The kitchen, known as the non-volley zone, is a key area in pickleball, and while intelligent players can make the most of it, new players may hesitate.
You can take the term “Kitchen Pickleball” from the shuffleboard game, but the kitchen is in Pickleball. Although nobody knows exactly where it comes from, it is likely to be a term borrowed from a game of shuffleboard.
In the pickleball, one side serves as a kitchen, using a sneaky swing, and the other as a sideboard, with a straight line between the two.
There is an area around the seven-foot net that runs the width of the court and the kitchen. This means that the ball can only be hit if you are standing near the net or the “kitchen line.” If the ball bounces in this area, however, you can enter the pickleball’s non-volleyball zone.
I will go through the rules and talk about where to stand and why and cover the part of the rule that the players understand least. Read more about the rules for the non-volleyball zone as well as some other interesting facts about the game.
The rules clearly state that no player or anything that comes into contact with another player may touch the pickleball zone. That means if you hit a volley outside the volley and drop your racket in the kitchen, it’s your fault.
Can you stand in the non-volley zone while your partner is hitting or firing, and can you go in and stay in if you don’t hit a somersault? If you don’t hit volleys in there, you can go in or stay out, but from a strategic point of view that’s not advisable.
If you don’t hit a volley, you can go to the kitchen if you can hit it again. The kitchen is the non-volleyball zone in the middle of the court, not the volley zone, so you are not hit by volleys.
Remember that to hit a volley, you first have to put your feet in the air before you hit it. When a player moves in front of you while striking a volley, he must straighten his feet before punching the ball into the air.
Originally in badminton, the non-volleyball zone now called the kitchen was 6 feet 6 inches from the net. Although no one knows where the term “kitchen” comes from in reference to the “no-volley zone,” it is generally agreed that it was borrowed from a game with the board.
In the early years of pickleballs, players were aware that the line separating the non-volleyball zone from the rest of the field had an invisible extension on both sides of the court. In the game, this meant that players could step over the front line to volley the ball when they were on the outskirts of a court, but at one point some players began to question this idea and run towards the net as soon as they had played a ball volley.
It is okay to go over the corner of the non-volleyball zone without touching it, but it is also okay to go round the volleyball area without reaching the kitchen area you are entering. If you are in the zone of volleys, your partner can help you by not entering the zone to grab you before you take momentum into the zone when you are in it, and it is okay that you do not step out of it to touch it.
The kitchen can be the worst place for pickleball or shuffleboard, but there are no bad places for pickling, shuffleboard, etc. This means that you cannot volley the ball unless your feet are in the “kitchen” (or kitchen line) and the paddle is in. You may step out of it at any time when your ball bounces off it, i.e. no more than a few yards from the line of play.
The kitchen, also known as the “non-volley zone,” is the key place for pickleball and also the worst place for shuffleboard, pickling, shuffleboard, etc.
Perhaps the most important rule to remember is to stay out of the kitchen, but until then you have to concentrate on leaving it for the next shot.
There is a section of the pitch that is 7 feet from the side netting and extends to the touchline, and is 7 feet away on either side of the netting.
Simply put, the kitchen rules prevent people from standing in the net and smashing everything down. So a kitchen can be as dangerous as any other game, and I know there are worse places for pickleball than shuffleboard, so why call it “kitchen”?
