The Unwritten Rules of Pickleball

Respect the elderly. Leave the paddle rack alone. And whatever you do, never offer unsolicited advice.

Update:

Reddit is back again with a trending thread laying out some of your biggest pickleball pet peeves.

Here are just a few of our favorites:

When a weaker player just gets ruthlessly targeted in rec play. It’s infuriating watching a decent team rack up the score by mostly avoiding me while sending the most difficult shots possible at my partner who is either not that great and/or has poor mobility.
Someone trying to ‘win’ during the warm up. It’s a warm up, stop trying to thrash me, I’m gently warming up!
Crowded open play courts and next group not paying attention at all for their turn.
Next time the opponent rolls the ball under the net to me at an inch an hour I'm going to retreat to the farthest spot on the court and wait until it reaches me
Fast serving, as in serving before I’m ready. Especially if I’m stacking with hand signals.
People who don’t make a reasonable effort to efficiently return a ball from another court. Kicking or slapping it over half-hazardly when you don’t know how to aim is annoying.
People who over apologize. It’s ok, we all miss shots.
Not saying the score audibly before they serve.

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Earlier:

Pickleball has a ton of rules. Spin serves. Headhunting. Nasty Nelsons. Hindrances. And let's not even get into the Non-Volley Zone.

Complicating matters still is the fact that they're all subject to change. At seemingly any moment. But at least there's a rulebook... somewhere.

One Reddit thread is dealing with a different set of pickleball rules entirely: the unwritten ones.

Posted just a couple weeks ago, this simple query has elicited more than 300 responses:

"What are some of the unwritten rules that you know of? What are some you like or dislike and why? Where are the grey areas?"

Here, in no particular order, are a few that stand out:

Emergency_Station_15: "The best unwritten rule my coach told me about was to not give anyone any advice on the court unless they ask for it."
voidwalker13: "I like that (usually) all players greet one another before playing and ask for one another’s name. Compared to other sports it feels more 'built in' to the pickleball culture/etiquette."
G8oraid: "If you are up like 4 or 5-0 against a team w one good player and one not so good player, try to hit 80% of your shots to the good player."
Tahoptions: "I try not to bodybag old people."
90day111: "We all screw up the score all the time. Wait to correct the score until after the play ends."
vindeluna: "The winning pair of a game should get to put their paddles in the stack before the losing pair."
90day111: "All the bad calls! If you do not see it clearly it should go to the other side. No question, no redo. Folks with bad eyesight on the other side of the court don’t call it."
BenadickCuminmysnach: "Stop serving before the person is even ready. So many people just serve before the returner has even gotten in their stance."
Internal_Neck5613: "Don’t celebrate after the other team hits an unforced error. If you hit a winner then great, fist pump, high five your partner and give a victory yell. But if the other team hits a serve into the net or shanks an easy return then it’s pretty lame to celebrate."
That_Cartoonist_9459: "Sometimes you just get mismatched in open play, serving rockets to a 2.5 doesn't make you look cool."

We polled The Dink office – a few more for good measure:

Always paddle-tap after a game
Don't walk behind or across courts while a point is in play
Don't openly judge another player's paddle
Don't lob into the sun
Don't play with a MOD
Don't insist on using a certain type of ball – it's rec play, get over it
Don't manipulate the paddle rack for a favorable matchup
Don't call a kitchen violation unless it's obvious and egregious
If your ball crosses another court (but not at their feet) don't yell ball, let the playing team call it

This one way be a bit controversial, but: is it time to normalize not apologizing after a bodybag or a net cord?