How to play pickleball: a guide to starting from scratch

Pickleball was born in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, when three dads — Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum — improvised a game for their families with table-tennis paddles, a perforated ball and a badminton net. Sixty years later it is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, and in Mexico it is played at clubs, parks and hotels in almost every state. It is easy to learn, playable at any age and very social. This guide explains how to get started.

Why people get hooked

• You learn it in an afternoon. The serve is underhand, the court is small and the ball is slow, so there are long rallies from day one.
• It is low impact. The movements are short. That is why teenagers and seventy-year-olds play it, sometimes in the same match.
• It is very social. It is almost always played as doubles, and many places run a rotation so everybody plays with everybody.
• It is cheap. An entry-level paddle and a few balls cost far less than the kit for other racket sports.

Equipment

• Paddle: solid, larger than a table-tennis bat and smaller than a padel racket. To start, a medium-weight paddle (around 220 to 240 grams) with a fibreglass or carbon face is fine. Many clubs rent them.
• Ball: plastic with holes. Outdoor balls have smaller holes and are harder; indoor balls are softer. Ask which one the venue uses.
• Shoes: court shoes with good lateral support. Running shoes are not built for stopping sideways.
• Water and sunscreen: most courts in Mexico are outdoors.

Where to stand

In doubles both teams want the same thing: to reach the kitchen line together, the non-volley line next to the net. That is where points are controlled. The catch is the two-bounce rule: the ball must bounce once on each side before anyone may volley, so the serving team starts at the back and has to earn its way to the net.

• The receiver returns the serve deep and moves straight up to the kitchen line.
• The receiver's partner is already waiting at the kitchen.
• The serving team stays back until the return bounces, then uses the third shot to move forward.

The basic shots

• Serve: underhand, with a relaxed arm, looking for depth rather than power. A deep serve keeps the receiver back.
• Return: deep and high, to give yourself time to reach the net.
• Third shot: the most important shot in pickleball. It is usually a drop, a soft ball that lands in the opponents' kitchen and gives you time to advance. It can also be a drive, a flat, hard shot, when the return lands short.
• Dink: a soft ball from the kitchen line that lands in the opponents' kitchen. Since nobody can volley from there, a dink forces the other side to hit up, and whoever loses patience first and pops the ball up loses the point.
• Volley: a short block at the net, with the paddle out in front. Aim at your opponents' feet.
• Smash: the overhead on a ball that sits up. If you dink well, those will come.

Your first match

Arrive early, introduce yourself and ask how the court rotates: in many parks and clubs players form a queue or leave their paddles in a rack to show who is next. If you do not know anyone, nobody will be surprised: pickleball is full of people who turn up alone.

Before you start, go over the essentials:

• The serve goes diagonally, underhand and beyond the kitchen. You get one attempt.
• The ball must bounce once on each side before anyone volleys.
• No volleying from the kitchen.
• Games go to 11 and only the serving team scores. The score is called with three numbers: your points, the opponents' points and whether you are server 1 or 2.

Our pickleball rules guide explains each point in detail.

Typical beginner mistakes

• Staying back. After your return, move up. From the baseline you will be attacked at your feet.
• Hitting everything hard. At the net patience wins. A well-placed dink beats a drive into the net.
• Stepping into the kitchen on a volley. Keep your feet behind the line until the ball has bounced.
• Forgetting the two-bounce rule. If you served, wait for the return to bounce before hitting it.
• Not talking. A "yours" or "mine" stops the ball going through the middle between you.

How to keep improving

After your first matches, the big jump in level comes from the third shot and patience at the kitchen. A few lessons with a certified coach speed things up a lot, and amateur tournaments and your club's pick-up games (in Mexico, retas) give you rhythm.

On MeetAndPlay you can set your level with a short questionnaire and find open pickleball matches with players like you in your city. It is the fastest way to go from "I tried it once" to playing every week.