What Is Peppering In Volleyball? A Pregame Defense Ball Control Drill

What is peppering in volleyball? A pregame or practice ball control drill with two players using pass, set, hit variations while keeping the ball off the floor.

What is peppering in volleyball?Volleyball pepper drills help improve the digging accuracy of liberos, defensive specialists and backrow players. (Keith Allison)

What is peppering in volleyball?

Pepper is a warmup drill usually done by two players but can be done with three or more, at the beginning of practice and/or matches which focuses on controlling the ball using pass, set and a controlled hit variations without letting the ball hit the floor. 

One of the two pepper partners begins the drill by setting the ball to their partner who returns the ball with a bump set that's high enough so that their partner hits the ball back at them in a controlled fashion and then the bump set hit sequence begins all over again. 

Variations of the pepper drill include:

• three person pepper as seen in the video above
• controlled pepper over the net
• full court pepper
• deep court pepper
• close to your partner pepper

Volleyball pepper drills are the key especially, if you want to improve your defensive game and be a six rotation player who can play the entire match without having to come off the court.

I've chosen these two pepper skills that we regularly do in our Vegas Boot camp classes and clinics because they emphasize our type of volleyball training designed

• to increase the range of the court you cover in defense
• improve digging ball control 

Big East Villanova team volleyball pepper warmup pregame

1. Practice with someone bigger and better than you are

2. Use the Pepper drill to increase spiking and digging intensity while maintaining ball control

Let's dig deeper into these tactics...

When you get the chance to pepper with a guy or girl with good ball control skills, do it. Always.  

Playing with a player or someone bigger, better or stronger than you are, you learn how to be a better, stronger, faster defensive volleyball player in a shorter amount of time.

I have coed Boot Camp classes on purpose so that girls learn to pepper and defend against bigger faster guys their age or older. 

Guys hit harder and move faster and have an aggressive attitude that girls need to adopt while digging and playing defense.

Surround yourself with people/players who are better than you are, learn from them and have them make you work hard and challenge you and you will become a better volleyball player alot faster.

Thanks for visiting. Be sure to check out more of my volleyball passing articles by clicking one of the links below! (April Chapple)

Follow me on Instagram @coach_apchap to improve your game even faster!

I share alot of individual, partner and easy-to-do volleyball serving drills we do in class with my followers.

Many of these volleyball practice drills you can do at home by yourself or try at your next practice with your teammates.

If you're a B team or JV player trying to make varsity next year...your goal should be to complete 1000 reps a day of at least three of the basic skills on your own...volleyball passing, serving and setting should be at the top of the list. 

Okay here's where you need to go now! There are three options: 

1. Learn more about Digging and Defense by clicking the Related Links below. .
2. Follow the suggested reading on our Sitemap page Learning How To Play (Sitemap)
3. Or visit the pages in the How to Play Volleyball section in the drop down menu at the top of the page to get started. 
4. Before leaving this page Say "Hi" to Miss O.I Gotchu the Octopus wearing the #8 jersey below.  Miss O.I. is the libero for the All Beast VolleyBragSwag All Star team.

Miss O.I. Gotchu, the volleyball libero for the All Beast VolleyBragSwag All-Star team knows all about what is peppering in volleyball

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