Mike Marshall and Spheres of Influence
Dr. Mike Marshall, affectionately 'Doc,' deserves all the credit for looking outside the box when it comes to pitching. Personally, I think future generations of baseball players will be indebted to his contributions, energy, and devotion to the task of minimizing arm injuries as we know them. When no one else was really looking, he clearly identified the problems inherent with how we throw and pitch and has worked hard to find solutions. He's 100% right about needing to use the arm differently, even though I think he's missed some vital details. In all the world I'm in a unique position to talk about this because I've seen it, lived it, and coached it.
Although I have tremendous admiration for his giftedness as an independent thinker, Doc's teachings have not served his students well. I know because I coached a group of these guys for the 2007 summer. After training with Dr. Marshall (some of them for three years) none were prepared to play baseball. They arrived here as pitchers with poor command, low confidence masked with bluster, and the inability to play catch. In the first 94 innings this summer we issued 141 free passes, couldn't (and didn't) hold runners on base, and had opponents scoring from third base on needless wild pitches. On top of that we were averaging almost 30 pitches an inning. As a coach this is agonizing at best. We needed to make immediate and dramatic changes, and I give the guys full credit for adapting well enough to win our league and beat, or at least hang with, some pretty good college teams. But at the onset their training failed them both physically and mentally. I say these things with no intent to be hurtful of either Dr. Marshall or his students; rather they are cold, hard facts. This has been particularly difficult because my son is one of the group.
Doc has missed the boat on performance. Velocity is absolutely not the end all, but it's unwise to think Dr. Marshall has all the answers when he trains a pro prospect for three years and the net result subtracts 12-13 mph from his fastball. I know firsthand because in this example the young man grew up under my roof. RPM™ recaptures the things Mike Marshall has missed or dismissed, adding high performance that improves the physical game. Objectively, the body action Dr. Marshall espouses is flawed in both form and function. There's no need to look like Gumby on the mound, and there's no need to sacrifice velocity. In a relatively short time we've made great gains in velocity, approaching 20 mph, without sacrificing a more beneficial arm action or great range of pitches. We've done all the hard work and you stand to gain. You be the judge, for we've got the proof.
Dr. Marshall's approach to resolving arm injuries has served as the springboard for RPM™ and what I call Rotational Pitching Mechanics. Beyond opening my eyes, for which I'm grateful, Dr. Marshall deserves all the credit for developing portions of the skill set we use to help teach and condition pitchers. But the similarities stop there. RPM™ training programs combine anatomically sound pitching and throwing concepts with a simple, realistic approach that will help keep your arm safe and keep you in the game mentally. I urge you to avoid a mindset which leads to blind faith in one source over another, ours included. I also ask that you show Dr. Marshall the respect due anyone who has been in the trenches.
Teddy Roosevelt said it well: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Keep questioning and keep pitching.
--Bill Peterson
