Pickleball scoring, 3 important Factors on which it depends.
The Pickleball scoring rules are quite simple and easy to understand, especially for those who used to play tennis or badminton due to a lot of similarities with each other. The game is further divided into two major groups known as “singles” & “doubles” for both of these same rules are applied and only a couple of them are different.
There is also a unique method used to call the score that makes it easy to understand the position of the game for the audience and also for players while playing, is discussed blew.
Pickleball scoring (Calling the score).
This is the most important factor that we must know before we discuss rules for both single and doubles is Calling The Score. Three things were mentioned when call scoring for pickleball for example the game always starts with 0-0-2. In this sequence, the first digit indicates the server side score, the second digit shows the receiver’s score and the last digit tells which player of a team is serving.
This method applies in the case of doubles and singles only the first two digits will be used to call the score (will be discussed afterward). This also makes it easy to understand the sequence of serving and what side do you serve from.
Unlike other games similar to it, the team that gets the first serve will not have any edge because only 1 player of that team can serve after winning the toss and if they make any fault it will be side out and the opposing team will get the next serve. Then the first players of the receiving team will serve first and the score will be called (0-0-1) which means the serving team has zero receiving team also at zero and 1st player of the receiving team will serve now.
Another term is also used to make it easy to remember (me, you, who) “Me” stands for mine score “you” stands for your score, and “who” means who will serve now. The score will only increase in case a player serves the ball and the receiving side commits any fault and if the serving side makes any fault the service will move to the next one. The service will always start from the right side to the crosscourt on the opposing side.
Pickleball rules doubles.
In pickleball doubles, there are 4 players in total and 2 in a team in short two teams and 1 team on each side the total play area is divided by a net situated right in the middle. The game will start with a toss that will choose who is going to serve first.
When a team gets to serve first, according to the rule book, the pickleball doubles serving rule says that the player on the right side will serve the ball from under the waistline into the opposite side player’s court. This service will be counted as the second serve 0-0-2 (as discussed before) this exception was made to keep the game fair.
After the first turnout, each player of both teams will get a chance to serve with the sequence. The receiver has to let the ball bounce at least once on his side on the serve shot and after playing the serve shot he can start volleying the ball. But it is also compulsory to keep in mind the volley rules to avoid making mistakes and giving points to the opponent.
After that, he can hit and start the rally and in case the receiver side misses the ball or make any other fault the serving side gets a point for it also the serving side players have to change their positions with each other (The right one will go to the left and left one move to the right side of the court) and will serve the other player of opposing team crosscourt.
One more key point is if the receiving team manages to get the point then no one will split their positions. After that, the other player of the team (if the first one lost the serve) will serve and if 2nd player has lost then 1st player of receiving team will serve next. This will be applied only if the toss-winning team has already lost their serve and the match is started with its sequence.
The faults for the server could be one of below.
- If serve land in the kitchen area that will be counted as a fault.
- If the server hits the ball above the waistline while serving.
- Fails to hit the ball in the opponent’s court on the required side.
- Ball fails to cross the net.
The possible faults for receiving side.
- Failed to hit the ball back.
- Not letting the ball bounce in court on a serve shot.
- Hit with too much force that drops the ball out of the court.
Pickleball rules for singles.
“Pickleball singles” is very easy to learn but hard to play as the name shows only one player on each side of the court. Both players have to cover the whole court of their side by themselves and the game will start from the side who won the toss.
The server who won the toss will serve from behind the baseline from the right side and the score will be mentioned as 0-0. If the server manages to get a score then the scoreboard will turn 1-0 which means 1 score of the serving side and 0 on receiving side.
After this, the server will move to the left side of the court and will serve but unlike doubles, in singles, the opponent also has to change its position and move to the other side of the court means if he was on right before now he will move to left. One more important factor is the score will clarify that from which side the server will serve. For singles, it is very simple to understand.
For example, if a player has a score in odds like 3, 5, or 7 that means he/she will serve from the left side and if the score is in even numbers 2, 4, or 6 the server will serve from the right side of the court. This totally depends on the server’s score, the receiver’s score does not matter in this situation. This is the best way to understand pickleball serving rules for singles.
And in doubles, if a team has score in odd numbers that means the server does have not to be on the side from where they started the game. This means after the toss when the game was started if a player is on the right side and now this team is at 9 points then that player now has to be on the left side. And this does not matter which player on this team is now serving.
Drop serve in pickleball.
Different types of strategies can help to win the game easily and Drop serve in pickleball is one of them. It was illegal before but in the year 2021, it became legal and now is being in use by different professional players. In this method, a player drops the ball on the ground behind the baseline with one hand and makes it bounce.
And when the ball bounces, hit it with the paddle that is in another hand. This method makes it easy to swing the ball with a paddle and makes it hard for the opponent to track the way of the ball and hit it back.
These rules will be easy to learn and understand if you now the basic rules of pickleball. The provided link will redirect you to the page giving the information about 5 rules that every player must have to follow.