Pepper: pass, set, hit

Press play to watch it run. Open it in Playmaker to move the players and draw it your way.

Volleyball drill · Age 9 and up

Pepper is the warm-up every volleyball team runs, and for good reason: two players and one ball practise all three contacts, the dig, the set and the hit, in the order a rally uses them. Done well, it is a hundred controlled touches in five minutes. Done lazily, it is two players catching and throwing, so the drill is worth doing properly.

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Time
10 minutes
Players
Pairs, one ball per pair
Equipment
  • One ball per pair
  • A wall or a spare court, so pairs have 5 metres of space each

Setup

  1. Pair players about 5 metres apart. In the animation the outside hitter (OH) stands 2.5 metres from the net and the opposite (OPP) 7.5 metres back, both near the middle of the court.
  2. The OH starts with the ball and hits a controlled down ball at the OPP's middle.
  3. The OPP digs it high back to the OH, who sets it up in front of the OPP.
  4. The OPP takes a step in, hits a down ball back at the OH, and the pair keep going with the roles swapped.
  5. Count the touches without a mistake. A pair who reaches 50 moves further apart.

Coaching points

  • Digger: platform out early, feet still when the ball arrives, and the pass high enough that your partner can get under it.
  • Setter: get under the ball and set it a metre in front of your partner, not at them.
  • Hitter: a controlled down ball at your partner, not your hardest hit. The point is to keep the ball alive.
  • Talk: call the contact you are about to make, dig, set, hit, so your partner is never surprised.

On the run sheet: Dig it high to your partner, set it up in front of them, hit it down at their middle. Every ball back to the same spot, and keep it going

Progressions

  1. Move the pair from 5 metres to 7 metres apart.
  2. The hitter mixes in a tip or a roll shot, so the digger has to move forward.
  3. Pepper in threes over the net: one digs, one sets, one hits, and rotate after every hit.

How it runs

Our outside hitter (OH) starts with the ball, about 2.5 metres off the net, and hits a down ball at the opposite (OPP), five metres away. The OPP digs it back high, and the OH moves under it. The OH sets it a metre in front of the OPP, who steps in and hits a controlled down ball back to the OH, and the animation ends with the OH about to dig it. That is one full cycle: in a real pepper the OH now digs, the OPP sets, and the two of them keep the ball going until somebody makes a mistake.

The animation holds the ball on each player for a moment while the other one moves. In the drill there is no hold at all: every contact is a clean hit, and the movement happens while the ball is in the air.

The rule it is practising

Catch and double contact. Under the FIVB Official Volleyball Rules the ball must be hit, not caught or thrown, and a player may not touch it twice in a row. Pepper makes every contact a clean one, so a dig that lands in somebody's arms, or a set that rolls off the fingers twice, gets called in training before a referee calls it in a match. The one exception is a team's first contact: a dig that touches two parts of the body in one action is legal.

Beginner and mini-volleyball formats often allow a catch-and-throw on the second contact, and youth leagues judge a double contact on a set differently, so check your federation's or league's rules for what your players will be called for.

The mistakes to watch for

Hitting as hard as possible, so the pair spends the drill chasing balls. Setting straight at the partner, so they have nothing to step into. Digging low and flat, which leaves the setter no time. And pairs who stand closer and closer together until pepper becomes catch.

More volleyball drills

Put Pepper: pass, set, hit in Tuesday's session

It lands on your practice plan already timed, with the coaching cue printed under it, next to your own plays.

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Page updated · Volleyball play designer · All drills

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