I had a 12-year-old shortstop-turned-pitcher this past spring who showed up to tryouts with the strongest infield arm on the field — the kind of pop that made every coach turn their head. First bullpen session, he was laboring at 40 feet, mechanics falling apart, complaining his arm was sore by pitch 20. Turned out he had never done any structured throwing outside of games. No program, no routine, no build-up. Just showed up and threw as hard as he could.

Long toss, done right, is the single most effective tool a youth pitcher has for building arm strength, extending endurance, and staying healthy across a full season. Start at 45 feet (10U) or 60 feet (12U–14U), work out to max comfortable distance with a controlled arc over 4–6 weeks, then compress back toward the mound. That is the framework — everything below is how to actually run it.

What Long Toss Is (and What It Is Not)

Long toss is a structured distance-throwing program where the pitcher gradually works past mound distance using an arced trajectory. The goal is arm extension — pulling the shoulder and elbow through a full range of motion so the arm stays loose, resilient, and strong deep into the season.

This is not bullpen work. Long toss does not count toward pitch counts, and it should never replace a mechanical session. Think of it as arm conditioning: the same way a distance runner builds mileage before race pace work.

Two rules we tell every pitcher in our program: one, the arc is everything — if the ball is flying on a line at 120 feet, the pitcher is arm-throwing, not long tossing. Two, finishing a session with soreness means the session was too much, too fast. Finish without soreness, every time.

Age and Readiness: Where to Start

Age GroupStarting DistancePhase 3 Max DistanceSessions per Week
10U45 ft90–100 ft2x
12U60 ft120–150 ft2–3x
14U60 ft175–200 ft2–3x

If a pitcher is coming off a high pitch-count stretch, an injury, or more than four months of rest, drop them back to starting distance and rebuild from Phase 1. We watched a well-meaning coach push a 13-year-old straight to 150 feet on day one of fall ball. Two weeks of forearm soreness, zero pitching.

The 6-Week Long Toss Program

Phase 1 — Weeks 1 and 2: Establish the Base

Step 1 — Flat-Ground Warm-Up at Starting Distance (5 min) Begin every session at starting distance (45 ft for 10U, 60 ft for 12U–14U) with 10–12 throws at 50% effort. Arm action should be easy and fluid. Coaching cue: "play catch like you are warming up a Little League game — no arm speed at all, just feel."
Step 2 — Extend in 15-Foot Increments (8 min) Back up 15 feet every 3–4 comfortable throws. 10U stops at 90 feet. 12U stops at 120 feet. 14U stops at 135 feet. Coaching cue: "angle your release upward at about 45 degrees and let gravity bring it down — every throw should have a clear arc. If the ball is flat, you are throwing too hard."
Step 3 — Hold Phase 1 Max for 10 Reps (5 min) Stay at max distance and throw 10 reps at 65–70% controlled effort. No pull-down this phase. Coaching cue: "relax your throwing hand between each throw and shake it loose — tension in the hand tightens the whole kinetic chain up through the shoulder."

Phase 2 — Weeks 3 and 4: Extend Further, Add Pull-Down (12U and 14U)

Step 1 — Full Warm-Up Sequence to Phase 2 Max Distance (10 min) Run through the Phase 1 routine and extend to 150 feet (12U) or 175 feet (14U). If the arm feels tight at any point, hold at that distance. Coaching cue: "max distance comes from consistency over weeks, not from pushing through discomfort. If 135 feels like enough today, 135 is enough."
Step 2 — Pull-Down for 12U: 150 ft to 90 ft to 60 ft (6 min) After reaching max distance, step in to 90 feet and increase effort to 80%. Then step to 60 feet at 85%. Coaching cue: "every step toward the mound, let your hips fire first — pull-down is not about throwing harder with your arm, it is about recruiting your lower half at mound distance."
Step 3 — Pull-Down for 14U: 175 ft to 120 ft to 90 ft to 60 ft (8 min) Compress in three steps. At 90 feet, effort reaches 85%. At 60 feet, 90–92%. Coaching cue: "same arm slot, same timing — you are turning the dial up on a movement you have already drilled. If mechanics change as effort climbs, back off to 80% and rebuild from there."

