Pickleball Scorer

🏓 The Basics ▼

Pickleball is played on a badminton-sized court (6.1 × 13.4 m) with a lowered net (86 cm at the centre). Two or four players use solid paddles to hit a perforated ball.

Singles or Doubles Indoor or Outdoor All ages & abilities

The ball must clear the net and land in bounds.
Play continues until a fault is committed.
Only the serving side can score (side-out scoring).

🚀 Serving Rules ▼

The serve must be underhand, with the paddle below the wrist at contact.
The ball must be hit diagonally into the opposite service box.
The serve must clear the Non-Volley Zone (kitchen) — landing in it is a fault.
In doubles, both players on a team serve before the serve passes to the other team (except at the very start — only one serve is allowed on the first service turn).
The server's score determines which side they serve from: even score = right side, odd score = left side.

💡 In doubles, the score is called as three numbers: Server score – Receiver score – Server number (1 or 2). e.g. "4 – 2 – 1"

🔢 Scoring ▼

Format	Win at	Must win by
Standard	11 points	2
Extended	15 or 21 points	2
Tournament (final)	15 points	2

Side-out scoring (traditional): only the serving team scores. Losing a rally means losing the serve.
Rally scoring: a point is awarded on every rally regardless of who served — faster games.
A match is typically best of 3 games; finals are sometimes best of 5.

💡 Games are won at 11, but you must lead by at least 2. If it's 10–10, play continues until someone leads by 2 (e.g. 12–10).

🍳 The Kitchen (NVZ) ▼

The Non-Volley Zone (NVZ), nicknamed "the kitchen", is the 2.1 m area on each side of the net.

You cannot volley (hit the ball in the air) while standing in or touching the kitchen line.
You can enter the kitchen to play a ball that has bounced.
You must exit the kitchen before volleying again.
Momentum that carries you into the kitchen after a volley is also a fault — even if you've already hit the ball.

💡 "Dinking" — soft, angled shots that land in the opponent's kitchen — is a key tactical skill. It forces opponents into the kitchen and sets up winning volleys.

⬆️ Double Bounce Rule ▼

After the serve, each side must let the ball bounce once before hitting it:

The receiving team must let the serve bounce before returning it.
The serving team must then let the return bounce before playing it.
After those two bounces, either team may volley or play off the bounce.

💡 This rule prevents serve-and-volley dominance and encourages longer rallies. It's sometimes called the "two-bounce rule".

⚠️ Faults ▼

A fault ends the rally. Common faults include:

Ball lands out of bounds
Ball hits the net
Volleying from the kitchen or kitchen line
Violating the double bounce rule
Serve lands in the kitchen or out of the service box
Ball bounces twice before being returned
Player or clothing touches the net

📚 Glossary ▼

Term	Meaning
Dink	Soft shot arced into the opponent's kitchen
Drive	Hard, flat groundstroke
Drop shot	Shot that drops softly into the kitchen from mid-court
Erne	Volley hit while jumping around the kitchen post
Kitchen	Non-Volley Zone (NVZ) close to the net
Lob	High arcing shot over an opponent at the net
Poach	Crossing to hit a ball aimed at your partner
Side-out	Losing the serve to the opposing team
Stacking	Doubles formation where both players stay on the same side
Third shot drop	Serving team's third shot — a soft drop into the kitchen to reset the rally