Volleyball Drill Name: Neville's Pepper

Goal - Neville's pepper is great for working on back-row defensive reps.

How to play - Create teams of three players, with two all-time setters. If you have more than two setters, you can have each team play with its own setter. One team starts on the "Neville's side", which is also the "scoring side." The other teams start on the opposite side of the net, with one team on the court. The remaining teams wait behind the court, ready to come on.

The drill begins with a coach tossing a free ball to the non-scoring side. The team on the non-scoring sides then passes, sets, and spikes to the team on the scoring side. Continue the rally until one side wins the rally.

After each rally, regardless of the result of the previous rally, the teams on the non-scoring side rotate in for each other while the team on the scoring side remains on the scoring side.

After a set amount of time (3 minutes, for example) OR a set amount of rallies (20, for example), a new team moves to the scoring side and will remain on the scoring side for the same amount of time as the previous team was on the scoring side. Continue this process until all the teams have participated on the scoring side.

How to keep score - Only the team on the scoring side can earn points throughout the game. The teams on the non-scoring side attempt to prevent the team on the scoring side from earning points. Most commonly, the team on the scoring side can score a point in the following ways:

• Win the rally: +1 point
• Get a dig: +1 point
• Block a ball covered by opponent: +1 point
• Stuff block a ball for a point: +2 points

In addition to the bullet points listed above, teams on the scoring side can also earn points by successfully completing an additional skill of the coach's choosing (attacking to a certain spot of the court, for example) or can lose points for similar reasons (digging a ball over the net, for example).

After each team has a turn on the Neville's side, the team with the most points wins the drill.

Time - Depending on the amount of teams you have, and how many rounds you want to play, this drill will take 20-30 minutes to complete.

Variations - You can add front-row players to the teams, or change how your setters rotate.

Benefits - Gives in-system offense reps to the teams on the scoring side, and digging and transition offense reps to teams on the Neville's side.

Emphasis - Offense, digging, targets, focus.