Every year, USA Pickleball sees hundreds of potential rule changes, which they debate and then pass a small amount. There was a little-known change to the 2025 rulebook that could cause you to earn a point, before the pickleball game even starts.
13.G.4. Technical warnings & fouls after a game is over
In the introduction of USA Pickleball rules in 2025, a new rule was added: rule 13.G.4., addressing what happens if a player earns a technical warning or foul — but the match has already ended.
13.G.4. Behavior raising to the level of a warning or foul after the match is over while a player is still on court shall be brought to the attention of the Tournament Director. Based on this information, the Tournament Director may impose a Verbal Warning, Technical Warning, or Technical Foul that will be applied to the offending player’s next match at the tournament.
“If a player exhibits extreme poor behavior after the match is completed the Head Referee or Tournament Director will be informed and, based on the referee’s input can be assessed a Verbal Warning, Technical Warning or Technical Foul,” according to Tom Tadler, managing director of officiating at USA Pickleball. “If that is the teams last match of the day, then the penalty becomes an individual penalty and will follow the player that behaved poorly into the next match they play in that tournament. Even if it is another day with another partner or singles. If the same players are playing again (progressive draw perhaps) they will still only receive one warning or foul into the next day they play. Their partner, who did nothing wrong, does not carry over any penalties if playing with a new partner or alone.”
The team will not only lose a point but they will also start the next game with a warning or foul — which means if they start with a technical warning in the next match and receive another technical warning, they now have a technical foul.
“Another Technical Warning is a Game Forfeit,” Tadler explained, “and another Technical Foul would be a match forfeit. They need to be careful not to behave in a way that causes them to forfeit the match.”
The new rule applies only for that specific tournament, and will not follow a player into the next tournament.
New 2025 technical foul rules from USA Pickleball
Where to serve
The match will either start 1-0-2 or 0-1-2, depending on who wins the serve for the game. Because the non-offending team will start their serve with 1 point, they will serve starting on the left side of the court — the only time this would happen in a pickleball game.
“The team without the Technical Foul (TF) will start with a point,” according to Tom Tadler, managing director of officiating at USA Pickleball. “It's as if they had earned the point. If the team with the point is serving, then the server would be the starting server but serving from the left or odd court.”
He added:
- If the team with the point is receiving, they are receiving with a score of 1.
- The serving team is serving at 0 so their starting (banded) server would be serving from the right-side court.
- The receiving team has 1 point so their starting server is in the left or odd position and the non-banded server will receive the serve in the right court.
However, it’s important to remember that the different serve position does not include changing servers. According to Ron Ponder, USA Pickleball ambassador, certified referee, and director of officiating for DUPR, explained: “A penalty never changes who should be serving, only from where they may serve, or receive.”
“If in the middle of a game with the score 8-4-2, the receivers get a technical foul their score would now be 3 and they would change sides so the correct one would be receiving the serve,” he said. “Likewise, with the score 0-0-2, and the receiving team gets a TF for profanity or whatever, the score is now 1-0-2, the starting server is still the correct server but they switch sides so that he serves from the left.”
According to Tadler, this rule applies "in all USAP sanctioned events, UTR, APP Tour, and even in PPA amateur events that follow USAP rules."
Why was this rule added?
Although 13.G., the technical foul rule, has existed for a while, this new rule was added to add consequences for inappropriate behavior after a game has ended.
Ponder explained: “Prior to this year, we had no remedy for bad behavior that happened after the match was over, other than notifying the tournament director who would usually keep an eye on the offending players in future play. With this rule change, the TD [tournament director] can penalize them into the next match, even if it's a different bracket, by awarding a point to their opponents (typically we would subtract a point from a team but if they have no points, we award one to the opponents). Hopefully, this will have a deterrent effect on players' behaviors.”
According to USA Pickleball:
"After the final point of a match, one of the losing players curses loudly and throws their paddle down aggressively. The paddle bounces randomly and almost hits the referee.
Because the match is over, the ability for the referee to issue a penalty has ended. Also, since the player has already lost this match, there would be no real penalty to the player if it was applied to the current match.
With the new rule in place, the referee could report the action to the TD [tournament director", who could then choose to assign a TF [technical foul] to the player at the start of their next match. Their opponent would start the match with a score of 1, and the offending player would be told that any new warnings would cause them to lose a game or a match, depending on the format (1to15 or 2/3) of their next match."
So if you ever show up to a game and are told the score will start with 1-0, then you know your opponent did something bad after their last game.
Read the full text of rule USA Pickleball 13.G. here.