There it was. That back to back clicking sound when you hit. It kind of felt awkward too. You’ve hit the ball twice on the same swing. A double hit. Your stomach has that sinking feeling because you’ve surely messed up. After all this is illegal in almost every other racket sport. But pickleball is a little different.
What are Double Hits?
A double hit is exactly what it sounds like.
While hitting the ball your paddle strikes it twice. These are awkward shots that sometimes just happen, but you probably almost always feel like you’ve done something wrong. It just intuitively feels that way.
Double hits can happen when reaching low for a shot that gets hit twice while you bend the angle of your paddle to elevate it. Or it can be as egregious as hitting the ball up seeing, it’s not going to go over the net, and hitting it again.
Either way the ball hit your paddle twice over the course of a stroke, before returning to the other side of the court. Believe it or not theses can be legal but only under certain conditions.
Rules Regarding a Double Hit
Pickleball rules are actually a little notorious for having quirks and some very specific rules. The rules around double hits definitely fall into this category.
Whether a double hit is a legal shot is entirely dependent on situation.
Are Double Hits allowed in Pickleball?
A double hit is actually legal in certain situations.
First it has to be unintentional. It can’t be something a pickleball player tries to do. While that is a little ambiguous it will normally be up to a line judges discretion.
It also must be occur in a continuous motion. Both times the ball hits the paddle must occur in one stroke. The momentum of the forward motion of the paddle must have carried it into contacting the ball twice.
A double hit is also only legal during hits that moves the ball in a single direction. Meaning the first contact with the ball can’t send it in one direction while the second sends it in a different one.
Basically a double hit must occur unintentionally and in a continuous single direction stroke. It also can only involve a single player. It can’t ricochet off of your paddle onto your partners and then towards the receiving team.
This also includes when the ball makes contact with your hand near the grip of the paddle and then hits the ball. Many times this is unintentional and is not against the rules in pickleball.
When is a Double Hit Illegal?
Well, anytime it’s not an unintentional continuous single direction stroke involving only one player. This can looks like a variety of things, but you will almost definitely know it when you see it.
Hitting off two players, bouncing it up and then hitting it again, and sending the ball in one direction all count as a fault.
What is a Carry?
A very similar situation to a double hit is a carry.
A carry is when you hit the ball in such a way that the ball does not bounce away from your paddle and either comes to a brief rest or is carried along the surface of the paddle.
There are a number of times this motion happens. Basically your paddle is not facing the right direction to hit the ball back to the opponent’s court in bounds.
To remedy this, pickleball players will sort of scoop the ball or drag it across the surface of the paddle to change the angle and send it in the direction they originally wanted to.
This can happen when scooping for low balls in the non volley zone or when lobs go over your head and you turn around trying to get it back over and slingshot it in a different direction.
The ball is hit twice in neither of these instances, but it has also not bounced straight off your paddle.
What are the Rules Around Carrying
Strangely enough we treat a carry differently than a double hit.
The fault section of the rulebook states that a player deliberately carrying or catching the ball in play on the paddle is a fault. Sounds similar to the intentionality around a double hit, right?
The kicker is the shots happen under different circumstances. A double hit is always an illegal shot when its intentional. It does happen unintentionally all the time though, and as we talked about, some of those are still illegal.
You never really accidentally carry the ball. It always happens because a player is trying to make sure they hit the ball back into play. If they didn’t carry it, they wouldn’t be able to hit the shot most times. So while the rule is written similarly we interpret it a little differently. Carries are illegal.
Need More Rule Breakdowns?
There are a lot more pickleball rules than you think. And just like the double hit, many of them aren’t that intuitive. Even experienced players aren’t aware of some of these, so we make sure to try and cover as many as we can. To find more of these breakdowns and clarifications, make sure you check out our section on the many different rules in pickleball.