Introduce Yourself: I’m Morgan Pennycuff, and I am a pitcher for the Hutchinson Community College softball team. I have been pitching since my early days of playing softball, and I pitched all throughout high school at Augusta, where we won a state championship in 2019.
How did you get connected with Anna?
Over the summer, and throughout my senior season, I faced many unfortunate physical drawbacks. In March, {at the start of high school sports} I tore a muscle in my leg called the gracilis. I didn’t really do much about my injury, even though it started to make other parts of my body ache while playing through it. Finally, in June, I began rigorous PT (twice a week) and stayed in it until August. I didn’t really have an opportunity to rest it until after high school ball was done. I had to sit out during summer ball as much as possible, but I really hated sitting out.
I met Anna during my summer season, at a softball tournament and through Hutch CC softball. I had already signed to play college ball with Hutch, so she started helping me as soon as we could start working together. I now work with her at least twice a week.
Training with Anna has made a significant change in my life.
The main thing that Anna has taught me (that no one else had ever even mentioned to me) was to activate my oblique muscles.
. . . by doing this, it took the strain off of the muscle that I injured in my leg and groin. I didn’t realize how much my body was overcompensating for the injured part - creating more pain.
With the help from Anna, we worked step-by-step, solving each problem, and adjusting every motion to make me able to do what I love most: pitching with my team behind me confident in my skills.
Here are a few of the pitching development exercises Anna and Morgan worked through to help her re-learn how to use her obliques and not her groin to pitch.
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