Bendigo Pickleball Club

Although Pickleball is played in a court, the rules of the game more closely resemble table tennis or badminton than traditional tennis. Play and Rules To begin play, the server stands behind the right "service square" -- the right rectangle -- and serves diagonally to the opponent's right service-receiving square. The ball must clear the net and bounce in the square for the serve to be good. The opponent then hits it back. It must then bounce once on your side before hitting it back. A rally then ensues until one team hits a winner in the lines that can't be touched or the other team hits the ball in the net or out. The team that didn't miss their next shot wins the rally, but you only score a point if you're serving. Once in play, players can only volley the ball back once it has bounced once on their side. A volley is when you hit the ball back in the air before it bounces on the court. You are not allowed to volley from inside the kitchen area by the net. This keeps players from just hovering over the net and smashing it back down. Serving The server keeps serving until she or he faults. A fault is when you don't make the serve in. But the server switches sides between right and left service square with each serve, meaning if you serve from behind the right square in your court the first time, you move to the left square. Once a server faults, his or her partner serves until a fault happens. Then the other team serves until a fault happens. If it's a singles game, the server serves until the fault happens then turns it over to the opponent. Serving alternates sides throughout the game. The server must have both feet behind the back line when serving. The serve must be an underhand stroke with the paddle connecting with the ball below the server's waist. The serve must be hit in the air. In other words, the server cannot bounce the ball before hitting it. If the serve knicks the net on the way over, the serve can be redone. Scoring Play continues until the first player or team reaches 11 points with a two-point lead. So, you can win 11 to 9, but if it's 10 to 10 and you score to make it 11 to 10, you keep going. In this case, you'd have to win then next point too to make it 12 to 10 for the win. Again, you only score points when serving.