This edition of Rules Refresh may go without us saying, but the pros even mess this up (including a recent key pro women’s doubles match, where the serving team served from the incorrect place at 9-9-1 and then went on to lose the match)! With that said, this is a good reminder for everyone, especially those players that love to stack and switch on the pickleball court. Let’s get to it…
Player positioning is important on the serve and the return of serve on the pickleball court. The correct server must serve the pickleball from the correct side of the court, and the correct receiver must return the serve from the correct side of the court. The correct side of the pickleball court is dictated by the score of the pickleball game:
- If the score is even (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc.), then the player that started on the even/right-hand side of the pickleball court to start the game should be on the even/right-hand side of the pickleball court.
- If the score is odd (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc.), then the player that started on the even/right-hand side of the pickleball court to start the game should be on the odd/left-hand side of the pickleball court.
Good luck staying on the correct side of the pickleball court! Avoid those needless faults!
For a deeper breakdown on all of the rules of pickleball, check out Pickler’s Ultimate Guide to the Rules of Pickleball.
Have you had an interesting rules issue on the pickleball court? Send it to us at stacie@thepickler.com, so we can share with the rest of the pickleball community in a future newsletter.
