In the grand scheme of things, pickleball is new.
Yeah, sure, the game has been around for decades, and you’re addicted. You watch drills on YouTube and stream matches on your phone, iPad, and computer. You know all the stars of the PPA and spend time counting down the hours until you get to hit the courts again.
But let’s be honest, pickleball is still a baby. And things are changing. Including the rules.
Well, maybe. With the addition of pro pickleball, a population boom of massive proportions, and the increasing amount of TV time the sport is getting, it’s realistic to expect the game to evolve and change a lot in the very near future.
One of those changes might be rally scoring.
OK, settle down. Easy. We already know you don’t like it. And that’s totally understandable. It fundamentally changes how the game is played, but it could be a catalyst for the game to be even more popular.
“Rally scoring is something a lot of people are probably initially resistant to,” said Ben Johns, who is widely considered the sports top professional player. “But it’s also something a lot of sports have had to make the transition to due to more consistent game or match times.”
You know how it works now. A game to 11 with traditional scoring could take five minutes or could take 35 minutes. It’s part of the beauty that there’s no time limit, but for TV purposes, it’s a curse. It’s too unpredictable and that can certainly scare off TV viewers.
“I think with Pickleball’s future with TV, it has a high likelihood of necessitating a rally scoring format,” Johns said. “It’s an easy decision to make to sacrifice tradition scoring vs. more TV benefits. I support changing the game for the betterment and growth of the game.”
A traditional game to 11 is unpredictable. A rally-scoring game to, say, 15 points, has a maximum of 29 serves. That makes for a predictable window. Obviously, nothing is for certain, but if a TV block of certain hours is reserved, you can almost certainly be assured your championship matches will all be able to fit into the window.
Does it fundamentally change the game? Yep. Sure does. Does it make it faster and easier to “sell” to outlets like ESPN, FOX or any number of sports channels? Yep.
Badminton and volleyball, sports that originally started like pickleball where a serve had to be earned to score a point, have changed to rally scoring. Even tennis, at some of the most traditional tournaments in the world, like Wimbledon and the Australian Open, has tinkered and fiddled with changing its tiebreakers.
Change happens. However, not everyone has to like it.
“I don’t like the idea of rally scoring, because that’s one of the cool things I initially loved and still love about pickleball,” said Callie Jo Smith, a top player on the PPA Tour. “You have to have the serve to score points. If you can score points on both the return and the serve, then there’s really no advantage to gaining the serve anymore. It won’t matter.”
Smith is absolutely right, and if there becomes a universal change from traditional scoring to rally scoring, you’ll see the game morph, too. You’ll see fewer players trying a third-shot drop, thinking it’s probably too risky. Now, a third-shot drop that doesn’t drop won’t cost you a point. It may result in the serving team losing the rally, but it doesn’t cost a point. In rally scoring, it would. That’s significant.
“I know a lot of people have brought up the idea of rally scoring, but I think that that’s one of the unique characteristics of pickleball that differentiates it from other sports,” Smith said. “If you take that element out, the thrill of winning the serve back is no longer there.”
On face value, the idea of rally scoring seems, well, kind of off. No tournaments use it and it seems to have its best foot-hold in the gyms or the courts during rush-hour, open play. Rally scoring makes sense when the demand for the courts is high and there are a lot of players. Games move faster and players can shuffle in and out, allowing for more play time and less time sitting and waiting.
Meanwhile, nowhere in the rules of pickleball is there even a mention of rally scoring, which probably means the game wasn’t meant to be played differently than a traditional side-out sort of game.
But time marches forward. Things change.
“I am a fan of rally scoring, especially coming from a tennis background,” said long-time pro Steve Deakin, who was a top Canadian tennis player before switching to pickleball. “It makes every point equally important and would definitely change the strategy substantially. I think it could be a good thing to make the sport more pleasing to viewership outside of pickleball.”
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