How to play Pickleball, complete guide for beginners.

Learning how to play pickleball and does pickleball looks like is the first step to becoming a part of this legendary sport. Pickleball is becoming a very popular game nowadays for everyone and the main reason behind its acceptance is, that it is compatible with all groups of ages.

A lot of people love to play pickleball on their holidays and spend spend a good time with their family because from a teen to a person aged 40 or 50 can learn and play this game easily. If you want to know how to play pickleball game and want to give it a try, you just need to have the following things.

• Pickleball Paddles (1 for each player).
• A plastic ball to play with.
• And most important a pickleball court.

The playing method depends on whether you are playing as singles or doubles. So, let’s learn (how to play pickleball).

Here is “how to play pickleball”.

First of all, flipping the coin or any other method will be used to determine who will start the game and the person who wins the toss will serve first. The game will start with serve and played continuously until someone makes any fault.

Starting the game.

Let spouse 2 players are going to play one on one matches and they are player one and player two. Player one is going to serve first, the things he has to keep in mind are,

1. He must need to have at least one foot behind the baseline while he serves the ball to the opponent.
2. The ball must hit from the hand/paddle moving upward from lower than his waistline while serving the ball.
3. The ball has to reach into the diagonal court directly without touching anything (except net mesh). If the ball touches it but manages to reach at right court it’s called let.
4. Ball must not land in the kitchen area on serve shot.

If the server misses any of these following components that will be a fault.

Each serve lasts until a fault.

When a player serves the ball without any mistake and the receiver returns it as well then this rally will continuously go until any of them commits “fault”. For example, player one has served the ball and the ball directly lands in player two’s court now player two have to let the ball bounce once on his side. Keep Remember volleying (hitting the ball back without letting it touch the ground) on serve is a fault and the opponent will get a point for it.

Asking for the score during the rally is also considered a fault because it can divert opponents’ focus. But yes you can ask for the correct score from the referee after completing the rally and it is allowed officially.

Kitchen area in pickleball.

Now, when player two receives the service he has to hit the ball back to the opponent side (either in left or right court). He can hit the ball standing anywhere except the kitchen area even while standing outside of the court line but the ball must have to bounce inside of the court lines. The only rule he has to follow is he just has to hit the ball inside of the court and does not matter where the ball lands except the kitchen area (non-volley zone). The size of the kitchen area is 7 feet from the net.

Also, don’t forget that volleying the ball standing inside of the kitchen area at any point of the game is a “fault”. Even if your toe is touching the line of this area or if you running towards it make the hit while outside of the kitchen area but your speed takes you in after hitting, will also count as a “fault”. And if the ball bounces and you are standing in the kitchen area and the ball is in your range you can hit it back.

After this when both players start hitting the ball without any fault this will be called a rally. The person who loses the rally due to any fault will have a negative impact on his score. If a server (player one) makes a fault he will lose his serve and on the other hand, if the receiver (player two) makes a fault that will add one point to the server’s score.

Double bounce rule in pickleball.

This rule is also connected to service. When a player serves the ball, the receiver has to let the ball bounce once on his side then he will hit the ball back towards the serving side and he also had to let the ball bounce once on his side. After that, both players can start volleying the ball. After this, you can also move close to the kitchen area because it will make it hard for your opponent to play the shorts coming from that close. But keep in mind volleying from inside the kitchen area will be a fault so avoid touching it when volleying.

But it will be only useful if you are playing as doubles because the chances of missing the ball will get high so your second player can hit it back if 1^st one somehow misses it. It is necessary to allow the ball to bounce once on each side after serve even if it comes directly in court instead of NVZ (If the serve drops in NVZ it will be a fault).

Determining serving court.

This depends on the score of the serving side. It is a definite thing that the first serve of the game will be always from the right side court. However, when both players have some score the serving court will be determined according to that. Let spouse the match is at 5-8 score (player one at 5 and player two at 8)

If player one is on serve and he has score in odd he will serve from the left side of the court no matter if it’s his first serve after a turnout. And if he won the rally after this service and reached 6 points he will now move to the right side of the court because he has scored even.

The position of the receiver also depends on the server’s score. As said above when player one is serving from the left on 5 points the receiver will stand on the left side of his court due to his score does not have any influence on it.

Condition for winning the match.

To win a match, a player need to have the lead of 2 points from their opponent and collect 11 points while his opponent is on 9 points or below. If he reaches 11 but his opponent is at 10 then the winning points will exceed 15 or 21. The chance of reaching the game to 21 points is very rare in singles most of the games end at 11 and reach 15 or 21 in tournaments.

Some bonus tips that will help you to win.

This is also as essential as learning how to play pickleball. Playing offensive can help to get points easier. Following these steps will put your opponent in defensive mode and you can move to attack mode,

• Serving deeper will compel your opponent to move backward.
• Serving the lower will also make it hard to hit back with force.
• Adding Spin to the ball with the help of your wrist and paddle by hitting at angles will make it hard to track the ball’s movement.
• Volleying the ball with force and hitting the ball in the feet of the opponent if he is standing inside the court will make it hard to hit back.

This guide only contains data about how to play pickleball but it is not enough to start a game. For that, knowing basic rules is compulsory.

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