Pickleball scoring for beginners

A game of pickleball is the first to 11 points with a margin of two. 11-9 wins, 11-10 does not, and at 10-10 play continues until one side leads by two. Tournaments often play to 15 or 21, still with a margin of two, and a match is usually the best of three games.

Because only the serving side can score, a game to 11 takes longer than the score suggests. That is by design: it rewards the side that keeps the serve.

This is the rule that surprises most beginners. You can only score a point while your side is serving. If the receiving side wins the rally, no point is scored: the serve simply moves on, to the partner in doubles or to the other player in singles.

In doubles, when both partners have lost their serve the serve passes to the other team. That is a side out. Some social groups play rally scoring, where every rally scores, but side-out scoring is the official rule and the one most players know.

In doubles the score is called as three numbers: the serving team's score, the receiving team's score, then the server number, 1 or 2. So 4-2-1 means the serving team leads 4-2 and its first server has the ball.

Both partners on a team serve before a side out, with one exception. At the start of a game the first serving team gets only one server, so the game begins at 0-0-2. That balances the advantage of serving first. Serve from the right side when your team's score is even and from the left when it is odd, and always diagonally across the court.

Singles is simpler. The score is two numbers, server first, and you serve from the right when your score is even and from the left when it is odd.

Serve underhand, with the paddle below your waist, diagonally into the service box across the net. The serve must clear the non-volley zone, the seven-foot strip either side of the net that everyone calls the kitchen.

The two-bounce rule shapes every point. The serve must bounce before it is returned, and the return must bounce before the serving side plays it. After those two bounces either side may volley, but not while standing in the kitchen. Step in to play a ball that has bounced, then step out again.

Pickleball is mostly played as doubles. The court is small, open play at most venues rotates players in fours, and the majority of leagues and tournaments are doubles events. Most of the scoring rules above, from the two servers to the three-number call, only exist because of doubles.

So the FinalPoint record form starts on doubles for pickleball. Switch to singles when you play it, and the app records that just as well.

A pickleball match is one record with every game inside it. Enter each game as you played it, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8, and the app stores the games won as the result, with every game score kept on the record. Up to three games fit in one match.

Groups can set their target at 11, 15 or 21 in settings, and the record form follows it. Any score saves: an open-play game that ends early is kept as played, marked "Not a full game, saved as played". In doubles all four players get the result on their record and their pickleball EVO moves with it.