Three Pacing Errors

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2022 Service Rules: What has changed? What is the same?

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For those who are new to the sport, you may not know that every year, a rules committee (under USA Pickleball and the IFP) reviews and makes updates to the official pickleball rulebook. Referees and players from around the world provide feedback on rules they believe need to be improved to make the rules clearer, to make officiating more objective/less arbitrary, and to make the game better. In 2021, there were a number of changes to service rules. Some were controversial at first. Some led to controversy later. In this article, I will focus on those service rules changes and how things have shaken out for the 2022 rulebook.

Service rules!

Before we dive in, I want to point you to the rulebook. USA Pickleball posts a PDF version on their website. You can download it for free and it's searchable. It is also conveniently organized into sections to help you find information.

You can navigate to the rules by clicking on "What is Pickleball?" at the top of their page, then "Official Rules".




Here is a direct link to the 2022 rulebook.

Look through it. Learn the rules. Empower yourself. This is especially important if you are thinking of competing in tournaments. If you are not thinking of competing in tournaments, you should think about competing in at least one tournament. It's fun.

Even players who have been playing for a while, but who have not played in a tournament may be surprised about some of the technical rules that come into play during a tournament, but that don't arise in rec play.

Do you think you know your rules? Take a quiz and see how you do.

There is also a test for referees to brush up on still more technical rules.

If you take one or both of these quizzes, let me know how you did.

Now back to the subject at hand.

Service Rule Questions

Let Serve?
For those who just started playing in 2021, you may not be aware, but in 2020 and before, if a serve hit the net, but still landed in the service box, it was a let and the server would serve the same point again. In 2021, this rule was eliminated. There has apparently been some confusion about this (not sure why), but that rule has not been changed back. It wasn't a provisional change.

To be honest, when I first heard it was being changed last year, I thought it was a bad choice. In hindsight, I think it's fine. For the vast majority of serves that clip the net cord, you actually have more time to get to the ball because hitting the net, typically pops the ball up. My mind has been changed. No let serves. I would point to the rule reference information here, but there isn't one. They removed the section on let serves in 2021 and it remains gone. 


Spin Toss or "Chain Saw Serves" (4.A.5)
This one has caused some confusion and, for this one, I understand why there is confusion. I won't go into all the details related to the chainsaw serve. You can read more on what it was here. The bottom line on this rule change is that you are only allowed to impart spin on the ball for a toss before you hit the serve with one hand. You cannot use your hand and the paddle, you cannot use your hand and the handle of the paddle, you cannot use two hands to generate spin. No more chainsaw serve.

Imparting spin on a toss before hitting the serve is allowed if the rotation is generated using your non-paddle hand. The toss and the ball need to be visible to the opponent and to the official if the match has a referee. I don't know how strict officials will be about this, but if it is obvious you are trying to conceal your hand or the ball as you are tossing it (e.g. by turning your back to your opponent as you toss the ball for your serve), a fault may be called on your serve.

Drop Serves (4.A.6)
The only change from last year's rule on the drop serve is that the word "provisional" was removed. The rest of the rule remains as it was last year. Here are the particulars, just for clarification.

The ball can be dropped and the serve hit off the bounce. If you intend to hit the ball using a drop serve, you may not
  • toss the ball up on your release
  • throw the ball down
  • impart any spin on the ball with your hand
I see players use motions on the drop serve that, in a tournament with a referee, may cause problems because their arm follows the ball down and it looks like they may be imparting downward momentum on the ball. If a referee sees you do that and thinks you are throwing the ball down, that's a fault and you might lose your serve. To avoid this, the best way to release the ball is by holding your hand out, palm down, and simply releasing the ball from your hand with no motion on your arm that could be mistaken for downward force on the ball.

The other point of confusion on this rule is the fact that spin is allowed on the toss if you hit the serve out of the air. If you let the ball bounce, you are not allowed to impart spin on it.

There was some discussion about the drop serve before the final rule changes for 2022 were approved that they might apply all the same service motion restrictions on the drop serve that exist for the toss serve; contact below the waist, paddle head must be below the wrist, and upward motion. 2021 rules said those motion rules did not apply to the drop serve. They decided to keep things the same in 2022. The drop serve is the only way you can hit a backspin serve. I'm glad they kept it because it's fun to have the option to hit a serve with backspin.














That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by.

No Fun David



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