Drive Mechanics

[javasource]

Stride & Drive Orientation – Part 2

Hopefully, you’ve arrived at this post with an open mind... and all you care about is putting your DD or student in positions that allow her to maximize her potential; safely and efficiently. If so, let us take a moment to put YOU in a couple of positions…

The following assumes you are right-handed. If not, ‘flip’ the following instructions…

Exercise 1 – Stride Orientation

1. Stand, feet side-by-side (comfortably spaced), with the right side of your body 6-12 inches from a wall… facing forward. This is also a handy thing to perform in front of a full-length mirror.
2. While keeping your right foot pointed straight ahead, take a decent sized step forward with your left foot; at a 45-degree (inward) orientation/angle on plant.
3. If it helps you keep your right foot pointing forward, feel free to raise the heel up so you’re on the ‘ball of your right foot’.
4. Once you’ve landed… hold your position and look at your hips. You should see that, naturally, your hips responded to the angle of your stride foot. They won’t be at exactly the same angle as your foot… as we are all designed a little different. The wall will serve as a reference to this angle…
5. To drive the point home, after checking out your hip orientation, square them up (forward) while in this position. In doing so, you’ll feel a stretch in your right hamstring and glutes… And you’ll also have a reference as to how much your hips opened… which was about 45-degrees.

Exercise 2 – Drive Orientation

1. Repeat Step 1 from above.
2. While keeping your left foot pointed straight ahead, rotate your right (drive) foot outward 45 degrees. Take a decent sized step forward with your left foot; keeping the left foot pointed straight ahead on plant.
3. If it helps you take a decent step forward, feel free to raise the heel up so you’re on the ‘ball of your right foot’… but be sure to keep the right at a 45-degree angle and left foot at no angle – or straight ahead.
4. Once you’ve landed… hold your position and look at your hips. You should see that, naturally, your hips responded to the angle of your drive foot… Check angle with the wall to your right.
5. Square up the hips… once again… feeling this ‘stretch’. Depending on your flexibility – squaring up will be a resisted feeling… as it’s not natural… hence the reason our hips open.

Exercise 3 – Stride & Drive Orientation

By now… some of you may have just had an epiphany… but do the exercise anyway.

1. Repeat Step 1 from above.
2. With feet side by side, rotate your right foot outward 45-degrees. Take a decent sized step forward with your left foot AND land at a 45-degree angle with the left foot, too. Both feet should be angled (to the right) 45-degrees.
3. Again, feel free to raise up on the ball of the right foot, if it helps you take a larger step.
4. Now… look at your hips… Holy smokes… that’s not a 45-degree hip angle!!!
5. Reference the wall, you should be pretty close to ‘fully’ open… and definitely a lot further than you were in Exercise 2 or 3. Try them all again, and compare if you don’t believe me.

Hopefully, that epiphany has set in… If not… you’re either one-legged, a mutant, or just generally disagreeable… (not that any of those things are bad attributes... I'm keeping it positive this New Year!)

Drive foot turn-out ADDS to the stride angle… and if you really want to put it to the test… try Exercise 2 with the right foot rotated outward 90-degrees with no stride foot angle. Now… let us have a peak at Ueno and Monica… one more time… but through a ‘different pair of lenses’…

This introduces a subject that has led to a couple heated debates on DFP… drive foot turn-out. Drive foot turn-out is completely natural and NOT a negative thing. Every decent sprinter in the world does it… many pitchers do it, and if your DD doesn’t do it… your limiting the amount she can engage the largest muscles in her leg… and they’d like to help her drive forcefully off the plate…so let them! If you still don’t believe it… well… you might be getting in your own way... and hers.

All this said… I often limit drive foot turn-out. Turning the drive foot out much more than 45-degrees (I prefer only what is necessary) is counter-productive… similar to stretching a muscle too far… you’ll negate the directional force if you take it too far… and put the quads at a disadvantage.

So… if I’ve said/say that your DD is opening too much… and that it appears her stride orientation is fine… you need to realize that the additive effect of her drive turn-out and stride orientation… are creating a hip/torso angle that allows her to open beyond 90-degrees.

