scene on the court
By Craig Laughlin
Occasional Observations from a Pickleball Curmudgeon
Side Out vs. Rally Scoring
I
’ve heard rumors that pickleball may be going
to rally scoring (meaning every rally results
in a point, regardless of who served). What a
horrible idea! Pickleball is a game of momentum
swings, and rally scoring eliminates the possibility of a
big comeback that keeps hope alive until the last point
is scored.
I’ve played tournament volleyball for over 40 years,
and I played in the USAV Open Nationals the year
volleyball changed from side out to rally scoring.
While there, I ran into a good friend (our former
regional commissioner who had gone to work for
USAV) and said, “Margie, why?” She replied, “First and
foremost, to make the length of the matches more
predictable for TV. Second, tournament directors love
it because they don’t go overtime at their venues, and,
finally, the JO (Junior Olympics) parents love it because
they know their kids won’t be playing in the finals at
midnight.” I asked, “What about the players?” and she
said, “Well, the players don’t like it much,” which was an
understatement. Every player I knew hated it!
Rally scoring eliminated the exhilaration of the
big comeback in volleyball. Back in the day of 15-point
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games, I was on both sides of 14-1 comebacks in
tournament play. Yes, it was rare, but it could have never
happened with rally scoring. More to the point, it was
not unusual for a team trailing 7-13 to come back and
win. That would be equivalent to a team being down 14-
23 today, a deficit that results in a loss 99 percent of the
time under the “improved” rules, as the chance of a team
that far behind not being sided-out twice before it can
catch up is approaching zero.
To equate that to pickleball, let’s say we go to rally
scoring and 21-point games. Under the current rules,
teams come back from 9-4 deficits all the time. Under
rally scoring, a team trailing by an equivalent margin
of 19-9 would have virtually no chance of winning. My
wife and her teammate’s come-from-behind 17-15 Losers
Bracket victory (they were down 12-2) would have been
impossible under rally scoring.
Pickleball would still be a good game with rally scoring
(better for TV; less fun for the players), but would it
be the same game? If the scoring system changes the
potential winner, I say no, but hey, I’m just a player. •