Quick links to other pages on this site | Still can't find it? see Site Index Lyn Tally leads a group of Citadel football players during a Yoga class as part of off season training. Tally has taught the Yoga class at the Citadel for five years. (Brad Nettles/postandcourier.com) 1/11/13

Visualize your thoughts, like they are clouds moving through the sky. If you get lost in your thoughts, take a breath and then let them go.

Citadel football coach Kevin Higgins wont be using those words to fire up his players when they play Appalachian State next season. But the Bulldogs are employing that advice spoken by yoga instructor Lyn Tally to a roomful of players to get ready for next fall.

Citadel players are taking part in 45-minute, twice-a-week yoga sessions as part of an intensive five-week training period before the start of spring practice in early February.

In addition to twice-daily sessions of heavy-duty weightlifting and speed work, Citadel players gather in groups of about 30 in the upstairs mat room at Deas Hall to clear their minds and stretch their bodies through yoga.

Poses such as Sun Salutation and Plank Position dont come naturally to a 6-0, 310-pound lineman like Jim Knowles, but the junior from Belle Glade, Fla., said its worth the effort.

It gets me very loose, he said. It stretches my hamstrings, makes you very flexible. When you get down in that three-point stance, the coaches want you to come out with a low pad level, and doing yoga really helps.

In contrast to the blasting heavy metal or rap in the weight room, the yoga class is mostly quiet, with the occasional gasp or grunt from the players and the soothing tones of Tally, who runs Go Interactive Wellness and has been working with the Bulldogs for four years.

We really work on trying to get into their hips, so they can get lower to the ground with more open, flexible hips and create more range of motion, Tally said. And since this is my third or fourth year with some of the guys, weve been working more on the mental aspects of being really focused.

Yoga is much bigger than just the physical aspects, and this season weve gotten more into the mental aspects. Getting them to hold the poses for a longer time kind of hits all those points at the same time.

Excerpt from:
Citadel football turns to yoga in offseason workouts