How to start playing pickleball: a first-week checklist
The hardest part of starting any new sport is figuring out what you actually need versus what an internet rabbit hole tells you to buy. This article is a one-week starter plan: what to do today, what to do this weekend, and what to do after your first session. No paddle reviews, no rule memorization, no equipment catalog. Just the smallest set of steps that gets you playing.
Day 1: find a court
Pickleball courts are everywhere now — converted tennis courts at parks, dedicated facilities at YMCAs and rec centers, gym floors with taped lines, even driveways. The single best resource for finding one near you is the USA Pickleball “Places 2 Play” map on the USA Pickleball website. It’s crowdsourced, comprehensive, and shows open-play hours.
Two things to look for when picking your first court:
- A drop-in or open-play session, not a league. Leagues have rosters and skill levels and commitments. Drop-in just means “show up and play.” That’s what you want.
- A beginner-friendly time slot. Most community courts label some sessions as “beginners” or “all levels.” Pick one of those for your first visit. The competitive sessions are not where you want to learn.
If you can’t find a public court, ask a neighbor. Pickleball players are evangelical about the sport, and roughly one in twelve American adults plays now — odds are someone within a block of you knows where to go.
Day 2: borrow a paddle
Do not buy a paddle yet. Almost every drop-in session has loaner paddles available — sometimes from the rec center, sometimes from a player who has three of them in their car. Ask politely when you arrive. Borrowing a paddle lets you try a few different weights and grips before you commit to a purchase.
If you absolutely cannot borrow, the cheapest acceptable beginner paddle is around $30–$50. Don’t go below that — the truly cheap paddles are made of wood and play poorly enough to be discouraging. Don’t go above it either; spending $200 on your first paddle is a great way to learn that you don’t actually know what you like yet.
For the deeper version of this question, see the Choosing a paddle article.
Day 3: dress for it
You don’t need pickleball-specific clothes. You do need:
- Shoes with a flat, non-marking sole and good lateral support. Court shoes (tennis, volleyball, indoor court) are ideal. Running shoes are not — they’re built for forward motion and have a high heel that can roll your ankle on a side step.
- Comfortable athletic clothes. Anything you’d wear to a brisk walk is fine.
- A water bottle. Even an indoor session will dehydrate you faster than you expect.
For a deeper dive on shoes and fall prevention, see Court shoes and falls: how to pick the right pair.
Day 4: watch one game before you play
When you arrive at the court, find a bench and watch a single game from start to finish. Don’t try to learn rules — just watch the flow of how players rotate, how they call the score, where they stand, and how they react to faults. You will absorb more in five minutes of watching than thirty minutes of reading.
While you watch, pay attention to:
- How the score is called before each serve. It’s three numbers in doubles, two in singles. Don’t memorize — just notice the pattern.
- Where the servers stand. They’re behind the back line. They alternate sides of the court based on the score.
- What happens after a serve. Both teams let the ball bounce once before they can volley. This is the famous two-bounce rule and it’s the second-most-misunderstood thing in the sport, after the Kitchen.
- How players move around the Kitchen. They stand at the line. They don’t usually run in.
Day 5: play your first game
Tell whoever is running the rotation that it’s your first time. They will pair you with patient players. Don’t apologize for being new — everyone there was new once. Focus on three things:
- Serve underhand and let it land in the diagonal box. Ignore spin, ignore power, ignore where you’d like it to go. Just get it in.
- Let the ball bounce once on each side after the serve. Don’t try to volley until both teams have hit at least one bounced shot. This is the rule that makes pickleball pickleball.
- Stay back from the Kitchen line. It’s a 7-foot zone in front of the net where you can’t volley. Don’t cross it during a shot. Stand an inch behind it and you’ll be fine.
You will lose. You will hit balls into the net. You will miss serves. None of this matters. The only metric for your first game is that you finished it.
Day 6: ask for one piece of feedback
After your first session, find the friendliest player you played with and ask: “If I came back next week, what’s one thing I should work on?” One thing. Not five. The most common answers are “let more balls bounce,” “watch the ball longer,” or “stand at the Kitchen line, not behind it.” Whatever they tell you, that’s your project for week two.
Day 7: book your second session
The single biggest factor in whether someone keeps playing pickleball is whether they make it to their second session. The hardest part is over — you know where to go, you know what to wear, and you’ve met some of the regulars. Put it on the calendar before you talk yourself out of it.
What’s next
Once you’ve been playing a couple of weeks, the next things worth learning, in order:
- Scoring explained — the famous “0-0-2” demystified
- The Kitchen (Non-Volley Zone) rules — the rule everyone gets wrong
- Dinking — the most important shot in the game
- Pickleball etiquette — how to be the player everyone wants to play with
Welcome to the courts.