Why Standard Scoring Is More Fun Than Rally Scoring in Pickleball

Rally scoring gives a point to one side every rally, no matter who serves. Supporters argue it speeds up play, keeps scores close, and tournament organizers like it because it offers a more predictable game length to help run events according to a schedule.

But let's talk about what is being sacrificed with rally scoring. It isn't just a different scoring method. The format actually shifts the fundamental strategic dynamics, forces all players into a similar play style, and generally diminishes aggressive play styles.

Let me explain.

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How Rally Scoring Flattens the Game

Rally scoring collapses the strategic depth of pickleball into a single plane. It takes a sport that can be played like chess and flattens it into something more akin to checkers.

How?

Fundamentally, rally scoring discourages risk-taking. High-risk plays—like deep serves or aggressive returns—naturally come with a higher error rate. But in rally scoring, every error directly awards a point to your opponent, amplifying the cost of any misstep.

Let’s say you’re in position, set up for an aggressive shot, and you just barely miss wide while serving. Under standard scoring, you lose the serve—but you don’t give up a point. Under rally scoring, that same shot gives your opponent a free point.

So what’s the natural adjustment when playing with rally scoring? You stop going for it. The game drifts toward cautious, patient exchanges. It looks clean—but it’s boring. There’s limited or no aggressive play. No deep serves or returns. No crushing drives shots. No risky speed ups. And no crashing the net. Players retreat into a cautious style. That might appeal to some, but for others, it sterilizes the game.

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Standard Scoring Unlocks Tactical Brilliance

What makes standard scoring so powerful is its dual-mode nature: the strategic mindset changes depending on whether you're serving or receiving. 

Standard scoring demands something more advanced. It requires players to be multidimensional.

• As the serving team, you’re the only side that can score. That means you need to take calculated risks, create pressure, and look for offensive opportunities. That's fun!
• As the receiving team, you need control, precision, and composure. You’re playing defense. It’s not the moment to paint lines or blast 10/10 pace shots (unless it’s the perfect setup). Instead, the mindset typically shifts to one objective: prevent the serving team from scoring. Force the side out, regain the serve, and earn the next opportunity to score.

This creates an ever-shifting battlefield where players have to constantly reframe their approach.

As Ben Johns said, "If you are good at preventing the other team from scoring while on the return side, you can take all the time you need to score while you have the serve." That reveals a key aspect of the mental perspective that Ben and Collin likely had in many gold medal runs together. You can take smart risks without getting frustrated—either with yourself or your partner—when it's the right time. If you don't capitalize on your serve, no big deal. Just play solid defense on the return, win the side out, and try again.

This fluid back-and-forth—shifting between offense and defense with distinct goals—doesn't exist in rally scoring. And that’s a shame, because it adds one of the most enjoyable and strategically rich layers to the sport.

"If you are good at preventing the other team from scoring while on the return side, you can take all the time you need to score while you have the serve." — Ben Johns

And once you’ve experienced the layered strategic demands of standard scoring, it’s impossible to unsee what rally scoring takes away.

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Manufactured Suspense vs. Earned Drama

Another reason I prefer standard scoring over rally is that rally scoring compresses the point spread. Games are generally close in score, regardless of how well one team is actually playing. That might sound exciting on the surface, but in reality, it masks the difference between strong, consistent play and a team just hanging on.

In pickleball, the score should reflect the true flow, rhythm, and control of the match. If one team is clearly dominating—executing better strategies, applying pressure, and winning more rallies on their serve—that should be visible on the scoreboard. Let them earn their lead. Let the scoreboard tell the story of the match.

Standard scoring allows for this. It rewards dominance. You can feel the momentum swings and see real tactical adjustments play out across the course of a game or match. That’s what makes a match compelling—not just the score itself, but how that score was built.

Rally scoring, by contrast, often makes games feel like the only part that really matters is the final two minutes. It creates artificial suspense while ignoring the quality of what came before.

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The Score Freeze Is a Gimmick

Let’s talk about the “freeze”—where a team can only win on their serve after reaching a certain point threshold. This is a common method used in rally-scoring formats like MLP.

What actually happens? The trailing team almost always catches up. They get to keep scoring whether they’re serving or not, while the leading team gets put on ice. A 5- or 6-point lead vanishes. It resets the scoreboard for a dramatic finish.

That’s not sport. That’s theater.

Rally scoring with a point freeze and requirement to win on your serve is thus artificially capped to avoid blowouts, and it's another example of manufactured suspense.

"Rally scoring collapses the strategic depth of pickleball into a single plane. It takes a sport that can be played like chess and flattens it into something more akin to checkers."

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Final Thought

Rally scoring is useful as a training tool. It teaches players to clean up their errors by penalizing them for mistakes in each rally (unless one side hits the "point freeze").

But I’m not a fan of it for tournament play.

Standard scoring creates a battlefield of shifting mindsets. It forces players to adapt, control momentum, and think several moves ahead. It rewards courage, tactical awareness, and disciplined execution.

Rally scoring? It rewards consistency, punishes creativity, and flattens every player into the same narrow style.

If pickleball wants to evolve into a world-class sport—not just a fun pastime—we need to preserve what makes it special.

And that starts with the scoring system that gives the game its depth: standard.

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