Clint Wilson could have done just about anything after graduating from Tyrone Area High School last spring.
He ranked near the top of his class with a 4.0 grade point average his senior year and was set to enroll at Penn State-Altoona, where he planned on pursuing a career in law, while continuing his baseball career.
But life, like a crafty pitcher, has a way of throwing curveballs when you least expect, and the 6-foot-6 left-hander caught a high hanger just before classes began in August.
One week before school started, he found himself presented with the opportunity of a lifetime – the chance to work seven days a week with a former Cy Young award winner and continue developing the pitching skills that had just begun to blossom during his senior season with the Golden Eagles.
Wilson accepted the invitation, and for the last four months has been training at Dr. Mike Marshall’s Pitching and Research Camp in Zephyrhills, Fl.
“(Tyrone sports booster) John Gummo found it while he was trying to find a training camp for me,” said Wilson. “He called me about it a week before school and it was a difficult decision. I really had no clue what it was all about, but there was no chance to think about it, either, because it was like go now, or don’t go at all.”
It was a decision with serious life-long implications, because going would mean Wilson would have to delay enrolling in college and come up with over $6,500 for training fees, equipment fees and living expenses.
“When we first told him about it, I probably would have preferred college,” said Clint’s father Ed. “But once we explained it to him, he said ‘I want it.’ There was no hesitation. So I said we would do whatever it takes.”
Clint is the first person to say that the decision was the right one, and worth every penny.
“Not many people enjoy waking up every morning,” he said. “I’m doing what I have always wanted to do. Down here, with the other players in the camp, this is their life, just like me. They have the same drive as I do. You’re forced to work hard every day with everybody pushing you to the limit.”
“It was a decision that was very difficult to make, but we’re so proud of him. We don’t regret a thing,” said Claudia Wilson, Clint’s mother. “It was difficult, but this is a desire Clint had in his heart.”
The training program is a revolutionary system designed by Marshall, who played 20 seasons in the Major Leagues, winning the National League Cy Young award with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1974. It involves seven days a week of intense, pitching specific training that includes muscle strengthening and development along with pitching fundamentals.
“I know what’s necessary for a pitcher to be the best he can be,” said Marshall, who currently has 14 pitchers enrolled in the program. “For one thing, you need a single-mindedness of focus. This is a training program based on what I did to win the Cy Young award, but better.”
One major focus of the program is strength training, using traditional weights and wrist weights, as well as weighted iron balls to develop arm strength.
“We injury-proof them in a way that’s never been done before,” said Marshall. “We want to increase the size of their bones and the strength of their tendons to eliminate problems associated with arm injuries.”
But the biggest difference is in Marshall’s pitching motion, which completely breaks from the traditional way of throwing a baseball. His pitchers apply the techniques by throwing off a mound every day.
“It’s probably 100 percent different from what most coaches teach,” Marshall said. “The traditional throwing motion is flawed and that’s why there are so many pitching injuries. If you watch major league baseball, you see the biggest, most powerful men in the world constantly on the DL with arm problems. Do we really want to teach our kids this?”
Wilson said most of the changes in his motion dealt with release point angles.
“We throw straight back and straight forward – no side to side motion,” Wilson said. “By doing that, we’re getting more drive line to home plate than other pitchers.”
Marshall first began to develop his pitching philosophy almost 30 years ago when playing for the Detroit Tigers. He was cruising through the season with a 1.98 ERA when he began to have elbow pain. Later, he found that he had lost 24 percent of his range of throwing motion.
Marshall said that discovery made him “mad. I wanted to figure out why.” He started by filming the pitching motion with high speed film and analyzing what aspects of the traditional throwing motion place the most stress on a pitchers arm.
He later made his study the focus of his graduate studies, which culminated with him earning a Ph.D. in exercise physiology in 1978.
According to Wilson, Marshall’s expertise in sports kinesiology allows him to easily pinpoint the location and cause of pitching soreness and injuries, as well as implement a program to prevent it. That’s especially important to Wilson, who three years ago was operated on to remove a blood clot in his shoulder that nearly led to the amputation of his left arm.
“My arm doesn’t hurt me anymore,” said Wilson. “I’ve lost a lot of weight, and I feel like I’m stronger now, and more powerful.”
Power was Wilson’s middle name last high school season, when he won the Roberto Clemente award as the team MVP, and led the Golden Eagles in most significant offensive and pitching categories including wins (6), strikeouts (57), batting average (.443), home runs (5) and RBI (24).
But it takes more than gaudy high school numbers to make it Marshall’s camp, which is one reason Marshall has been so pleased with Wilson’s progress. Players also have to qualify academically (3.65 GPA or higher in high school), as well as find a job to support themselves.
“I think he has a lot going for him,” Marshall said. “He’s raw-boned in his skills, but he’s becoming much more fluid. After this year, I’d like to see him go and play summer ball, and then come back here and see what he can do.”
Marshall said that pitchers can achieve their optimal potential through his program only by staying in it for three years, but Wilson is already ahead of the learning curve. Wilson would like to continue three years if need be, he’s got his eyes set on possibly wrapping it up in two.
Then he’ll have his eyes set once again on playing college baseball, but this time he would like it to be a step up from Penn State-Altoona.
“I’d like to build up my speed and then go to Penn State University to play at the main campus,” he said. “Dr. Marshall has said I’m progressing quickly, and I could possibly do some things after 10 months.”
Wilson could also find himself ready for Major League Baseball’s amateur draft, in which case Marshall would represent him as his agent.
But for now, Wilson is planning on training over the Christmas break – he arrived back in Tyrone on Thursday – and then playing AAABA baseball this summer for Altoona’s Johnson’s Realty, which would allow him to continue with Marshall’s training everyday.
“We wouldn’t trade this for anything,” said Ed Wilson. “He’s dedicated to this and he loves baseball more than anything.”
