Lesson 3: How Scoring Works

Pickleball uses **side-out (traditional) scoring** as its official standard. The most important rule to remember: **only the serving side can score a point.** - If the serving side wins a rally → they **score a point** and keep serving. - If the serving side loses a rally → **no point is scored** and serve passes to the other team (called a **side out**). **Calling the score in doubles:** The score is called as **three numbers** in this order: 1. Serving team's score 2. Receiving team's score 3. Server number (**1 or 2**) Example: *"4-2-1"* means the serving team has 4 points, the receiving team has 2, and it is server number 1's turn. **Special start-of-game rule:** At the very beginning of each game, the first serving team starts as **"0-0-2."** This means they only get **one** server before a side out. After that, both players on a team get to serve before the serve changes sides. **Note:** An alternative called **rally scoring** (a point every rally) exists as an approved format, but side-out scoring remains the official standard.