Houses of Pickleball Official Rules & Policies Guide
Table of Contents:
PLAYERS
Each team will consist of four players, two (2) females and two (2) males as the primary team. Each team will have access to a substitute list to use as needed in case of injury or non-attendance.
At registration each team & team member’s DUPR needs to fall in between the legal range for each division. DUPR ratings can fluctuate throughout a league session, but it’s just based on individual ratings at the time of registration. A player’s DUPR will be locked in for that league session and for STATE in March.
*No DUPR submissions for league play until STATE.
TEAM UNIFORMS
HOP League t-shirts will be provided for your teams for State. Your club may also do T-shirts for their internal HOP League. You will be representing a CLUB in the league and will need to play in those shirts at least for State if you make it, but T-shirts are at the discretion of each participating club.
SCORING: RALLY SCORING
In the HOP League version of rally scoring, you will not switch sides with your partner unless you want to at time outs or end switches with your opponents at the half way point in the game. In rally scoring, you receive a point every time your team’s rally is successful, you don’t need to be serving to win the point. Games will end in15 minutes and timers will/may be used at each league night for accurate tracking. When the timer goes off, one more point will be played and it will be awarded to the team who won that rally. Scores will be “cumulative” and have a running total for all 4 games played in that round (men’s, women’s, mixed, mixed). Each game will start over at 0-0, but the total score for that round will continue in a cumulative style.
EXAMPLE of a league night outcome for a 1-match league night
(4 Games in a Match with Team A vs. Team B.
Game 1 - Men’s: Team A: 22, Team B: 19 (Team A won the “Game”)
Cumulative “Match” Score is 22-19 (Team A is winning)
Game 2 - Women’s: Team A: 15, Team B: 23 (Team B won the “Game”)
Cumulative “Match” Score is 37-42 (Team B is winning)
Game 3 - Mixed 1: Team A: 12, Team B: 16 (Team B won the “Game”)
Cumulative “Match” Score is 49-58 (Team B is winning)
Game 4 - Mixed 2 Team A: 25, Team B: 12 (Team A won the “Game”)
Cumulative “Match” Score is 74-70 (Team A is winning)
TEAM A won the “Match”, 74-70
SCHEDULE OF PLAY
It’s critical for the schedule of play to be followed due to the nature of timed rally scoring and that we only have the courts for 90 minutes total. Team captains will be trained on how this works, but here is a summary. 1 Round = 1 Match. Clubs may do multiple rounds in 1 night.
See “Home and Away” to determine how the order of games and players are set each match.
Men's: Play plus (3) 30 sec time-outs per team (6 total) and a 30 sec end switch (3.5 mins game total)
Transition & warm up: 5 mins
Women’s: Play plus (3) 30 sec time-outs per team (6 total) and a 30 sec end switch (3.5 mins game total)
Transition & warm up: 5 mins
Mixed A: Play plus (3) 30 sec time-outs per team (6 total) and a 30 sec end switch (3.5 mins game total)
Transition & warm up: 5 mins
Mixed B: Play plus (3) 30 sec time-outs per team (6 total) and a 30 sec end switch (3.5 mins game total)
Transition & warm up: 5 mins
HOME and AWAY and ORDER OF a MATCH PLAY
HOME team chooses the game order- any order is acceptable, but all must play, for example:
men’s
women’s
mixed 1
mixed 2
AWAY team chooses the order of players for the mixed matches, example
Joanna and Bill play first, then:
Marcy and Frank
END CHANGES HALF WAY THROUGH
In a 15-minute game, half way through each game, opponents will switch sides at 7.5 minutes. This is 30 seconds and teammates may also switch sides at this point and they need to notify opponent of this change.
PLAYER CHANGE OF SIDE/SERVE
During rally scoring players do not switch sides when they are serving after winning points. Player A starts on the right side and serves when the score is even and Player B serves from the left side when the score is odd. Player A and B must also receive serves on their respective side. A team may choose to switch player sides during end change or during a 30 second time out, there are 7 opportunities to switch sides with your teammate; at your time outs, your opponent’s time out and the end switch half way. See below for details on time-outs.
PLAYER INITIATED TIME-OUTS
Teams will each be allotted (3) 30-second time-outs per game. This is in addition to the allotted 30-second break during change of ends when you hit the 7.5 minute mark (half way through the game). Teammates may switch places/sides during these time-outs and the end switch break.
CAPTAINS - for details, see the Captain responsibilities page
All teams must designate a Team Captain, who will be responsible for various captain duties including communicating with the Club Admin. Home and away will be clarified as part of your club’s league schedule. Home captains are responsible for timing and score keeping at the home league night. Away teams will select the player order as well as order of games to be played. The Home Teams will respond. Captains are responsible for the teams having a full team, working with subs and how they pay and anything else that comes up that is team-related. Each team will work with the Club’s designated “Player Rep” to make sure they are trained and understand the responsibilities. See the details in the link above for the Captain responsibilities.
