Clint Wilson could have done just about anything after graduating from Tyrone Area High School last spring.
\nHe 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.
\nBut 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.
\nOne week before school started, he found himself presented with the opportunity of a lifetime \u2013 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.
\nWilson accepted the invitation, and for the last four months has been training at Dr. Mike Marshall\u2019s Pitching and Research Camp in Zephyrhills, Fl.
\n\u201c(Tyrone sports booster) John Gummo found it while he was trying to find a training camp for me,\u201d said Wilson. \u201cHe 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\u2019t go at all.\u201d
\nIt 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.
\n\u201cWhen we first told him about it, I probably would have preferred college,\u201d said Clint\u2019s father Ed. \u201cBut once we explained it to him, he said \u2018I want it.\u2019 There was no hesitation. So I said we would do whatever it takes.\u201d
\nClint is the first person to say that the decision was the right one, and worth every penny.
\n\u201cNot many people enjoy waking up every morning,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m 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\u2019re forced to work hard every day with everybody pushing you to the limit.\u201d
\n\u201cIt was a decision that was very difficult to make, but we\u2019re so proud of him. We don\u2019t regret a thing,\u201d said Claudia Wilson, Clint\u2019s mother. \u201cIt was difficult, but this is a desire Clint had in his heart.\u201d
\nThe 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.
\n\u201cI know what\u2019s necessary for a pitcher to be the best he can be,\u201d said Marshall, who currently has 14 pitchers enrolled in the program. \u201cFor 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.\u201d
\nOne major focus of the program is strength training, using traditional weights and wrist weights, as well as weighted iron balls to develop arm strength.
\n\u201cWe injury-proof them in a way that\u2019s never been done before,\u201d said Marshall. \u201cWe want to increase the size of their bones and the strength of their tendons to eliminate problems associated with arm injuries.\u201d
\nBut the biggest difference is in Marshall\u2019s 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.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s probably 100 percent different from what most coaches teach,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cThe traditional throwing motion is flawed and that\u2019s 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?\u201d
\nWilson said most of the changes in his motion dealt with release point angles.
\n\u201cWe throw straight back and straight forward \u2013 no side to side motion,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cBy doing that, we\u2019re getting more drive line to home plate than other pitchers.\u201d
\nMarshall 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.
\nMarshall said that discovery made him \u201cmad. I wanted to figure out why.\u201d 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.
\nHe later made his study the focus of his graduate studies, which culminated with him earning a Ph.D. in exercise physiology in 1978.
\nAccording to Wilson, Marshall\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.
\n\u201cMy arm doesn\u2019t hurt me anymore,\u201d said Wilson. \u201cI\u2019ve lost a lot of weight, and I feel like I\u2019m stronger now, and more powerful.\u201d
\nPower was Wilson\u2019s 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).
\nBut it takes more than gaudy high school numbers to make it Marshall\u2019s camp, which is one reason Marshall has been so pleased with Wilson\u2019s progress. Players also have to qualify academically (3.65 GPA or higher in high school), as well as find a job to support themselves.
\n\u201cI think he has a lot going for him,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cHe\u2019s raw-boned in his skills, but he\u2019s becoming much more fluid. After this year, I\u2019d like to see him go and play summer ball, and then come back here and see what he can do.\u201d
\nMarshall 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\u2019s got his eyes set on possibly wrapping it up in two.
\nThen he\u2019ll 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.
\n\u201cI\u2019d like to build up my speed and then go to Penn State University to play at the main campus,\u201d he said. \u201cDr. Marshall has said I\u2019m progressing quickly, and I could possibly do some things after 10 months.\u201d
\nWilson could also find himself ready for Major League Baseball\u2019s amateur draft, in which case Marshall would represent him as his agent.
\nBut for now, Wilson is planning on training over the Christmas break \u2013 he arrived back in Tyrone on Thursday \u2013 and then playing AAABA baseball this summer for Altoona\u2019s Johnson\u2019s Realty, which would allow him to continue with Marshall\u2019s training everyday.
\n\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t trade this for anything,\u201d said Ed Wilson. \u201cHe\u2019s dedicated to this and he loves baseball more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}