Couple this with the last main post… Stride Angle… and you’ll see how easy it is… and unbelievably prevalent… that younger/inexperienced pitchers open too much. You might have just checked the stride foot… now you know better… Check the stride angle (across the body adds to the angle, to the left for RHP subtracts)… check the stride foot orientation, and then check the drive foot orientation (as it PUSHES off the rubber). This last one is key... a delayed or slow push is one of the most common pitching faults I see in younger pitchers today.

Lastly, should your goal be 90? IMO, no. I like 70ish… because I know the effect that the upper torso and arm momentum have on adding to the torso angle. Setting 90 with the feet… results in 90+ overhead…

Pitching is never as simple as one thing… it’s a bunch… added up… and with every pitcher - they are never the same.

End Part 2

Next up... "Differences"... I think...

 

[javasource]

Just when I thought the info flow couldn't get any better, we get this stride and drive essay. In a word, .... FANTASTIC!

No more angled duct tape on the floor.

I still see benefit for beginning pitchers.
Giving them a reference to shoot for in the early stages seems like it will help the process along.
Like training wheels on a bike, eventually you remove them.

What's differennt is that you don't need to go all OCD about the plant and/or drive foot angles, as long as it's withing the accepted range.
So put the tape on the floor as a "suggestion" and only correct if the deviation becomes too great?

Although I can envision a PC fixating temproarily upon a more specific angle when trying to correct something else in the DD mechanics that these angles do influence.

For me, the discontinuing the tape has more to do with focusing elsewhere. That is, if the hips aren't opening enough, I don't think the focus should be on change the stride foot angle, but rather a focus on the actual drive and stride, like a focus on kicking the foot and popping the hips open, letting the foot angle be what it will be. If the hips do get open enough, I think it's pretty hard to get greater than 45-degrees. That's just me.

Absolutely, Corlay. I still use taped angles... but the angles are specific to each pitcher. I'll use stride and drive orientations for tape... but only as the specific pitcher requires... and I'll often have them move an angle at home around in static drills to help them achieve a good body position.

The tape references are very handy... just not advocating one angle for all.

Also, stride orientation changes hip orientation... As such, I find that slight adjustments to stride orientation... once a pitcher develops comfort and consistency... can help them with location placement... much more than stride angle. In other words, rather than have them stride a little to the left or right, changing the angle of the foot (slight) can help some with inside/outside placement. As such... many of them will benefit from taped lines for a much longer period than just beginners.

Lawrie is a pitcher that I would guess utilizes this method, as her stride orientation (and body lean) vary quite a bit.

 

[javasource]

This isn't a summary - it's the whole enchilada.

Drive Mechanics by JavaSource

Here is BoardMember's I/R in the Classroom

Handy links... especially for the completed and ever-growing I/R thread!!! Thanks MountieSB!!!

 

[javasource]

Great post, again, JS.

I like the open attitude towards stride foot angle. If anyone has ever had to coach a kid who is bow legged or pigeon toed, it can be a real challenge in getting the right mechanics to happen in ways that do not put undue stress on their joints (pigeon toed especially). As these kids mature and go through puberty, the natural angle of their foot changes, and it is important to recognize these changes and to correct mechanics as they occur. A pigeon toed kid is going to have undue stress on their ACL if they try to land with a 45 degree angle of their foot, but might be fine at 60 degrees, for instance. Osterman and Abbot are both slightly pigeon toed, if you observe them in non-athletic settings.

-W

Starsnuffer always adds great points...

 

[javasource]

Did you just contradict yourself? I'm no expert here and I don't pretend to be one. But it seems like you just said 2 different angles here. No disrespect meant, just want a better understanding.

I always thought the push/drive came off the rubber straight towards catcher. Let me explain a little more in detail. Both feet on rubber facing catcher, upper body going forward to get good sprinter position, drive heel comes up straight as stride foot moves forward, (looking only a drive foot now) drive foot starts to angle to where the heel comes up and the drive foot starts to angle from 0 to slightly over 90 degrees as the big toes drags, I hope I explained that well. I envision the drive foot going from 0 degrees, facing catcher, to slightly over 90 degrees, dragging outside portion of the big toe. I may have to video myself here but that's pretty much how it looks/feels when leaping and dragging. (I really need to get a good camera, trying to convince DW is really hard though)

My stride foot does land ~45 degrees.

I love these post. Keep them coming.

