Yoga for young athletes can be a great addition to a training regiment for basketball, baseball, football, volleyball, and more. Build strength, enhance balance, and increase flexibility. With this ebook and video combination, you can do it all from the comfort of your own home.
Yoga for Young Athletes
Strength, Balance, and Focus for Any Sport
Yoga for Young Athletes is a structured step by step guide to introducing the young athlete to the practice of yoga.
Yoga enhances athletic performance in many ways:
Build strength.
Improve balance.
Optimize breathing.
Increase flexibility.
Beyond the physical benefits yoga will also help develop:
Concentration.
Focus.
Confidence.
Body awareness.
The practice of yoga enhances both physical and mental performance in all sports, including:
Football
Basketball
Soccer
Baseball and Softball
Track & Field
Volleyball
Tennis
Swimming
Dance
Hockey
Practice Yoga like Professional Athletes
After the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl, the New York Times wrote an article titled “Title for the Seahawks Is a Triumph for the Profile of Yoga.”
The article included this passage:
“Men and athletes doing yoga is not new. Basketball’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was an early proponent, as was the tennis star John McEnroe. Most recently, Andy Murray credited part of his recent tennis success to Bikram yoga. Stanford’s football team has incorporated yoga into its training program.”
Here’s what some top athletes say about their practice of yoga:
– “Yoga isn’t just about the body, it’s also about the mind, and it’s a technique that has really helped me.” LeBron James, NBA All-Star
– “I’ve been practicing yoga since 1995, and I practice by breathing and focusing exercises before every game.” Kevin Garnett, NBA All-Star
– “In sports, you need balance, strength, and flexibility. Yoga helps so much in each of these areas. It has been a huge part of my success.” Sean Burke, All-Star NHL Goalie
You might like Yoga Certificates.
Yoga and the Mental Game
Sports Psychologists are always pointing out that sport is only 50% physical. This means half of all success can be found in the mind. The practice of yoga will help your young athlete to focus on the mind. They will be able to filter out distractions and concentrate on the essentials of their chosen activity. Whether it’s hitting a fastball, catching a hail Mary, clearing a hurdle, or anything else in the sport, yoga sharpens the mind and quickens the senses. When the athlete takes the field, the game will become the sole focus.
Yoga does more than develop physical and mental ability. It will help the athlete achieve a critical balance between the physical and the mental.
The practice of yoga can be a lifelong endeavor that will bring benefits well into old age. Get them started early. You will see real results.
Three Levels of Yoga
Yoga for Young Athletes lays out the why and how of yoga in an easy-to-follow, detailed manner.
Starting with beginning poses and flows, each is illustrated and explained, covering not only the how but the why. What muscles are targeted, how the breath helps, why the pose is important and how it is connected to the whole routine.
Intermediate flows offer a little more challenge. The student, once familiar with the basic poses, will learn that they can push themselves to new mental and physical levels. At the intermediate level, they will see quick progress and they will become eager to move on to the next stage.
Advanced flows will challenge them for the rest of their life. By the time the student seriously attempts advanced poses they will know that yoga is a practice they can always rely upon to motivate and challenge both their body and their mind.
Yoga For Young Athletes eBook and Videos — $7.99
Six Yoga Routines
Once the three levels of yoga poses are learned the student will want to put them all together. Yoga Flow is simply moving from one pose to another in a logical and beneficial sequence. A flow routine can last from between thirty minutes to over an hour, depending upon the number of moves and the duration of each segment.
Ultimately the student will be able to complete a movement in one breath. It may sound simple, but at the advanced level, it is quite a physical and mental challenge.
Six yoga flow routines are illustrated and explained in this book.
The Yin and Yang of Yoga
Yang poses are power poses. Warrior One, Two and Three, Sky Archer, Plank, Up and Down Dog, etc; these poses build muscle, enhance balance and sharpen concentration.
Yin poses are still, held for a long time and designed to relax and soothe the muscles as well as the connecting tissue. They foster relaxation and meditation. Yin poses are the reward for a strenuous yoga workout.
Strength, balance, flexibility, concentration, body awareness, and self-confidence; are just some of the benefits of a good yoga practice. Yoga connects the mind with the body in a way that any athlete will appreciate if they are willing to put in a little work.
About the Author
Kathy Barnes, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, and ACE.
Kathy Barnes has been a fitness instructor for more than three decades. Having taught yoga in Minnesota and Wisconsin since 2004, she completed her first 200-Hour Teacher Training Program through YogaFit in 2006. She continued her training by completing another 200-Hour Teacher Training Program through LifePower Yoga in 2011. In 2013, she finished a 300-Hour Teacher Training Program through LifePower Yoga.
She is certified through Yoga Alliance with a designation of E-RYT 500. Kathy has been involved in helping train other instructors through the LifePower Yoga Program and currently teaches in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro area at Life Time Fitness, the YMCA, and Drishti Yoga.
Practice Yoga at Home
Young athletes learn breathing techniques while becoming aware of just how their bodies work and how far they can push them. And one of the best things about yoga is that it can be practiced at home. No more chauffeuring kids all over the town to train for their sports.
Let them work out at home, maybe in the family room or basement. You don’t need much space to practice yoga! Heck, others in the family might want to join in the fun with these great fitness routines.
Many college and professional sports teams have included yoga in their off-season and on-season fitness regimen. They’ve learned that practicing yoga leads to fewer injuries and increases the level of mental awareness that athletes bring to the field.
Your young athlete can use this book to learn the basics of yoga on their own, and they can introduce their team to yoga following the simple outlines they will find here.
If your young athlete is serious about sports, practicing yoga will give them a decisive edge. They already are building their physical body to achieve top performance. Yoga will help them achieve mental performance as well.
Yoga For Young Athletes eBook and Videos — $7.99