This is an excerpt from the setting chapter in Travis Mewhirter and Gabby Reece’s new book, Volleyball for Dummies. You can order your copy on Amazon. 

Mark Knudsen is the patriarch of one of the more successful volleyball families in the United States.

A native of Southern California, he was raised playing the game, earned a spot on the UCLA indoor team, won a few National Championships under the legendary coach, Al Scates, won a few more as Scates’ assistant coach, and proceeded to play professionally on the beach. He met his wife, Diane, at a tournament in New Jersey, and together they’d have four children who would go on to play Division I volleyball: Delaney would win a National Championship on the beach for Pepperdine and enjoy a solid professional career; Lindsey would become St. Mary’s No. 1 outside hitter; Kelsey would be a digging machine of a libero for St. Mary’s, BYU and, finally, Cal State Northridge; Jake, the youngest, would set the kills record for Moorpark before moving onto Jessup.

This is both a short and long way of saying: They know how to play, and teach, volleyball, at all positions and on both surfaces.

While most families play board games together – and the Knudsens do, indeed, do that – this volleyball family would regularly play a game that has been dubbed, by the patriarch himself, The Setting Game.

It is a simple game, requiring one ball, a basketball hoop, and any number of players. If you are, say, the Knudsens, and you have six players, you would line up behind one another at the free throw line. The first in line – let’s say this is Mark – would toss a volleyball to himself, and then set his ball into the basketball hoop. If it goes in, it’s his point, and we go again. If it misses, the player behind him – let’s say this is Diane – would then set the ball, either off a bounce from the court or without the use of a bounce, again attempting to set the ball into the hoop. If she misses, it is now the player behind her who is attempting to set the ball into the hoop.

And on and on we go, until someone puts it in the hoop. That person will then begin the next round by tossing to themselves and setting from the free throw line.

It’s a fun drill, and also incredibly useful. Mark did this every single day before practice at UCLA, for a coach who would win 19 National Championships.

What makes it so effective?

A lot.

Critically, it’s a drill or game that players want to play, that they looked forward to playing. That goes a long way. As someone who married into this volleyball dynasty, Travis has played this game with the Knudsens. We’ve gone for hours and it never got old.

Over the course of a game or two, you will set so many balls from so many different angles, requiring so many different types of touch and loft on the ball. You will back set with your platform, side set with your hands. You’ll attempt one-handed scoop sets, poke-sets, jump-sets. Some will be from deep, some short. Some will require a lot of height, some less.

The best part: It’s perfect for beach and indoor players alike, a compound drill that is fun for the family, good during inclement weather. Also, vitally:

It is FUN.