13.41 × 6.10 m · Singles & doubles · with non-volley zone
Pickleball
Tennis meets table tennis — easy to start, devious to master.
Beginner trap: The serve and the return must each bounce — and never volley from the kitchen.
01 Court
- 13.41 × 6.10 m — the size of a badminton doubles court — for both singles and doubles.
- The non-volley zone (the kitchen) is 2.13 m deep on each side of the net.
- Each service court runs 4.57 m from the kitchen line to the baseline and 3.05 m wide, split by the centreline.
- Net: 0.9144 m at the sidelines, 0.8636 m at the centre.
02 Serve
- Call the full score before serving — then you have 10 seconds.
- Keep at least one foot on the ground behind the baseline; no foot may touch the court or cross the sideline's imaginary extension.
- Volley serve: arm moves in an upward arc, paddle head below the wrist at contact, contact below the waist. Or drop serve: drop the ball (don't throw it) and hit it after the bounce — none of the volley-serve restrictions apply.
- Serve diagonally past the kitchen into the service court. A net-cord serve that lands in is live — there is no service let.
- Only one serve attempt: a fault loses the serve.
03 Rally
- Two-bounce rule: the serve and the return of serve must each bounce once before anyone may volley.
- Never volley while touching the kitchen or its lines — including if your momentum carries you in after the shot, even after the ball is dead.
- Standing in the kitchen is fine as long as the ball bounced first.
- A ball landing on a line is in — except a serve landing in the kitchen (lines included) is out.
04 Score
- Side-out scoring: only the serving side can score. Keep serving — alternating courts after each point won — until you lose the rally.
- Games normally go to 11 points, win by 2.
- In doubles the score is called as three numbers: your score, their score, server number (1 or 2). Each game starts 0-0-2, because only the starting server serves on the first turn.
- Both partners serve before a side out — except the first serving turn of each game.
05 Faults
- Volleying before the serve and return have bounced (breaking the two-bounce rule).
- Volleying while touching the kitchen — momentum counts.
- Catching or carrying the ball on the paddle; hitting the ball before it fully crosses the plane of the net; touching the net while the ball is live.
06 Terms
- Kitchen — the non-volley zone; no volleys from here, ever.
- Side out — the serve passes to the other side.
- Volley — hitting the ball before it bounces.
- Dink — a soft shot that arcs into the opponent's kitchen.
- Two-bounce rule — serve and return must each bounce once.
USA Pickleball — Official Rulebook 2025 (Global Pickleball Federation edition), 2026 changesChecked Oct 2026