How to play pickleball

To play pickleball, serve underhand and diagonally into the opposite service court. The return must bounce, and the serving side's next shot must bounce too (the two-bounce rule). After that you can volley, but never while standing in the 7 ft non-volley zone, the "kitchen". A rally ends when a ball lands out, goes into the net or bounces twice.

A point, step by step

1. Serve. From behind the baseline, underhand, diagonally across the court. It must clear the kitchen and land in the service court.
2. Return. The receiver lets the serve bounce, then hits it back.
3. Third shot. The serving side must also let the return bounce once.
4. Rally. Now either side can volley (hit before the bounce) or play off the bounce.
5. The kitchen. You can stand in the kitchen to play a ball that has bounced, but you cannot volley while touching it.
6. Point over. A fault ends the rally: ball out, into the net, a double bounce, or a kitchen violation.

Winning points

In traditional scoring only the serving side scores. If the serving side wins the rally, they score a point and keep serving. If they lose it, the serve passes on. See pickleball scoring.

The shots you will hear about

• Dink. A soft shot that drops into the opponent's kitchen.
• Drive. A hard, flat shot.
• Third shot drop. A soft third shot that lets the serving team move up to the kitchen line.
• Lob. A high shot over players at the net.