Guides · Getting started
Tennis players usually have a great first hour of pickleball and a frustrating first month. The hand-eye coordination, the footwork and the feel for angles carry over immediately, so rallies from the baseline are easy. Then the ball gets to the kitchen line, the opponents stop hitting hard, and a patient 60-year-old who has never hit a topspin forehand in their life starts winning every point. This guide is about why that happens and how to shorten the frustrating part.
The pickleball serve is underhand: upward arc, contact below the navel, paddle head below the wrist. There is one attempt, not two, and it is not a weapon. Your big serve is gone. The goal is simply deep and in, every time.
The two-bounce rule says the return must bounce before the serving team hits it. If you serve and charge the net, you will arrive as the return bounces behind you. Serve, stay back, let it bounce.
Tennis rewards long, loose, full swings. On a 44-foot court with a solid paddle and a ball that does not compress, a full swing sends the ball long or into the net. Most pickleball strokes are closer to tennis volleys and half-volleys: short, compact, out in front.
In tennis you volley from wherever you like. In pickleball you cannot volley from the seven-foot kitchen, and tennis players fault here constantly, especially from momentum after a volley. Your net position is the kitchen line, not a step inside it.
The deciding shots in pickleball are soft: dinks, drops and resets. A tennis player’s instinct is to hit every ball with intent. At the kitchen line, hitting a low ball hard means lifting it, which sends it up to the opponent’s strike zone.
Games to 11, win by 2, and traditionally only the serving side scores, with a three-number call in doubles. It feels strange for a week. The scoring guide explains it.
The paddle is solid, shorter and lighter than a racket, with no strings; the ball is hard plastic with holes and much slower off the bounce. Tennis players often buy a heavy, elongated paddle because it feels familiar. A mid-weight paddle usually works better while you learn the soft game. The paddle guide explains the trade-offs. The net is lower (34 inches at the centre, 36 at the posts), and the court is under a third the area of a tennis court; see court dimensions and the pickleball vs tennis comparison.
Most pickleball players use a continental grip for almost everything, the same grip you would use for a tennis volley or serve. It lets you hit forehand and backhand at the line without changing grips. Some players use an eastern forehand for drives, but you will spend most of your time at the kitchen line, where continental is the right default. Hold it looser than you would a racket.
Most strong tennis players rate around 3.0 to 3.5 in their first month and can reach 4.0 within a season once the soft game clicks. The ratings guide has what each level looks like.
Pickleball is easier to find a game for, easier on the body for long sessions, and much more social; open play means showing up and rotating in. Your tennis background makes you a fast learner and a dangerous doubles partner once the kitchen game arrives. And the soft skills you learn will make your tennis volleys better too.
The free online pickleball game here enforces the three rules tennis players trip on: underhand serve, two bounces, and no volleys from the kitchen. It is a quick way to feel the rhythm of a point before you step on a court. Try driving every third shot for one game and dropping every third shot for the next; the difference in results is the lesson. The how-to-play page has the controls.
Keep going: the two shots tennis players most need to learn, the third-shot drop and the dink, and the kitchen rule that catches every tennis volleyer.
Or play a match and try not to serve overhand.