Welcome to beyond the diamond, the podcast that goes far beyond the game. I'm your host, Danielle de Ruben, and I'm here to empower young women, parents and coaches in the world of fast pitch softball. As the owner and founder of Dear 3, fast pitch and passionate about bringing you inspiring stories, valuable insights and expert advice to help you excel both on and off the field. So whether you're a player. Looking to take your skills to the next level, a parent supporting your young athlete or a coach seeking to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in and go beyond the diamond together. Hey guys, coach D here on a new episode of Beyond the Diamond. Thank you so much for listening. I have loved it. Creating the previous podcast episodes, and now we've gotten to the point of them getting a lot of submissions put in about topics. And so this week we're going to answer one of the topic questions that was submitted on the homepage of DDR3 Fastpitch. Dot com. So if you have any ideas, if you have anything that you'd like me to talk about, please guys submit a form, I'd love to bring light to those subjects and. This week I have a parent from Pittsburgh, Miss Angela, who submitted 3 questions question #1, the basic science behind the pitching motion #2 advice for girls transitioning from either age level, mound distance, middle school or high school, or three advice on time management, how to find time for school homework. Practice, friends, etc. So I'm going to be able to talk about all three of those today and start with #1, the basic science behind the pitching. So when I teach either a beginner or when I teach even an advanced level athlete, the first thing that I tell them is power comes from the ground up. We have to make sure that we are in a solid start position because what you do at the start of your wind up affects what you're doing throughout and at the end of your windup. The end of the pitching motion. So I get my girls in a powerful triangle position. That's a big thing that I talk about. I know that's not an absolute for everyone, but it's an absolute for me and my program because I've seen the success with girls when they can get their foundation started at the beginning. So once we understand that power comes from the ground up and we focus on ground force. You lead into the other absolutes of pitching, so the absolutes that I talk about and let me clarify what absolutes are. So there's absolutes of pitching and their styles of pitch. Absolutes are what you need for maximum velocity, maximum accuracy and a strong IQ of the game. Styles are more individualized. Wind ups grips the way that the ball is spinning out of your hand. OK, now there's some absolutes when it comes to spin, right? But it also depends on the picture, her current velocity, how her body is moving, her mobility and range of motion that she has within her body. I mean, there's some stylistic things that. Go on with that. But typically style is more of like routine wind ups. Grips. That's more of the style category and those can be a little different. Now I do have. Preferences, but those are. A little bit more individualized, again based on your body type, your age, your strength level, etcetera. So going back into the absolutes, the. Absolutes that I teach. Ground force. Horizontal force such as your launch off the rubber. Rotational power, which is separation and sequencing. Whip, which is how we let go of the ball, how we whip the ball from external internal rotation and arm and our shoulder. Excuse me. Front side resistance. We have to have a strong front side. And rhythm and timing, you have to have rhythm and timing in order to be accurate. So those are my absolutes that I instill within my online membership and Academy. Those are what I'm discussing with my girls and it's a journey to get all of those down you might have. Of a good ground force. But the way that we're separating our body, the way that we're focusing on sequencing is thrown off because our rhythm and timing is thrown off with what we're doing within our motion. You might not be able to get front side resistance cause our launch and the angles of how we're launching off the rubber might be off. So there's an old method to my madness. How I teach my girls within my online membership, but one of the biggest things that I've noticed is some parents just want like that magic fix that magic drill. I'm sorry, but it is a journey. It is a journey to master the absolutes of pitching and my girls who buy into this process and buy into this journey. They are flourishing. They are kicking **** and taking names and I'm going to share a story about my very first online picture that I ever worked with. Her name is Courtney. I'm going to leave her last. Name out of this. She is 18. She is in Wisconsin. She was my very first online pitcher I ever worked with that I never knew prior. So week one of online lessons believe it was May 5th of 2020. I had five online girls that day. Four of the girls were previous girls that I worked with in Milledgeville, GA, before I had to move home due to COVID. The fifth