Here are the essential rules for playing pickleball:

■ The sport is generally played on a badminton-size court in doubles format, similar to doubles tennis.

■ Serve the ball underhand from the right-hand service square to the diagonal player.

■ On receiving serves, the ball must bounce once. The return must also bounce once (double-bounce rule). After this, the ball doesn’t have to bounce between volleys.

■ The server serves, alternating service squares, until the other team earns the serve by a fault (misses, doesn’t get it over the net, or hits outside the boundary lines).

■ Serving teammates, called server 1 or server 2, take turns serving after the team earns the serve back when the other team faults.

■ Only the serving team earns points. The first team to score 11 points, leading by 2, wins.

Source: US Pickleball Association