How to Play Pickleball: The Complete Rules Breakdown for Doubles

The beauty of pickleball is that once you understand these fundamentals, the game opens up. You start thinking about strategy, positioning, and shot selection. Pretty soon, you're hooked.

If you've ever wandered onto a pickleball court and felt completely lost, you're not alone.

Pickleball's exploding in popularity, but the rules can feel like a foreign language if nobody's taken the time to actually explain them.

That's where Kyle Koszuta comes in. His comprehensive video has racked up over 4 million views for a reason: it breaks down the fundamentals in a way that actually makes sense.

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What Makes Pickleball Different (And Why That Matters)

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of rules, let's establish what we're actually talking about here.

Pickleball is a paddle sport that borrows from tennis, table tennis, and badminton.

The paddle looks more like an oversized ping-pong paddle than a tennis racket, and the ball itself resembles a wiffle ball.

Here's the kicker: you can fit four pickleball courts on a single tennis court. A pickleball court measures 44 feet by 20 feet and divides into three zones: the right box, the left box, and the kitchen (also called the non-volley zone).

The game plays to 11 points, and you've got to win by two. Simple enough, right? The complexity comes in the rules that govern how you actually play.

The Three Fundamental Rules That Run Everything

1. The Serve Rules

Let's start with the serve, because it's where every rally begins. Both feet must stay behind the baseline while you're serving. One foot can hover over the line, but at least one foot needs to stay grounded. You can't jump in the air and serve like you might in tennis. The serve has to be underhand, with the paddle face making contact below your wrist and below your waist.

There's a variation called the drop serve that loosens some of these restrictions. With a drop serve, you simply drop the ball and let it bounce before hitting it. You can't throw it down to make it bounce higher, though. That's cheating, basically.

The ball must travel diagonally across the net and land beyond the kitchen line. If it lands on the kitchen line itself, it's a fault. Hit any other line beyond the kitchen? You're good.

2. The Two Bounce Rule

Here's where pickleball separates itself from tennis. In tennis, you've got the serve-and-volley strategy where a strong server rushes the net immediately. Pickleball doesn't allow that.

After the serve, each team must let the ball bounce once on their side before they can hit it out of the air (or volley it). This rule applies to both the serving team and the receiving team.

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This is why you see serving teams set up with two players back at the baseline and receiving teams with one player back and one player up.

In pickleball, being at the net is where you're most dangerous, so once that bounce requirement is satisfied, players move forward aggressively.

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3. The Kitchen Rules (The Confusing Ones)

The kitchen, or non-volley zone, is the area extending 7 feet from the net on each side of the court. This is where things get tricky for beginners.

You can't hit the ball out of the air when you're standing in the kitchen.

But there are three specific rules that govern this:

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Kitchen Rule #1: If you hit the ball out of the air, your feet can't touch the kitchen line or be inside the kitchen. Your feet can hover above it, but they can't make contact with the line or cross into the zone.

Kitchen Rule #2: If you hit a ball out of the air and your momentum carries you into the kitchen, even after the point is technically over, that's a fault. Your partner can yell "help" and pull you out before you fall in, and that's perfectly legal. Otherwise, you need to stay out or accept the consequence.

Kitchen Rule #3: If the ball bounces in the kitchen, you can step in there all day and retrieve it. The official rule states: "A player may enter the non-volley zone before or after returning any ball that bounces." You don't have to wait for the ball to bounce before stepping in either. You can anticipate the bounce and get in there early to hit the ball.

Five Ways to Win a Rally

Once you understand the basic rules, winning becomes clearer.

You win a rally if your opponent:

Hits the ball out of bounds
Hits the ball into the net
Lets the ball bounce twice on their side
Commits a kitchen violation
Gets hit by the ball

How Scoring Actually Works

Here's the thing about pickleball scoring that confuses most beginners: you can only score points when your team is serving. This is crucial. The first person on your team serves, and if they win the point, they switch sides to the other box and continue serving. If they lose the point, the serve goes to their partner.

Both players on a team get to serve and score points during what's called a "possession." A possession is any time you or your partner are serving and have a chance to win points. When the second server loses, the possession ends and the serve switches to the other team. This is called a "side out."

The score itself has three numbers.

The first is your team's points
The second is your opponent's points
The third number is either a one or a two, representing the serving order

Whoever is on the right box when a side out occurs becomes the "one" (first server) for that possession. When the one loses, the serve goes to the two. When the two loses, it's a side out.

Hot tip: the same player might be the one at one point in the game and the two at another point. It's not fixed. It's whoever ended the previous possession on the right box.

Watching It All Come Together

Koszuta's video includes actual gameplay footage showing Kyle and his teammate Wendy playing against Tyler and JT. The game starts at 0-0-2, meaning the serving team only gets one chance to serve and score at the beginning (a rule designed to minimize the advantage of serving first).

As the game progresses, you see the score change from 1-0-2 to 1-1-1 to 2-1-2, with players switching sides and the serve moving between teammates and teams.

Watching real gameplay makes the scoring system click in a way that pure explanation sometimes can't. You see the rhythm of the game, the positioning, and how the rules actually play out when people are moving around the court.

Why This Matters

Pickleball's growth has been nothing short of remarkable. Millions of people are picking up paddles for the first time, and many of them are showing up to courts without a clear understanding of the rules. That's not a judgment; it's just reality. The sport's accessibility is part of its appeal, but that accessibility means a lot of new players need guidance.

Koszuta's video addresses this head-on. By breaking down the serve rules, the two-bounce rule, and the kitchen rules in a clear, methodical way, he's helping people actually enjoy the game instead of spending 30 to 40 minutes arguing about what's legal and what isn't.