The 5 Basic Rules of Pickleball Every Beginner Should Know
If you’re new to pickleball or you’ve just booked your first session in Brisbane, you’ve probably realised something pretty quickly — pickleball is fun, fast, and super easy to pick up… as long as you understand the basic rules.
Before you jump into your first game or Come & Try session at Pickle Kit, here are the five essential pickleball rules every beginner should learn. These are the same rules we teach in our intro sessions, and once you know them, the game becomes far more enjoyable and much easier to follow.
Let’s break them down.
🥒 Rule #1 — The Serve Must Be Hit Underhand
Pickleball serves are simple — no tennis-style overhead blasts allowed.
A legal serve must be:
Hit underhand
With the paddle below your waist
And the contact point below your belly button
The serve must travel diagonally into the opponent’s service box and must clear the net. Only one serve attempt is allowed (except on a “let” in some social play formats).
This rule keeps the game accessible to all ages and prevents huge power advantages — one of the reasons pickleball is so beginner-friendly.
🥒 Rule #2 — The Double-Bounce Rule
This is the rule most beginners mix up early on.
Here’s how it works:
The return of serve must bounce before you hit it.
Then, when the ball comes back to the serving team, it must bounce again before they hit it.
Serve → bounce
Return → bounce
Then you’re free to volley or play it off the bounce.
Once both teams have hit one groundstroke each, the rally becomes “live” and you can start moving up to the non-volley zone (the kitchen).
🥒 Rule #3 — Stay Out of the Non-Volley Zone (The Kitchen)
This is the big one — the famous kitchen rule.
The non-volley zone (NVZ) is the 7-foot zone in front of the net. You can be inside it, but you can’t hit a volley while touching it or landing in it. A volley is any ball hit out of the air without bouncing.
You can:
Step into the kitchen after the ball bounces
Dink inside the kitchen
Stand in the kitchen between rallies
You cannot:
Volley with your feet on or inside the NVZ line
Volley and then fall or step into the kitchen (even after the shot)
It keeps the game balanced and prevents players from camping at the net.
🥒 Rule #4 — Points Are Only Scored by the Serving Team
Unlike tennis, both teams don’t score points on every rally.
Only the serving team can score.
If the serving team wins the rally, they score a point and the next player on their side serves. If they lose the rally, the serve passes to their partner — and if they lose again, it’s a “side out” and the other team serves.
This rule creates natural momentum swings and adds strategy around serving rotations.
🥒 Rule #5 — The First Serving Team Only Gets One Serve
One of the quirks that surprises most beginners is how the first serve of the game works. In pickleball, the team that serves first only gets one server, not two.
Normally, each team would have two serving turns — Player 1 serves until they lose a rally, then Player 2 serves until they lose a rally. After both players lose their serve, it’s a side-out and the other team begins serving.
But to remove the early advantage of serving first, the game begins with just one serving attempt for the opening team. That’s why the first score you hear is:
0 – 0 – 2
The two 0s represent each team’s score (both starting at zero), and the “2” signals that the second server is serving first — which simply means the first team only gets one serve before the side-out.
It sounds unusual at first, but once you understand this rule, pickleball scoring becomes far easier to follow and the game flows much more smoothly.
Learning the five basic rules of pickleball makes the game far easier to enjoy, and once you’ve got them down, the sport opens up into something fast, social and incredibly fun. If you’re ready to put these rules into practice, our Come & Try sessions, small-group coaching and Skills & Drills are the perfect next step.
See you on court! 🥒💥
