I am a qualified Yoga Teacher and have been employed as a Yoga Sports Coach™ at Premiership Football Club since February 2010.

 

I have been employed at a Premier English Football Club as their Yoga Sports CoachTM since 2010 and I currently work with Academy players from age 10-21 years of age and the 1st team squad.

 

As a Coach, I am involved in the new Premiership Elite Player Performance Plan which involves designing and implementing sports specific yoga sessions that integrate and link into the Football Clubs Coaching themes for Academy players aged 10-16 years.
Yoga is integrated fully within the Clubs Medical Department as is used as part of the Injury Prevention Programme for all Academy players on a daily basis. I am part of a team involved in Movement Screening Analysis which looks at a players individual movement patterns in order to design, and implement specific injury prevention programmes. As part of this team, we have established links with local Universities and are currently implementing various research projects.

Within the 1st team, yoga sessions are now integrated on a daily basis both to Goalkeepers and Outfield players as part of their training regime. I have close links within the Medical Dept and now work with players on injury prevention and also as part of their rehabilitation. More recently, yoga sessions have now been introduced as part of the 1st team players post-match recovery training.

 

 

YSS Case Study Research: Goalkeeping

The Aim: To investigate whether an integrated sports specific yoga programme could lead to an improvement in a Goalkeepers Movement Efficiency.

Athlete Profile: An elite level Academy Goalkeeper was selected to take part in the case study research. His Coach felt that he could be ‘lighter on his feet’ in specific goalkeeping movements.

The Conclusion: After implementing sports specific yoga techniques over a period of seven weeks it was concluded that there was a significant improvement in the Goalkeepers movement. His coach testified that he was lighter in his footwork and more flexible in his movement. Overall, his movement was more fluid.

The participant felt that yoga is now an important part of his training regime.

 

 

As well as working within Professional Football, I have also worked in Professional Cricket and have also delivered regular sports yoga sessions for a local running Group in my area. I have delivered numerous presentations and workshops as part of the Football Clubs in-house training both to staff and parents of Academy players. I have also presented to the FA on the benefits of Yoga within Football.

I have worked with on a 1-1 basis with a number of Professional Premiership players from other Football Clubs as well as local runners who have been training for marathons.
I am keen to utilise and broaden my experience by working with athletes from any sporting discipline from grassroots to elite level whether 1-1 or as part of a team.

I am passionate about designing fun, innovative and relevant sessions for all ages and levels and I have witnessed some I remarkable results in my time being a Yoga Sports Coach. It is extremely rewarding to be able to help someone to unlock both the body and mind in order to free up their performance potential!