Watch the kid sprint 25 meters. If they don't know how to sprint, get them to a running coach or attempt to teach them yourself. That's first.

Second, when they do know how to sprint, record them, and look at the angle of their feet when they are sprinting. Every kid is different. What you want is to replicate that angle for their drive foot, more or less.

Third, the point of controlling the drive/pivot foot angle is two-fold. You want to maximize drive, obviously, but you also want to ensure that the hips do not rotate open early. To maximize drive the pitcher has to maximize the extension of their drive leg using the primary drivers, and that means keeping the hips as square towards the catcher as possible until maximum extension is achieved. At this point the shoulders have already begun to rotate open, thus the hips and shoulders are at different angles which underlies the importance of core strength, because this isn't going to happen properly without it. This also creates stretch across the torso that will help to slingshot the hip open once full leg extension is achieved. The hips and shoulders then realign during this weightless period before again disassociating just before stride foot plant.

Whatever the pivot foot has to do to make that happen for each individual pitcher is what is important. For most kids, that is going to be using the angle that they use best when they're sprinting.

-W

Exactly. Love this post, SS. Really good points.

CoachScott,
No. The second angle was a reference to the open position that the torso achieves as a result of stride and drive foot orientation, coupled with stride angle. The first reference was the orientation of just the drive foot AT push off from the plate.

Not really sure what you mean with the second statement... but if I had to guess... you're referring to the orientation of the drive foot as it comes forward... off the rubber? If this is what you mean... then it will respond at that point to the angle of the stride foot... as the momentum forward and the orientation of the stride leg... will influence the drive leg.

What happens mid-flight is not the focus (in the latest post)... with the drive foot, that is. We are only looking at the angle of the drive foot as it pushes off the plate... what happens later is contingent on a few other variables... as mentioned above. One can always externally rotate their thigh when weightless... and I suspect that might be the case in your comment.

Anyway... thanks for the feedback and questions... feel free to clarify if I haven't answered your questions/comments.

 

[javasource]

First of all, I am not a PC. I am a TB coach that tries to help his players as much as possible. Therefore I want to learn and make sure I am not stating something incorrectly. As I have read on another site, a coach should "do no harm".

SS - I am in agreement with your point about sprinting. But what I do is ask the pitcher to do a standing long jump with her feet approximately shoulder width apart. I actually have her do this several times. While she is doing that, I notice the alignment of her feet. Whatever position seems to be most comfortable to the individual pitcher, is the angle I want them to emulate with the right foot when pushing off (RH pitcher). Same as your sprinter note. And, with using 45 degrees as the "starting point", I will modify the landing position by the angle difference as well. For example, if her feet are pointed outwards slightly during the standing long jump, I look for a landing slightly less than 45 degrees.

What I have considered is 45 degrees as the ideal landing and 0 as the ideal push off (I am now rethinking that...), taking into consideration that every pitcher is different and modifying the angles from there. So I do not feel they are absolutes but vary by individual.

If I am looking at this incorrectly, I would like to know. Like I said, I want to help these players, not hold them back or hinder their progress.

What has brought me to look at these things is trying to help one pitcher in particular. While playing catch with her a few months ago, I noticed that she was standing on her right foot and shaking her left foot. I asked if she was ok. Of course her response was "yes, I'm fine". I talked to her mom later that evening and learned that she was having pain in her left ankle (landing foot). The next time we played catch, I watched this closely. What I found is that she was landing at nearly a 90 degree angle. It looked very awkward and I was concerned that she was placing extra stress on the ankle because of that angle. I started working on modifying that angle, and it has seemed to help. Again, if my theory on this is incorrect, please let me know. Thanks for the great posts!!

I think you're doing fine. You might get a better feel for her true ankle orientation based on SS's recommendation.

This can be from a multitude of different things... Not putting the arch on stretch during stride... Plantar fasciitis is a possibility... and more commonly... over-pronation of the foot. The 90-degree plant would exacerbate these conditions... as would more of a heel striking pattern...

If she's doing better... that's a good sign. Thanks for sharing, Fastpitch26!

 

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Great video explaining drive mechanics of Jennie Finch. Pretty much everything Javasource is describing.

Yes. I use this clip of finch in many (indoor) pitching practices. There is a TON of stuff here. We are currently focussing on remaining square to the catcher through the first part of the drive--getting the stride knee and toe up (pointed toward catcher), then kicking out to pop the hips open and coming down on a firm front leg. It's a great clip!

