Side Toss

I see no coil or load of the rear hip in any the front or side toss swings shown.

I HATE SIDE TOSS!!!
45 toss is fine, side toss is overused, most coaches who use it do so without thinking. Something I hate equally is the goddam rapidfire toss! Again no thought involved. its even worse is when I see players tossing to each other like this because this incorrectly administered drill is clearly embedded in their system.

sometimes I will stand beside the plate and drop balls for them to hit, but never side toss because I do not see what benefit it offers to the hitter. Go4um offers the first intelligent use for this drill that I have heard.

clip 2 of 3 clips shows her turning her ankle terribly, I assume that is what OP was talking about.

in the second individual clip, I see bug squishing...

Mann, I often see your girls with a one hand finish. Which in theory is fine. Manny takes a hand off bat at finish too. Yet there's something fundamentally different. What is it? Manny completes full hip and shoulder turn, and at times the girls in this thread do not, ie they short circuit a full body finish and just "arm-finish" (one-arm-finish)??

I'd be curious what others think, this has always perplexed me...I see it in some hitters and am not sure how or if to address it. Tks.



A couple of thoughts added:

- I'm a big advocate of "throwing the top hand past the bottom hand" in the swing. This doesn't happen in the early hand-pull off, the bottom hand basically exits stage left.

- The early hand pull off/finish hitter ends up with their head back laid back/tilted for want of a better description. Finishing the shoulder turn keeps the head more upright. It's a MUCH different look and I would imagine function.

- See position of rear shoulder finish of two hitters.

Maybe these are all surface but they are so fundamentally different looking their must be upstream impact as well.

Yes most girls let go way to soon. the evil of one hand release. the head tilted to the side is an issue as well. the clip is above is an outside pitch so i can forgive her on hip finish angle, and extension direction. poor ankle.
bottom left is the outside pitch. no way for

she turns well on other pitches

Goforum, why do you spend so much time teaching girls to properly hit side toss? as for location, a tees not easier? then front toss. The concept of a "visual library" is a good one. side toss would not work for this.

[/QUOTE]Goforum, why do you spend so much time teaching girls to properly hit side toss? as for location, a tees not easier? then front toss. The concept of a "visual library" is a good one. side toss would not work for this.[/QUOTE]

Never said a lot of time... maybe a bucket some of the sessions. Easier? If you mean it's easier to place a ball on a tee than to crouch and toss then yes tee is easier for the coach but slightly more difficult for the hitter since they have to adjust to ball location during the sequence. I agree that side toss would have less value in creating "visual library" than some other drills but the same can be said for the tee or 45 degree toss.That doesn't mean it isn't a helpful drill to work on other issues. It has helped many of my hitters.

[/QUOTE]Goforum, why do you spend so much time teaching girls to properly hit side toss? as for location, a tees not easier? then front toss. The concept of a "visual library" is a good one. side toss would not work for this.[/QUOTE]

Never said a lot of time... maybe a bucket some of the sessions. Easier? If you mean it's easier to place a ball on a tee than to crouch and toss then yes tee is easier for the coach but slightly more difficult for the hitter since they have to adjust to ball location during the sequence. I agree that side toss would have less value in creating "visual library" than some other drills but the same can be said for the tee or 45 degree toss.That doesn't mean it isn't a helpful drill to work on other issues. It has helped many of my hitters.

Thing is the sequence begins with the pitcher who is 43 feet away, not 4 feet. the body is loading and tensions building, timing is a real thing. Timing cannot be established with side toss. Nor reading in or out.

the ball is OUT and IN deep or out front is confusing with aball moving in on you.

Greenmonster, care to discuss coil or lack of , as if i was on mars. There might be a time delay on my part.

i see her into her rear hip and front, with some coil. with flex and extension. I see the knee come with her cept for once, which means she has some clamping going on.

also i understand she is not hL. but hits bombs

I'm not sure what is being learned in the swings. The head movement of tilting it over and then the body follows is off. I really don't like the swing or whatever you think is being learned in the swings.

Max effort, powerless effort vs effortless power. The swings look restricted, not fluid.

mann said:

Greenmonster, care to discuss coil or lack of , as if i was on mars. There might be a time delay on my part.

i see her into her rear hip and front, with some coil. with flex and extension. I see the knee come with her cept for once, which means she has some clamping going on.

also i understand she is not hL. but hits bombs

Click to expand...

She's got long levers and looks athletic so I'm not surprised about the power. It may be my small monitor and the relative lack of pants-shirt color contrast, but I don't see the power coming from hip coil or upper-lower body stretch. I'd like to see video of a check swing, but swing looks long and I bet she's susceptible to off speed - outside swing and miss or weak contact, inside I'd suspect she couldn't hit fair to save her life. Throw her 2 changes in a row inside to start an at bat and she'd hit some foul bombs, but would be down 0-2. Buzz some heat inside then sit her down with another change or off-speed curve outside. Am I on target?

ETA - re side toss, I find it very effective when very close (i.e., in the oppo batter's box) and can put the ball exactly where I want - just have to make sure to not get too close and get the hand out of the way quickly!