Yoga aids training for the Women’s Olympic Water Polo Team
Many sports enthusiasts worldwide are counting down to the 2012 London Summer Olympics begin on July 27, when athletic teams will demonstrate their excellence. To reach their level of expertise, athletes undergo demanding training regimens consisting of practice drills, weights, and cross-training. And in the case of the elite USA Women’s Water Polo team, each member also considers her Yoga mat an essential part of her training equipment.
The intense team training schedule in the pool and weight rooms at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos seldom allows members time for a frequent Yoga practice, yet they manage to carve out time between training and travel to fit in an occasional Yoga class, rehabilitation, cultivating mental and physical balance, and improving performance during competition.
including visits to the nearby Purple Yoga studio.
Team members cite a number of benefits from Yoga, including injury prevention and We had the opportunity to interview a number of the yogis on the team and to hear, in their words, why they practice.
Yoga and Flexibility: Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation
Annika Dries: “We all try to incorporate a little bit of Yoga when we stretch on our own. We need to have flexibility when training with weights at this high of a level, and practicing Yoga has really helped.”
TumuaAnae: “In water polo, we do a lot of repetitive motions, so with Yoga, it’s great to reverse the muscles that we use a lot in polo and tone the muscles that we don’t use as much.”
Heather Petri: “I started practicing Yoga a couple years ago after sustaining an injury. I needed to find something to help me relax, since recovery from an injury is mostly a mental process. Yoga also improved my flexibility, which is one of the most important things that you need after an injury in order to be able to do the rehab.”
Finding Physical and Mental Balance
Betsy Armstrong: “We definitely take advantage of hitting the mat after long trips. We’re constantly in airplanes and hotels, so when we return home, Yoga helps us decompress physically and mentally. It also helps us re-center ourselves after going through all the ups and downs during tournaments.”
Kelly Rulon: “In water polo, we do the same thing every day, so it’s great to use Yoga to put ourselves in a different mind frame and calm down and relax. Also, when a Yoga instructor is positive and brings good energy, that inspires you; it’s similar to water polo because coaches also inspire us to help us improve our practice and try different things.”
TumuaAnae: “Yoga helps calm your mind, and helps us let certain things go, which is great in the pool because then you’re able to do what your body wants to do. Being able to clear your mind and body at the same time is my favorite part of Yoga.”
Heather Petri: “Yoga is a great a way to bring focus to whom you are and to what you really want to be thinking about. It gives us the opportunity that we all need to feel peaceful and to really get away from everything.”
How Yoga in the Studio Helps Polo in the Pool
Betsy Armstrong: “Yoga helps prepare us for games. As a goalkeeper, practicing balance in Yoga is especially useful for helping my balance in the water.”
Maggie Steffens: “Yoga is great for strengthening our smaller muscles that don’t get worked out too much during our training.”
Heather Petri: “In the rigorous training we go through, all the focus is on the big muscles and the little muscles can go out the window. Yoga helps us to build lean muscle by exercising smaller muscles in places like our shoulders and knees so that we feel compact and well-put together. Yoga is also great for teaching you how to use those core abdominal muscles that sometimes people don’t use.”
Annika Dries: “I use the breath work i learn in my Yoga practice during competitions to calming myself and bringing my focus to my breath. Yoga helps focus you on the moment and that’s the biggest thing from an athletic standpoint — you’ve got to be able to perform in that moment.”
Join us as we cheer on our local heroes, the US Women’s Water Polo team, at the London games. Follow their achievements at: usawaterpolo.org.
By Melissa Hoon: Melissa Hoon is an Orange County-based writer and cultural studies graduate student who is training to become a Yoga instructor. She enjoys hiking and doing volunteer work worldwide. About.me/melissahoon
Photos by David Young-Wolff:
David Young-Wolff loves to tell a story in a single frame. Never satisfied with the ordinary, he strives to create exciting images with a unique twist. In addition to his assignments, he is currently working on two projects. One is coming to LA, which involves photographing people who are moved to LA from other countries. He is also shooting photos to illustrate an upcoming book, Navajo Mothers, Navajo Daughters. davidyoung-wolff.com
Melissa Hoon is a journalist currently training to become a Yoga instructor. She is a devoted graduate student of cultural studies and is passionate about her volunteer work, including in Vietnam on medical missions, in New Orleans rebuilding Hurricane Katrina victims’ homes, and in South Africa at a home for abandoned, abused, and neglected children. These experiences have led Melissa to seek a lifestyle of helping and healing, namely through various meditation practices.