The Soft-Toss Drill
The soft-toss may be used to work on pulling the ball, it can also be used for hitting the opposite way. The “tosser” must be a safe distance to the rear of the hitter. The hitter must not peak. The “tosser” tosses the ball from the inside of the plate diagonally across to the outside. The hitter picks up the ball with his peripheral vision and “tracks” the ball with both his body and his eyes to the hitting zone. As soon as the hitter sees the ball come into his view, he follows it with his body by taking a stride slightly toward the path of the ball. He pushes off with his rear foot but does not squash the bug (Photo to the Left). When the ball reaches the hitting zone, he swings with a quick bat and “strokes” or “paints” the ball the other way. Throw your hands at the ball. On the follow through the hitter may want to drop to his back knee to emphasize the importance of hitting through the ball with balance and following the hands with the back hip.
Can I suggest you make a solid point the soft toss is not a race – the tosser must wait for the hitter to go back and get a good solid start position I see too often the hitter swings and hurriedly gets back but never do they get a firm solid setting with their hands and feet and the tosser is over eager and delivers the balls like a pitching machine stuck on delivery.