Why am I......introducing yoga into professional rugby training?

By Ian Taplin, Senior S & C Coach, London Wasps Rugby Club 

Ian, along with the coaching staff at London Wasps, have been working with YMI to introduce yoga into the player training regime ahead of the new season. Here Ian discusses why yoga is a valuable tool in elite rugby and how it has benefited the players.

London Wasps are coming to the end of a grueling pre-season which has seen the players stressed to their physical limits in an attempt to develop their aerobic and anaerobic energy systems to cope with the demands of Premiership rugby.  Along with this has been the drive to maximise each players explosive output in terms of strength, speed and power which is so critical in a collision and evasion sport.  One of the determining factors for success in the elite tier of English rugby is ensuring that throughout the attritional nine month playing season that the coaches are able to pick from a full squad of players.  Last season a number of measures were introduced to ensure players were robust enough to meet this key requirement and this season it is being continued along with the addition of yoga sessions.

The players enjoying a bit of freestyle!

These sessions’ aims are predominantly twofold, firstly they are designed to complement the injury prevention strategies being implemented by the S&C and Medical team.  Yoga is a tool which complements what we are trying to achieve with the players in this regard along with other modalities of training such as Pilates and hydrotherapy.  Rugby players generally are not overly mobile with short and tight muscles making them more susceptible to injury, poor spinal rotation is also common and the yoga sessions are helping to address these issues.

The second aim of the sessions is to positively impact performance on the pitch by developing increased core strength, mobility and body control which will translate into more strength, speed and power being produced where it matters most.  Over the course of the pre-season the players have made significant progress and though none are going to wrap their leg around their neck they have begun to develop more awareness and control of their body which will help to make them more durable through the season. 

As we enter the competition phase of training quite often the things that were incorporated In the pre-season phase fall away and as such you need to question why you performed them in the first place if they do not merit continuing throughout the season.  Only by repeating skills do you become more competent and reap longer lasting benefits in terms of performance and in this case injury prevention.  Thus the mobility, strength and stability that is fundamental in many yoga poses will continue throughout the season as group sessions, warm ups, recovery protocols or a movement in an individual’s strength programme.

Warriors

An additional benefit to these sessions is that just doing something new with a different voice helps to break up the monotony of training and provides a psychological break from the normal day to day rugby activities.  Professional rugby brings a unique type of psychological stress due the immediate feedback on performance, competition for selection and the need to think clearly under extreme pressure on the pitch.  Yoga can help to equip players with the mental skills in terms of clarity of thought in stressful situations as well as a mechanism to encourage relaxation and recuperation following physical and psychological exertion.  The sessions have been well received and a good deal of laughter has greeted the attempts of players to mimic the poses Beckie assumes with minimal effort and a few have been humbled by the chair or tree pose as they crash to the floor.

To find out more about yoga and mindfulness programmes for corporates and professional athletes visit www.weareymi.com or email YMI on info@weareymi.com.

Read more about London Wasps at www.wasps.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @WaspsRugby.