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Rules & scoring
Side-out
also called sideout
The serving side loses the rally and serve passes to the opponents. The fundamental scoring unit of traditional pickleball.
Last revised
In traditional (side-out) scoring, only the serving team can score points. When the serving team loses a rally, no point is awarded — instead, the serve passes to the next server (a side-out).
Side-out scoring is what gives pickleball games their pace: a deuce-heavy 11–9 game can stretch surprisingly long because every point requires the server to actually win a rally.