New players often struggle with this rule, and experienced players
sometimes don't understand how this rule affects the strategy of the game.
What rule is it?
Stay tuned.
Hey, everybody, it's CJ.
Johnson together with my partner, Tony Roig from In2Pickle.
WearePickleball, and we specialize in
helping players over 50 live their best lives on and off the pickleball court.
On page two of the rulebook, in a section
entitled Special Features, you will find the two bounce rule.
Let's unpack what the t wo-bounce rule is all about.
And some of what might help us is to start
with a couple of terms that we are going to find in the rule.
There are two terms that we're going to find inside of that rule.
One is a groundstroke.
So let's define what a groundstroke is,
and then the second one is going to be a volley.
So a groundstroke is defined as when the ball hits the ground and bounces. So it
doesn't matter, I'm going to have Lori feed me a dink.
Go ahead, Lori. We call this a dink as well.
That's a groundstroke because the ball bounced.
Okay, she's going to catch that, and then I'm going to back up a little bit.
If I'm back here.
Go ahead, hit it to me again, Lori.
And this is going to be another groundstroke.
So I let the ball bounce and I hit a groundstroke.
A volley is defined as taking the ball out
of the air, so it doesn't matter if I hit a volley.
Go ahead, Lori, feed me a volley.
If I hit a volley from the non-volley zone line, that's a volley.
Go ahead, hit me one more.
This is a volley.
Or if I step back here and I take a ball out of the air, that's still a volley
because they did not allow the ball to bounce.
So the first step to understanding that
rule is making sure that you understand the term groundstroke and volley.
Let's put that rule back up, and we're
going to take out the words of volley and ground strip.
So essentially, after the serve is made,
the ball has to bounce once time on each side before the ball is volley.
Now, a simple way that players tend to
remember this, and I like the way this helps people, is serve and stay.
So if you're on the serve team, you serve
the ball, and you're both going to have to stay back to allow that ball to bounce.
If you're on the return team, you can return and run.
So you return the ball, and then you run up to the non volley zone.
What some players may not recognize is the strategic importance of the two bounce
rule, and actually, it's baked right into our game.
So the serve has to land in this service box, and I have to hit a ground stroke.
If I'm the returner, I cannot volley this ball, right?
That's what the two bounce rule does.
But because we know who the returner is,
my partner Lori is already able to be up at the non-volley zone line.
She does not have to stay back here with me.
So when I hit the ground stroke, after
I've hit the ground stroke, I want to come up to the non-volley zone line with her.
And what this does, the two of us being at
the non-volley zone line gives us a positional advantage over the serve team.
Because in that two-bounce rule, I've allowed it to bounce.
We've allowed it to bounce on the return
side, but the serve side needs to do the same thing.
They have to stay back and allow that ball to bounce.
But different from us, both players on the serve team need to stay back, because as
the returner, I could hit it to either player.
I can hit it anywhere on the court that I want to.
So if one of them started to come in, I'm
probably going to hit it towards that player and see if I can get them to volley
the ball or take it out of the air and make a mistake.
So it's very important that those two stay
back when that happens, when they're getting ready.
Now, to hit would be their third shot, the court should look like this.
Two players at the non volley zone line, that's the return team.
They are here. They have now taken their positional
advantage, and then the serve team is still somewhere near the baseline.
Now it's the serve team's job to get up to
the non-volley zone line and to eliminate that positional advantage.
And frankly, it's what Tony and I call the longest 15ft in pickleball.
If you'd like to know more about strategy, we've got a playlist for you.
Or if you'd like to know more about the
rules and how they impact the game, we've got another playlist for you.
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