What Is the Kitchen in Pickleball?

The kitchen is the 7ft area either side of the net, running the full width of the court. Its proper name is the non-volley zone. You can stand in it whenever you like. You just can't hit the ball out of the air while you're in there. That's the whole rule.

Where the kitchen is

Measure 7ft back from the net on both sides and you've got it. The zone spans the full 20ft width of the court and is marked by a line.

That line is part of the kitchen. Touching it counts as being in the zone, which surprises a lot of people the first time it's called against them. Think of the kitchen as extending upwards too. Anything of yours that ends up in that space during a volley is a problem, including a dropped paddle or a cap that falls off.

What you can and can't do

You can: walk in, stand in it, chat in it, and step in to play any ball that has bounced. If the ball lands in the kitchen, going in to get it is completely legal.

You can't: volley from it. A volley is hitting the ball before it bounces. If you're touching the kitchen or its line while doing that, it's a fault.

That distinction (bounced versus not bounced) is the whole thing. Most beginners think the kitchen is out of bounds. It isn't.

The momentum rule

Here's the one that catches everybody. If you volley from outside the kitchen but your own momentum then carries you into it, that's a fault. It doesn't matter that the ball is already dead, or that you won the point outright with a lovely put-away.

You have to land and stabilise outside the zone. Leaping at a high ball near the net and drifting in afterwards is the classic way to lose a point you'd already won.

There's a related trap: if your partner grabs you to stop you falling in and they end up in the kitchen instead, that's still a fault. Anything touching the zone during that volley counts.

Why it exists

Without the kitchen, two tall players would stand on top of the net and smash everything downwards. The point would last one shot and the sport would be miserable.

The zone forces play back a little, which is what creates the dink. Those soft, looping shots that drop just over the net into the opponent's kitchen. Dink rallies are where pickleball gets genuinely tactical, and they only exist because nobody can volley from close range.

Why is it called the kitchen?

Nobody's entirely sure. The most repeated explanation is that it's borrowed from shuffleboard, where the kitchen is a scoring area you want to avoid. It might just be that "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" stuck. Either way, the name is universal, every UK club calls it the kitchen, and you'll rarely hear anyone say "non-volley zone" out loud.

The mistakes beginners actually make

• Treating it as no-go. You'll leave easy bounced balls because you're scared of the line. Step in and play them.
• Hovering with your toes on the line. Stand a few inches back from it. You'll save yourself a lot of arguments.
• Volleying on the drift. If you're moving forwards at pace, let it bounce instead.
• Forgetting the serve rule. A serve that lands in the kitchen or on its line is a fault. Other lines are fine.
• Standing at the baseline all evening. Once the two-bounce rule is satisfied, the kitchen line is where you want to be. It's the strongest position on the court, and it's the position the whole zone is designed around.

Related questions

The specific question of whether you're allowed to step in gets asked constantly, and it has its own answer: can you step in the kitchen in pickleball. For everything else (serving, faults, the two-bounce rule) see pickleball rules explained for UK beginners.

Try it on court

The kitchen makes far more sense after twenty minutes of dinking than it ever will on a page. Most UK leisure centres running pickleball have a social session where you can borrow a paddle and get shown properly, Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre in London and Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh both run indoor courts, and there are plenty more listed across London and Edinburgh.

Find a session near you by searching your town on the Pickleball Finder homepage.