Wheelchair pickleball did not start as its own version of the sport. Athletes using wheelchairs were already competing, and as their numbers grew, USA Pickleball introduced a few adaptive provisions to reflect the practical demands of court coverage and movement. The intent was simple: keep the game the same and adjust only what must be … Read more
The official pickleball rulebook is updated every single year. Most recreational players have never read it, and are playing by a version of the rules that has already been revised, sometimes more than once. The sport looks deceptively stable from the outside. Under the surface, it has been quietly rewritten throughout its sixty-year history, with … Read more
The first pickleball rulebook fit on a single page. Joel Pritchard typed it up in 1965, handed it to whoever asked, and that was that. Today, USA Pickleball publishes an official rulebook that gets revised every January and governs everything from the height of the net to what happens when a ball hits the ceiling. … Read more
The volley serve is legal. That needs to be stated up front, because the 2023 rule change created enough confusion that plenty of players came away thinking the whole thing was banned. It wasn’t. What the rule change addressed was a specific pre-spin technique some players were using before releasing the ball. If you’ve been … Read more
Your serve clips the top of the net and drops into the correct service box. Your opponent immediately puts their paddle up. “Let. Replay the serve.” You shake your head. “No let in pickleball. That’s my point.” Now you’re both staring at each other across the net with a side taking score. So who’s right? … Read more
Most players assume you have to volley the ball when serving in pickleball, tossing it in the air and hitting it before it touches the ground. You do not. There is a second legal serve called the drop serve, and it lets you bounce the ball first. Yes, bouncing the ball before you serve is … Read more
It’s game three, you’re down 8-10, and you’ve just won a long rally from the return side. In traditional scoring, you get the serve back. Nothing else. In rally scoring, you get a point. That one moment captures exactly why the debate over rally scoring in pickleball is so heated, and why more tournaments are … Read more
Miss the two-bounce rule and you will make the same mistake every new player makes: rushing the net after the serve, volleying the return out of the air, and losing rallies before you even realize what happened. It is one of the most penalized rules in recreational pickleball, and it catches people off guard because … Read more