To better understand pickleball scoring basics, you need to know a couple of rules.
Fault
A rules violation that results in the end of the rally. This will result in a point if the rally ends in favour of the serve team or a change of server if it ends in favour of the return team.
Rally
Continuous play that occurs after the serve and before a fault.
Side Out
When both players on a doubles team have served (excluding the first serve, discussed below), the serve is awarded to the opposing side.
The right side of the court is the even side, and the left side of the court is the odd side.
After a side out or at the start of the game, the serve always starts on the even side.
Now, about those three numbers in a pickleball score.
This is where my friend suggested I use Me, You, and Who.
Me
The serving team’s score. Say this number first.
You
The return team’s (opponent’s) score. Say this number second.
Who
Which server on the serving team is serving? Say this number third.
It’s usually the WHO of the pickleball score that confuses people. Here are a couple of helpful hints.
The server number or the WHO will be either 1 or 2.
The number is determined by which court the player is standing on when the side-out occurs.
After a side out, the server, who is standing on the right or even side of the court, will serve first and on that side out, they will be server 1.
If they serve and the serving team wins a rally, they score a point.
After winning a point, the serving team switches left to right (even to odd) and the same player serves again.
As long as that team wins a point, the same player continues to serve, and they continue to switch from left to right or from odd side to even side.
They will remain the number 1 server in that series until the serving team loses a rally by committing a fault.
When the team commits a fault and loses a rally, the other player on the team gets a chance to serve. They are now on server 2.
Once the serving team commits another fault and loses a rally, it results in a side out for their opponents, and the sequence begins again for the new serve team.
Just remember, when a side-out occurs, the WHO starts all over. Whoever the player is standing on the even or right side of the box is server one, and the odd side will be server two for that sideout series.
There is one exception to each team getting two serves. That’s the first service series of the game.
A game begins with a player from one of the teams, usually randomly picked, serving from the even side of the court. Since it’s the first service series of the game, that team will only have one player on the team serve, so that player is server two, meaning that all games begin with a score of 0-0-2
Conclusion
When pickleball was invented, they borrowed rules from other sports. Scoring was adapted from badminton, which at the time had similar rules in place. Recently, there has been discussion about following the lead of most sports, including badminton, and changing pickleball to rally scoring. It would speed up the game, decrease waiting time, and make televised matches easier to follow. The future remains to be seen, but in the meantime….. Me, you, and who will help you track the three numbers in a pickleball score?