College Camps front toss

[RADcatchers]

Specifically having watched head coaches of D1 programs using front toss and full pitching motion throwing to hitters (through the hitting portion of camps, they themselves throwing) absolutely know 100% that they are not just throwing piped meat pitches that whole time.
They are evaluating all sorts of things the Batters are doing. Not just having the expectation that everything's going to be 100% tubed down the middle.

"nothing's perfect"

I'm sharing this not with intent to push back on you coach jd.
Rather to express to folks to understand that
When hitting at camps
yes there are times when you have to show having a good eye and other times you need to rip the ball and sometimes there's batting moments where you make an adjustment to make contact.
All part of assessment!

 

[Orange Socks]

This particular camp with the bad front toss a few things come to mind. Yeah, as a parent you want your kid to get a fair shake. In reality, if those coaches REALLY were looking at any of these kids for recruitment, they would have thrown more pitches to those players they were genuinely interested in, unless they already know what that kid can do. They perhaps have already made up their minds. Without being there, I presume they were trying to get through the hitting stations as quickly as possible and they really weren't' interested in giving those kids a good look.

This the pessimist/realist in me creeping out knowing what I have seen in the past. Did the HC heavily engage with all campers or just certain ones? How about the Asst Coach/Recruiting coach? Could have been a fundraiser perhaps they knew who they were recruiting already.

 

[Rolling Hard]

This particular camp with the bad front toss a few things come to mind. Yeah, as a parent you want your kid to get a fair shake. In reality, if those coaches REALLY were looking at any of these kids for recruitment, they would have thrown more pitches to those players they were genuinely interested in, unless they already know what that kid can do. They perhaps have already made up their minds. Without being there, I presume they were trying to get through the hitting stations as quickly as possible and they really weren't' interested in giving those kids a good look.

This the pessimist/realist in me creeping out knowing what I have seen in the past. Did the HC heavily engage with all campers or just certain ones? How about the Asst Coach/Recruiting coach? Could have been a fundraiser perhaps they knew who they were recruiting already.

I believe these were 3 current players (maybe freshman) helping out at the camp and they were truly incapable of throwing decent front toss. Maybe they never had thrown front toss in their life. That's what it looked like. Maybe they should have practiced a little before hand. Maybe the HC should have made them practice before hand. It was embarrassingly bad. I said earlier 70 percent strikes. Maybe that was a little high. And the fact that the pitches were real slow with a lot of arc just made it worse. Ever see a dad or mom at the park throwing to their 6 year old kid, putting too much arc on the ball thinking it will be easier for him or her to hit but actually it makes it more difficult. Yeah, like that.

 

[Orange Socks]

I believe these were 3 current players (maybe freshman) helping out at the camp and they were truly incapable of throwing decent front toss. Maybe they never had thrown front toss in their life. That's what it looked like. Maybe they should have practiced a little before hand. Maybe the HC should have made them practice before hand. It was embarrassingly bad. I said earlier 70 percent strikes. Maybe that was a little high. And the fact that the pitches were real slow with a lot of arc just made it worse. Ever see a dad or mom at the park throwing to their 6 year old kid, putting too much arc on the ball thinking it will be easier for him or her to hit but actually it makes it more difficult. Yeah, like that.

During my DD's college career they would front toss to each other and my DD was very proud of her ability to throw good BP. I saw her do it and I was actually impressed. I had my doubts. She would complain to me about certain players who couldn't hit infield properly or BP during practice.

Ever see a new "out of college" coach try to hit balls to the OF???? Takes them a while to figure it out.

 

[Rolling Hard]

During my DD's college career they would front toss to each other and my DD was very proud of her ability to throw good BP. I saw her do it and I was actually impressed. I had my doubts. She would complain to me about certain players who couldn't hit infield properly or BP during practice.

Ever see a new "out of college" coach try to hit balls to the OF???? Takes them a while to figure it out.

Becoming a fungo master takes time. We have a coach that can place the ball wherever he wants, any trajectory, including infield flyballs and pop ups to the catcher and make it look easy. I just bow before him.

 

[sluggers]

or just separate athletics and education. No reason for the two to mingle.

At D1 level, they haven't been mingled for years.

 

[YoungBuck]

At D1 level, they haven't been mingled for years.

ought to remove the logos then and not confuse any one

 

[Cannonball]

Young growing up in an environment where others are telling them what to do.

This has been a scenario numerous times.

Coach says
my outfielders don't make an adjustment for the batter to come in or go back.
I asked, do you have a signal to bring them in or have them move back?
coach says, yes I wave my hand in front of my face if I want them to come in, and I wave my hand behind my head if I want them to move back.
I said, have you ever considered that because you have that controlling indicator that they are just waiting for you to tell them what to do. That conundrum is very common.

Players are responding to the coach because the coach is controlling the players. That is how they are taught.

Instead of coaches teaching players, and assigning the players responsibility to do that themselves, those people who are called coach are just being controlling.

To bounce off of this, at the beginning of each year while we are focusing on fundamentals to prepare for the season, I take orange spray paint and mark a spot left, right and center. Players are then coached on adjustments off of those spots. In my experience, our right fielder, regardless of who is out there,, seem to drift a lot and I have to adjust them back. We really want communication between the CF and the other OF to determine where each fielder should adjust to.

 

[CoachJD]

What are you thinking?
Batters can only be evaluated on meat pitches? Come on now you have to know that there's more to hitting than only hitting a meat pitch.

70% strikes that's a heck of a ratio to show batting skills!


How many times does a college coach evaluating a batter need to see their swing? How many swings? Obviously more swings would be a lot more to make a determination. But if they had 10 swings would that be enough? I think we can see a lot in 5 to10 swings! Good bad ugly

( obviously how someone hits in a live game situation would be preferred. But if we're just looking at swings from front toss that can have an effective evaluation of its own)

I think our "disagreement" in this particular thread is just interpreting the situation differently.

The OP is talking about pitches bouncing, very slow pitches with an obvious arc, etc.

It is my stance that any legitimate college candidate (as in 99% of the players at this camp) are going to not swing at bounced front toss pitches and most will crush the lobbed pitches.

IOW, I guess you could weed out the girls who absolutely don't belong. But the rest of them should all look about the same.

I actually agree with you that front toss should not all be right down the middle. But unless you're evaluating the hitter's eye/strike zone judgment, they should all be strikes or at least close to strikes. And they should be thrown at a speed that's representative of the level they play at.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Yeah, meat pitches should be barreled 90+%
of the time. If a coach is throwing good front toss, it should be laser after laser. It's not the best way to determine if a player is good hitter but it's a start. If a player is fouling off or swinging and missing at coach front toss it's a tell. So if a player is given 15 good coach pitches at a camp, they should hit 13 to 15 barrels.