SUBSTITUTES / INJURY
Substitutes (subs) are to be used under the following conditions:
Injury: If a player is injured and the substitute can get to the game within the timeframe they are needed to play in, sub can be used.
Team player cannot attend: If a team member knows in advance that they cannot attend a league game night, the team captain can contact someone on the Substitute list. Subs must be DUPR compliant for that Team and Division.
A player that is subbed out cannot be subbed back into play later that night. Once they sub out, they are done for the night. If a team is unable to field all required players for any reason during that days’ play, that game is a forfeit of 21-0. The forfeiting team will keep their score and the winning team will automatically be given a score of 21, or greater to ensure the game is won by two. Forfeited games count for wins and point percentage. Forfeited/Withdrawn games that do not play and/or both teams score less than 7 points will not be inputted into DUPR. (Reminder - no DUPR submission for local league games, but we will for state).
IF a sub does not meet the DUPR criteria for individual and team, the score totals involving the sub will be forfeited. Please pre-calculate the DUPR when accepting a sub.
DUPR DIVISIONS:
DUPR 18 (max aggregate 18.300)
*Maximum individual player DUPR cannot exceed 5.10 to play in DUPR 18
DUPR 16 (max aggregate 16.300)
*Maximum individual player DUPR cannot exceed 4.60 to play in DUPR 16
DUPR 14 (max aggregate 14.300)
*Maximum individual player DUPR cannot exceed 4.10 to play in DUPR 14
DUPR 12 (max aggregate 12.300)
*Maximum individual player DUPR cannot exceed 3.60 to play in DUPR 12
Example: in a DUPR 16 Division you could have four players rated 4.00(4+4+4+4=16) or players rated 3.50, 3.50, 4.50,4.50 (=16), or any combination thereof that is < 16.300. The same logic applies to DUPR 18, 14, 12 Divisions.
Once a team registers to tryout for Houses of Pickleball, their ratings are “locked” and their DUPR increasing or decreasing will not impact the team’s aggregate or division placement.
To sign up for any Houses of Pickleball event, a DUPR account is required at the time of registration.
NR - NOT RATED PLAYERS
If you are an NR player, your rating will be set to the average rating of the division you sign up for.
Example A: if you sign up for DUPR 14 you are assigned a 3.500 rating. The appointed rating will impact the team aggregate and said aggregate must fit within the maximum team total. The remaining 3 players’ total aggregate must be a total of 10.800 or less.
Example B: player A signs up for DUPR 16. The assigned rating is 4.000. The remaining 3 players’ total aggregate must be a total of 12.300 or less.
NR assignments:
DUPR 12: 3.000
DUPR 14: 3.500
DUPR 16: 4.000
DUPR 18: 4.500
*No DUPR submissions for league play until STATE.
OTHER COMPETITION RULES
All rules of Houses of Pickleball competition are governed by the most current rules of USA Pickleball except for the rules outlined in this document, summarized below:
Rally scoring
Coaching allowed between rallies (when ball is not in play)
Players may switch positions at timeouts or side changes
One timeout per team per game
Coin flip decides Home/Away
Only on-court players may make line and fault calls.
Non-playing teammates may coach from sidelines if not disruptive
*Reminder: As part of 2025 USAP rules - each team should call their own foot faults in the kitchen
OTHER RULES
PADDLES
Players must use a paddle brand and model that is on the Official USA Pickleball Approved Paddle List and/or the UPA-A Approved Paddle List. Penalty for violation of this rule could result in loss of game or match. We expect all players to be honest if their paddle is delaminated and will not use said paddle. The Tournament Director reserves the right to make the final decision if a paddle has been flagged by team captain(s).
USAP Paddle List: https://equipment.usapickleball.org/paddle-list/
UPA-A Paddle List: https://upaa.unitedpickleball.com/paddle-testing/#paddle-list
PLAYER MISCONDUCT
Players who mistreat a fellow player will receive one official verbal warning from Club and the club will notify the HOP League. After they receive one verbal warning, players are subject to ejection from the league.
INTERPRETATION OF THE RULES / EXCEPTIONS / DISPUTES
The team captains should work to resolve any issues at the league night and if they can’t be resolved, you can call the club league administrator, or the HOP League Director, on rare occasion it is needed. Pablo Granados: 206-271-8840
AMENDMENTS / MODIFICATIONS
By participating in Houses of Pickleball (HOP) events, Teams acknowledge these Pickleball Rules and agree to comply with and be bound by them. The local Club and the HOP Team Administration have the right to revise these rules periodically at its sole discretion.