New to Pickleball? Learn the Rules, Key Shots, and Scoring in Under 5 Minutes

If you’ve been watching from the sidelines as pickleball takes over every available court in your town, you’re not alone. The sport has exploded in popularity, and what was once a niche backyard game has become a full-blown cultural phenomenon. You see it everywhere: neighborhood parks, community centers, and yes, probably scrolling through your social media feeds at least once a day. But if you’re new to the game, stepping onto that court for the first time can feel overwhelming. There are strange lines painted on the court, people shouting numbers that don’t seem to make any sense, and terms like “the kitchen” that have nothing to do with cooking.

The good news is that pickleball is actually one of the easiest sports to pick up, and once you understand a few fundamental concepts, you’ll be rallying with confidence in no time. Professional player Zane Navratil, a two-time PPA champion and four-time MLP champion who hosts the PicklePod, has created a digestible guide that breaks down everything you need to know to get started. His approach strips away the intimidation factor and gets you focused on what really matters: understanding the court, mastering a handful of essential shots, and grasping the scoring system that confuses so many beginners.

Understanding the Court and the Kitchen

The pickleball court might look like a miniature tennis court at first glance, but those extra lines painted on the surface are what give the sport its unique character. The court measures 20 feet wide by 44 feet long, and while you have your standard baseline and sidelines that mark the boundaries of play, there’s one special area that demands your attention: the kitchen.

Officially called the Non-Volley Zone, the kitchen is a seven-foot area on either side of the net. This rectangular zone is the heart of what makes pickleball different from other racket sports. The rule is simple but crucial: you cannot step into this zone and hit the ball out of the air. You can enter the kitchen, but only after the ball has bounced. This single rule prevents pickleball from becoming a game dominated purely by power and athleticism. It forces players to think strategically, to develop touch and finesse, and it creates the kind of cat-and-mouse rallies that make the sport so addictive to watch and play.

The kitchen line serves as the great equalizer in pickleball. It means that a 70-year-old with good placement can compete against a 25-year-old athlete. It prevents the game from turning into volleyball at the net, where the tallest and strongest player would always win. Instead, pickleball becomes a game of patience, positioning, and precision. Understanding this zone and respecting its boundaries is the first step toward actually playing the game rather than just hitting a ball back and forth.

The sidelines and baseline function just as they do in tennis. If the ball lands beyond these lines, it’s out. But here’s something that trips up beginners: in pickleball, the lines are in. If the ball touches any part of the line, it’s considered good. This often leads to disputes in recreational play, which is why many players develop the habit of making line calls loudly and clearly. When you’re just starting out, give your opponents the benefit of the doubt on close calls. The spirit of the game values fair play and good sportsmanship above winning at all costs.

The Rules You Actually Need to Know

Pickleball has plenty of rules, but when you’re just getting started, there’s really only one that matters above all others: the double bounce rule. This rule is the foundation of pickleball strategy, and it’s the one that confuses every tennis player who tries pickleball for the first time. Here’s how it works: after the serve, the ball must bounce once on the receiving side, and then it must bounce once on the serving side before either team can start volleying the ball out of the air.

Let’s break that down even further. When someone serves the ball, the receiving team must let it bounce before hitting it back. They cannot take it out of the air. Then, when that return comes back to the serving team, they too must let it bounce before hitting it. Only after these two bounces have occurred can players start hitting volleys. This rule exists for a very good reason: it prevents the serving team from immediately rushing the net and ending points with aggressive volleys. It forces a more measured, strategic approach to each point.

The double bounce rule creates what experienced players call “the third shot problem.” Since you have to let the ball bounce after the serve and the return, the serving team finds themselves stuck at the baseline while the receiving team has already moved up to the kitchen line. This disadvantage is why the third shot in pickleball is so critical, but we’ll get to that shortly.

Serving in pickleball follows specific rules that you need to master. The serve must be hit underhand, and contact with the ball must occur below your waist. You serve diagonally, just like in tennis, from behind the baseline to the opposite service court. If you step on or over the baseline before making contact with the ball, that’s a foot fault, and you lose the serve. One common mistake beginners make is trying to serve like they’re playing tennis, taking a big wind-up and trying to crush the ball. Resist this temptation. A good pickleball serve is consistent and deep, not necessarily powerful. Your goal is to start the point on your terms, not to blast an ace past your opponent.

