How to play!
Heard about the Pickleball craze, but have no idea how to play?
Read on to find out more about the basics, and where to get started!
Before you can get started, you’ll need 3 things!
- Reliable, durable Pickleball paddles
- Pickleballs for play
- A local court or club to play at
Pickleball can be played in a singles format or doubles format.
There are three basic types of shots that be played in Pickleball:
- Serve
- Groundstroke (hit off the bounce)
- Volley (hit on the full)
We’ll outline more on these later, but for now here are the simple Rules and Regulations of a Pickleball game. Please note that the full list of rules, regulations and guidelines is available on the official USA Pickleball Association page.
The Rules
How to serve?
Each rally in Pickleball begins with the serve. Unlike tennis, the purpose of the serve in pickleball is to place the ball in play. It is not considered to be an offensive weapon.
Where to serve?
Similar to Tennis, each serve is made diagonally across the court. The serve must clear the oppositions kitchen line on the full and land in the box created by the centreline, baseline and sideline (refer to diagram).
Any balls landing on the baseline or sideline/centreline are considered IN, a ball landing on the kitchen line is OUT.
You must have both feet behind the baseline (refer to player 3 in the diagram) and neither foot is allowed to touch or pass the baseline during your serve.
Each point is decided after a fault or a winning shot. There are three standard or common types of faults:
- The serve does not land in play (either in the kitchen, hits the net, or goes out of bounds)
- A shot does not bounce within the designated court area
- A shot is hit in to the net and does not clear it
A winning shot, or “winner” is a successful shot that is not returned by the opponent, and rewards the point to the person who made the shot.
You can’t hit a volley (hit the ball on the full) in the kitchen. On either side of the net there is a 7ft area called “The Kitchen” which is known as the non-volley zone. You are not allowed to make a volley (hit the ball on the full) in this area, nor are you permitted to fall, stumble or move in to the kitchen after a volley.
However, if the ball bounces in the kitchen, you can then enter the kitchen and return the ball. If a successful return is made the rally will continue.
Before a Volley (hit on the full) can be made by either player or team, the ball must bounce once on each opposing side. Once there has been at least one bounce on each side in the rally, either side can start volleying the ball (as long as they are outside the kitchen), hence the “double bounce” name.
In Pickleball, you only win or gain points on your serve, and you will continue to serve until you lose a rally, unlike Tennis where it’s alternated after each game. If playing with a partner, after each winning point, you switch sides with your partner and serve to the opposite opponent from the point before.
Once you lose a point on your serve, the opponent will serve. However, if you are playing doubles, both players get the opportunity to serve before the serve is handed over to the opponent. This means in doubles, you have to lose two rally’s two change which team is serving.
The game will commence when one team or player reaches 11 points, however you must win by 2.
OKAY, SO WHERE DO I PLAY?
There are plenty of clubs around Australia that are catering to the Pickleball craze. See the link for some of Inner’s featured clubs, their details are included and you are strongly encouraged to reach out to these awesome club organisers if you want to get involved!