What Is a Side Out in Pickleball?

Quick Answer: A side out is the moment the serve passes from one team to the other. In doubles, both partners must lose their serve before that happens, so a side out follows the second server’s fault. Under traditional scoring, only the serving team can score, which makes the side out the central event of the game.

If you have ever heard someone call out three numbers before a serve, the third number is what a side out is counting down to.

What causes a side out?

A fault by the serving team, once there is no server left.

In doubles, each team gets two serves, one for each partner, except for the very first service turn of the game. When the first server faults, the serve passes to their partner. When the second server faults, the serve goes to the opposing team. That handover is the side out.

In singles it is simpler. There is only one server, so any fault by the server produces an immediate side out.

What counts as a fault?

Anything that ends the rally against the serving team.

• Serve or return into the net or outside the correct court.
• Volleying while standing in the non volley zone, or with momentum carrying you into it.
• Failing to let the ball bounce when the two bounce rule requires it.
• Hitting the ball out, or letting it bounce twice on your side.
• Being struck by a ball in play before it bounces, which is a fault on the player who was hit.

Our summary of the five basic rules covers each of these in more detail.

Why does the third number in the score exist?

It tells everyone which server is up, and therefore how close a side out is.

In doubles you call three numbers before serving. Your team’s score, the opponents’ score, then 1 or 2 for whether you are the first or second server. Calling 6 to 4, 2 means your team has six, theirs has four, and you are the second server, so one more fault ends your team’s turn.

The first service turn of the game is the exception. The starting team gets only one server, called as 0 to 0, 2, to keep the opening from being lopsided.

What happens to positioning after a side out?

The receiving team becomes the serving team, and their right side player serves first.

When your team wins the serve back, the player on the right hand side of the court serves first, regardless of who served last time your team had the ball. Partners then swap sides only after their team scores a point, not after every rally. This is the part that trips up new players more than the scoring itself.

Does the side out still exist in rally scoring?

The term survives, but its importance shrinks.

Under rally scoring, a point is awarded on every rally regardless of who served, so losing your serve no longer means losing your chance to score. The 2026 rulebook formalizes approved rally scoring formats and eliminates the requirement that game point be scored while serving, meaning either team can now win the game on any rally.

Rally scoring remains a provisional format, chosen at the tournament director’s discretion, and it is not permitted in double elimination doubles events, Golden Ticket events, or the National Championship. Traditional side out scoring is still the default in most play, and the APP Tour continues to use it. Our guide to rally scoring versus traditional scoring compares them directly.

Why does the side out format make games longer?

Because a large share of rallies produce no points at all.

Under traditional scoring, a rally won by the receiving team returns nothing but the serve. Two teams trading side outs can play a dozen rallies without the score moving. That is exactly why rally scoring was proposed, and exactly why purists resist it. The stalemate is also the drama.

A run of eleven consecutive side outs at 9 to 9 is a genuinely tense stretch of pickleball, and it is the format working as intended.

How do you stop giving away side outs?

Fix serves and returns before anything else.

Most side outs at the recreational level come from missed serves and missed returns, not from clever play. A serve that simply lands deep and a return that simply lands deep will win back more service turns than any new shot. After that, the next biggest source is impatience in dink rallies. Our explainer on how scoring works puts the whole sequence together.

Frequently asked questions

What is a side out in pickleball? It is when the serve passes to the opposing team, which in doubles happens after both partners have lost their serve.

Do you get a point on a side out? Not under traditional scoring. You get the serve, which is your chance to score. Under rally scoring, every rally awards a point.

Why does the first team only get one server? To balance the start. The opening service turn is called 0 to 0, 2 and ends after a single fault.

Who serves first after a side out? The player standing on the right hand side of the court for the team that just won the serve.

Do partners switch sides after a side out? No. Partners switch only after their own team scores a point.

Is rally scoring replacing side out scoring? Not yet. It remains provisional for 2026, is chosen by the tournament director, and is excluded from several major event formats.

Does a side out exist in singles? Yes, and it happens on the server’s first fault, because there is no second server.

Learn to call the third number confidently and the rest of the scoring falls into place. To find a coach who can drill scoring and rotation with you, browse our pickleball coaches directory.

Written by the Pickler Junction Team.