There’s also the drop serve option, which was added to the official rules to make serving more accessible to beginners and players with mobility issues. With a drop serve, you simply drop the ball and let it bounce before hitting it. There are no restrictions on how you strike the ball after it bounces, which gives you more flexibility than the traditional volley serve. Many beginners find this method easier to control and more consistent.

The Five Essential Shots Every Beginner Needs

The Serve

Your serve is how every point begins, so getting comfortable with it is essential. Unlike tennis, where a powerful serve can be a weapon that wins you free points, the pickleball serve is more about reliability and placement. You want to hit the ball deep into your opponent’s court, ideally near the baseline, to push them back and give yourself time to recover and prepare for the next shot.

The biggest mistake beginners make with the serve is overthinking it or trying to do too much. You don’t need spin, you don’t need power, and you definitely don’t need to try some fancy technique you saw on YouTube. Start simple: use either the traditional underhand volley serve or the drop serve, whichever feels more natural. Focus on getting the ball consistently into the correct service box and deep toward the baseline. As you develop more control, you can start targeting specific areas, like hitting to your opponent’s backhand or serving down the middle to create confusion in doubles play.

The Return of Serve

The return of serve is arguably the most important shot in pickleball because it’s the one shot where you know exactly what’s coming. You’re standing in a ready position, you can see the server preparing, and you have time to position yourself. The goal of the return is twofold: first, hit the ball deep to keep the serving team back at the baseline, and second, give yourself time to move forward to the kitchen line.

Here’s what Navratil emphasizes and what separates beginners from intermediate players: don’t just stand there admiring your return. As soon as you make contact with the ball, start moving toward the net. The team that controls the kitchen line controls the point. If you hit a good deep return and then remain at the baseline, you’ve wasted the advantage that the double bounce rule gives you as the returning team. Hit and move. This pattern should become automatic.

The Dink

The dink is the shot that defines pickleball. It’s a soft, controlled shot that you hit into your opponent’s kitchen, landing the ball at their feet. Why is this shot so important? Because when the ball is down at someone’s feet in the kitchen, they cannot attack it. They’re forced to hit up on the ball, which means they cannot hit down at you with pace. This creates what players call “the dinking game,” where both teams are at the kitchen line, softly hitting balls back and forth, waiting for someone to make a mistake or create an opportunity to attack.

The key to good dinking is restraint. Beginners often take huge backswings, thinking they need a big motion to control the ball. The opposite is true. Keep your paddle face slightly open, use a short compact motion, and let the ball almost float off your paddle. Think of it as catching and releasing rather than hitting. The less effort you put into the shot, the better your control will be. If you find your dinks sailing long beyond the kitchen, you’re swinging too hard or taking too big of a backswing. Dial it back, soften your grip, and focus on placement rather than power.

The Volley

When you’re standing at the kitchen line and the ball comes at you in the air, you’re hitting a volley. In pickleball, these volleys are not about smashing the ball as hard as you can. Instead, you want to use short, compact punches to direct the ball down at your opponent’s feet. The same principle that makes the dink effective applies here: balls at the feet are impossible to attack.

Keep your paddle up in front of you in a ready position when you’re at the kitchen line. Your grip should be firm but not tight, and your movements should be quick and controlled. Think of your paddle as a wall that you’re redirecting the ball off of rather than a hammer you’re using to crush it. Big swings at the kitchen line lead to errors, either hitting the ball out or hitting it up where your opponents can attack it. Stay compact, stay controlled, and keep the ball low.

The Third Shot

This is where pickleball strategy really begins. Remember that after the serve and return, the serving team is stuck at the baseline while the receiving team has already moved up to the kitchen line. The third shot is how the serving team neutralizes this disadvantage and works their way forward to the net. You have two main options: the drive or the drop.

The drive is exactly what it sounds like: you hit the ball hard and low, trying to force your opponents into a defensive position or make an error. This can be effective, especially if your opponents aren’t positioned well or if you catch them off guard. However, a good team at the kitchen line will simply block your drive back at your feet, and you’re still stuck at the baseline.

