The Nature of the Athletic Mind: Insights from Olympian Leon Taylor
In this blog, Hayley Winter and Leon Taylor discuss the physical and mental demands of diving and the training necessary to succeed. Leon Taylor is an Olympic athlete, BBC sports presenter, TEDx speaker on mental health, yoga teacher, and supporter of Yoga Sports Science. Leon talks about his years of training and the impact of the mental and physical demands of his sport.
Hayley and Leon discuss the strength and technique involved, as well as the psychological preparation, and give examples of the effort required to make it to the Olympics.
Leon Taylor. Olympic Diver
Diving is an intense sport that demands a both physical and mental commitment to succeed. It takes a lot of dedication and persistence to excel. However, the physical demands can take their toll on the body with the impacts and speeds that can result in injuries like dislocations, subluxations, and rotator cuff damage.
Diving training is comprehensive and consists of video analysis, weight room work, trampoline skills, and body conditioning. Additionally, the psychological components of training for the competition are essential as a relatively small window of effort results in success or failure.
This is evidenced by Leon Taylor's Olympic medal, which took a fraction of a second but involved countless hours and years of training.
Dealing with an injury is extremely stressful when you're injured. In the past, this would have been when an athlete might turn to yoga to help with recovery. This was the case 20 years ago when Hayley was approached by an injured athlete, which led to the inception of Yoga Sports Science.
Listen to the clip to learn more….
If you're interested in learning how yoga benefits athletes, take a look at our 40-hour Yoga for Athletes online course.
