Last updated: August 9, 2026

League Rules

How a match is played, how scores get reported, how standings are decided, and how the playoffs work. How players are expected to behave lives in the Code of Conduct.

How play works

Matches follow the USA Pickleball Official Rulebook except where these rules say otherwise. The parts that come up every week:

Only the serving team scores. Win a rally while receiving and you get the serve, not a point. Both partners serve before the serve passes to the other team, except for the first serve of a game.
Serves are underhand and diagonal, struck below the waist, landing past the non-volley zone in the diagonal service box.
The ball must bounce once on each side before anyone volleys.
No volleying in the non-volley zone (“the kitchen”) — the seven feet on either side of the net, lines included. You may stand in it any time; you may not hit a ball out of the air while you are there, or let your momentum carry you in after you do.
Two timeouts per team per game, one minute each.
Balls are provided by the host community. Outdoor balls.

Matches are self-officiated — there are no referees. How to call lines, and what to do when the two teams disagree, is in the Code of Conduct.

Match format

A match between two teams is played as two or three lines — separate doubles games, each with two players from each team. Your league is either a two-line or a three-line league, and the app tells you which.

Each line is best two of three games. Games go to 15, win by 2, with no points cap. Play a third game only if the first two split.
Each player plays exactly one line.
The team that wins more lines wins the match.
In a two-line league, if the lines split 1–1, play a tiebreaker: a single game to 11, win by 2. Each team sends two players, and they must come from different lines — one from each. The tiebreaker decides the match but does not count as a line in the standings.
A three-line match cannot end level, so it has no tiebreaker.
Play your lines at the same time where there are enough courts. Otherwise play them in order.

Coaching

Partners may talk to each other at any time, and anyone may coach, comment, or make suggestions between points — teammates, your captain, players on the sideline, spectators. This is community league play, and talking about the point that just happened is part of it.

The two limits on that:

It is never disrespectful to any player or team, on either side. Coaching your own team is welcome; commentary aimed at your opponents is not. The Code of Conduct applies to everyone at the court, including anyone you bring to watch.
It does not stop play. Say your piece between points and keep the match moving. Coaching is not a reason to delay a serve.

Teams and rosters

A captain creates the team and invites players. Every league sets a minimum roster size, shown when you sign up, and your team must reach it before it can be placed in a division.
You can add players at any time, including during the season. There is no limit on roster size.
You cannot remove players once registration closes. Up to that point a captain may take someone off the roster; after it, the roster only grows.
There are no substitutes. Anyone who plays must be on your roster.
A team that withdraws before the season is out for that season. Its players may be invited individually to another team while registration is open, but a team cannot move to another team as a group.
Once the season starts, teams cannot withdraw. If your team cannot continue, contact us — the remaining matches are recorded as forfeits.

Who can play in which league

You can join leagues at your level or above. A 3.0 can play in a 3.0 or a 3.5 league, but not a 2.5.
Men's, women's, and mixed leagues. Mixed leagues are open to everyone.
In a mixed league, every line is one man and one woman — including the tiebreaker. The app will not accept a score with a line that does not match.

Skill levels are self-reported. Later we will introduce the Paddle Point rating system — a rating calculated from your match results, which will determine the leagues you are eligible for.

Divisions

Teams in a league are grouped into divisions of six to eight teams. You play the teams in your division, and your standings and playoffs are within it.

If a league does not draw enough teams to form a division, it will not run that season, and we will tell you before play starts.

When you play

Every league plays on one fixed day of the week for the whole season, and each match has a set start time. Both are shown on your schedule, on the match page, and on the printed score sheet, so nobody has to negotiate a time each week.

The host sets the time. The team listed first hosts, the match is played at their community, and the time is the court window that team's captain has reserved there. Home communities get different court hours, so an away match may start earlier or later than your own home matches do.
Captains can still agree to move a match to another day that same week if both teams need to. Contact details for the opposing captain are on the match page. The result still counts for that week.
Weather: rain does not cancel a match. Pick another day that week and play it. If the whole week is lost, email us and we will help you get it played.
Play your match in its assigned week. Unplayed matches hold up their division's playoffs.

Captains: your home court window is set when you create your team and can be changed any time from your team page. Keep it accurate — it is what the visiting team turns up on.

No-shows and forfeits

Teams get 15 minutes past the posted start time for the match.
You need enough players to field every line — four in a two-line league, six in a three-line league. Short of that, the match is a forfeit.
The captain of the team that cannot play declares the forfeit in the app.
A forfeit counts as a win and a loss in the standings, but no lines or points change hands. It does not appear in individual stats.
If both teams would rather play than take the forfeit, play it that week and report it normally.

Reporting the score

Either captain can enter the result, but getting it entered is the home captain's responsibility. Enter it in the app within 48 hours of the match. Whoever enters it first holds the pen; if the visiting captain gets there first, that is fine — the home captain is simply the person accountable for making sure it happens. We email both captains a reminder if a result is still missing after that.
The other captain has 48 hours to confirm it or send it back. If nobody acts, it confirms automatically at 48 hours.
Spotted your own mistake? Fix it. The captain who entered the result can correct it at any point before the other captain confirms or sends it back. Correcting it gives the other side a fresh 48 hours to review.
Sending it back requires a note saying what is wrong. The captain who entered it makes the correction, which restarts the 48-hour clock for the other side to review.
If you cannot agree within three days, email us with your signed score sheet and we will enter the final result.

Once a result is confirmed it is final.

The score sheet

Every match has a printable score sheet in the app, with both rosters, space for every game, and a signature line for each captain.

Fill in the scores as you play, line by line.
Both captains sign it once the match is over and the scores are agreed.
The home captain keeps the signed sheet. It is the record if a result is questioned.

Standings

Standings are kept per division and update as results are confirmed. They show your record, your line differential, and your point differential. Playoff results never change the standings that produced the bracket.

Teams are ranked in this order:

Matches won.
Head to head — how the tied teams did against each other.
Line differential — lines won minus lines lost. Tiebreaker lines do not count.
Point differential — points scored minus points given up, across all your games. Tiebreaker games do not count.
A drawing held by the league organizers.

Because a forfeit moves no lines and no points, it counts in the first two measures and not in the next two.

Playoffs

The top four teams in each division make the playoffs — single elimination. First seed plays fourth, second plays third.
The better seed hosts, in both rounds.
The two winners meet in the division championship.
Playoff matches use the same format, reporting, and confirmation rules as the regular season.
A division's bracket cannot be set until every regular season match in it is final. One unreported or unresolved result holds up everyone in that division.

Changes to these rules

We may update these rules between seasons, or during one if something is not working. When we make a change that affects how you play, we will update the date at the top of this page and tell you in the app or by email.

Questions

Email us at paddlepointleagues@gmail.com.