Yoga Sports Science Foundation Course
As many of you already know at the end of August I did the 6 day Yoga Sports Science Foundation Course and as promised here is my post telling you all about it. If you read this blog on a regular basis you will already know how much I enjoyed it and how it really set me up for the full year long course that I am doing to be a Yoga Sports Coach. I thought the easiest thing to do would be to split this post into sections giving details of the course, the teachers and the venue and then my overall thoughts at the end.
The Course
The interesting thing about doing this course is that although it was a 6 day course there were a lot of people that were only doing the first 2 days which made them hectic and action packed. They were jammed full of information and there were some really great opportunities for hands on practise, self analysis and interaction with other attendees. After these 2 days were finished there were 9 people left for some in-depth work and trust me it was intense.
The whole course was enjoyable and slightly had my head spinning with all the stuff there was to take in. As I am doing the full year long course I found it was a perfect foundation for the course giving me an overview of everything that I can then go into in more detail over the next year. If you are thinking about taking the full Yoga Sports Coach course then this would be a great place to start and if you are a yoga teacher that just wants to know a bit more about how to apply yoga to sports I think you will find this really useful.
The scariest bit for me was the assessed 20 minute class that we had to do. It had to be sport specific and I picked football as that is the sport I am focussing on in the full course. I really enjoyed analysing what I needed to do and putting a class together, plus it filled the long train journeys in the morning (I was traveling from London to Shelford near Cambridge every day). One of the best bits about it was watching others do their classes and seeing what their take on things were and how they fitted it to their sport. It is a great way to learn and doing the feedback altogether at first seemed like a lot of pressure to me but it was excellent and actually meant that you could learn as much giving feedback as getting it.
The Teachers
We had three teachers over the first two days and then the rest of the course was taught by Hayley Winter, the founder or Yoga Sports Science. I can quite happily say that the whole course was really professionally run and it was great fun learning from Hayley and getting a real feel for what it would be like to work with a sports team. It was a great honor to be taught by someone with that level of knowledge and expertise and trust me not only did I learn a lot but it also got me inspired and got my mind thinking about just where I could go with it.
The second teacher that was there for the first 2 days only was Annelize Ferriera who is the consultant physiotherapist at Yoga Sport Science as well as being a Yoga Sports Coach. I have spent time around a number of physios and I have to say I was surprised just at how knowledgable Annelize was. Her ability to read a body and to understand how to apply yoga to the situation was staggering. It is rare that you come across someone that you are just in awe of but this was definitely one of those occasions and I definitely learned a lot about my body and the physical corrections needed to improve my posture. If I can apply it half as well as Annalize to the athletes I work with then I am sure I will be doing a good job.
Finally the third teacher was Anthea Sweet who is an Advanced Yoga Sports Coach and the Yoga Sports Science Course Manager. As a Yoga Sports Coach it was excellent to see her teaching style and the way she applied the techniques we were learning to different sports. Her knowledge was clear and she was able to get it across to us in an easy to understand way that made it accessible even to those that were not yoga teachers. Anthem is friendly, supportive and able to give real insight which just adds so much to the experience.
The Venue
The course was held at CamYoga in Shelford and it was a great place to hold it. When I did drive there was plenty of space to park but when I went by train the station was literally a 1 minute walk from the center. Then there was the space for practicing yoga which really was fantastic. On the top floor of the building it was a large room with wooden floors and simple white walls but the windows at either end meant the light was excellent. Despite being that close to a train station I still found it a really quiet and peaceful place to practice yoga.
The other thing to mention about the venue is the food. At CamYoga there is a vegan cafe which serves up some really tasty and healthy food. When I have done yoga courses or retreats in the past one of the biggest problems for me has been the food, either it is difficult to get vegan food or the food is so carb based that I feel like my diet is worse while at the yoga venue then it is at home. Happily this was the first time I did not experience that and just loved everything that they served. My personal favorite was the Thai dish served by Alice on the third day, it was full of flavor and really spicy which I love so no complaints here.
Conclusion
I might be a bit biased I know that but I loved this course, yes it was hard work and yes I was tired at the end of the week but it was worth it. I learned more in that week than I have on any other course i have done and it just made me realize that I have made the right decision and this is definitely what I want to do with my life.
