What exactly is long toss? Is it just playing catch very far away from the other person?

Question

What exactly is long toss? Is it just playing catch very far away from the other person?

Answer 1

Yes that is what it is......but The only people who should long toss are OF's. It is at least more like a throw that they would make in a game.

Long toss will not increase velocity. This is not my opinion this is a documented fact just released in a book called "The Science and Art of Baseball Pitching" by Dr. Brent Rushall and d**k Mills. They(scientists) tested the the strength in a pitchers throwing shoulder and non throwing shoulder only to find them to be the same. Static strength has little to do with velocity. Guess who always "thinks" they are gaining velocity with long toss?.... Young people. If you long toss from the time you are 12 to 13 and gain 5 mph how do you know that you didn't gain that just from maturing and refining your mechanics?

The study that was done used mature pitchers who had better than average knowledge of  pitching mechanics.

From 8.2 of The Science and Art of Baseball Pitching: "Total actions (e.g., those to be used in a competitive setting [ie. pitching]) need to be practiced. The partial or isolated training of movement segments (e.g., long-toss, resistance training) would not replicate the unit function in the total action [it's not the same as pitching from the mound]. Thus, once techniques (total response patterns) are being refined, partial practices will serve no purpose other than to learn another movement. There should be no intergration of the partial practice movement into the total response movement once an individual-determined level of skill competency is reached. The only way a highly skilled pitcher can improve his pitching, is to practice pitching. No axuiliary training activities will contribute to skill enhancement once the skill has achieved a resonable level of proficiency."

From The Science and Art of Baseball Pitching, pg 50.21-22: "Pitching is a skill. How will the skill of throwing from the mound at a defined target at game intensity ever be trained unless it is done from the mound at game intensity for an extended number of pitches to produce specific overload or at least maintenance stimulation?"

"The question must be asked: Does this drill really emulate anything that a pitcher does while throwing a baseball in a game? The answer should be obvious; it does not. Therefore, it will not transfer anything positive to a pitching delivery."

The best way for you to increase velocity and performance is get as much mound time as possible. Work on being more explosive in your movements and cut out any movements that slow your momentum to the plate.

Answer 2

Pretty much. Start off close and slowly move back till your throwing quite a ways. Try not to go too far, though. The idea is to strengthen the muscles that you use when throwing. I did it every day and was a pretty good pitcher till I broke my hip playing football freshman year in college.

Answer 3

Yes, but the idea is that you're stretching the limits of how far you can throw the ball without altering your throwing mechanics.  It helps strengthen the muscles that you use when you throw, so you can throw faster over shorter distances.

If you change your mechanics just to get extra distance, it doesn't help and can actually cause you to injure yourself.  So don't lauch it high into the air just to get an extra couple yards.