Pepper
Ages 9 and up · One ball, two players, ten to fifteen feet apart, any flat space
Pepper is volleyball's universal two-person game: one player hits an easy ball at the other, who passes it up to themselves or their partner, sets, and hits it back, the loop continuing (pass, set, hit, pass, set, hit) as long as control survives. Every team in the world warms up with it because it packs all three contact skills into one continuous rally.
For a parent-kid pair it is the sport in a bottle: the parent's hits can be as gentle as needed, the kid touches the ball constantly, and the rally format makes repetition feel like play. Control is the whole ethic: pepper is kept alive together, not won.
How to run it
- Start simple: the parent tosses, the kid passes back (platform), the parent catches. Then: toss, pass, and the parent hits an easy standing swing back at the kid's platform. Catch, repeat.
- The full loop: parent hits gently, kid PASSES (to self or partner), someone SETS, the kid (or parent) HITS controlled back, loop continues. Keep hits at rally-sustaining pace, always.
- The kid's job standards: platform passes with quiet arms, sets from the forehead window, hits with a controlled high-elbow swing AT the partner (pepper hits are placed, never crushed).
- Count rally streaks (full pass-set-hit cycles) and race the record.
- Variations by day: pass-only pepper (no sets), the kid as permanent setter, or one-side pepper (parent only hits, kid does all three touches solo: pass to self, set to self, hit back).
What to say
Common faults and fixes
Hitting to win (crushed balls ending every rally).
The ethic stated plainly: pepper hits are gifts aimed at the partner's platform. Streak-counting re-aims the incentive; the record dies with every showoff swing.
Lazy in-between feet (leaning at balls instead of stepping).
The rally exposes it fast: streaks die where feet don't move. Call "feet!" as the only mid-rally coaching word.
Skill standards dissolving into survival flailing.
Drop to the simpler variation (toss-pass-catch, or pass-only pepper) and rebuild. Pepper is infinitely scalable downward; use that instead of grinding chaos.
Make it easier, make it harder
Toss-pass-catch loops; bigger, softer ball; shorter distance; catch-resets whenever control wobbles.
Longer streak records; one-side pepper (kid takes all three touches); movement pepper (partners drifting around the yard mid-rally); defense pepper (the parent hits at the kid's feet for dig practice, still controlled).
This page teaches the drill. ParentEdge builds it into a plan for your kid.
Built around their game, their goals, and what they’re working on.