one is Courtney and Courtney found me on Instagram, her mom did, and she has worked with me every single week since my very first week of doing online lessons. This girls progress has transformed more than any of my pictures. I know she has bought into. Everything I've taught, she's been involved in how I've. Called my teachings, she's been involved with everything throughout my process and she's bought into all of it. She is like 5859. She's maxed out at 66 miles an hour. Her walk through, I believe was 69 miles an hour, she. As strong as an ox, she has amazing triangles throughout her body. The way that she translates her energy from the ground up, the way that she is moving her body is so explosive, and it's because she. Has only utilized. This training. And I'm emphasizing that right now because it doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen in one week. It happens by using the material that I'm providing you and you're on a consistent routine. She lives in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin. So the closest like instructor is like hours away. So she utilizes all the stuff at her home and her barn. She'll go to the high school, utilize the high school gym, they'll rent that out to do live lessons. Sometimes, depending on the time of the year and she is grinding. I am so proud of her progress that I can't emphasize enough like she bought into the process and she bought into the journey, and right now she just verballed she's about to sign for a full ride scholarship playing at the next level. I don't want to share too many of those details yet until she posted about those on social media. But. I'm just so proud of her and I am very blessed and lucky that she has believed in me throughout the beginning of this journey and I'm seeing the results that are happening out. Of her it is just. It fills my cup up, it makes my heart happy. That parents you have to buy into the journey if you want your daughter to succeed at the highest level, you have to buy into the process. There's a science behind the process. The way that I am instructing these girls within my online membership and my online Academy. The orders, the suggestions I'm giving. The reason I'm picky about those is because I've seen it. Then, and I understand that there's different styles with some girls, but most of the girls, I'm sorry most the average player is not 6 foot tall, 200 lbs of pure muscle. That's not the average player. Do we all wish we were that size? Do we all wish we are strong as an ox, like Geordie Ball? Do we all wish that we had Montana fouts's legs? Yes, we do pictures. I trust me, I get it. OK, players, trust me, I get it, but not the average Joe girl. Looks like that. You have to make sure that you understand how your body is supposed to work, how power is generated from the ground up. You have to understand the absolutes needed. To move your body, the bio mechanics behind your body and guess what? That's what I'm empowering you. Throughout my online membership, I'm teaching you the why. I'm not just telling you to do it because I said so. I've worked with over 1200 pitchers virtually. These girls who buy into the process, they see quick results, but again, they're not doing it once a week, they're doing it 3-4 five times a week before moving on to the next plan. They are focusing. They're constantly messaging me. They're constantly involved in the community, constantly posting videos and pictures for me to critique and update. Like if you're in my Academy, I am here to help mentor you. Parents, you you include it. If you need some help with your daughter's journey like I am here to help you with it. And there's a three day free trial going on right now. So if you are interested and just really leveling up your training at home, please take a look at this Academy. I mean everything in there, it's pretty straightforward. I can help guide you as long as where to start. But I mean, there's over 160 weeks of information in there, I get it can be a lot. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but that's what I'm here for, is to help navigate your journey and what to do like where to start best send your videos and post your videos. Message me and contact me. Let me help you. That's what I want to do. That's what I've been doing for these girls, these girls who buy into the process are seeing their success, OK? And when I started with Courtney, I mean, she was like a freshman in high school. OK, how she's grown from her freshman year, how much her body has changed from being 14, and now 18, the powerhouse ballplayer that she is, not only has she grown. Physically but mentally and emotionally. Like throw back to the first like 3-4 months of us working together. I even told her mom, I'm like, hey, I don't know if this is working out. Like, I don't feel like she is enjoying this. Like it took Courtney so long to open up to me. And I'm a big personality. And once she finally opened up to me, as when, like, her journey just skyrocketed and. Even though she was quiet with me at the beginning, I know she was still putting the work in because