Volleyball Coaching Concept: Over-the-Net Pepper

Pepper is something commonly seen in volleyball. In it’s most simple form – and the one people likely think of first – it’s two people playing the ball back and forth to each other in a pass-set-hit sequence. Generally, that doesn’t involve a net. There are any number of variations from there. You can search YouTube and find dozens of examples.

Over-the-Net Pepper, as the name implies, simply includes the net. One of the more common forms is probably the 3-person. It’s basically a follow-your-ball. There’s also a 4-person version you can see in this video starting at about 2:25.

There’s even a 2-person version, often called something like 2 v 0 Pepper, if you really want to challenge the players. And you can go right up to 6 v 6 pepper. We had a Team Pepper when I coached at Radford that was one variation of this concept.

The basic principle of over-the-net pepper, not matter the number of players, is that you’re doing cooperative pass-set-attack with the 3rd ball going over the net. It is superior to the more standard net-less versions because every aspect of it is much more game-like. That’s why it can be such a great warm-up activity. Just move from standing to easy jumps to full jumps for the 3rd contact to gradually progress the intensity (and control demand).

Here are links to some other pepper variations.