Pickleball Serve Rules
Do the pickleball serving rules sound confusing to you? Don’t worry, you’re definitely not alone. Serving is the first shot that starts the point, and understanding the rules is important if you want to play at the local pickleball courts or with friends and family. In this blog post, we’ll break down the pickleball serving rules, covering everything from the number of serves allowed to specific regulations for drop serves and illegal serves.
We’ll go over the different serving rules for both singles and doubles so you can enjoy playing both and keeping score with confidence. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a solid understanding of how to serve in pickleball and how to avoid breaking any rules!
Pickleball Serving Rules
There are a few must know pickleball serving rules to go over before learning how to keep score or who is supposed to be serving next. These rules are important to know because they do have an impact on how to serve in pickleball and the techniques you’re allowed to use. PPA rules state that if there is a service motion violation, a re-serve will be called. There are three important service motion rules to remember when serving.
- Pickleball serves must be underhand with an upward arc
- The paddle can’t be above the wrist
- Contact must be below the waist
Underhand Pickleball Serve
All pickleball serves must be done with an underhand motion. This rule is in place to keep the game fun for all ages and skill level and prevent overpowering serves. The service motion must also be in an upward trajectory from low to high. Players bring the paddle back
Paddle Above the Wrist
When you make contact with the ball on your serve, any point on the paddle cannot be above your wrist. This rule essentially bans overhand serving. While this might seem like a stretch to call it an overhand serve, if your paddle is above the wrist on contact, the ball is probably “over your hand”.
This rule is extremely hard to enforce and would require a referee to be looking for it during a match. Some players have asked a judge to watch their opponent’s serve during a match, but it is rarely called as a fault. We wouldn’t recommend being a stickler on this rule at your local courts, but you can gently remind new players to watch out for this.
Contact Must be Below the Waist
When making contact with the ball on the serve, the ball must be below your waist. This is another rule put in place to prevent overhand serves and serves with heavy topspin. The below the waist rule also puts a natural cap on how hard the serve can be hit. Taller players do have a slight advantage because their waist is higher than the average person!
Other Pickleball Serving Rules
There are other pickleball rules that are outside of the service motion or related to keeping score. It’s recommended to try and understand those before going to the public pickleball courts. If not, don’t worry, public courts are very welcoming to newcomers who are trying to learn the game the proper way.
Keep Your Feet Behind the Baseline
The next serving rule you need to follow is knowing where to stand. When serving, both feet must be behind the baseline and to one side of the service area. One foot must be on the ground when making contact with the ball and neither foot may enter the court or break the imaginary plane of the baseline until after making contact with the ball. These rules might sound difficult to follow, but as long as you’re not jumping or learning too far into the court, you’ll be just fine.
Ball Must Land in the Service Area
Pickleball serves are hit diagonally and must land in the service area. The service area starts past the non-volley zone, or kitchen, and ends at the center line and baseline. It’s important to remember that the kitchen line is not considered a part of the service area. If the ball hits the kitchen line on the serve, it is technically out and the point is over.
How Many Serves in Pickleball
Unlike tennis, you only get one chance to hit the serve in pickleball. In tennis, there is a first serve and a second serve. Most players try to hit the first serve with more power, because if they miss, they have another chance with the second serve. This is not the case in pickleball. When comparing pickleball vs tennis this rule helps to keep pickleball games moving quickly.
Can You Hit the Net on a Serve in Pickleball
The short answer is yes, you can hit the net on a serve in pickleball. This is called a service let and is another rule that is slightly different than tennis. In tennis, if the serve hits the net and bounces in the service box, the server serves again. In pickleball, if the serve hits the net and bounces in, the ball is in play and the point continues. In both tennis and pickleball, if the serve hits the net and bounces out, the serve is considered out.
Pickleball Drop Serve Rules
The drop serve in pickleball is another acceptable way to serve as opposed to tossing the ball to yourself, or a volley serve. This rule was originally put in place to allow disabled players, such as a player with one arm to serve in compliance with the rules. It also can be an easier serve to learn or teach if someone is struggling to toss the ball to themselves and hit it out of the air. The drop serve is now available to all players to use.
With a drop serve, a player can drop the ball from any height by either releasing it from their hand or letting it roll off of their paddle. The ball can only fall by the force of gravity, in other words, you cannot put anyway downward force on the ball when you drop it. You must also make sure that the drop is visible to your opponents and a referee if there is one. This is an interesting rule to have in place since the now outlawed hidden serve was so popular in table tennis.
