Why I joined The Institute of Yoga Sports Science®:

 

I joined YSS so that in future I will be able to help athletes, dancers and other 'performers' in all domains to improve their performance. I am a former gymnast and I have been dancing as a principal ballet dancer in one of the UK's leading professional ballet companies for the last 24 years.

 

After a full and rewarding life as a ballerina to date, thanks to the DCD (Dancers' Career Development), which was set up to help fund retiring dancers move into careers after dance, I will be able to further my previous qualifications as a yoga teacher (Ashtanga Vinyasa & Rocket) and as post graduate in sport psychology (MPhil). 

  

As a gymnast I injured my back while training for competition. As a ballerina, I spent many years overcoming significant injuries, including stress fractures to both feet, surgery to both knee and ankle, and broken ligaments in one foot.  I now realise these could, perhaps, have been reduced or even prevented by complementing my traditional ballet training with yoga. I often think 'if only I knew then what I know now.'

 

After 24 years, I have developed a thorough understanding of the pressures that performance and training inflict on the athlete's and dancer's body.

 

Drawing on my experiences as a dancer, I feel I can benefit other athletes and I see YSS as providing invaluable scientific support to explaining why yoga works in helping to improve performance, reducing injury risk and helping to recover from existing injuries and therefore it is a critical resource to draw upon in my chosen path going forwards.

 

Once I Qualify as a Yoga Sports Coach™:

 

Once qualified I will seek to set up in business working with elite athletes, dancers and other 'performers' whether it be in sport or the arts, to achieve the best they possibly can through psychological and complementary physical training. Core to this, I see yoga as bring both physical and mental benefits together.

 

Aside from business above, I also enjoy teaching yoga classes and I see the YSS qualification as giving me a critical understanding in how to deliver yoga training properly and why it offers the potential rewards that it does to those practicing. Overall, I believe the course will make me a better teacher, coach, trainer and practitioner.