Westwind asked me to start a thread on front toss for BP and other thoughts:
Here goes:
Best advice I ever got was from Gerry Glasco. He said: “never stand 6-8 feet in front of the batter and whip it as fast as you can - worst thing you can do to the hitter”.
Why?
Because hitters don’t want to look bad - they will change their mechanics in order to make contact. And it will screw up their swing faster than you would think. Their swing will go from a proper sequence to an all back all forward swing. And the worst thing is that nobody will know why your DD is no longer getting hits.
This happened to my daughter this HS season. She got into a funk in the preseason and I didn’t figure it out until I took game video and then asked her what she was doing in HS practice. Turns out her well meaning HS coach was pitching a very fast full windup from 6 feet away to help prepare the team for “fast pitching.”
We created a work around and my DD hit much better.
Here is the work around...first I told my DD to ask the coach to slow it down so she could do her load - my DD does a leg kick slow load. Anyway she asked the coach to slow it Down so she could load but the coach didn’t change. Ruined at least 3-4 very good hitters swings - in my opinion.
When talking to the coach didn’t work I told my DD to have two swings - a game swing and a BP swing.
Her game swing was a leg kick slow load. Separation scap load swing. But her BP swing eliminated the kick and stride and simply started at toe touch. The BP swing was actually the same swing - it just started at toe touch (eliminating the leg kick and stride).
This took any urge away from her to rush her load or change her swing to an all back all forward swing in order to get on time with the overly fast windup pitch her coach was pitching.
Immediately after doing this she started hitting the ball well in games and she also hit well off the coaches in practice with her “BP” version of her swing - she just dropped
The heel and hit.
And best of all - it did not screw with her game swing mechanics.
I really wanted to tell her teammates about this, as well, but it wasn’t my place. I did tell one of the girl’s hitting coach though.
Here are my other thoughts on front toss:
Start by showing the ball - point it right at the hitter and then pull it back slowly and then pitch it briskly forward. I like to throw it kind of fast. Not full wind fast (like her HS coach) but no arc whatsoever. The key is to give the batter a trigger as to when to start their load. Do this by showing the ball and telling the hitter to start their load (however they do it) when you start to slowly pull the ball back. This will ensure you don’t screw up their mechanics.
Do 5-10 ball sets. I used to throw a bucket-full - but this is bad as the hitter gets tired and then mechanics break down
Don’t throw everything at one level - work in, out, middle up and down.
Go through a rotation. Work in for 5 pitches - then work out for five pitches then middle for 5 pitches. Then you can mix it up without telling her. From just 6 feet away though you might just want to work a set IN work a set OUT then a set MIDDLE. Why? Because she does not have a lot of time to read the pitch from up close - so be careful here - maybe move back to 10 feet when mixing it up randomly (IN, OUT, MIDDLE).
That’s it for now.
Let me know if you agree or disagree
Here goes:
Best advice I ever got was from Gerry Glasco. He said: “never stand 6-8 feet in front of the batter and whip it as fast as you can - worst thing you can do to the hitter”.
Why?
Because hitters don’t want to look bad - they will change their mechanics in order to make contact. And it will screw up their swing faster than you would think. Their swing will go from a proper sequence to an all back all forward swing. And the worst thing is that nobody will know why your DD is no longer getting hits.
This happened to my daughter this HS season. She got into a funk in the preseason and I didn’t figure it out until I took game video and then asked her what she was doing in HS practice. Turns out her well meaning HS coach was pitching a very fast full windup from 6 feet away to help prepare the team for “fast pitching.”
We created a work around and my DD hit much better.
Here is the work around...first I told my DD to ask the coach to slow it down so she could do her load - my DD does a leg kick slow load. Anyway she asked the coach to slow it Down so she could load but the coach didn’t change. Ruined at least 3-4 very good hitters swings - in my opinion.
When talking to the coach didn’t work I told my DD to have two swings - a game swing and a BP swing.
Her game swing was a leg kick slow load. Separation scap load swing. But her BP swing eliminated the kick and stride and simply started at toe touch. The BP swing was actually the same swing - it just started at toe touch (eliminating the leg kick and stride).
This took any urge away from her to rush her load or change her swing to an all back all forward swing in order to get on time with the overly fast windup pitch her coach was pitching.
Immediately after doing this she started hitting the ball well in games and she also hit well off the coaches in practice with her “BP” version of her swing - she just dropped
The heel and hit.
And best of all - it did not screw with her game swing mechanics.
I really wanted to tell her teammates about this, as well, but it wasn’t my place. I did tell one of the girl’s hitting coach though.
Here are my other thoughts on front toss:
Start by showing the ball - point it right at the hitter and then pull it back slowly and then pitch it briskly forward. I like to throw it kind of fast. Not full wind fast (like her HS coach) but no arc whatsoever. The key is to give the batter a trigger as to when to start their load. Do this by showing the ball and telling the hitter to start their load (however they do it) when you start to slowly pull the ball back. This will ensure you don’t screw up their mechanics.
Do 5-10 ball sets. I used to throw a bucket-full - but this is bad as the hitter gets tired and then mechanics break down
Don’t throw everything at one level - work in, out, middle up and down.
Go through a rotation. Work in for 5 pitches - then work out for five pitches then middle for 5 pitches. Then you can mix it up without telling her. From just 6 feet away though you might just want to work a set IN work a set OUT then a set MIDDLE. Why? Because she does not have a lot of time to read the pitch from up close - so be careful here - maybe move back to 10 feet when mixing it up randomly (IN, OUT, MIDDLE).
That’s it for now.
Let me know if you agree or disagree