Each side has a 7ft area called the Non-volley Zone, or “Kitchen”, where no player can hit volleys from.
Not even a toe can touch the kitchen line during a volley.
Each Point starts with a serve. The Player on the right side of the court, facing their opponents, starts the serve.
You Serve diagonally to your opponent, into the right or left service area.
The serve must be clear the “Kitchen” ( including the line) to count.
After the serve, gameplay continues until a “fault” is committed. A fault end a point.
In Pickleball, there are basically 3 types of faults:
1. Serve lands in the kitchen – not clear of the Kitchen or touches the kitchen line.
2. Shot hit out of bounds – landing behind the baseline or outside the sideline.
3. There is no ” Let” in Pickleball – meaning if a serve hits the net , there’s is not redo. The ball is played as it lands.
If your opponent hits a shot landing in the kitchen, what’s called a dink, you can enter and hit from the kitchen. Dinks are a defensive shot, and one of the most important parts of pickleball strategy. Often your best move after moving into the kitchen to field a dink right back to your opponent’s kitchen.
Before any player can hit a shot out the air( a volley), the ball must bounce at least once on each side. This means if your partner is serving , and you start up at the kitchen, you’re in a dangerous position…
Why ? Because the returning team can hit a shot right at you, and if you react with a volley, that’s a fault. You lose the point.
Scoring System :
First – Serving team’s Score.
Second – Receiving team’s score.
Current server (will be 1 or 2 ) – this score will only be 1 or 2