — Pickleball Scoreboard is a pickleball scoreboard app for iPhone and Apple Watch that tracks match scores, which ends the argument.

Games go to 11, win by two, so 11-10 isn't over. Medal matches often go to 15 or 21. Rally scoring — a point on every rally regardless of who served — is the recognized alternative to side-out scoring and turns up in leagues and some tournament formats. Ask which one you're playing before the first serve.

Three things beginners get wrong in the first hour

Living at the baseline. This game rewards standing close to the net. After your return, walk in — the stretch between baseline and kitchen is where you get handcuffed by balls at your feet.

Volleying the return. The two-bounce rule feels wrong to anyone with tennis instincts. On the serving team, say "let it bounce" out loud for your first few games.

Swinging hard at everything. At the kitchen line your opponent is 14 feet away and needs no pace of their own, so your power comes straight back. Most of pickleball strategy for beginners fits in one sentence: get to the kitchen line and make them hit upward.

Pickleball drills for beginners

• Dink rally. Both players at the kitchen line, soft crosscourt exchange, count to 20 without a miss. Then down the line.
• Serve to a target. Drop a towel in the back corner of the service box and hit 20 serves at it. Depth buys more than pace.
• Third-shot drop. Feed yourself from the baseline and land 10 balls in the opposite kitchen. Three out of ten is a real start.

Fifteen minutes of this beats an extra game.

Pickleball etiquette at open play

Public courts run on conventions nobody writes down. The paddle rack is the queue: set your paddle in the rack or against the fence and play when it comes up. Winners-stay-on versus all-four-off varies by venue, so ask. Beyond that:

• Players call the lines on their own side. If you can't see space between ball and line, it's in, and close calls go to your opponent.
• When a stray ball rolls onto your court, call "ball on" and stop the rally. It counts as a hinder and the point gets replayed.
• Don't coach opponents unless asked, and don't ask spectators to settle a line call — the players on that side own it.
• Everyone taps paddles at the net afterward. That's the handshake.
• Be honest about your level. Nobody minds a beginner; people mind a beginner who claims to be a 3.5.

FAQ

Can you play pickleball on a tennis court?

Yes, and plenty of clubs do. One tennis court fits a pickleball court comfortably, or four with permanent lines and portable nets. Playing over the tennis net works, but it sits at 36 inches in the center against pickleball's 34 — those two inches change the dinking game.

Do I have to serve underhand in pickleball?

The volley serve, yes: contact below the waist, paddle head below the wrist, arm swinging upward. The drop serve drops those restrictions entirely — once the ball has bounced you can hit it any way you like, though a low bouncing ball leaves you swinging up anyway. Either way, a struck-from-the-air overhand serve is a fault.

What is the kitchen in pickleball?

The kitchen is the 7-foot non-volley zone on each side of the net, running the full 20-foot width. Step in any time. You just can't hit the ball out of the air while touching it, its lines, or while momentum from a volley carries you in.

Is pickleball hard to learn?

The basics take one session — most people can rally and keep score by the end of their first hour. Serving legally and tracking that third number take longest. The soft game, dinking and the third-shot drop, is where the real learning curve sits.