Teaching beginners how to keep score in pickleball is not easy. I’m going to do my best to explain the rules here, but you might be better off watching some videos to actually how scoring in pickleball works.
Stacie Townsend, in her website called Pickler, has a very good explanation with pictures. I highly recommend you review Pickleball Scoring Rules – Learn How to Keep Score in Pickleball.
Here are the basic rules:
1. You can only score points on the serve; the team that is receiving the serve cannot score points
2. When you start play the person on the right side (known as the deuce court in tennis) serves diagonally cross-court into the box on the opposite side of the court.
3. When a team scores, the person who is serving switches to the left side (known as the add court in tennis) and serves from there into the box on the opposite side of the court.
4. The players on the serving side continue moving from right to left or vice versa every time a point is scored.
5. Only when a point is scored do the players on the serving team alternate sides.
6. When the first server or his/her partner loses a rally by committing a fault, then the non-serving player on the serving team becomes the server (i.e., the “second server.”
7. When the second server loses the serve as the result of the serving team losing a rally, the serve goes to the other team, and the person on the right side becomes the first server. This pattern continues throughout the entire game.
The next thing you will need to learn is how to call the score. I’m going to save that lesson for another blog post. As promised, here are some videos to watch about keeping score.
Easy Explanation for Pickleball Doubles Scoring
Pickleball Scoring | What you need to know to get started
Pickleball Scoring Basics- Make it Easy with Me, You, Who?
Hope you find this blog post helpful. Just go out and enjoy playing pickleball. Find someone who knows how to keep score and you’ll be in good shape.
Bob