This drill, explained by Coach Steve Willingham of Lakeville South High School in Minneapolis, has two, 2-player teams facing each other from opposite sides of the net. Their goal is to work cooperatively to keep the ball in play as long as possible. The purpose of this drill is to improve ball control.

How it works: On each side of the court, one player stands up at the net, the other plays back. The ball is introduced by a player on the opposite side. The deep player passes up to the net and the net player passes back to the deep player. The deep player then bumps the ball over the net. Three successful contacts that result in the ball going over the net and into the other team’s court equal one point. The objective for the two teams is to rack up as many points as possible.

Variations of the pass-pass-pass format include:

Pass, set, pass
Pass, set, set
Pass, set, hit