former cy young winner Mike Marshall could help Maria

I posted this in the gm section---anybody ever heard of Mike marshall?



Dr. Mike Marshall used to pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. He won the cy young award in 1974.

He was a very durable pitcher, and he has spent his life after retiring from baseball studying the intricacies of why pitchers come down with arm and shoulder problems. It is incredibly complicated.

He can tell by watching pitchers which ones are headed for injuries. He warned the Chicago Cubs about Mark Prior and Kerry Wood. He has been successful in helping players make changes to avoid the injuries.

A great St. Louis pitcher, Chris Carpenter, is on the disabled list this year, and I was struck by the similarities between what he was saying about his difficulties when he was still pitching last year and this year, and what Maria has been saying about her shoulder.

I am a fan of Maria, and very concerned about how serious and long-term her problems might be. I wrote an e-mail to Mike Marshall.




To: drmikemarshall@earthlink.net
Subject: Maria Sharapova

I have heard amazingly similar things being said by Maria Sharapova
this
year and Chris Carpenter in the last year or so regarding their
shoulders and the pain they experience a day later.

Are there similarities between tennis players' and pitchers' mechanical
dangers and difficulties?


Dear Sir,

With the exception that tennis servers cannot release their
racquet,
tennis serving and maximum velocity overhand throwing have identical
force application techniques. Tennis servers can have 'Reverse Serving
Forearm Bounce,' 'Looping,' 'Serving Forearm Flyout,'
Supination Release,' and all the other injurious flaws as in the
'traditional' baseball pitching motion.

Sincerely,

Dr. Mike Marshall

Of course i hope that Maria's shoulder problem goes away and her serving velocity and other talents remain all that they can be.


I have a feeling Maria will win her first match at rg, and then not feel so good 24 hours later.

I think it is possible that Mike marshall---who really knows a lot about this stuff----could help Maria or others to avoid career threatening injuries.

Interesting. Why not send this information to maria's website.

aww...i agree send that to IMG or her website?? :)

Interesting. Why not send this information to maria's website.

I have hopes that someone of the many on this site will forward this information at an appropriate time---- someone who would be more likely to be paid attention to than me.

My larger hope, is that maria just blows the krap out of everyone at Paris and at Wimbledon with her ferocious serves, and makes me feel like a total fool for posting this in the first place.

My larger hope, is that maria just blows the krap out of everyone at Paris and at Wimbledon with her ferocious serves, and makes me feel like a total fool for posting this in the first place.

except for the fool part, i hope for that too!!! i dont know you well enough to call u that! lol!

I am familiar with Mike Marshall and know he can help alot of baseball pitchers. But I'm not sure how much he can help tennis players.

Some baseball teams, not the players so much, are wary of him, because they are not sure the trade-off of making a pitcher stop doing potentially dangerous things, is not worth the potential loss of effectiveness without doing those things.

There is absolutely no doubt that he knows a lot about what he is talking about.

firstly, what is cy young?

secondly, was Maria's technique even flawed? She has one of the best serve actions around. IMO the problem is more to do with overstressing her shoulder, because she was never strongly built for the style she plays.

In American baseball, the Cy Young award, named for a hall of fame pitcher of long ago, is awarded in each of the two leagues to the best pitcher in that league, each year.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-marshall051007&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

This is a very long article.

People talked about how beautiful and perfect kerry Wood's throwing motion was.

His email was short and to the point---if he looked at her serve and offered an opinion, it might have no practical potential benefits for Maria. Then again--it might. He answers e-mails every day. He was probably surprised to get one asking about tennis, but i would bet the subject has come up with him, before.
Dear Sir,

With the exception that tennis servers cannot release their
racquet,
tennis serving and maximum velocity overhand throwing have identical
force application techniques. Tennis servers can have 'Reverse Serving
Forearm Bounce,' 'Looping,' 'Serving Forearm Flyout,'
Supination Release,' and all the other injurious flaws as in the
'traditional' baseball pitching motion.

Sincerely,

Dr. Mike Marshall

Interesting. Getting a fresh perspective on the shoulder issue wouldn't hurt.

I still think it would be a good idea to talk to Mike Marshall---I wrote him over a year ago---he was aware of her shoulder problem, and was willing to take a close look.

I think it's a good idea..maybe we should write..we got nothing to loose....

worth giving it a shot