The first article that I have written in my role that covers this game for Forbes was a review of regulations 2023 of regulations implemented through US Pickleball. UU. , The self -proclaimed National Director of Games. It was a really extensive set of adjustments at that time, solving the gameplay disorders that significantly changed the way the game is played (it is mainly directed to the service regulations). The new regulations implemented in early 2024 had less effect for the daily / not tournament, but included some provisional articles similar to the rally score and the singles Lean, officially identified game strategies for the first time.
The USA Pickleball FY2025 rulebook is now online, and it includes dozens of rule changes that are essentially clarifications to existing rules to avoid confusion, but which also include some somewhat impactful changes that players need to be made aware of. This article will review the items I think are worth noting to both the tournament and the rec player.
It is worth mentioning: a huge portion of the 70+ page rule book exists to control refereed, tournament play. Some people laugh at the sheer length of the rulebook for a game that can be learned in a few minutes. Many of the rules, and many of the rule changes we see, are relatively small changes to wording to clarify issues or eliminate loopholes, or to correct vague wording that has existed for some rules for years (the words “should” and “shall” exists more than 130 times in the rulebook instead of the more exacting “is” or “will be” terminology). Rarely do we get a massive change to the actual actions of the sport (drop serves, or spinning the ball out of the hand). If you don’t play tournaments, you may not really worry about a lot of this minutiae.
Quick references links related to Rules in the sport
If you’re a tournament player, there’s some relatively important tournament-related changes that have come into play:
So, the big news is the recognition of Rally Scoring … but we’ve all played events in our lives that have used Rally scoring because of time constraints. I’m sure there are critics of the scoring method, those who complain about costs and play for your dollar. Fair points, but nobody’s making you pay to play a tournament that might use rally scoring.
If you’re just a rec-player and don’t care about the tediousness of tournament-driven rules, there’s still a few items that may come into play at your club or park:
In full disclosure related to rules, I submitted two rules this year, neither of which were accepted.
The general comments from the rule committed on the first was, “great idea, hard to enforce” while the general comments for the second rule suggestion was, “absolutely not” while providing some edge cases I didn’t consider that would make for some unintended consequences in play. Fair enough.
I may re-submit the eye wear issue again for next year, in that its an issue I believe is important.
Happy Holidays to everyone! I’ll finish out the year with a 2-part review of the seminal events of the year, where we continue to see an amazing evolution to the sport.