What is Pickleball?
Pickleball is a fun and fast-paced paddle sport that’s easy to learn and great for all ages! It combines elements of tennis, badminton, ping-pong, and other racquet and paddle sports — it’s played on a specific court with a low net and a plastic ball with holes.
The Court.
It’s about the size of a badminton court — 20 feet wide by 44 feet long.
There’s a 7-foot “no-volley zone” near the net, called the kitchen. No smashing in the kitchen!
The Gear.
You use a paddle (like a big ping-pong paddle) and a plastic ball with holes (like a wiffle ball).
The Basics.
You can play singles (1 vs 1) or doubles (2 vs 2) — most people play doubles.
The game starts with an underhand serve that must land diagonally across the court.
The ball must bounce once on each side before players can start hitting it out of the air. This is called the “double bounce rule.”
The Kitchen Rule.
You can’t step into the kitchen (the area closest to the net) unless the ball bounces there first. This keeps things fair and stops players from smashing everything at the net.
The Scoring.
Only the serving team can score points.
Games are usually played to 11 points, and you have to win by 2.
The score is called out before each serve — and yes, it sounds a little quirky at first, but you'll get the hang of it!