Q&A – Non-Volley Zone Lines

By Mark Peifer, USA Pickleball Certified Referee; Past Chairman, USA Pickleball Rules Committee

QUESTION: During a serve, why aren’t the Non-Volley Zone (NVZ) lines considered ’in’ like all other lines during live play?

ANSWER: They are considered ‘in’. They are considered ‘in’ the NVZ, so if a ball hits the NVZ line on a serve, it is not a good serve because the ball hits ‘in’ the NVZ. It might sound counter-intuitive, but it makes sense if one steps back to think about this. For example, it is a fault if a person’s toe ‘touches’ the line after a volley. If we modify the rule to say the NVZ line is not part of the NVZ anymore, players and referees will need to retrain themselves to only call a fault if a person steps inside the line on the volley. 

Assuming the line is no longer ‘in’ the NVZ, the NVZ dimension now becomes 6ft 10 inches, not 7ft. Therefore, the court dimensions rule in section 2 of the rulebook must also be changed. 

The bottom line is that if we change the rule for serves, we have created an inconsistency in how the NVZ line is treated.