Notice that for a split second her elbow and upper arm actually stop at her hip/rib-cage just prior to the instant of release. This is clearly vital to maximize the snap of the whip at release.

Cool additions by txnick and Doug Romrell!!!

 

[javasource]

Differences – Part 1: An Introduction

Those that have worked with more than one pitching prospect... immediately discovered that no two are alike. Bucket moms/dads that have more than one daughter know this, too…. and for those of you that have only one DD, you’ve most likely discovered that modeling pitchers “ain’t that easy”. Sure, this isn’t ‘ground-breaking’ news… but believe it or not… some people get so caught up in perfecting one movement that they seriously stunt their DD’s development… and even worse – they end up putting them in ‘modeled’ positions that can put the student-athlete at risk for injury. Stride and drive foot orientations/angles and body joint flexion angles are only the beginning of a long list of differences.

Far too often, parents develop tunnel-vision towards a ‘finished product’.. or exact representation of a 'model pitcher'. Some handle this better than others - but many end up quitting. I instruct so that student-athletes, and their parents, can recognize their potential and continue playing softball at an optimal level.

This does not mean that you should give up on continually working on a motion … and it definitely does not mean that correcting non-optimal conditions is a bad idea... meaning... your DD is not predisposed to the bench. It simply means that you should identify and recognize differences; adapting your instruction to accommodate and improve upon them… and know the limitations and risks imposed by the condition.

Here are a few illustrative ‘differences’ relating to human anatomy - they are numbered... and a description of each follows:

1. Somatotypes – General body types… these are the three major types. I was going to put a picture of women up… but they all were horribly representative and obviously drawn by male artists...
2. Postural Alignments: Everyone is a little different, but many softball players fall into the second alignment; known as Kyphosis-Lordosis. Posture is influenced by our anatomical make-up, but not sentenced by it; this can be improved. Women typically have more anterior (forward) pelvic tilt. Not shown... but of equal importance would be lateral (side-to-side) variances in the spine... like Scoliosis... creating an 'S' or 'C' shape in the spine.
3. Knee Alignments: Typically referred to as knock-kneed and bowlegged, these differences can really influence our athletic tendencies and injury dispositions. Medically, they are known as vargus and valgus, and many women are pre-disposed to the latter, in various degrees.
4. Foot Alignments: Often related to knee alignments (but not always), these are usually noticed in the shoes we wear. If you wear the treads on the outside of your heel, your foot supinates; if the wear is on the inside, your foot pronates. It’s not uncommon to display one or the other, or both… nor is it uncommon that this condition changes, especially during puberty.
5. Q-Angles: Q-Angles can vary greatly between athletes; influencing knee and foot alignments. Women almost always have a greater Q-Angle than men.
6. Arch Variations of the Foot: Top down… High Arch, Normal Arch, Flat Arch. Our arch-type will greatly influence our natural – and possible trained techniques in dealing with ground reaction forces. Deformities in the arch should be known, as the pronation of a flat-footed person can cause all types of lower extremity and spinal issues. This may be one of the largest ACL-rupture indicators.
7. Intercondylar Notch Widths: The intercondylar notch is the groove that our ACL ligament passes through. Men (left) have noticeably larger notches than women (right). As such, it is believed to be one of the prevailing reasons women suffer more ACL injuries than men.
8. Femoral Angles – Another variable that creates what many call pigeon-toed and duck-foot orientations. I’ve provided three reference angles (red). Anteversion causes pigeon-toe, and retroversion causes duck-foot. This graphic will help you see why stride and drive foot orientation is never a constant between two pitchers.
9. Joint Laxity– Laxity means looseness and is often associated with flexibility… but this is specific to ligaments. Mobility is important – so becoming more flexible should be a goal, but some people are born with loose ligaments… and as athletes, can encounter and suffer through a lot of pain. Joint laxity can occur, too; especially with repetitive trauma to a ligament. In softball, this often appears in the form of patellofemoral or ACL issues. The thumb-to-forearm test is one of two indicators for assessing genetic or pre-disposed laxity. Women exhibit higher levels of laxity than men, in general.
10. Pelvic Structure: The top is a typical male pelvis; the bottom is a typical female pelvis. Women have a typically forward tilted pelvis and – as commonly mentioned on DFP – wider hips. This can often pre-dispose them to many of the aforementioned ‘differences’…