10U pitchers stay in the Phase 1 protocol through all six weeks, simply extending max distance gradually from 90 to 100 feet. No pull-down until 12U.

Phase 3 — Weeks 5 and 6: Full Program with Game-Transfer Focus

Step 1 — Warm-Up to Max Distance, Extended Hold (12 min) Reach full max distance and throw 15 reps at controlled effort. The arm should feel like a rubber band — fully stretched and springy. Coaching cue: "if the arm feels stiff or woody at max distance, the warm-up moved too fast. Slow the extension down next session."
Step 2 — Full Pull-Down to Mound Distance (10 min) Compress all the way to mound distance (46 ft for 10U and 12U, 60 ft 6 in for 14U) with escalating effort. The final 5–8 throws at mound distance should match game intensity. Coaching cue: "these last throws should feel like your first-inning fastball — same slot, same hip lead, same timing. That transfer is the whole point of the program."

Windup vs. Stretch: The Detail Most Programs Skip

Almost no youth long toss resources address this, and it matters more than coaches realize.

A deep dive from Tread Athletics on YouTube put this on our radar. The finding: throwing from the stretch changes hip and shoulder alignment at foot strike compared to the windup. The front hip loads differently, and lead shoulder position is slightly altered — neither is automatically wrong, but they are different movement patterns. For a pitcher who struggles from the stretch in games, deliberate long toss practice from the stretch can actually be a useful training tool. For a pitcher who already has problematic stretch mechanics locked in, long tossing from the stretch at high reps just reinforces the problem at scale.

Our default in this program: pitchers long toss from the windup. Once they are comfortable in Phase 2 or Phase 3, we add a 10-throw set from the stretch on one session per week. We coach the hip and lead shoulder difference explicitly, and we use the long toss environment — low stakes, no batter, full focus on feel — to correct stretch mechanics. In two to three weeks, most pitchers transfer the improvement directly into their bullpen delivery.

This is the kind of field-level detail that gets lost when programs are written without coaches standing behind real kids every week. For building arm path consistency across both delivery patterns, pair this program with our arm slot drills for youth pitchers ages 9–14.

Fitting Long Toss Into Your Practice Week

Long toss goes before bullpen work, never after. A typical in-season week for a 12U pitcher on our staff:

  • Monday (day after game): Rest or light J-band work only — no throwing
  • Tuesday: Full long toss session per the Phase program
  • Wednesday: Light bullpen (15–20 pitches, mechanics focus only)
  • Thursday: Rest
  • Friday: Short arm warm-up to 90 feet, then game-day routine
  • Saturday/Sunday: Game

Our pregame warm-up routine for youth pitchers covers the full 10-minute arm activation sequence we run before every start. Build that routine alongside this program and your pitchers will show up to game day with arms that are genuinely ready — not just loosely warmed up.

Arm Care Before and After Every Session

J-band work bookends every long toss session in our program. Before: five minutes of internal and external rotation, arm circles, and scapular pulls. After: a light shakeout and nothing else, unless there is soreness — and soreness is feedback that the session was too aggressive.

We have seen coaches skip arm care because it takes too much practice time. It is one of the fastest ways to shorten a kid’s throwing window. Skipping the pre-throw band routine is also one of the most common mistakes youth pitching coaches make — preventable every time.

You can pick up a quality J-band arm care kit at theranchsports.com — they offer 10% off and no sales tax, which adds up when you are outfitting a full pitching staff. We keep a set in every dugout bag.

For the full pitching development framework, head to our baseball coaching hub.

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Coach Nick & the YSC Coaching Team

Coach Nick has spent 20+ years in youth baseball — he owns a youth baseball program and coaches club, junior high, and high school teams. A former Division II player, he leads the YSC coaching team alongside a former Division II soccer player. Together we coach athletes from 7U through college, and everything we publish comes from current, hands-on field experience.

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