I could see the results. I just couldn't tell how much she was loving it. And then once I realized, like she did love it and she was just a hard nut to crack, then I was like, OK, like, this girl has bought in this girl now believes. Now I'm going to take it to the next level. And when I work with girls virtually or in person, like if I'm doing like a one-on-one or even group setting like my energy and how I instruct feeds off of your body language and feeds off of what I know that you're willing to comprehend. Right now, I'm very good at reading people. I have two degrees in special education. So like that. My background with working with kids in disabilities. I'm very good at reading kids in general and reading body languages, and I can tell like from their eyes if they're struggling or if they're not fully into it. And like, based on what I see there kind of translates my teaching and that's how I am. We're in a advanced. Setting like with these girls like one-on-one now and within my membership I'm giving you like the hard content and I'm giving you like, if you don't work with me in a one-on-one setting, it can be a little overwhelming. But when you do work with me live and you ask questions like, I can break this stuff down even simpler and help guide you along the way. But it's my job to. Empower you and fuel. To you with knowledge, because knowledge is power and the more knowledge you have, the more powerful you can be and you're going to learn about the bio mechanics of pitching. Throughout my membership you are going to have the IQ. You're going to grow your knowledge and the more knowledge you have, the more powerful you will be and the more powerful pitcher coach instructor parent you will be because you'll be able to truly analyze what you're doing pitching and not rely on just coach D to answer, not rely on so and so to give you the answer. Like I'm training my girls to be independent. Young women. Because in this world you have to be. That's why my membership is full of knowledge. It's not. Just do this because I say so. Or do this because this work. No, no, no, no. The method behind the madness works. I've seen it happen. The girls who have bought into it. I. Mean I I. Get tickled pink every week when I get text messages like Coach did like I felt my body like I felt that I made these adjustments on my own like I'm so proud. Like I am so proud of those. And it's because they're seeing the results, but they're putting the work in. It's not happening just by the snap of your finger. And I'm not saying that all of you have to train like Courtney did. I mean, Courtney's goal is to play at the college level. My goal is to play at the college level. Not every girl's goal is to play at the college level. But if you can provide them resources. And feel them with knowledge to help them understand they might want to do that. And even if you don't want to play at the college level. Like my membership. Is still for. You with the knowledge you're learning, cause it gives girls kind of like a sense of purpose behind their training. Like and it gives them more structure as far as OK like this is what I have 30 minutes today. This is what I have to do to. OK, I can check it off, check it off and parents, I can even talk about like incentives. Like incentives that you can give your girls so. I'm hoping that kind of answers a little bit of the basics behind the pitching motion. I mean, there's so many basics that I can go into. I have a introduction to pitching 101 course that's out right now. I've helped over 405 hundred beginner parents, pitchers and coaches love that course. It's very in depth as far as learning the true basics. Of pitching grip and lined up and styles and the absolutes and building rhythm and all of that. So like I dive deep into that and pitching one-on-one you get a 30 day money back guarantee. So if that course is not for you just e-mail me. I'll give you a full refund within the 1st 30 days but that course has really kick started. Like anyone who joins my membership like my membership is like Level 3 content. So it starts with pitching 101. Learn the basics behind pitching goes into pitching 102, which is mastering your whip. So we want to make sure that our whip mechanics are strong before we dive deep into Level 3. The online membership Academy, where you dive deep into ground force. That's why I make sure that pitching one or two, you understand your whip because we have to understand how to throw the ball and how to release. Well, but you're going to dive deep into ground force now you have access to all the absolutes upfront, but I give guidance on. The best way to start. And it might not be the best place to start for the season that you're in right now. But guess what? That's what I'm here for. To send me a video, let me analyze it. Let me take a look at you. Join. The community and I will guide you like, hey, for a quick fix. Do this for a long term. Grow like growth with velocity, do this like I'll guide you on where to find. Content within the membership, like I'm here to help mentor you. I'm here to help make sure that