Author: rkraemer333

It’s a new year, and that means new pickleball rules. Every January, USA Pickleball issues an updated rulebook. If you cuss during your games, wear headphones, carry more than one ball, or have been using a chainsaw serve, get ready to adjust your play this year. Here are some key things to know about how the game is changing in 2022.

No headphones or earbuds during competition play

These devices have been banned because they could allow players to receive coaching during the match. Another reason for the rule? Player safety — earbuds can be dropped on the court and cause an injury hazard. Also, USA Pickleball says such devices can prevent players from hearing calls or the score, thereby causing potential delays to explain or repeat calls that were not heard. Note: Hearing aids are still allowed.

Spinning the ball on a serve

In 2021, many players experimented with the so-called “chainsaw” serve. In this move, the server rolls the ball against the paddle, sometimes even including the grip, as the ball is being tossed. Then the player hits the fast-spinning ball to finish the serve. The intense spin on the ball can make it kick left, right, up or down.

In 2022, this move has been banned. But you can still put “finger spin” on a serve. The new rules say server can use only one hand to release the ball to perform the serve. If the ball is visibly spun by the server during the release, the part(s) of the hand contacting the ball must be bare (no gloves, band-aids, etc.).

Moreover, the receiver (and referee, if there is one) must be able to see the server’s release of the ball. 

Example: A server is wearing a glove on her hand that releases the ball, but she has removed the glove material allowing the thumb and first two fingers (that touch the ball) to be exposed and add spin to the ball. The referee lets this glove be used.

Extra balls

In officiated matches, you’re not allowed to carry an extra ball on the court. However, in social play, USA Pickleball says you may carry a spare ball. However, the balls are not to be visible to your opponent during play. And if one of your extra balls falls on the playing surface during play, that’s considered a fault.

Example: A player is carrying an extra ball in his pocket. During a rally, the ball falls out of his pocket but lands out of bounds. The opponents claim a distraction fault, but the player who dropped the ball contends that because the ball landed out of bounds and not on the actual court, it is not a fault. The player who dropped the ball is wrong; the opponents are correct that a distraction fault has occurred.

Multiple bounces before a serve

USA Pickleball is clarifying this year that on a serve, there is no restriction how many times the ball can bounce nor where it can bounce on the playing surface before the server hits it. 

The intent of this rule is to let the ball bounce as many times as the server chooses before he strikes the ball to perform the serve, as long as the serve is made within 10 seconds after the score is called. The rule also clarifies that the ball may bounce anywhere on the playing surface before it is hit to perform the serve.

Swearing.

There are a number of new rules about how and when referees can issue warnings for foul language.  

Previously, a referee was allowed to issue one “global warning” per match for use of profanity. When the warning was issued, it was made generally to all players — not just the potty mouths. Now, a referee may give each team a single verbal warning per match. Refs can also give technical warnings and fouls for bad language, which can cost you a point. Refs are not supposed to stop play to issue warnings or fouls, but they are to mete them out once a rally has ended. Check out these examples:

• Team A receives a verbal warning for uttering an expletive.  Later in the match, a player on Team B   says the same word. The referee may give a verbal warning to Team B regardless of the prior verbal warning issued to Team A.
• The referee calls a non-volley zone fault on a player who enters the kitchen when he was not permitted to. After the rally is over, the faulted player walks by the referee and without looking directly at the referee says, “That was a bull—- call.”  The referee may issue a verbal warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.
• Team A gets a verbal warning for a specific profanity. A player on Team B later says the same word, but more loudly. The referee gives a technical warning to Team B. Team B asks why they did not receive a verbal warning the same as Team A. The referee may explain that their volume was greater and verbal and technical warnings are based on referee discretion.
• A player utters a profanity, and the referee issues a technical warning. The player protests and says the ref should have issued a verbal warning first. The referee reminds the player that there is no requirement that a verbal warning always be issued before a technical warning or technical foul.
• While players are warming up before the referee’s pre-match briefing, one player loudly calls an opponent an “[expletive] cheater.” The referee issues a technical foul for extreme profanity and issues a point to the opponents before the match has started. 

Easy way to avoid all these warnings and fouls? Don’t swear during games!  If you are looking for ways to re-train your mouth, consider during drills or practice play deducting points for each bon mot uttered. Or, keep a “swear jar” and a roll of coins on the sidelines; deposit a fee for each infraction and your opponent keeps the money. Finally, if you have an Apple Watch or similar device, you can keep track of how many bad words were blurted out during the game by keeping a running tally with Siri. 

To see the full list of new pickleball rules, visit https://tinyurl.com/2af8d7tv. For a complete set of rules, visit https://usapickleball.org/docs/ifp/USA-Pickleball-Rulebook.pdf

6 Tips For Playing With and Against a Lefty on the Pickleball Court

1. Identify the handedness of your partner and your opponents.
2. Be aware of the spin on the pickleball.
3. Target your opponent’s’ backhands.
4. Try an advanced pickleball strategy called “stacking”.
5. Target the middle of the pickleball court.
6. Constantly communicate with your opposite-handed partner.

