Baseball & Softball drill · Hitting
Front-Toss Line-Drive Challenge
Front toss gives more good swings per minute than coach pitch, and the line-drive scoring turns swing quality into a game hitters actually care about.
Why this drill works
Front toss sits exactly between the tee and live pitching: a moving ball with friendly timing, tossed from the direction pitches actually come. Scoring line drives, not hits or homers, points the whole exercise at the swing quality that transfers, level path and hard contact, and the challenge format gives hitters a number to beat instead of vague encouragement. It is also the highest-quality swing volume a coach can generate with one bucket and one screen.
How to coach it
Toss with metronome consistency; the drill is only as good as the feed, and erratic tosses teach lunging. Count line drives aloud and let ground balls and pop-ups pass without commentary, because the score already delivered the message. Watch for hitters selling out for distance when the challenge heats up, and remind them the scoreboard only pays liners. Track personal bests across weeks; front-toss numbers are the rare hitting stat that improves visibly and honestly.
- Ages
- 7–14
- Skill levels
- beginner, developing, intermediate
- Players
- 5–14 (ideal 10)
- Time
- 16 min
- Setting
- either
- Space
- Hitting lane 20+ yards deep, or a cage
Equipment
- 10-15 balls
- 1-2 bats
- Protective screen or net for the tosser
- Helmets per league rules
- Cones to mark the line-drive zone
Setup
Tosser sits or kneels behind a protective screen 12-15 feet in front of the plate, angled slightly off-line. Mark a line-drive zone with cones 10-25 yards out. Fielders spread beyond the zone; on-deck hitters mimic swings in a marked safe area far from the lane.
How to run it
- The tosser delivers firm underhand tosses into the strike zone at an even rhythm.
- Each hitter gets 8 swings: 2 points for a line drive into the zone, 1 point for any other hard ground ball, 0 for pop-ups and misses.
- The hitter announces their score; fielders return balls to a bucket beside the screen.
- Rotate hitter to fielder, fielder toward on-deck; everyone hits twice.
- Round two: hitter calls PULL or OPPO before each toss and only that direction scores.
What success looks like
Most contact is hard and on a line, hitters keep a short, level path instead of uppercutting for distance, and scores climb from round one to round two.
Coaching cues
- "Line drives win"
- "Short to the ball"
- "Let it travel, then turn"
- "Head still through contact"
Common mistakes
- Swinging for the fence and popping up; the scoring system quietly fixes this.
- Tosses that float or vary wildly; a bad tosser ruins the drill, so train the toss first.
- Fielders creeping into the landing zone; balls are collected only between hitters.
Make it easier or harder
Easier: Larger or softer balls, closer zone, and points for any fair contact.
Harder: Call the location mid-toss, mix in occasional high tosses to lay off, or shrink the scoring zone.
Adapt it to your team
Small roster: Five players run tosser, hitter, two fielders, one on-deck; short rounds keep the bat moving.
Large roster: Pair this station with baserunning or tee stations in a rotation so groups stay at 5 per hitting lane.
Limited space: In a cage, score off net height markers: line drives hit the back net between knee and head height.
Limited equipment: No screen: use soft training balls with the tosser farther away and angled off-line; never take hard balls to the face to save a purchase.
Safety
The tosser stays behind the screen at all times, helmets on hitters and on-deck players per league rules, and the field is frozen during live swings. See the safety page for general guidance.