The drop shot, which Navratil emphasizes as the more important skill to develop, is a soft shot that arcs over the net and lands in the kitchen. This shot is difficult to master because it requires touch and precision, but it’s incredibly effective. When executed properly, the drop shot lands softly in your opponent’s kitchen, forcing them to hit up on the ball. This gives you time to move forward to the kitchen line, evening out the positioning on the court. As Navratil mentions, you can get by with drives when you’re just starting out, but as you face better competition, you’ll need to develop a reliable drop shot to really progress in the sport.

Demystifying Pickleball Scoring

Pickleball scoring is the aspect of the game that causes the most confusion for beginners, but once you understand the basic principles, it becomes second nature. The sport uses what’s called “side-out scoring,” which means that only the serving team can score points. If the receiving team wins the rally, they don’t score a point; instead, they win the serve and then have the opportunity to score.

Most recreational games are played to 11 points, and you must win by 2. In doubles, which is the most common format, the score is called using three numbers. The first number is your team’s score, the second number is the opposing team’s score, and the third number indicates whether you’re the first or second server on your team. So when someone calls out “3-5-2,” that means their team has 3 points, the opponents have 5 points, and they are the second server.

Here’s how the serving rotation works in doubles: at the start of the game, only one player on the serving team gets to serve. This is an exception to prevent the team that serves first from having an unfair advantage. After that first side-out, both players on each team will serve before the serve goes to the other team. When your team is serving and you win a point, you and your partner switch sides of the court. This switching only happens when the serving team scores. The receiving team stays in their positions until they win the serve.

When you’re the first server on your team and you lose the rally, the serve passes to your partner, who becomes the second server. When the second server loses a rally, that’s a side-out, and the serve goes to the other team. This pattern continues throughout the game. The key thing to remember is that both players on a team will serve before the other team gets the ball, except at the very beginning of the game.

In singles play, the scoring is simpler because there’s no second server. The score is called with just two numbers: your score and your opponent’s score. You serve from the right side of the court when your score is even and from the left side when your score is odd. This helps everyone keep track of who should be serving and from where.

Making Sense of It All: A Beginner’s Perspective

If you’ve made it this far and your head is spinning slightly, that’s completely normal. Pickleball might be easy to pick up, but there’s a lot of information to absorb when you’re first learning. Let’s step back and think about what makes this sport special and why it’s worth pushing through the initial learning curve.

At its core, pickleball is a social sport. Unlike tennis, where you might spend most of a match on opposite ends of the court barely interacting, pickleball brings people together. The smaller court size, the emphasis on doubles play, and the fact that games are relatively short all contribute to a communal atmosphere. You’ll make mistakes, you’ll hit balls into the net, and you’ll definitely forget the score more than once. Everyone who plays pickleball has been exactly where you are now, and the community is generally welcoming and supportive of newcomers.

The beauty of the sport is that you don’t need to master everything at once. Can you serve the ball into the correct box? Can you return a serve? Can you hit a few balls back and forth? If you answered yes to these questions, you’re ready to play. Everything else—the perfect dink, the third-shot drop, the strategic positioning—will come with time and practice. The learning curve in pickleball is gentle enough that you’ll have fun from day one, but steep enough that you’ll constantly find new challenges to work on.

Think of the kitchen rule as the element that makes pickleball unique. In most racket sports, the person with the most power and athleticism has a significant advantage. Pickleball’s non-volley zone levels the playing field in a way that few other sports do. It means that strategy, placement, and patience matter as much as or more than raw physical ability. This is why you’ll see players of all ages and fitness levels competing together and having genuine rallies. The 70-year-old who’s been playing for years can absolutely hold their own against a 30-year-old athlete who’s just starting out.

The scoring system, while confusing at first, actually adds an interesting strategic element to the game. Because only the serving team can score, there’s a different rhythm to the game than in sports where every point counts the same. When you’re receiving, you’re playing defense, trying to win the serve. When you’re serving, you’re playing offense, trying to extend your run and rack up points. This creates natural momentum swings that make games exciting even when one team is ahead.

Your Next Steps on the Court

The best way to learn pickleball is to actually play it. Reading articles and watching videos will give you the knowledge, but nothing replaces the feel of the paddle in your hand, the sound of the ball popping off the surface, and the experience of moving around the court. Find a local court, grab a friend or show up to an open play session, and just start hitting. Most pickleball communities have designated beginner times, and experienced players are usually happy to offer tips and encouragement.

Don’t worry about having perfect form or executing advanced shots right away. Focus on the fundamentals: get your serves in consistently