The Unwritten Rules of Pickleball

Respect the elderly. Leave the paddle rack alone. And whatever you do, never offer unsolicited advice.

Pickleball has a ton of rules. Spin serves. Headhunting. Nasty Nelsons. Hindrances. And let's not even get into the Non-Volley Zone.

Complicating matters still is the fact that they're all subject to change. At seemingly any moment. But at least there's a rulebook... somewhere.

One Reddit thread is dealing with a different set of pickleball rules entirely: the unwritten ones.

Posted just a couple weeks ago, this simple query has elicited more than 300 responses:

Here, in no particular order, are a few that stand out:

• Emergency_Station_15: "The best unwritten rule my coach told me about was to not give anyone any advice on the court unless they ask for it."
• voidwalker13: "I like that (usually) all players greet one another before playing and ask for one another’s name. Compared to other sports it feels more 'built in' to the pickleball culture/etiquette."
• G8oraid: "If you are up like 4 or 5-0 against a team w one good player and one not so good player, try to hit 80% of your shots to the good player."
• Tahoptions: "I try not to bodybag old people."
• 90day111: "We all screw up the score all the time. Wait to correct the score until after the play ends."
• vindeluna: "The winning pair of a game should get to put their paddles in the stack before the losing pair."
• 90day111: "All the bad calls! If you do not see it clearly it should go to the other side. No question, no redo. Folks with bad eyesight on the other side of the court don’t call it."
• BenadickCuminmysnach: "Stop serving before the person is even ready. So many people just serve before the returner has even gotten in their stance."
• Internal_Neck5613: "Don’t celebrate after the other team hits an unforced error. If you hit a winner then great, fist pump, high five your partner and give a victory yell. But if the other team hits a serve into the net or shanks an easy return then it’s pretty lame to celebrate."
• That_Cartoonist_9459: "Sometimes you just get mismatched in open play, serving rockets to a 2.5 doesn't make you look cool."

We polled The Dink office – a few more for good measure:

• Don't walk behind or across courts while a point is in play
• Don't openly judge another player's paddle
• Don't insist on using a certain type of ball – it's rec play, get over it
• Don't manipulate the paddle rack for a favorable matchup
• If your ball crosses another court (but not at their feet) don't yell ball, let the playing team call it