Soft Toss
Ages 7 and up · A bucket of balls, a bat, a net or fence to hit into, feeder kneeling at a 45-degree angle to the hitter's front side, safely out of the swing plane
Soft toss adds the one thing the tee cannot: timing. A feeder kneeling at an angle tosses balls gently into the hitting zone, and the hitter times a real swing against a moving ball with none of live pitching's fear or wildness. It is the bridge between tee work and pitched balls, and with a net or open yard it turns any parent into a batting practice machine.
The drill's quality lives entirely in the toss: a consistent, gentle arc into the same zone lets the swing repeat; wild tosses teach lunging. Feeding well is a genuine parent skill worth ten minutes of solo practice, and the safety geometry (feeder at an angle, never in front) is non-negotiable and easy.
How to run it
- The feeder kneels at roughly 45 degrees in front of and to the side of the hitter (opposite the net), several feet away, never in the swing path or the ball flight.
- Toss with a gentle underhand arc so the ball arrives thigh-high in the contact zone, out front of the hitter's lead foot. Establish a rhythm: show the ball, toss, swing.
- The hitter takes their full swing (load, stride, hips, finish), driving line drives into the net. 5-swing sets with resets.
- Vary location deliberately AFTER consistency is earned: a set inside, a set away, announced first.
- Finish with a game set: ten tosses, line drives count, racing the log. 25-40 swings total.
What to say
Common faults and fixes
Lunging at the toss (swinging where the ball will be instead of letting it arrive).
Slow the rhythm and add a "wait" word: the feeder says "wait... wait..." as the ball travels. Patience against a gentle toss is the timing being built; lunging is the timing being skipped.
Wild, inconsistent tosses (the drill's real failure mode, and it is the feeder's).
The feeder practices ten tosses at a target alone. A consistent thigh-high arc into one spot is the whole job; the hitter can only be as good as the feed.
Feeder positioned in front of the hitter (dangerous) or tosses from straight on.
The 45-degree kneel is the law: out of the swing plane, out of the ball flight. Check it every session; it drifts.
Make it easier, make it harder
Bigger or softer balls, slower rhythm, a shorter bat or choke-up grip, tosses to one grooved location only.
Called locations, mixed timing (varied pauses before the toss), two-ball soft toss (toss two, call "high" or "low" mid-flight, hitter hits the called one), or drop toss from the side for bat speed.
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