you're understanding what you're need. To do, I'm here to empower that knowledge because that knowledge is what's going to fuel you come game time, because I'm not going to be there in your ear to help guide you. Along the way. All the little tips and tricks that you learn like. You bring them. In your back pocket and we can go out. Perform and. Have fun so. That is my advice for the basics behind the pitching motion. I know I didn't talk about the whole pitching motion. I'll touch on this a little bit. If you're in a back swing, make sure you have a bend in your elbow. Make sure that your wind up. Creates like a rhythmatic launch the timing of how we're launching off the rubber. Flows, making sure that we're getting a strong front side resistance when we're landing, making sure that you're hugging the power line, splitting the power line, making sure that we're engaging our core, our glutes and our hips, making sure that we're getting separation, making sure that we're keeping our weight back, head behind the ball's time of release. And what I mean by that is just like. Sticking your landing, you want your back, shoulder, back, knee, back hip and one straight line for that stacked position. You want to make sure that your head is not flying all over the place because your head and neck and spine are connected. We if you move your head, you'll arch your neck and you'll really arch your spine like we want to make sure that our alignment is proper so proper alignment, proper timing and rhythm, proper sequencing, strong front side. Mastering the absolutes and I'd love to help guide you along the way and again 3 day free trial. Take a look at it. I'd love to really help mentor you especially during this off season when it's time to level up. You're not playing in games right now so you can really dive deep into understanding and if you want to be elite you have to train elite. If you want to be. Elite. You have to have elite level content. All right, so now we're going to transition into question #2, which is advice for girls transitioning from either age level, mound distance, middle School, high school. So as far as moving up from like 35 feet to 40 feet to 43 feet, anytime that you are moving up an age group, grab a 14 inch. Well, I have it linked on my Amazon store which is connected on my website ddr3fastpitch.com. If you go to partnerships and equipment, Amazon is one of the first partnerships that I have on there. I have a whole storefront for you with multiple different resources and all aspects of the game. So go check that out. But there's a 14 inch ball that's on there under basic pitching equipment and under the transitional pitchers module that I have on there. And take a look at that, utilize that ball more often, I would have. Girls use that. Ball, probably like three or four months before they officially transition. In a perfect world. But if you're playing like, let's say that you're 10 years old, you're about to move up to 12 of you in the fall and you have all summer ball playing ten. You. Well, not a lot of girls get that downtime from that transition from summer to fall season or from fall to spring season. Make sure that you are able to train with that bigger ball. At least the first half of the week and then the last half of the week like you're utilizing the ball that you're about to go perform with that weekend. And I get, I've given that advice for years for all girls and it's really helped them. I also talk about long distance pitching, so like long toss, I think it's very important to incorporate long toss at a very young age. To help gain arm strength, and that's long. Toss overhand and underhanded now with pitching. Long toss, I mean the goal depends on age group, but I mean. I've seen at the college level when I was at Kennesaw State University, coach Doug Gillis was our pitching instructor, and I mean, he did long toss from foul pole to foul pole with the rise ball spin, it was mind. Blowing and that. Was just again mind blowing, watching that. I've seen Kelly Barnhill do it about the same distance. And that was just pretty cool seeing it that far. But I mean, if you can get midway center field like you know how coaches like we'll split the field up into like 3 or they out field up in like 3 layers or three sections like Section 1, Shallow 2, middle 3 Deep so. Depending on your age, I mean start and shallow outfield shallow center field. Try to get the ball up in the air to home plate. If that's too far, step closer and if that's a little too easy then start either deep center field or start middle center field and you throw like 5 pitches there take 5 feet forward, throw 5 pitches. There take 5 feet forward until you're up at the proper distance. That's something that can really help, and again gauge it based on the arm strength that you currently have, because if you can't get the ball in the air from your farthest distance to your target, then you're too far away. So however far that you can go. It start at that point, and then five pitches 5 feet forward, 5 pitches 5 feet forward. So you'll probably throw. I mean, it depends