Yoga can play a vital role in the proper development of the youth athlete, if practiced correctly. The understanding has to be clear that the intention is not to become a “yogi” but to compliment the sport of the athlete by increasing athletic performance and decreasing the chance of injury.
Athletes should start yoga early
Flexibility, the most widely assumed benefit of yoga, can do wonders for athletes of all ages. But, it’s particularly crucial to start the basic foundation at a young age. Just like the sport they are coming from, they took years to build a foundation of where they are in that sport. This same approach should be applied with yoga.
Athletes, regardless of fitness level, should start with beginner classes so they build a foundation of all aspects of the practice: basic posture alignments, breathing techniques, and meditation applications. In my opinion, it’s also important to start a youth practice to attach fun and familiarity to it.
Many intermediate and advanced yoga classes are taught in a manner that assume students have these foundations in place. Therefore, by skipping beginner programs, an athlete will miss out on crucial foundation elements. Starting at a very early age a yoga practice will lay the proper foundation for the longevity of the athlete.
Yoga specifically for athletes’ needs
As far as the “right” yoga goes, we need to pay special attention to the athletes’ needs, as their sport training naturally creates physical and mental imbalances. Depending on the sport, an athlete is prone to becoming strong in one area and weak in others. There is a mobility capacity that is often imbalanced in athletes that can create severe injury. For example, an athlete may find certain movements to be very easy and others to be very tight, rigid, or difficult. Typically, athletes are one-dimensional and yoga can diversify that.
Yoga improves crucial joint and muscular flexibility. This translates to greater range of motion in the shoulders and hips. A greater range of motion will make a volleyball player hit the ball with more power, a swimmer able to pull more water, or a batter in softball/baseball to have a more thorough swing at bat.
I’d like to raise some caution for athletes who practice yoga. Although yoga offers great benefits, athletes should be mindful of the type of yoga they do and how it is integrated into their training program. Practicing the “right” yoga is crucial. For example, some styles of yoga can be very vigorous (power yoga) or have dehydrating effects (hot yoga). An athlete adding yoga to their program needs to ensure that the style of yoga does not introduce over-training or other adverse effects. As qualified coaches/trainers, we know how best to integrate yoga into a training routine, keeping in mind the cycling of events and peak training periods.
Athletes can be too flexible! As much as one can see the benefit of being flexible, keep in mind that joints need stability. Over-training flexibility can reduce the ability of muscles, tendons, and ligaments to stabilize joint structures. Understand the nature of joint loading that is involved in particular sports and be mindful to not overuse yoga flexibility exercises on those joints. With all of this in mind, we know that not only is there a “right” kind of yoga, you have to practice the “right” yoga at the “right” time.
How to Incorporate Yoga for athletes
The combination of laying the proper foundation of yoga in youth sports, attaching fun to it, and practicing the appropriate styles (and at the appropriate time) is of utmost importance.
We created a Recovery Guide to provide a clear blueprint for incorporating recovery methods (such as yoga, meditation, and breathwork) into into training depending on the athletic season (pre-season, in-season, post-season, and off-season).
By following this guide, athletes will recover faster, move better, and improve their athletic performance.
When you’re ready to start incorporating sport-specific yoga, sign up for a 7-day free trial of YAX Online, choose your sport, select your athletic season, and hit play!
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Here's a 4-minute video clip from the 19-minute section about the Science of Stretching from the Yoga Coaching Course!
Here's an 8-minute video about athletes from the Yoga Coaching Course!
Here's a 7-minute introduction video for the Yoga Coaching Course.
This course will give you a better understanding of the importance of yoga and how to apply it to the athletes you currently work with.