There are many more ‘differences’… but these are a few that I feel compelled to address now… as I do believe that it’s important for you to all see how different each athlete can be. For example... In the post, ‘Touchdown’, I was going to say that the ideal striking area of the forefoot is between the 4th&5th metatarsals (pinky toe is the 5th)… but doing so, cookie-cuts… and as you can now see, increases the risk of injury for athletes with excessive foot supination. Another example is stride and drive foot orientations… forcing someone to plant at a 45-degree angle that has an increased or decreased femoral angle… won’t put them in an optimal position… and on and on and on…

Some of you might feel you don’t need to know this stuff… and that’s fine. Again, my goal is to allow an athlete to optimally perform. Performance happens on the field. Lower-extremity injuries in female athletes are up to 10x more common than men. Having the ability to identify high-risk athletes will help them/you take measures that can prevent serious injury; keeping them on the field… and saving their/your family tens of thousands of dollars in medical costs.

End Part 1

 

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Differences - Part 2: Dominance Patterns in Female Athletes

The structure and general physiology of women is, comparatively speaking, quite unique. Before I get into the Dominance Patterns… I want to comment on something I saw on another thread, recently…

Non-athletic women exhibit less core strength & stability than men. “Core Strength” and “Core Stability” are NOT the same things. We’ll discuss that in another post (Inner & Outer Core), but understand for now… exercises that target stability - will not increase core strength. One of the reasons for reduced core strength & stability - in females - is the anatomical shape and position (or tilt) of the pelvis. This affects the angulation of muscular attachments. These little differences affect the ‘pull’ of the core muscles on the pelvis; limiting stability. For now… suffice it to say, the two are related and REALLY important – but trained separately.

Dominance Patterns

Women exhibit a trait known as ‘Quadriceps Dominance’. In other words, they utilize their quadriceps muscles more than their hamstrings. Men are known to utilize their hamstring muscles (during landings) three times more than women. This utilization of the hamstring and quadriceps is known as the ‘H/Q Ratio’. It’s important, because the hamstrings are known to effectively shield the ligaments in the knee from injury. On the other hand, the quadriceps can generate forces that exceed ligament failure loads… so co-activation (a learned process in females) is of great importance. When the quadriceps contracts, it extends (straightens) the knee; the reason why females usually exhibit less flexion. More interestingly, the quads will ‘pull’ the tibia forward (relative to the femur)… which is exactly the opposite of what the ACL is trying to do… which is hold the tibia ‘back’. This opposing battle causes shear – or stress – on both the tibia and the ACL. The ACL might be the smallest of ligaments... but, it's the stabilizer. Ideally, the posterior musculature of the leg should work with the quads… eliminating the stress, so that all works … more on that later… Here's a picture illustrating the role of the quadriceps and hamstrings:



Women exhibit another trait, medically referred to as ‘Ligament Dominance’. The largest characterizations of ligament dominance are the use of the bone, articular cartilage, and ligaments in absorbing ground reaction forces (GRF). In other words, the muscles don’t adequately absorb the forces… so the joints and ligaments do a lot of the work. As noted, women have a tendency to land with less knee flexion… If you have been reading this thread all along… we talked about ‘impulse loads’ awhile ago. Less flexion leads to higher amounts of force absorbed over a shorter time… and in Ligament Dominant athletes… can lead to ligament rupture. Center of Gravity (COG) is a vital component… something we’ll talk about in other posts (namely, Posture).

In Drive Mechanics, there are symmetric and asymmetric motions… i.e. abduction, adduction, drive & stride foot orientations, muscle recruitment, flexion, etc. Women tend to be more one-leg dominant than men. The difference between the two legs in muscle recruitment patterns, muscle strength, and muscle flexibility is almost always greater in females. This is known as 'Leg Dominance'. Further exacerbating this asymmetry issue is the fact that fastpitch mechanics can worsen this condition… as we post on a single leg… over and over and over… This can worsen, even develop, leg dominance… and if the differences in force and torque profiles of the legs are present, injury becomes much, much more frequent.

