How to Play Pickleball: A Beginner’s Guide

A game of pickleball is played by two players (singles) or four (doubles), and the server hits the ball diagonally across the net, either on an upward arc with the ball no higher than the waist or after dropping it to bounce. The serve and its return each bounce once before anyone can volley, play continues until a fault, only the serving side scores under standard scoring, and a game is normally played to 11 points with a lead of at least two.

• Pickleball is played as singles or doubles, and USA Pickleball’s Rules Summary calls doubles the most common format.
• A rally runs in a fixed order: serve, bounce, return, bounce, then open play until a fault ends it.
• Before a first game, find a court and bring a paddle; USA Pickleball names Pickleheads as its official court and game finder.

What Does a Beginner Need to Start Playing Pickleball?

Pickleball is, in the words of the 2026 USA Pickleball Official Rulebook, a paddle sport that combines elements of badminton, table tennis and tennis, and a first game needs two players for singles or four for doubles. Each player needs a paddle. The rulebook caps a pickleball paddle at 60.96 cm (24 in) of combined length and width and 43.18 cm (17 in) of length, with no limit on thickness or weight.

The players also need a ball, a net and a marked court. The ball has to be a design approved by USA Pickleball and one uniform color, apart from identification markings. The court is a rectangle 6.10 m wide and 13.41 m long (20 ft by 44 ft), the same size for singles and doubles, and the net is 91.44 cm (36 in) high at the sidelines and 86.36 cm (34 in) at the center.

For tournaments, the rulebook requires shoes with soles that do not mark or damage the playing surface. Its underlying principles ask players to avoid clothing that closely matches the ball color.

Where Can You Find a Game of Pickleball?

USA Pickleball’s Places to Play page names Pickleheads as the official court and game finder of USA Pickleball. The page, published September 10, 2025 and last modified April 27, 2026, says the Pickleheads database lists the latest pickleball locations, schedules and open play times.

The same page says ambassadors and members help keep that database up to date. A player heading to a venue for the first time can confirm the schedule with the venue. The page gives no venue counts and does not say which courts allow pickleball.

How Does a Game of Pickleball Start?

The players first decide who serves first. USA Pickleball’s How to Play page says any fair method works, and the rulebook gives a coin toss as one example for tournament referees. Each doubles team has a starting server, the player designated to serve first at the start of a game, and that player stands in the right serving area when the team’s score is zero. The How to Play page puts it as the player on the right-hand side serving first.

Before the first serve, the server calls the score, and the whole call has to finish before the ball is hit. In singles the opening call is “zero, zero”. In doubles it is “zero, zero, two”: the serving team’s score, the receiving team’s score and the server number. The number is two: the starting server of the team that serves first counts as a second server for that team’s opening turn, so only one player serves before the first side out. The server then has 10 seconds after the call to serve.

The serve goes diagonally into the service court opposite the server and has to clear the kitchen, the non-volley zone that extends 2.13 m (7 ft) from the net on each side. A served ball that lands in the kitchen is a fault. The serving rules allow two styles: a volley serve, hit on a clear upward arc with the ball no higher than the waist and the paddle head no higher than the wrist at contact, or a drop serve, where the server drops the ball and hits it after it bounces. Under the two-bounce rule, the receiver lets the serve bounce before returning it, and the serving side lets the return bounce before hitting it. After that, either side can volley.

How Does One Rally Play Out From Serve to Point?

A doubles rally begins with the serve landing in the diagonal service court. The receiver lets it bounce and hits the return. The serving team then lets that return bounce, which makes its first hit the third shot of the rally, counting the serve as the first and the return as the second.

USA Pickleball describes the third shot drop as a soft, controlled shot, like a dink, hit from the baseline so that it lands in the opponent’s kitchen. The serving team plays it, and it lets the team move to the net safely. A dink, in USA Pickleball’s glossary, is a soft shot hit on a bounce from the kitchen that is intended to arc over the net and land in the opposing kitchen.

The rulebook allows a player to touch the kitchen at any time other than while volleying, and the glossary defines a volley as a ball hit in the air before it bounces. A player can stand in the kitchen to hit a ball that has bounced there. A volley has to begin outside the zone, and touching the zone while volleying is a fault.

A fault ends the rally. The rulebook defines it as a rules violation that results in a dead ball and the loss of a rally. Faults the rulebook names include a ball that bounces twice before it is returned, a ball that lands outside the opponent’s end of the court, a ball that fails to cross the net and lands on the hitter’s side, and a volley made while touching the kitchen. If the receiving side commits the fault, the serving team scores a point. If the serving side commits it, the serve moves on, to the second server in doubles or to the opponents after a side out.

How Does Scoring Run Through the First Points of a Doubles Game?

