Pickleball Rules — Major Rule Changes & Revisions (Effective February 15, 2019)
This post lists rule changes from prior years. To view the current year (2026) rule changes, please click here.
In its annual review of the pickleball rules — the USAPA Rules Committee has published the 2019 USAPA/IFP Official Tournament Rulebook along with the 2019 Major Rulebook Revisions document which specifically outlines the significant pickleball rule changes from the previous (2018) version. These new rules go into effect February 15, 2019 and affect USAPA-sanctioned tournaments.
3 Pickleball Rule Changes in 2019 Worth Highlighting
Here is a just a sampling of some of the pickleball rule changes (changes from 2018) that go into effect on February 15, 2019.
- For those of you who like to identify your paddle with your John Hancock, you no longer have to worry about the legality of your signature. Rule #2.E.5.c now explicitly states that “Pen markings are allowed on the paddle playing surface as long as they do not impact the surface roughness and are in good taste.”
- In its previous (2018) version of the rulebook, the Rules Committee inexplicably created confusion on the legality of the serve by inserting section 3.A.36 which defined underhand (with respect to the serve) as “the player’s arm must be moving in a forward and upward arc with the palm turned upward or downward.” Palm turned upward or downward? Section 3.A.36 (from the 2018 version) has been removed!
- Rule # 6.D.7: “Do not call a ball “out” when you are looking across the line, unless you can clearly see a space between the line and the ball as it hits. The player’s depth-of-field judgment, based on the laws of parallax, prevents accurate judgment in these cases.” While this wasn’t a rule change from 2018, it’s still worth reiterating here in this blog post. Unless the call is “obvious,” if you are positioned in the right court and the ball is hit to your partner on the sideline in the left court, they have a much better angle in determining if the ball was in or out.
We would love to hear your feedback. What do you think of the pickleball rule changes?
Other Rules Changes
The rules are changed and updated every year. See below for other rule changes:
- 2026 Rule Changes
- 2025 Rule Changes
- 2024 Rule Changes
- 2023 Rule Changes
- 2022 Rule Changes
- 2021 Rule Changes
- 2020 Rule Changes
- 2018 Rule Changes
For information on all of the Pickleball Rules, check out our complete guide.
Final Thoughts
Please make sure to subscribe to our newsletter so that you receive additional pickleball rules clarifications and interpretations for many of the common — and not-so-common — scenarios that happen on the pickleball courts. By subscribing to the newsletter you will also receive pickleball tips, strategies, tournament recaps and more.
Question
A player lobs the ball over my head, I run back to get to it , it bounces once and in one motion I hit or carry the ball and return it inbounds, is this legal
Hi Bill, Rule #11.A. is the closest we get for this scenario. If the hit/carry was UNINTENTIONAL, continuous and a single-direction stroke, then all is okay. If not, it would be a fault.
A ball landing on the outside edge of a court line, contacting both the court line and the playing surface outside the court line, is considered “in” per Rule 6.B. and is considered “out” per Rule 6.C. What’s the correct call?
Hi John, If the ball contacts any part of the line (except the NVZ Line on the serve), it is IN.
When my opponent is serving to my partner I prefer to hang back as he hits the serve. As he hits the ball I begin moving forward and arrive just short of the kitchen as my partner’s return crosses the net. I do this because I believe like in other sports, it better to be moving forward as I come into play. Also, it helps me to mask my poach if I decide to do so.
I was told that in tennis this is not allowed….moving as the serve is being hit. Is this covered in the rules? BTW, I don’t do this to distract the server and nobody has ever said this while playing. It only came up because I was describing my strategy.
Hi Ed, While I may disagree with the strategy, there is certainly no issue with doing so. Moving as the serve is being hit is A-OK. Hope that helps.
So a backhand serve is still legal because it is moving fwd & upward. Does not matter if palm is facing upward or downward. Some guy tried to tell a friend his serve was now illegal??
Hi Stephan, You’re absolutely correct. There are only 3 criteria for evaluating the legality of the serve — and the palm upward or downward is not one of them.
Let me get this right…..I serve and mistakenly hit the ball at the player directly across from me but first the ball hits the net…..I still get the point. So it’s a let until it’s not a let. You’re right just get rid of the net let serve. You can’t land on the no volley line then you also shouldn’t be able to tap the net on your serve either.
Hi Bob, Thanks for chiming in. Another option would be to just play out the rally if the served ball hits the top of the net and lands in the service box.
I understand the calling of an out ball but there are many times when your partner is going for a shot that they may not be able to call because of the fast, sharp angle of the returned ball and they are just struggling to get to the shot and can’t see it to call it. Your partner is on the court to help make calls. Of course with all calls of out, there should be a space seen. Even with a serve, I help my partner with the calls. Partners are there to help call.
I was at a tournament this past weekend and the other team disagreed with my call of out on my side. The guy said I had no right calling for my partner and that I had no view of the call. Well I had a great view and saw a space and told him that. I probably had a much better view than him. Yes it was close, but there was a space.
Hi Lee, I do agree that the partner is, indeed, there to help you make calls. On the other hand, the partner has to be very careful in making calls from across the court. A partner across the court generally just doesn’t have the appropriate angle to discern the space between the ball and the line.
It may be better if the served ball hitting hitting the net is not a let. Get ahead of tennis rules.
Certainly something for the rules committee to consider. If I’m not mistaken, they got rid of the service let in volleyball years ago. Remember, in pickleball, if the serve hits the net, the ball still has to land in the service box (beyond the kitchen line) to replay the point and be considered a “let.”
You left a significant change from 2018 to 2019 out of your article! 6.D.10. Formerly allowed voice and/or hand motion to indicate an out ball. Now 6.D.10. compels only voice calls. Thats kind of a nuisance to us former tennis players.
Thanks,
Rob
Hi Rob, You are right. I did leave that change out of this post. The new wording for 6.D.10 is extraordinarily clunky. It’s as if the rules committee, in their new wording, intended to make the players always make audible calls. I highly doubt if that was their intention… just horribly written… So everyone knows what we’re talking about, here’s the official wording:
I do not see a rule about a serve hitting the kitchen line being a fault in the 2020 rules. Was that changed?
Hi Ben, Nope. No rule change on that one. The serve still must clear the NVZ.