Here’s a big word: Proprioception. It means "awareness of body parts and movement". The prefix, ‘propri’ means “one’s own”. Got it? Compared to men… women do not sense the position of their trunk in three-dimensional space as well… meaning they allow for greater movement whenever an outside object or force act upon it (think momentum, GRF, etc.). This inability is called ‘Trunk Dominance’. Due in part to pelvic differences (as noted above), there are many other ‘contributors’. In females, 'Trunk Dominance' becomes more evident during growth spurts. After a boy goes through a physical growth spurt, it is immediately followed by a “neuromuscular growth spurt”. This leads to more muscle AND a proportionate amount of power/control. Women are not nearly as fortunate. Men get a bigger machine… with a bigger engine. Women get a bigger machine, but keep their old engine. They develop significantly more trunk mass… located higher off the ground (picture stilts)… but the engine stays the same. This little engine, or lagging neuromuscular development, cannot control the trunk as well… hence the ‘lack of awareness’. Neuromuscular control gradually increases in females. It can be trained - and should be… but the program should be gender specific. That’s coming soon… in the interim, muscle activation is a huge part of the equation...

See how this all ties in to the original post… ?

 

[javasource]

Differences – Identification

Knowledge of the four Dominance Patterns in female athletes is one thing… but identifying them in the athlete you’re working with is more important. Clinical analysis is an option, albeit not practical. The costs, time, and impracticality of clinical identification requires that a simple “home screening test” or field identification method be available. Although the huge breakthroughs on the subject arose out of the 1980’s and 90’s (Doug's musical genre...), it wasn’t until 2006 (that I am aware of) that any diagnostic screening test was agreed upon and published in the medical community.

There are four key components that a female athlete should be taught in training neuromuscular control: trunk proprioception - by eliminating excessive motion, preventing knee valgus or hyperextension, activation of the posterior chain musculature (needs to be ‘turned on’), and the balance and equalization of the lower extremities (no left/right deficits). In doing so, injury risk is reduced on average by 50% - and as much as 80%. By utilizing these four concepts, the identification of neuromuscular deficiency is possible through a single exercise. Just think… if a pre-season testing method could identify an athlete at high risk of injury…

The Tuck Jump Assessment

Not only will this handy plyometric exercise help you assess an issue, it will help you track progress, and teach athletes proper neuromuscular sequencing.

Here’s what a proper form Tuck Jump should look like:



In order to perform the assessment properly, you’ll need to perform it in 2 sets of 10 second repeated jumps… three times. This should be done during a full workout. At the beginning of the workout, you do it. In the middle of a workout, you do it… and you guessed it… at the end of the workout.

You’ll need a camera – and each set is filmed at a different angle. The first is with the athlete facing the camera; the second is from the side. In review… 10 second jumps from the front, 10 second jumps from the side… 3 times (pre-workout, mid, and post).

How To:

1. Begin in Athletic Position, feet shoulder width apart
2. Begin with slight crouch downwards while extending arms behind you
3. Simultaneously swing arms forward while jumping upward... PULLING KNEES UP AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE.
4. At peak of jump, knees should be perpendicular to ground
5. Immediately begin LOADING the next jump upon landing. It's not how quick you perform them, it's how well you perform them.
6. Encourage landing in same footprint and landing quietly

After filming them, here is the assessment checklist, with instructions:



Using video review, tally-up all the deficiencies for each set of jumps you see according to the chart. In doing so, you’ll know where deficits reside, and in the next post, I’ll give you some exercises to perform. If you’re athlete scores 6 or more in one of the tests… they REALLY need to focus on training… as they are in a very high-risk pool.

Remember… performing and ‘passing’ this assessment does not mean you stop doing it!!! Hopefully, by now – you understand that as female athletes mature, they may undergo changes that put them in a higher-risk pool… as their neuromuscular ‘engines’ lag behind their physical development. If you notice your DD growing... this is a handy time to do it...

Lastly, for the deficiencies you do find, here they are as related to the four Dominance Patterns…



Performing a total of 60 seconds of Tuck Jumps is not exciting… and chances are that your DD is going to make all types of faces… as they are not as easy as they may look on paper. They do not require practice before videotaping them – as many of the deficiencies are more easily recognized in the first set. That said… a 60-second evaluation/assessment is a small price to pay for the dividends in can yield your DD and your family. ~JS