The sequence below is Racket Chronicle’s constructed illustration of standard scoring in doubles, not a recorded match. Standard scoring means only the serving side can score; rally scoring, which the rulebook lists as a provisional option, is not used. Every rule applied comes from the 2026 USA Pickleball Official Rulebook. Team A is Ana, the starting server, and Ben. Team B is Cam, the starting server, and Dee. Team A serves first, so the opening call is “zero, zero, two”. Team A’s score is zero, so Ana serves from the right serving area, diagonally across the net.

Team A wins the first rally and scores a point. The score is now odd, so Ana moves to the left serving area and the call is “one, zero, two”. Team A wins that rally as well. Ana moves back to the right for the call “two, zero, two”, and Team A loses the rally. Ana was the second server for the opening turn, so there is no second chance: the serve passes to Team B in a side out. Team B scores nothing for winning that rally; only the serving side can score.

Team B starts at zero. After a side out, the player standing in the right-hand position for the team’s score begins as the first server, and at zero that is the starting server, Cam. The call is “zero, two, one”: Team B’s score, Team A’s score, and server one. Cam wins the rally and Team B scores its first point. Cam serves from the left for the call “one, two, one”, and Team B loses the rally. The serve passes to Cam’s partner, Dee, the second server, for the call “one, two, two”. Dee serves from the right, the position for the starting server’s partner when the team’s score is odd. Team B loses that rally too, and with both servers used, the serve goes back to Team A.

Team A now serves with a score of two against Team B’s one. At an even score the starting server is on the right, so Ana is the first server and the call is “two, one, one”. In six rallies Team A scored two points and Team B one, and the serve changed hands twice. Pickleball awards a point only when the serving side wins a rally, and a game is normally played to 11. Padel counts differently: it scores in the tennis style, with points of 15, 30 and 40 inside games that build to sets.

How Do Singles and Doubles Differ for a New Player?

USA Pickleball’s Rules Summary, last modified September 28, 2026, says pickleball is played as doubles or singles and that doubles is the most common format. It adds that beginners often start with doubles, a format that requires less court coverage and emphasizes teamwork, communication and strategy. The same page says the court size and basic rules apply to both styles.

Singles uses the same court, and the score call and serving position differ. The call is two numbers, the server’s score and then the receiver’s, and the server serves from the right serving area when the server’s score is zero or even and from the left when it is odd. Singles has no second server: the server keeps serving until losing a rally, which is a side out, and then the serve passes to the opponent.

What Etiquette Do Pickleball Players Follow?

USA Pickleball’s How to Play page lists three habits. Call the score before each serve; the rulebook builds this into the serve, and the call has to finish before the ball is hit. Call a ball “out” loudly and clearly, but only if certain. Tap paddles or give kudos after the game, which the page calls tradition. The rulebook’s line-call rules back the second habit: a player can call a ball out only on seeing a clear space between the line and the ball when it lands, and in doubles either partner can make a line call.

The rulebook’s underlying principles set the tone. It describes pickleball as a game that requires cooperation and courtesy, and says that a sense of fair play, by giving the opponent the benefit of any doubt, is essential. Calls are made without delay so that nobody can hold back a call for their own advantage, and players do not question or comment on an opponent’s call except through an appeal to a referee.

How Hard Is Pickleball to Learn, and What Should a Beginner Practice First?

USA Pickleball’s Rules Summary says the two-bounce rule eliminates the serve and volley advantage and extends rallies, and its How to Play page says the kitchen rule prevents easy smashes from right at the net and makes strategy more important.

The ease claims come from USA Pickleball, and they are the governing body’s characterizations. Its How to Play page, last modified September 16, 2026, says part of what makes pickleball popular is how easy it is to learn, describes the game as simple to learn but demanding to master, and says scoring can feel confusing at first. USA Pickleball’s Skill Level One, nicknamed The Rookies (1.0), lists what players at that level are learning: basic shots (forehand, backhand and serve), the rules and scoring basics, the court layout, and handling the paddle and ball.

Racket Chronicle’s suggested practice order follows the order of a rally, and it is an editorial judgment rather than a USA Pickleball ranking. The serve comes first: every rally starts with it, and the rulebook sets its form. The return comes next, followed by the third shot drop and the dink, the soft shots that carry a team from the baseline to the net. Calling the score belongs in every practice game, and the call has to finish before the serve. A serve drill can focus on the details the rulebook sets for the volley serve: an upward arc, contact no higher than the waist and a paddle head no higher than the wrist.

How to Play Pickleball FAQs

Sources

USA Pickleball, “2026 Official Rulebook”

USA Pickleball, “How to Play Pickleball,” modified September 16, 2026

USA Pickleball, “Places to Play,” modified April 27, 2026

USA Pickleball, “Essential Pickleball Rules Summary for Beginners,” modified September 28, 2026

Image: Depositphotos