Pickleball is a quick sport in terms of both learning and gameplay. The sport’s distinct characteristics of being both competitive and recreational have added to its widespread popularity.
Professional pickleball follows a scoring format wherein the player can win points only on their serve. This often makes matches long and thrilling. However, in order to curb as much time possible to complete the match in a reasonable time limit, time limits are placed on various features of the game like the duration between two points, toilet breaks, change of ends, and time between sets.
The ten-second rule in Pickleball is for the servers. Once a point is over, the referee or the player to serve call out the score of the match. After the score is announced, the server has ten seconds to serve and the receiver too is required to be ready within the same timeframe.
If players fail to serve within the given time, then the serving player or team loses their serve. The only exemption that server can get is if at all there is a hindrance before or during the service motion. This hindrance can be heckling or noises from the sound, any external object trespassing the playing area of the court, any equipment of the players’ falling off, etc.
Pickleball tournaments can have multiple matches scheduled. Multiple matches are lined-up for a day and it is important they are completed in the scheduled time. Thus, pickleball players must complete their serve within ten seconds after calling out the score of the previous point.