how far back you can get, but anywhere between like 20 to 50 pitches like working long toss. And I've seen girls do like long toss walk throughs. I mean whatever works for you. Best I prefer full pitching long toss just because it's helping them work their mechanics. And the farther back you are, the more loop there needs to be on the ball. So that's something to be mindful of too. You're not trying to throw a straight line from center field to home plate. I mean, sorry, we're not trying to do that. You're trying to get the ball up in the air. And again, the farther back you are, the more loop, the closer you get, the more the ball is going to go on that straight path. So that's a big tip as far as transitioning mound distance wise or age level wise for pitchers. As far as just like middle school to high school, the biggest advice that I can give for all softball players is to level up on your mental. Them in your mental training because the older you get, the more competitive this game gets. The more structure the game has, the more expectations coaches have a lot of high school coaches have their certain rules and their pet peeves. And same as college girls and college coaches, so making sure that we're just maturing. In that area and we understand that each year gets a little bit more competitive, gets a little bit more. Structure gets a little bit more like you have to level up to like reach your goals and mental game is the biggest thing because what I see with girls from middle school to high school is it's just a lot to take in. It is. But if you prepare them at a younger age to take on this journey, then high school is a breeze and your freshman year. The hardest? By far, and it's just with all. I mean, yes, you've been going to school and you've been playing softball after school, like in middle school. But I mean, first week of high school is probably one of the hardest weeks for most players. And most athletes are just most people in general. And it's just adapting to a new culture, adapting to new rules, adapting to a new team. Adapting to. Balancing schoolwork and time management and that kind of falls under Question 3, which is advice on time management. How to find time for school, homework practice and. And I mean, you're going to have to sacrifice. Some things, and like the order of how I lived my high school journey was God was first, family was second, school was third and softball was 4th. And when I had those four things in mind and that order, it really helped me balance my life a little bit more and. Friends was like after softball, like that was last. So that was fifth on my list and there was a lot of things that I had to sacrifice that I couldn't attend to. I couldn't attend many sleepovers on the weekends. I couldn't attend some, like, after school activities because I had a pitching lesson or I had team practice. And I was OK with that sacrifice because I loved what I was doing. And I loved being on my team. I loved seeing my teammates. And my school friends, they didn't always understand like what I was going through. And I'm still very thankful that I have a core group of girlfriends and guy friends from high school that I still connect with on a weekly basis at 25 years old. But back in high school, I mean. They would all. They'd all tell you like I missed. A lot, but I was OK with that. Guys sacrificed a lot of. Other things for me to live my dream of playing softball. Now. Again, this might not be everyone's dream to play at the college level and to have a heavy stress load and to have a heavy workload in general. If that's not for you, we have to find more balancing techniques and I think Sunday is a great day to find that. And if you're at the ball field Sunday, then you make it Friday or you make it Thursday. You pick a day of the week and that's your day to like. Plan out what you have in front. What do you have upcoming on the next week? Because if we're not planning our weeks out, and if you're not staying like on top of things structure wise, I mean, it's really hard to balance all this stuff. It's hard on our mental game and parents. I understand it's hard for you too, like my mom had multiple calendars. She had one on her phone and one handwritten one, and I mean, that's just something that we stayed on top of. We had a calendar on our refrigerator. At the house. So like any big family, events were on there. Like I put my mom would look at my calendar to see what I had on my schedule. I'd look at hers to make sure our calendars were matched up like I knew what. I had. To do, I knew that. I might have to, I don't know. I might not be able to go to this homecoming event after school, but I'll be able to make the game that night, or I might not be able to make the game because of practice, but I can go to the dance the next day and I just had to, like, find that balance of what worked for me. And you have to find that balance on what works for you and your family. And if you feel like. Your workload is too much. Then you have to do what's best for your family. But you also have to do like follow your dreams and. Not