Communication Crosscourt Pepper
We were dealing with some of our hitters not being available in transition, so we modified crosscourt pepper a bit to address that.
In cross court pepper, teams of four play against each other. No player is allowed to attack a ball into zone one or zone two. Balls are entered into the winning side always. We rotate around our setter in zone two (right front) so everyone else gets to play four (left front), five (left back), and six (middle back).
The scoring was one game to 25. The way you scored was if the coach on your side heard a player call a specific set call (hut, 53, 14, pipe, etc.), that player scored a point. So each time a team dug/passed a ball, they had an opportunity to score three points (three hitters, so three potential points).
Whichever team won the rally earned the right to receive the next downball from the coach (but not a point), and therefore was the first to have the opportunity to score points. So the more you dug, the more attacks you would get to call, the more you scored, and the more you should win.
We talked about the two back row hitters filling open seams, spacing out the hitters, and encouraged our middles to hit 51’s and 31’s when they were left front. We got a ton of communication from normally quiet players and our setters were thrilled to hear all of their hitters, even the liberos.
It was our Spring season, so we had extra players on this day. We set up a conditioning circuit of one minute stations for players when they were off and let the winning teams stay on the court. That rewarded the winning teams.