“Code of Ethics” for Line Calls in Pickleball

1. Only make line calls on your side of the pickleball court and always strive for accuracy.
2. Only call ‘”out” balls when space is clearly visible between the line and where the pickleball lands.
3. Call “out” ball promptly.
4. Use voice and/or hand signals to call “out” balls.
5. Give the benefit of doubt to your opponents.
6. If you and your partner disagree, then the ball is “in”.
7. Spectators should not make any line calls, especially if this is at a match.
8. Do not question opponents’ line calls unless there is a referee.
9. You may ask your opponents to make a line call (but then you give up your right to make the call and, if you opponents cannot make the call, the call is automatically ruled “in”.
10. AN “out” call prior to the pickleball bouncing will be deemed partner communication and not a line call.
11. You may overrule a line call that is to your disadvantage (and in favor of your opponents) at any time.

Well, that is a good question, but could require a long answer. Let’s start with a few basic rules and then you can build on these.

10 Must Know Pickleball Rules

1. The serve must be underhand.
2. Both the serve and the return of serve must bounce.
3. The first side to serve in doubles pickleball only has one serve: then, each side has two serves.
4. Only the serving team can score points, and the serving team switches side of the court after each point won.
5. The serve must call the score loudly before each serve.
6. No volleys are allowed in the Non-Volley Zone (also known as the Kitchen).
7. Shots after the pickleball bounces are allowed in the Non-Volley Zone.
8. Shots on the lines of the pickleball court are generally “in”, with one exception – the Non-Volley Zone line on the serve (because it is considered part of the Non-Volley Zone).
9. “Out” calls are made by the pickleball players on the side of the pickleball court where the pickleball bounces.
10. If the pickleball hits you, then you lose the rally.

The #1 Move to AVOID in Pickleball

Court Sign-up

If you are not using a court you reserved, remember to delete your sign up.  Folks are complaining about empty courts that are reserved.  Your friends are also trying to organize a time to play.

Participating in Events

Events are planned based on your committed registration. If you cannot make this commitment for the full 1.5 hours due to scheduling or for health reasons, please cancel your registration.

Good question, one Bob spoke these divine words:

1. Thou shalt have no other sport before it. Thou shalt not make for thyself a softball diamond, a football field, a basketball court, a ski run, an ice-hockey rink or any likeness of any sport that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not admire them or train for them; for Pickleball is a jealous sport, punishing for generations those who confuse it with tennis but showing steadfast improvement to those who love it and keep its commandments.
2. Thou shalt not curse thy opponent nor hold him in contempt for placing the ball out of thy reach; neither shalt thou blaspheme thy partner for missing the shot down the middle, which was clearly his forehand.
3. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it fun. six days you practice, and do all your drills; but the seventh day is an amusement day to Pickleball; in it thou shalt not beat thyself up nor allow thy sons or daughters or spouses or the new person who joined the Church just this week to force feelings of inadequacy upon you; for, while for six days Pickleball may have handed thee thine buttocks upon a platter, it has blessed the sabbath day and made it blissful.
4. Honor thy coach and his spouse, that your invitations to return may be plentiful.
5. Thou shalt not kill the pickleball either by striking it too high and thus sending it to the neighbor’s yard or too low and propelling it mightily into the net; for the pickleball is a marshmallow and must be dinked with softness and suppleness and, above all, self-control.
6. Thou shalt not commit schadenfreude; neither openly by shouting “YES!” and pumping thy fist when thy opponent blunders his return, nor in thy heart, nor even in a small, gleeful upturning of the corners of thy mouth.
7. Thou shalt not poach from thy backhand position.
8. The shalt not bear false witness against the landing of the ball on the wrong side of the line; neither shalt thou bear ANY witness to its placement if thou be on the other side of the net.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy opponent’s partner. Be thee satisfied with whosoever has been randomly paired with you and communicate often with them.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy opponent’s paddle, or his shoes, or his coordinating clothing ensemble, or his ox or ass, or anything that is your opponent’s. These earthly things will not make purchase of thy game; keep thy head clear, thy feet emancipated, and thy paddle prepared.

This scenario plays out seemingly all the time on the pickleball courts. Luckily it is explicitly addressed in the pickleball rulebook where it states that calling the ball out before it bounces is considered partner communication. Therefore, the ball can still be played if it lands in.

Yelling “out” after the ball bounces, on the other hand, is considered a line call that ends the rally.  In this case, the “out” call was made before it bounced. Therefore, the rally continues. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

We always hear people complain when their excellent return hits the net and does not make it over, “the net is too high.” Or adversely, you hit the ball, it hits the top of the net and always drops on the other side. Your opponent complains, “the net must be too low.” So what is the correct height?

Pickleball nets should have a height of 36 inches at the sidelines and 34 inches high in the middle. The top of the net should be covered with a 2 inch wide binding over the net cord. The net posts should be at least one foot outside of the sidelines.