everybody is disciplined to put the work in that it takes to play at the next level. That's OK, but if you have goals and you have dreams no matter what level you're playing at, you have to find time to put the work in to make it happen, you have to. How else are you going to get from point A to point B? If you're not being consistent and you're training physically, mentally and emotionally? Wake up 30 minutes earlier before school and crank it out in the. Morning. Instead of spending your whole hour lunch period chit chatting with your friends in the lunch room, spend 15 minutes eating. Spend 15 minutes on mental training, spend 30 minutes on your homework, crank out what you need to do at school. So after school, you can focus on softball. After school, you can just kind of debrief and relax like I never did homework after school. I don't want to say never because there's times where I did in high school, but I tried my hardest. To crank out all my stuff in the morning and during my lunch periods because I knew my brain was shut off. Come like 6:00. Like unless I was practicing and I was active like that whole evening. Like my brain shut down. There was no way I was doing homework at 9:00 PM. There was no way I was doing homework at 11 at 11:00 PM or midnight when I was in high school. Like. Sorry, that was not happening and I knew that about myself. So I found time to. Sacrifice during school sacrifice, hanging out with my girlfriends, my guy friends and I had to crank out what was best for me because I knew I had a busy. Night that. Night. So finding time like that to balance is like huge and. Again, I'm going to say that order that I had, number one was God. #2 was family. #3 was my academics. #4 was softball, and #5 was friends and other activity. That's how I prioritized. My time management. That's how I prioritized what I needed to do on a daily basis and I'll still tell you right now. Even though softball is #4 on that list, it was still the main thing that I did. I just made sure I cranked out one through 3 ahead of time and made sure that I was. On top of my academics so that I was able to play softball, I made sure that everything with my family, like we were all good on the same. Page. Otherwise my academics would fluctuate, like fluctuate and like softball would fluctuate. So like I made sure I did what I needed to do at the beginning so I could play softball. And I also realized that softball was a privilege. I was not guaranteed to play. Like my parents were not going to pay for me to play and to. Go to lessons. If I was not being consistent in my training, if I was, if I didn't have good grades, First off, oh gosh, softball would been the first thing that was ripped out from me because I loved softball. Like bad grades. Heck, that wasn't even a question to my family like I knew I had to have good grades. I had to have A's and B's in order for me to have the privilege to play. Had the privilege to travel across the country, had the privilege to do 2 to 3 pitching lessons a week like I had to make sure my grades were good. So you had just have to find that time and that. Balance and I promise that you can do it, but you have to have structure and coming from someone who has ADD like I had to write everything down and I had to have a visual planner in front of me and a visual calendar in front of me and a checklist in front of me like on a day-to-day basis in order for me to get everything done that I needed to get done. But having that structure also made me feel accomplished, even if I couldn't finish everything on there like I felt accomplished because. I could check. Off and cross out exactly what I needed to do that day. That could really help out. So I hope. That helps as far as transitioning and advice on time management. I mean, I throw a lot at you in this episode. I'd love to even dive deeper into certain aspects. So if you have any. Any topic ideas that you would like me to discuss? Please go to dr3fastpitch.com, go to my homepage on my website, Scroll down a little bit, submit a form request. I would love to feature you on my podcast if you want to guest speak, I'd love to have you on there and I'd love to. Just like dive a little deeper into specific. Topics as well, so make sure you go on there. Thanks for listening to this week's episode and I hope you have a blessed week. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Beyond the Diamond Connect with us on all social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube at D O3 fastpitch. But Instagram is my biggest platform where I post daily content for questions or topic ideas, visit our website dearthroughfastpitch.com and submit the form on our homepage. I would love to feature you on our next episode. Remember, you can find all of our episodes on Apple Podcast, Spotify and on our website dear3fastpitch.com. Stay tuned for more exciting discussions, stories, and insights in the world of fast pitch softball on the next episode of Beyond the Diamond until. Plan. Remember, the only thing that matters is the next pitch. Deep breath. Next pitch I will. See you soon.
