Mahi’s men gear up for yoga lessons from Jim
Durban, Dec. 24: There is another South African connection to the Indian squad. Jim Harrington, a 47-year-old Australian married to a South African and resident of Cape Town for the past eight years, is the Indian team’s yoga consultant appointed by the Indian cricket board for the ongoing South African tour.
The 47-year-old spoke on how yoga could benefit the Indian team. Excerpts:
On his role: I’m a surfer who went to India 20 years ago and came back a yoga practitioner. I use yoga as therapy. With India’s schedule at the moment, there’s not enough time to do a lot of strength training and stability exercises at the gym. The players need to recover quickly and the yoga is the way to do it.
On his methods: The thinking is that in 30 minutes session you could do your stretching, recovery, stability, as well as helping the guys with mental stuff. Yoga brings in multi-disciplinary fitness and mental approach to a very busy schedule.
I’ll make specific for every player depending on their fitness. If you want to tone a muscle, it can take hours in the gym. In yoga it takes you half an hour to get the same effect.
On World Cup preparations: I’m only here for this tour, but the Indian team wants yoga to supplement gym training as they go close to the quadrennial event. I’ve been told by the BCCI that the Indian team wants to cover all bases and not go to the World Cup thinking we didn’t try something.
On the benefits: It can help you to stay focussed on the ground and if you practice it correctly, it can help maintain unwavering concentration for long periods of time.
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