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Tennessee Athletics Honors April Chapple at Champions Weekend for Legendary Volleyball Achievements

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.

How do you pepper with your partner in volleyball?

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

What is Peppering in Volleyball?

Check out the

One Arm Pepper Drill

Check out this fun variation of the pepper drill we do In Boot Camp class....just use one arm to improve your ball control skills.

What does pepper do to improve your volleyball skills?
What is peppering in volleyball?

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

Here are two tips on how to get the most out of peppering in volleyball

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...

Practice With Someone Bigger and Better Than You Are
What is peppering in volleyball?

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)

Do You Follow Me on Instagram?

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.

What Is Peppering in Volleyball:
Where Do You Go Now?

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

Learn more about Digging and Defense by clicking the Related Links below. .
Follow the suggested reading on our Sitemap page Learning How To Play (Sitemap)
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.
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

From Lady Vol to Legend: Coach April Honored At UTK Champions Weekend

Lady Vol volleyball legend and record holder Coach April Chapple a University of Tennessee, Knoxville Hall of Fame Inductee, 3-time All American, 3-time SEC Champion, SEC Tournament MVP, 2-time All SEC Team is celebrated with her 1984 SEC champion teammates at Neyland Stadium during Champions Weekend on November 1-2, 2024.

utkaprilcollegepiconneylandstadiumvideoboard

Tennessee Hall of Fame inductee, Coach April Chapple is

the first First Round Draft Pick for the first American pro indoor women's league
named to the first First Team All-Pro team for Major League Volleyball in USA volleyball history
former USA National team member
one of the few American women players named as an Italian Pro League D-I Championship Finalist, Italian Cup Finalist and Cup of Cups Tournament Finalist

April Chapple The first First round Draft Pick For Major League Volleyball the first American Women's Pro League Honored At Athlete Unlimited Pro Volleyball Match

Coach April's 2025 Private and Semi private Volleyball Training

Pre-Registration now open for 2025 Private and Semiprivate Training Sessions with Coach April . Get prepared for club tryouts or train with me during club season!

Email now for information on semiprivate or private indoor skills, individual or small group training volleyball classes and my Breakfast Club for College Players training for 2025.

Invest in your improvement while preepping for your next level and college goals while working hard and training smart.

Email me right now to register or for more information.

info@improveyourvolley.com

Serving slang is not just about individual techniques; it also relates to overall game strategy. A coach might instruct a player to serve a "short serve" or a "deep serve" to target specific areas of the opponent's court or exploit weaknesses in their serve receive formation.

Ari, my private training client and I are working specifically on serving on jump float cross court serves ...short to Zone 2

There's so much we work on to get to this point where she can contact the ball with

the same toss height and same toss location
the same armswing speed
the same timing for when her serving hand contacts the ball
the middle of the hand contacting the middle of the ball every single time
getting use to watching her serving hand contact the ball at the highest point of her jump ...before she starts to land
and finally contacting the ball in the precise spot on the ball so it goes where the coach wants the player to put it so in this case ..a short serve in the farthest short right corner on the court also called Zone 2.

kamiminerpac12setteroftheyearformercoachaprilchappleprivateclient3years

Tommi Stockham All Big West Conference sophomore former Coach April Chapple private client 3 years

katepriorallwestcoastconferencebyufreshmanformercoachaprilchappleprivateclient3years

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Dear Vegas Parent

Read my open letter to Las Vegas Jr high/high school volleyball parents about my predictions on individual and small group volleyball training trends for 2019/2021