Other than that, no other rules apply besides serving in the correct service box and standing behind the line. The underhand rule no longer applies since the ball probably won’t bounce above your belly button.
Illegal Pickleball Serves
There are certain serves in pickleball that are illegal because of the various techniques used during the serve. We’ll go over the most common illegal pickleball serves and what you can do to avoid using them.
- Overhand serve
- Stepping over the baseline
- Spinning the Toss
Overhand serve
The most common illegal serve is the overhand serve. This is also one of the most difficult serve to enforce because it can happen in the blink of an eye and can be subjective for the referee. To be properly enforced it would also require instant video replay, which is coming to all PPA matches on Championship Court in 2023. There are three basic ways to have an illegal overhand serve.
- The edge or tip of the paddle is above the wrist on contact.
- The service motion does not have an upward arc.
- Contact is made above the belly button
As mentioned above, enforcing the edge or tip of the paddle above the wrist on contact is very difficult and rarely happens. A downward service motion without an upward arc is also rarely enforced, as is making contact above the belly button.
Stepping Over the Baseline
Stepping over the baseline happens much more in recreational pickleball than on the professional level. This rule is much easier to enforce and a referee could catch this during match play. Calling this on your opponent on a professional level would require asking the referee to check for this on the serve. Again, most professionals are very mindful of the baseline and typically don’t have a service motion that would put them a position to break this rule.
Recreational pickleball players are more likely to break this rule and step over the baseline prior to making contact with the ball. The easiest way to avoid this is to stand further back if you serve with a step. The more difficult way to avoid this is to change your service motion and avoid stepping. If you’re already comfortable serving with a step we’d recommend sticking with it unless it causing inconsistent serves.
Spinning the Toss
Spinning the toss was popularized by Zane Navratil and the serve was nicknamed the “Zanesaw”. Spinning the ball during the toss allowed the server to generate extra spin that you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise. Another variation of this serve was to place the ball on the face of the paddle and then use your other hand to help generate even more spin on the toss.
This service motion was soon banned as it was deemed to provide an unfair advantage for players using this serve. Some people disagreed with this ruling as it does take time and practice to master this type of toss and certain isn’t easy to pull off. Anyone was free to learn and practice this toss and implement it into their game.
This is another interesting rule since it is banning a certain way of hitting the ball. There are no specific rules in tennis that prevent you from tossing the ball a certain way on the serve. If this type of toss was deemed to be an advantage in tennis, our guess is that it would be quickly adopted as a next generation technique.
Pickleball Doubles Serving Rules
The same general pickleball serving rules apply when playing doubles. The most difficult thing to remember with regards to doubles serving rules is who is serving and are they serving to the correct service box. Keeping track of the score and how is the number one and number two is the best way to stay on track while serving.
At the start of the match, the team that serves first serves from the right side and starts at the number two position. This means that if the serving team loses the point, they give up the serve and to the other team. The other team then also serves starting from the right side in the number one position. This means that if server number one serves and they lose the point, their partner, the number two then serves from the left side.
Pickleball Singles Serving Rules
Serving rules for singles pickleball are the same as in doubles. All service motion related rules apply and the server only gets one serve on their turn. There is no number one or number two position in singles.
Similiar to doubles, the most challenging thing to remember in singles is which side should the players be serving from. Doing your best to keep track of the score is the best way to remember which service box the server should be serving to.
One quick tip to help with this is the even or odd trick. If you have an even number of points you should be serving from the right side, and if you have an odd number of points you should be serving from the left side. The same goes for your opponent.
Conclusion
Making sure you have a basic understanding of the pickleball serving rules will make for a fun and fair game. You can also help new players learn the game with your pickleball knowledge! We have covered a wide range of serving rules in this blog post, including the underhand pickleball serve, keeping the paddle below the wrist on contact, staying behind the baseline, and serving into the correct service box.
We also learned about the specific rules for drop serves and the various illegal serves, such as the overhand serve, stepping over the baseline, and spinning the toss. Whether you’re playing singles or doubles, the same serving rules apply. By familiarizing yourself with the serving rules, you’ll be able to serve with confidence and avoid any penalties or rule violations. So, grab your paddle, head to the court, and show off your legal serving skills!