How to play pickleball
Learn how to play pickleball in Australia: the official rules, how scoring works, serving, the kitchen, doubles tactics, a beginner's guide and a glossary of terms.
Short answer: pickleball is played with a solid paddle and a plastic ball with holes, on a court 13.41 m long and 6.10 m wide. Most games are doubles. You serve underarm and diagonally, the ball has to bounce once on each side before anyone volleys, you cannot volley while standing in the 2.13 m "kitchen" next to the net, and only the serving team scores. Games usually go to 11, win by 2.
This section explains the game the way you would explain it to a mate standing at the fence before their first social session. Start with the rules page if you have never played, then read scoring, because scoring is the part that confuses nearly everyone for the first few weeks.
Guides in this section
Pickleball rules
The official pickleball rules used in Australia in 2026, explained simply: serving, the two-bounce rule, the kitchen, faults, line calls and singles vs doubles.
Pickleball scoring
How pickleball scoring works, step by step: the three-number call in doubles, why games start at 0-0-2, singles scoring, and how provisional rally scoring differs.
Serving rules
Pickleball serve rules for 2026 in plain English: where to stand, the volley serve and drop serve, spin, foot faults, net serves and the most common service faults.
The kitchen
What the kitchen is in pickleball, how big it is in metres and centimetres, exactly what is and is not a kitchen fault, and why it is called the kitchen.
Doubles strategy
Simple pickleball doubles strategy: where to stand when serving and receiving, why everyone fights for the kitchen line, the third shot drop, dinking, stacking and communication.
Beginner's guide
A beginner's guide to pickleball in Australia: how to find a come-and-try session, what to wear and bring, the rules you need on day one, and the mistakes almost every new player makes.
Glossary
A plain-English pickleball glossary for Australian players: official rulebook terms like side out, hinder and non-volley zone, plus court slang like dink, kitchen, third shot drop and stacking.
What rules does Australia use?
Pickleball Australia links its players to the 2026 Official Rule Book published by USA Pickleball in a Global Pickleball Federation (GPF) edition. Clubs, social sessions and sanctioned tournaments around the country play to that book. There is no separate Australian rulebook, so the rules you read here are the same ones used in the US, Canada and most of Europe.
The rulebook is long because it covers referees, tournaments and adaptive play. For a social game you only need a handful of ideas, and each one has its own page in this section.
The five rules that matter most
- Serve underarm and diagonally. Contact has to be below your waist with the paddle moving upward, or you can use a drop serve and let the ball bounce first. The serve has to land in the service court diagonally opposite and clear the kitchen.
- Two-bounce rule. The return of serve must bounce, and the serving team's next shot must bounce too. After that, anyone can volley.
- The kitchen. The non-volley zone is the 2.13 m strip on each side of the net. You can stand in it, but you cannot volley while touching it, and your momentum after a volley cannot carry you into it.
- Only the serving side scores in standard scoring. Rally scoring, where every rally scores, is a provisional option some events use.
- Lines are in, except a serve that lands on the kitchen line, which is short and a fault.
Guides in this section
Each guide below goes into one part of the game in detail, with the rule numbers so you can check them yourself in the official book.
- Pickleball rules covers the full set of basics, faults and line calls.
- Pickleball scoring explains the three-number call in doubles and how rally scoring differs.
- Serving rules covers the volley serve, drop serve, foot faults and the 2026 changes.
- The kitchen explains the non-volley zone with a diagram.
- Doubles strategy covers positioning, the third shot drop and dinking.
- Beginner's guide walks through your first session.
- Glossary lists the terms you will hear at the club.
Is pickleball hard to learn?
Pickleball Australia describes the game as easy to learn and tough to master, and recommends a "come and try" session with a local club as the best way to pick up the rules. In practice the short paddle and small court make rallying easy to pick up, while the three-number score call and the kitchen rule are the parts that usually need explaining more than once.
If you want somewhere to try it, the where to play section lists verified clubs and venues in each capital city and on the Gold Coast.
Sources for this page
Every fact above comes from one of these pages, read in November 2026. See the full sources list and my editorial policy.