Its your first time playing pickleball with your friends, and they’ve all got experience while you stand there looking like an idiot with your paddle. They tell you what to do, where to stand, and they call you out for stepping in something called a kitchen. But they also switch servers and you can’t seem to figure out why. We’ll clear everything up down below.
Switching Servers in Pickleball After a Point
For beginners learning how to play pickleball, this is one of the most fundamental basic rules you’ll learn. It’s not an over exaggeration to say you can’t play without it.
In pickleball you’ll often be playing sets to 11 or 15. This keeps things fresh so new teams can switch on and off from the court like a turnstyle, always changing the types and talents of players you’re exposed to. If you’re just playing with 3 other friends, this gives you the opportunity to switch up the teams and shake things up a little bit.
Winning a point earns you one point. But, unlike tennis, you can only earn points when you are serving in pickleball.
When you’re not serving its almost as if you’re playing defense, doing everything you can to win the rally and ‘get the ball back’ so to speak.
So the million dollar question is how and when do you get to serve so you can start serving.
Switching With Your Partner
In pickleball both teammates serve each time. It’s a really unique feature of the game that keeps all players involved so you don’t end up with a stronger player dominating the whole time.
So whichever player, you or your teammate serves first, will serve until they lose a point. That means you go anywhere from 1 to 10 rallies in a row where the same person serves. As soon as that person loses a rally, its the next person’s turn and you switch servers.
It’s’ actually really straightforward, you serve until you lose the rally or point, then switch to the other teammate.
Switching With Your Opponent
Once both you and your teammate have both had a turn serving, the other team only gets the ball back until the second partner loses a point. Then it’s time to switch servers again.
So your partner served, won three points before finally hitting it out the over backline. Then it was your turn. You won two straight points before hitting the ball into the net. Now the serve goes to the other side of the court.
Then your opponents repeat the same exact process. You’re not going to get to serve again until you win two rallies.
This can put a lot of pressure on your team late in a game when you’re down. You know all you need to do is get and keep the serve, but as soon as the opponents have it, it gets stressful. You can feel the tension because you’re going to lose if you can’t win back to back points.
Who Serves First?
Once you’re opponents have finished serving, determining who serves first is easy.
It’s always the player on the right side of the court.
Because you switch sides so often over the course of a game you’ll generally take turns serving first. It’s just kind of how it works out. But there may be stretches where you or your partner serve first several consecutive times.
Wrap Up
Hopefully this cleared up a little of the confusion for those of you just starting out. Check out the rest of the site to answer any more questions you might have about how to play pickleball.