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It depends on the player. My son is a 2015 catcher that only long tosses with the catchers throwing motion. He would develop a bad habit of looping his hand throwing extended.
What also helped my 2015 is a throwing program using different weighted balls where they do not actually throw the ball and just simulate the motion.
You might want to take a look at Crossover, they offer a position specific throwing program.
Read the history of Johnny Beach at age 15.
Bob
I'm guessing "Bench" 
Back to the OP, I'm guessing here, but "it depends" is as good as any other answer. I've known catchers who swear by "traditional" long toss, and others who swear at it.
The real Q is what are you looking to do? Frankly, most good catchers have decent, not fantastic, velocity - the greatest gains in pop time are generally to be found in mechanics (transfer, footwork, etc)
Yes Bench. We have a photo of Johnny and my son Robert [then age 10] taken at Candlestick Park, after I pitched BP to the Giants.
In his book, Johnny father placed the 2b bag in short CF to develop his throwing velocity.
With the Reds, pitchers ducked when Johnny threw to second. His throws were rising as they crossed over the mound.
Bob
Asked my son his thoughts on this tonight - he says he has been taught that 60-90-120 feet, maintain catcher throw trying to put it on a line. But beyond that (150 and further) put an arc on it and air it out, for arm strengthening. He said it is okay to wind up and throw it at the long distances.
Asked my son his thoughts on this tonight - he says he has been taught that 60-90-120 feet, maintain catcher throw trying to put it on a line. But beyond that (150 and further) put an arc on it and air it out, for arm strengthening. He said it is okay to wind up and throw it at the long distances.
I'm not sure I follow? The throw from home to 2nd base is 127 feet, so 60-90-120 is too short. Seems to me that long toss would need to be somewhat longer than this.
Sorry if I wasn't clear Smitty28...when a player long tosses, he doesn't start out by throwing at 150 feet and beyond, he works up to it. Starting out at a short distance and adding distance as he warms up. Catcher son said that he throws with ball at ear, on a line so to speak, during the shorter distances up to 120 feet or so as he is warming up. Then beyond this distance he throws long toss with full motion to strengthen arm. Does that make sense?
Well, there's smitty's problem - it's just over 127 and a quarter feet
The better HS level catcher's I've seen over the years tend to stretch out the "rope" to about 130 or so - the idea is to throw thru the target. Neatest drill I've seen is coach laying a plastic garbage can on it's side facing home, and having a pitcher deliver & catcher try to move the can by hitting it thru the opening. Not too many reps of that, though!
Well, there's smitty's problem - it's just over 127 and a quarter feet
The better HS level catcher's I've seen over the years tend to stretch out the "rope" to about 130 or so - the idea is to throw thru the target. Neatest drill I've seen is coach laying a plastic garbage can on it's side facing home, and having a pitcher deliver & catcher try to move the can by hitting it thru the opening. Not too many reps of that, though!
Yeah, that makes sense. It just doesn't really seem to be "long toss" if you're throwing 3 extra feet. But I like the idea of putting a little extra on it as a drill.
When my son, 15u catcher, does long toss, once he works up to 120' or so he tries to keep throwing on a (more-or-less) line through 150'. Then he uses more of an arc with fuller arm motion. At that point he's focusing on strengthening his arm.
