Pickleball scoring system
Before we dive into how pickleball scoring system works, let get the basic essential out of the way.
Some basic essential
- To win – the first team/player (if single) to score 11 points with a margin of 2 points ahead.
- Scoring points – only serving team can score points
- Player starting position: player serve from the right service court
The game is best played as double. The rules for both double and single are almost the same. There is a slight deviation for obvious reason as you will see from the rules below.
Let’s talk about those numbers
0 – 0 – 2
Pickleball score consists of 3 numbers, an extra number to most racquet games.
Fear not though, it isnt that hard to grasp.
#1 – the first number is your team’s score, ie serving team’s score.
#2 – the second number is your opponent’s score, ie receiving team’s score.
#3 – the third number is the current serving side, it is either 1 or 2.
Easy way to remember with the score is: me, you, who.
Doubles Basic Play Rules
- The first serve is played on the right side of the court. It is an underhand serve diagonally to the opposite court.
- If you win, you as the server moves to the left court and continue serving diagonally again.
- You, the server continues to serve from right to left each time that you score a point.
- The receiving team do not alternate, only the serving team.
- When the first server loses the rally, the second server on the team makes the serve from the side where the point ended.
- When server two loses the rally/serve, it is the other team’s turn to serve and try to score some winning points. Same rules apply, start with the right side of the court as the first server.
Singles Basic Rules
Similar to double.
You start the serve from the right and alternate if you win the rally.
The scoring system drops off the third number because there is only one server on each side.