Since its inception in 1965, pickleball has been one of the most popular racquet ball sports in the United States and Canada. The game has only grown more popular since then both inside and outside the U.S. An ad-hoc blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis, pickleball is a racquet sport with easy-to-learn rules and appropriate for all ages and skill levels. Playing pickleball improves coordination, reflexes, and cardiovascular endurance, as well as social connection, so learning to play it provides tons of benefits.

For the neophyte, however, many of these terms can be confusing, and there is colorful slang and lingo players use that muddy the waters further. With this pickleball terminology guide, you will learn key vocabulary involved in the game, including shots, parts of the court, faults, ball types, and techniques. This will help you follow the game better as a fan or spectator and refine your own understanding as a player.

Basic Terms

Pickleball is usually played in doubles, or two people per team. You can, however, play it as a singles game, with just one person on either side of the net. Whether you’re a racquet ball pro or a novice, it is always helpful to understand common terms in pickleball. Some basic terms include:

• Serve: An underhand stroke that puts the pickleball into play. The paddle must contact the ball under the server’s waist level, and the serving team has two attempts to serve the point.
• Rally: This is continuous play that occurs from the time the ball is served and ends when a winning shot is made or the play ends in a fault.
• Fault: Any action that stops play because of a rule violation. This is not to be confused with a technical foul, in which the referee can give a point to a team’s score if their opponent engages in unsportsmanlike behavior such as abusive language.
• Volley: The action of hitting the ball in the air before the ball has a chance to fall and bounce onto the court. Volley serves must be hit with an underhand forehand or backhand strike with contact below the waist.

Navigate the Pickleball Court

Pickleball is played on a badminton-sized court, measured 20 feet by 44 feet, with a net height of 36 inches at the sidelines and 34 inches at the center. Each side is divided in half, with one side being the right service area and the other the left service area. The baseline is at the backcourt, the centerline divides the right and left service areas, and the sideline is on either side of the court. Unlike tennis, there are no alleys.

The 7-inch area close to the net is the no-volley zone, also known as the kitchen, an aspect unique to pickleball. You cannot hit a volley in the kitchen while any part of the body is there; if you do, this incurs a fault called a volley llama. You can, however, hit the ball if it bounces in the kitchen, so long as it is not out of the air. Moreover, if your opponent hits a short shot that lands in the kitchen, you can enter and play it.

Shot Types

In pickleball, you must always serve diagonally to the opposite service court, landing between the sideline and baseline and completely clearing the kitchen line. There are many types of shots in pickleball, including:

• Drive: A powerful shot hit off the bounce, often from the baseline. It is played using a forehand or backhand swing.
• Drop shots: These are played at the back of the court, with the aim of landing in your opponent’s kitchen. Since players cannot execute volley shots in the kitchen, this prevents your opponent from attacking.
• Dinks: Similar to a drop shot, dinks are soft and slow shots into your opponent’s kitchen. They are, however, performed much closer to the net.
• Lobs: These are shots high into the air, with the aim of moving your opponent away from the kitchen.
• Overheads: These shots are hit above the head with a tennis serving motion. They are used to attack lobs before they bounce.
• Poach: A shot where you cross over into your partner’s side of the court to hit a shot.

Specific shots to know include the Bert, a type of poach shot where a player crosses their partner in order to execute an Erne, which involves the player smashing the ball by lunging over the corner of the kitchen without stepping into it. Another is the drop spin, which is a shot that is sliced or chopped, dropping sharply after it crosses the net.

One of the most important shots in pickleball, however, must be the third shot drop, which involves hitting the ball from the baseline with the aim of landing it in the kitchen. This soft arching shot allows the serving team to advance to the net.

Serve Types

There are four different types of pickleball serves. Servers must serve underhand and the paddle’s contact with the ball should be done below the waist. The four main types of serves are:

• Power: A low, fast serve. Also called a rip serve, or the drive serve.
• Centerline: This serve brings the ball right into the centerline of your opponent’s court.
• Kitchen Corner: You serve the ball outside your opponent’s kitchen area.
• Lob: A high, arching serve that aims to push your opponents to the back of their court.

There are pros and cons to each type of serve and much depends on where you and your opponents are in their positions.

Fault Types

Again, a fault is a violation of any of the rules that ends the rally and stops play; it is not merely a missed shot or other faux pas. The team that committed the fault wins the rally. Once a fault is committed, the ball is dead or considered out of play even if it is still in the air. There are many kinds of faults, including serving, kitchen, two-bounce, and net faults.

Some common serving faults include:

• Foot fault on the serve: When the server fails to keep both feet behind the baseline.
• Illegal serve motion: This is snapping the wrist downward instead of upward, releasing the ball above the wrist in a standard volley serve, or serving with clear overhand spin.
• Drop serve violations: Tossing, throwing, or applying spin to the ball before contact constitutes a fault.
• Serving out of turn or position: This entails serving from the wrong side of the court or in the wrong order.

There are also rules players must follow while in the kitchen or non-volley zone and violating them would constitute a fault. These include:

• Paddle contact: Dipping the paddle to complete a low-ball volley over the zone
• Partner contact: Pushing off a partner standing in the no-volley zone to execute a volley
• Wearables: Any article of clothing you drop—be it a hat, wristband, or other items—that lands in the kitchen

There are also two-bounce faults. Pickleball demands that the ball bounce once on the receiving team’s side and then once on the serving team’s side before the players may hit it. There are two ways to receive a fault for this:

• The serving team volleys too early before the ball bounces on their side.
• The receiving team volleys the serve before letting it bounce.

There are also net faults, which are fairly self-explanatory. These include:

• The ball hitting the net and falling.
• The ball bouncing twice on one side before the player can hit it.
• Hitting the ball under or between the net

Remember the ball must clear the net and be in continuous play until a winning shot is made or a fault is committed. Otherwise, it’s a dead one.

Types of Balls

Pickleballs differ from tennis and other balls, being lighter, made of plastic with holes, and having a lower bounce suitable for a smaller net. There are three types of pickleballs: Indoor, hybrid, and outdoor.

Indoor Outdoor All Pickleballs

• Indoor balls: Made for indoor play, indoor balls are lightweight, with softer, less durable plastic, fewer holes, and holes with larger diameter than outdoor ones.
• Outdoor balls: These balls are heavier, with more holes, and harder plastic meant to endure rough weather conditions and hard courts.
• Hybrid balls: These pickleballs have traits of both indoor and outdoor balls.

Pickleballs are meant to be hit by flat, solid paddles with differing shapes, weight, power, and forgiveness. Check out our pickleball selections and our paddle offerings.

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