Pickleball kitchen rules: what the non-volley zone really forbids

Pickleball kitchen rules forbid two things: volleying while any part of you touches the non-volley zone, and letting the momentum from that volley carry you in afterward. Everything else is legal. You can stand in the kitchen all day if the ball bounces first.

What the kitchen is, and how big it is

The kitchen is the non-volley zone: a strip 7 feet deep on each side of the net, running sideline to sideline. On a standard 20-by-44-foot court, each kitchen is 20 feet wide and 7 feet deep, so the two of them together take up 14 feet through the middle.

Two details do most of the damage.

The line is part of the zone. The non-volley zone line — 2 inches wide, like every line on the court — counts as inside. A toe on the paint is a toe in the kitchen.

The zone is a surface, not a box. It has no ceiling. You can lean over the kitchen and follow through above it, as long as nothing you own touches the ground inside. Height is free; contact is not. Reaching over the net, or touching the net or a post while the ball is live, is a different fault.

The two things pickleball kitchen rules actually forbid

Volleying while touching the zone

A volley is a ball struck out of the air before it bounces, and every volley has to be initiated from outside the zone. If anything in contact with you touches the zone during the act of volleying, it's a fault: a foot, your paddle, your clothing. The same goes for a hat or a towel that drops into the kitchen as you swing. Intent doesn't enter into it.

Momentum carrying you in afterward

This one catches players with years on court. The act of volleying doesn't end when the ball leaves your paddle. It ends when the motion of your follow-through stops. If momentum from a volley carries you into the kitchen after the fact, it's a fault — even if the ball is already dead, even if the put-away looked like a winner.

Doubles adds a wrinkle. If your momentum after a volley carries you into contact with your partner while your partner is touching the non-volley zone, that's a fault too.

The out is easy to describe and hard to do: kill your motion before the line. Once your momentum has stopped outside the zone, walking in is legal.

What the kitchen doesn't forbid

Most of what recreational players police here isn't in the pickleball rules at all. You may enter the non-volley zone at any time except when you're volleying. You may step in before hitting a ball that has bounced, stay in while you hit it, and stay in afterward — nothing makes you scramble back out. Both partners can stand in it at once, as long as they don't contact each other during a volley.

Standing in the kitchen while your opponent hits isn't a fault. It's just bad position, since you're a step from the net with no room to handle a ball at your feet.

The zone also stops at the sidelines. The ground outside the sideline next to the net isn't the kitchen, which is why the Erne — stepping or jumping around the outside of the zone to volley a dink — is legal.

Getting your feet back after you've been in

Once you've touched the non-volley zone for any reason, you can't volley again until both feet have touched the playing surface completely outside it. Jumping up from inside the kitchen and volleying in the air is a fault, even if you land outside.

This is the trap after a low dink. You dig the ball out from inside the kitchen, the next one comes back fast and floaty, and you swing at it out of the air before you've reset. Fault. Back up first, both feet, then volley.

The serve has its own kitchen rule

A serve that lands in the non-volley zone or on the kitchen line is short, and short is a fault. Clip the centerline, the sideline or the baseline of the correct service box and the serve is good — the kitchen line is the one line that isn't. It's a reason to aim deep, and it sits alongside the rest of the pickleball serving rules.

The two-bounce rule keeps the kitchen quiet early, too: the serve must bounce and the return must bounce, so nobody can legally volley until the third shot.

What a kitchen fault costs

The rally ends the instant it happens. Under traditional side-out scoring, a fault by the receiving team gives the serving team a point, while a fault by the serving team ends that player's turn to serve — the ball goes to their partner, or to the opponents on a side out. Rally-scoring formats, used in some leagues, award the point to the other team either way. The rest of pickleball scoring follows from that split.

Kitchen faults are the ones doubles teams lose track of, because under side-out scoring the serve moves without the score changing and the second server gets forgotten. Pickleball Scoreboard is a pickleball scoreboard app for iPhone and Apple Watch that tracks match scores, and logging the fault the moment it happens keeps the server number honest.

Why is it called the kitchen in pickleball

Nobody wrote it down at the time, so the origin is unconfirmed. The explanation you'll hear most often points to shuffleboard, which has a kitchen of its own — a scoring area that costs you points if you land in it. The other common guess is the old line about getting out of the kitchen if you can't stand the heat.

Either way, it's slang. The rulebook says non-volley zone from start to finish, and so will a referee.

Five kitchen situations, resolved

Situation	Legal?	Why
You're standing in the kitchen, a dink bounces at your feet, you hit it	Yes	Bounced ball, so it isn't a volley
Your toe is on the kitchen line as you put away an overhead	No	The line is part of the zone
You volley from behind the line, then step in while still moving forward	No	The volley isn't over until your momentum stops
You volley, plant both feet outside, pause, then walk in for the ball	Yes	Momentum has already ended
Your paddle follows through above the kitchen without touching the ground	Yes	The zone is a surface, not airspace

FAQ

Can you step in the kitchen in pickleball?

Yes, at any time except when you're volleying. Step in to play a ball that has bounced, stand there as long as you like, walk through it between rallies. The two restrictions are that you can't hit a ball out of the air while touching the zone, and you can't be carried in by the momentum of a volley you just hit.

How big is the kitchen in pickleball?

Each kitchen is 7 feet deep, measured from the net, and runs the full 20-foot width of the court. Counting both sides, that's 14 feet of non-volley zone through the middle. Pickleball kitchen size is the same for singles and doubles.

Is the kitchen line part of the kitchen?

Yes. The non-volley zone line is inside the zone, so touching it while volleying is a fault. That's the opposite of how the baseline and sidelines work, where a ball landing on the line is in.

Can you jump over the kitchen line to volley?

You can jump from outside the zone, hit the volley in the air, and land outside the zone. Landing in the kitchen is a fault. So is jumping up from inside the kitchen to volley, because both feet have to touch down completely outside the zone before you're allowed to volley again.

What happens if my hat falls in the kitchen during a volley?

It's a fault. Anything you're wearing or carrying counts as part of you while you're volleying, so a hat, a towel or sunglasses that drop into the zone during the act of volleying end the rally against you.