Rules, in plain language

Most games around Taytay are doubles: two against two. Singles uses the same court and the same basic ideas.

One team serves. The other team has to let that serve bounce. The serving team then has to let the return bounce too. After those two bounces, anyone may hit the ball in the air or after it bounces.

In the normal game, only the team that is serving can add a point. When the serving side makes a mistake, the serve moves. First it moves to the partner, except at the very start of the game. Then it moves to the other team.

Keep going until a team reaches the target score and is ahead by two. For a casual game that target is usually 11.

The playing rectangle is 20 feet wide and 44 feet long, the same outer size as a badminton court.

A net cuts the court in half. On each side of the net is a non-volley zone, 7 feet deep. Players call it the kitchen. The kitchen line is part of that zone.

Behind each kitchen, a centerline splits the backcourt into two service boxes: right and left, as you look across the net. The centerline does not run through the kitchen.

The lines around a service box matter for the serve. The outer sidelines and the baseline matter for every shot.

You get one serve. There is no second try if you miss.

On a regular serve, the arm is moving upward as the paddle meets the ball. Contact is not above the waist, and the paddle head is not above the wrist.

You may instead drop the ball and hit it after it bounces. On that drop serve, the upward-arc, waist, and paddle-head limits do not apply.

When you hit the ball, at least one foot is behind the baseline. Your feet must not be on the court, and they must not stray outside the imaginary sideline or centerline.

The ball travels diagonally into the receiver’s service box and must get past the kitchen. Landing on the kitchen line makes the serve short.

If the ball brushes the net and still lands in the correct box, the rally continues. You do not replay it.

You may put spin on the ball with the paddle as you hit it. Do not flick extra spin onto the ball with your hand while you are letting it go. Letting the ball roll off the paddle face from gravity is fine.

In doubles, a team normally has two serves: one player, then their partner. Each keeps serving until their team faults.

The opening of a game is the exception. Only one player serves. After that first fault, the other team starts with the ball. From then on, each side-out gives both partners a serve.

The first serve after the ball changes teams starts in the right-hand box.

If the serving team wins the rally, the same server moves to the other box and serves again. They keep swapping sides as their score climbs.

When the first server’s team faults, the partner serves from the box that matches the score. When the second server’s team faults, the other team gets the ball.

In singles, serve from the right when your score is even and from the left when it is odd.

The team receiving the serve lets the ball bounce before they hit it.

The serving team then lets that return bounce before they hit it. Those are the two bounces.

After the ball has bounced once on each side, both teams may volley or play a bounce.

This stops the server from rushing the net and volleying the return.

The kitchen is the 7-foot non-volley zone on both sides of the net, including its line.

You may stand in the kitchen whenever you are not volleying. Hitting a ball that has already bounced, even if you are standing in the kitchen, is allowed.

A volley is a ball you hit out of the air. You cannot volley while touching the kitchen, and you cannot step on the kitchen line as you volley.

If the shot pulls you in, that is still a fault, even when the ball is already dead. Anything you are wearing or carrying counts too.

The idea is simple: no smashing from on top of the net. Play the bounce if you are in the kitchen.

In side-out scoring, only the serving team can score. A fault by the receiving side gives the servers a point. A fault by the serving side costs them that serve, or the ball, if they were on their last serve.

A normal game goes to 11, and you must lead by 2. A tournament may instead play to 15 or 21, still win by 2.

Before a doubles serve, call three numbers: the servers’ score, the receivers’ score, then whether this is server 1 or server 2. At the start of the game the single opening server is called as server 2.

When your team’s score is even, the player who began as your first server stands on the right to serve or receive. When it is odd, that player stands on the left.

Rally scoring is different and optional. The 2026 book still treats it as a provisional format a tournament may choose, not the everyday game. In that trial, the side that wins the rally receives the point, including the point that ends the game. Players often call just two numbers, because the trial does not use the side-out server number. Confirm the exact sequence in the official book before a match uses it. Fill4’s default stays side-out to 11.

If the ball touches a line, it is in.

The exception is the serve. A serve that touches the kitchen line is short.

The team on the side where the ball lands makes the call.

If you and your partner disagree about a line, give the point of doubt to the other team. The ball is in.

A fault is a rules mistake that ends the rally. If the receivers fault, the servers get a point. If the servers fault, they lose that serve or hand the ball over.

Common ones in a casual game: the serve misses the box; the ball goes into the net; the ball lands out; the ball bounces twice; someone volleys before both bounces have happened; someone volleys from the kitchen; a player, their clothes, or their paddle hits the net or a net post while the ball is live; the ball hits a player or what they are wearing; the ball hits a permanent object before it has bounced on the court.

A ball that crosses, bounces in, and only then brushes a post is not the same as hitting the post in the air. When you are unsure, stop and replay only if you cannot agree — and read the official book before you invent a local version.

A hinder is when something outside a fair shot stops a player from playing the ball. The usual idea is to replay the rally rather than award it. The official book lists the details. Do not treat every close call as a hinder.

Any fair method can choose who decides first. A coin, a paddle spin, or writing a number are all fine.

The winner of that choice picks the end, the serve, or the receive. They do not automatically get all three.

Some casual groups always start from a particular end. That is a local habit. It is not required by the official rules. If you use it, say so before the first serve.

In games without a referee, players make the calls on their side of the net.

If you know you faulted, say so. You are also expected to call a fault on your partner when they do not call it themselves.

If you and your partner disagree about a fault, the call goes to your opponents, the same way a split line call does.

Wheelchair pickleball is part of the 2026 rules, in its own section, so players and referees can find the adaptations in one place.

A wheelchair is treated as part of the player, and there are extra faults that do not apply to standing play. Fill4 is not restating those faults here. A short paraphrase would be easy to get wrong.

Read the wheelchair section in the official rulebook, and use the wheelchair and equipment links on the USA Pickleball rules hub, before you play or officiate an adaptive match.

A serve may touch the net and stay in play if it still lands in the correct service box.

Rally scoring remains a provisional option. For 2026, the side that wins the rally can take the point, including the point that wins the game. Receivers are no longer blocked from winning the match on that last rally.

You may apply spin with the paddle as it hits the serve. You still may not add spin with your hand as you release the ball.

Wheelchair rules were pulled into their own section.

That is not the whole list. Editors also clarified things like a ball that bounces in and then hits a post. Use the official change document if a detail matters.

Fill4’s open-play queue is a house practice. Four play, then the next four, in the order people joined. Nobody, including Fill4 Pro, skips that line. The official rulebook does not require this rotation.

The game-day countdown, Ready button, prep clock, match timer, and the rule that a score locks only when both pairs agree are Fill4 features. They help a group start and record a game. They are not USA Pickleball scoring law.

If a group wants rally scoring for a session, agree first. Fill4 still treats side-out to 11, win by 2, as the normal game.

If this guide and the official 2026 book ever disagree, follow the book.